Gaming Debates Part 2: Evaluating Game Scores, Xbox Marketing Missteps, and Ubisoft's Future

Welcome back to another episode of The Gamerheads Podcast! Game review scores—do they really determine a game's success or are they just numbers? This week, our guests Sebastian and Baron return to unpack the heated debate around review scores. We share our own surprise hits and discuss the broader impact on Xbox if their titles hover around that score, questioning whether public opinion can be swayed and if high-quality releases are truly a must.

Xbox has wowed us with their hardware marketing, but why do they stumble promoting their games? We dissect their strategies and compare them to the marketing giants, Nintendo and Sony. From the strengths of Game Pass to the pitfalls of a decentralized marketing approach among Xbox's acquired studios, we explore the dichotomy of their success and struggles. 

Ubisoft's recent announcements have stirred the pot—are they stuck in their ways or on the brink of a renaissance? We debate the merit of Assassin's Creed remakes, the familiar formulas of Far Cry and Watch Dogs, and the potential game-changing impact of Star Wars Outlaws. Reflecting on Ubisoft's prolific yet formulaic output, we question why they aren't hailed as one of the greats and humorously speculate on Nintendo's quirky decisions as the Switch era wraps up.

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Transcript

Video Game Reviews and Marketing Insights

Speaker 1 0:00

This episode of the Gamer Heads Podcast is brought to you by Seven Bridges Premium Gourmet Yum Yum Sauce. Enhance every bite with our savory blends of flavors, perfect for meats, vegetables and crispy treats. Whether you're dipping, drizzling, marinating, grilling, roasting or snacking, seven Bridges Yum Yum Sauce takes your culinary experience to the next level. Get yours today and make every meal a gourmet delight. Hey everybody, so this is the second half of the episode. Last week we had the first half. We invited Sebastian and Baron onto the show, we had a debate around certain things, and this week we are continuing that because the episode went really long. So this is the second half. If you haven't caught the first half yet, you should go back, listen to the first half and then come here, but if you did listen to the first half, enjoy the second episode right now. Hi, I'm Celia Schilling from Yacht Club Games.

Speaker 2 1:01

Hey, this is James from Mega Cat Studios.

Speaker 3 1:04

Hey, this is Matt aka aka Stormageddon from Reignite ScreenSnark and the Fun and Games Podcast.

Speaker 1 1:09

This is Stephanie from the Boss Rush Podcast and the Boss Rush Network. Hey, this is Mark and Kion from Bonta Affold.

Speaker 4 1:16

Hey, this is Sebastian with the PronerdReportcom and the Single Player Experience Podcast.

Speaker 1 1:22

Hi, this is Chris.

Speaker 5 1:23

Mike.

Speaker 3 1:24

And.

Speaker 1 1:24

Garrett from Daylight Basement.

Speaker 2 1:25

Studio Hi, this is Chris, mike and Garrett from Daylight Basement Studio. Hey, this is BaronJ67 from Level One Gaming. Hey, this is.

Speaker 1 1:30

Todd Mitchell from Code Right Play Salutations.

Speaker 4 1:32

This is Mike Carroll from Stroll Art hey this is Jeff Moonen from Fun and Games Podcast.

Speaker 1 1:37

What's good y'all. This is Adam from Respawn Aimfire. Hey, this is Patrick from the Backlog Odyssey.

Speaker 3 1:45

Hey, fire. Hey, this is patrick from the backlog odyssey. Hey, this is rune from runic codes. Hi, this is andrew from spalada birds.

Speaker 5 1:48

Hi, everyone, jill groat here from the indie informer hello, this is the crypt master and you're listening to roger richie. You're listening to roger on the game Ahead's podcast.

Speaker 4 2:12

So if Tears of the Kingdom would have been a seven, would that have been a bad one? I'm asking. I'm asking. You know, I told you we were coming spicy tonight. I told you we were coming spicy tonight. You talk about ghost peppers'm bringing the yeah, yeah, I think.

Speaker 1 2:30

I think. I think I think there's some, I think it's probably some outlets. Give it a seven. I don't know, I didn't look, but I don't know.

Speaker 4 2:42

I just I feel no, I'm not talking about some outlets Like if it's Metacritic was like Metacritic, like the average If everything was a 70, was everything like a 70? If it was like a 78, you know, based, would that have been a good look for Nintendo. I told you to bring the heat man, so here's.

Speaker 1 2:59

Here's the thing that I have, here's the thing that this is the thing that I struggle with, because I don't look at scores and think, oh man, that's that made or break a game, right, like I. I feel like there's a lot of games that got low scores that I really like. There's a lot of games that got really high scores that I I just don't like at all. Right, uh, what was one of the ones that just, oh, like everybody loves uh, animal well, everybody loves animal well I'm not a person either.

Speaker 1 3:26

Yeah see, I'm not either I.

Speaker 4 3:28

I was like I didn't really get into it right, but it got like it's like average, I think 9.5 or something you guys played animal well, no yeah, but I think like when you do have that, that 9.5 or that, that 10, you know, even if the game isn't for you, you immediately put respect on it. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 3:45

But but nobody's talking about that. I mean no offense to animal, well, but nobody's talking about that game anymore, like it was a cool game. Everybody talked about it for a moment and nobody's talking about it anymore. It's just what's over? The next thing? It's all about instant gratification, like now, now, now, now, now. So that's my point. Like even if, even if, even if xbox came out with a bunch of seven and eight, you know seven, all the games came out in sevens. Let's just say sevens. Okay, like they do now. Yeah, like they do now I don't know, I just feel like there's.

Speaker 1 4:13

There's so much out there that I don't think it's, I don't think it's gonna, I don't think it's a big deal. I think there's so many games that are on xbox game pass that people just like, okay, just next game. I do think, though, the court of general of public opinion people will say, oh, xbox failing, but just generally like it'll just be a flash in a pan and it'll just be. People will move on. Even if, even if I got, even if one of those games got, like a nine or or a 10, it'll be oh cool, xbox did it, they got their, their game, their 9, 10 this year, and then that's it, just Just move on.

Speaker 4 4:45

You know, I think it's like you know, I want everyone to go, but I think it's like it's not just the one win. I don't think everyone's waiting for that one win. I think they're waiting for the dominoes to fall right I think that's the popular phrase. I think they're waiting for a momentum. I don't think it's like a sports team to to use that that comparison.

Speaker 5 5:06

I don't think it's like a sports team who's saying like, oh, we got a rebuilding win. It's the.

Speaker 4 5:09

Yeah, we want to see basically like the new york knicks right now, basically like wwe for the past 10 years. We want to see that momentum. We want to see that shift change yeah, like like I.

Speaker 4 5:19

I think, like if you imagine a nintendo, for instance, having a string of sevens where, like mario, odyssey 2 comes out, it's a seven, the next zelda, it's a seven. I think most people are going to be like, oh, the switch 2 is great, but like the games are going through a slump right now yeah, but I think I think the difference there is and then I'll let somebody else talk because I don't mean to jeopardize all time.

Speaker 1 5:41

But I think the difference is that those are nintendo first party games. The difference is that xbox went out and bought all these studios and you can't expect eights, nines, tens out of all those studios you. You go out and buy all those studios to appeal to a mass general public it's like tens out of skyrim, like the people who made skyrim.

Speaker 4 6:01

Can I go?

Speaker 2 6:02

go ahead yeah, go ahead, baron so this is everything and it all goes back to they don't know how to tell a good story. Because if you look at this, if you look at the last two years, right, yeah, red fall struggled, but red fall struggled because of the way they sold the story. They did not sell a good story. Are they oversold story? And it didn't pan out how they wanted it to, when they knew what it was in the back for clarification?

Speaker 4 6:30

are you saying like stories in, like the game story, or?

Speaker 1 6:33

no, no, I'm talking about narrative, what it is right, what the game is narrative of xbox, the marketing.

Speaker 2 6:42

It all goes back to marketing, in my opinion, because look at what we have coming up. You mentioned it, sebastian. You mentioned Stalker 2 has a release date.

Speaker 4 6:51

Stalker 2, yeah.

Speaker 2 6:53

I got hands on with Stalker 2. It is Call of Pripyat with a fresh coat of paint and great graphics, and that's great. Usually that's not a good thing, but that is an amazing thing. They did not try to make it Call of Duty. It is still very much STALKER. So you got STALKER, stalker 2. You have Call of Duty, which is an Xbox Game, studio game.

Speaker 4 7:18

Yeah, we're going to see that logo at the beginning.

Speaker 2 7:20

Yeah, and you have what else you?

Xbox's Marketing Strategies and Game Library

Speaker 3 7:23

got Indiana Jones and.

Speaker 2 7:25

Avowed these, regardless of the score. To be honest, regardless of score, if you market these, you have the whole second half of the year. There's no. This is the one year where you have no competition and you're not marketing.

Speaker 1 7:53

Okay, have you guys seen a Stalker 2 commercial? Yeah, but I think. But do you think? Here's the thing, though I think that is the struggle that they're running into because they went out and bought all these studios who like the centralized. This is the struggle you would have when you have a centralized uh, organization like xbox, right, that owns all these other things, like who owns that marketing voice, then do you put the ownership on those studios and say, hey, you need to market your game yourself, we will help put it on our platform. We want it to be on our platform, we want to be the place, but you are in charge of marketing that. Or is it that centralized, you know organization that does the marketing? And I don't know if they figured that out yet. I think that's the struggle that they're running into versus Nintendo. That can tell the story very well, because they're that's their story right their first party games are their games.

Speaker 2 8:41

This is are their games? This is. This is the problem for me. You like that would make sense if you weren't so good at marketing your controllers and your systems at this point, yeah like you. You and then you'll come up with controllers and special edition consoles that you won't even sell to the public. Do you know that? Those x-men controllers? I would have bought every single one of them, yeah yeah and never opened them. They would be hung up behind me yeah, I would have spent.

Speaker 2 9:10

I would have charged the card up as if it was christmas and had them all hanging back here. And I'm one person right like so and I'm I'm telling you, I would have, even though I just held up two controllers, and these are just the two that are close to me, not the not.

Speaker 2 9:26

The two that I have up on the rack are the two that I have in the living room for my kids yeah these are just the two that are right next to me that I can quickly grab, one connected to my pc at all times and one ready to turn on my xbox. And you won't sell me the x-men packaged special edition controller once again. Yeah, it's just, but I think.

Speaker 1 9:50

but I think that plays into it, though, because I think their focus is right now.

Speaker 1 9:53

Microsoft's focus is their hardware, right, their hardware that they're building and the platform that they're building, and they're letting the studios do the marketing themselves, like their centralized thing now is how do we market the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S and how do we make sure that that gets into everybody's hands? And we will let the studios, like we'll go and buy all these studios, right, our focus is going to be on the software, I mean the hardware and the stuff that's in people's hands. We will allow, we're going to go out and buy all the studios, so that way that we will be the marketing, but we the games will just come in and we we just have to worry about them buying this, the hardware, like we just have to. And then we'll say, like we have tons of games, right, so they're allowing the games, the games are not. Their focus is how do we get hardware into people's hands? And then the studios we'll just buy all these studios and that will be the marketing for that.

Speaker 2 10:48

And and I want to I want to say this I don't think Xbox is struggling.

Speaker 5 10:54

Yeah, they're not at all. I just want to make sure that's clear.

Speaker 2 10:58

I do not think Xbox is struggling Are we talking about financially Like financially. I'm talking like first off. But where they they lose is in the hardcore gamer conversations. Yeah, for sure, like, like that's where they lose. But once again, especially with this recent amazon deal, they are globally winning. Like you're you're gonna, you're you're you're doing fine with game pass. Game pass is amazing. You're bringing in billions a year like you're you're doing just fine yeah I just, I just hate that.

Speaker 3 11:32

All it takes is a few tweaks and they'd be hitting home runs every five minutes absolutely, and I think that's kind of why, like, the sales aspect of things doesn't concern me that much because, like I said, everybody that I know that owns an xbox has game pass I know a lot of people that have got game pass on the pc as well to play all the pc games that are on me too that are there as well so I?

Speaker 3 11:50

I don't think like that's where the issue is. The issue is just the fact that not say that they need to put out better games because they're gonna. They're about to put out call of duty in the next five months, people are gonna play that call of duty for the next year.

Speaker 3 12:00

They, they're fine, but the rest of their shit is kind of again. You've got to know how to market it. You've got to know how to plug it. Sony sneezes and puts out a first-party game and they put out a commercial every five minutes for it like I was saying earlier.

Speaker 3 12:13

It's all about the marketing. As far as their games go, the hardware is absolutely fine. It runs fine. The only problem and the downfall that I see is that I've heard I can't verify if it's true or not they have said that they're only putting out one more system update for the xbox series s and x and then they're done updating it because they're busy working on the next system, which to me seems kind of short-sighted on their end.

Speaker 1 12:35

But also, yeah, it just seems too fast yeah, but playstation said the same thing play shit. Sony said that the playstation 5 is already outdated so hold on.

Speaker 2 12:45

But guess what? That got washed out by all the good marketing of everything else like xbox will give you bad news and let it sit yeah, xbox is kind of like or it's leaked people are just waiting for it to fail that's a very good comparison.

Speaker 4 13:00

I I do want, I do think there's like I I do think games sell consoles right, absolutely. We all in agreement there. Yep Games sell consoles, so I think your game has to better market your consoles, your game library, for instance. The Switch is a revolutionary console because of its features, but imagine if none of the games were there. Imagine if the Switch had the same library as Xbox now. Do you think it would have had the same success?

Speaker 3 13:29

I will also argue that the. Switch is a byproduct of the failure that was the system that was before it. Correct, I agree.

Speaker 4 13:35

Wii U for sure, yeah, for sure, but also.

Speaker 3 13:37

Nintendo came out of that, just fine. They only put out like six games for that thing that anybody gave a fuck about too, but it was an abysmal system.

Speaker 4 13:45

Do you remember all the news stories about that, like about Nintendo possibly going third party, about, like, if the Switch fails, this will be their last system.

Speaker 1 13:54

But that happens with every system, right? Like they're saying that about Sony, they're saying that about Xbox, they're saying that about Nintendo. They say that about like every big thing oh, this is it about nintendo. They say that about like every every big thing, oh this is it. Like this is I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of rumor mills, like I just feel like.

Speaker 4 14:09

I mean, that was like that was like a, a, um, that was a financial report that came out and said that wasn't like a rumor mill you know, like okay so I think, that that's a little more substantial. I'm not talking about like word on the street, like tyron biggins told me, like you hear, this is gonna be the last one.

Speaker 3 14:24

No, like that's my herbs and herbs guy yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure.

Assassin's Creed Remakes

Speaker 4 14:31

But um, let's go on to the next story here. Um, I think this one's kind of a bit more interesting here. So ubisoft has announced that it has multiple remakes of past assassin's creed games in the works, which will help boost the finding of the franchise's release schedule and allow assassin's creed games to come out more regularly. Do we need them more regularly? Okay, but anyways, the news came out from a new interview with ceo yeez your malt who, in response to a question about the future of the series, explained firstly, players can be excited about some mistake, um remakes, which will allow us to revisit some of the games we've created in the past and modernize them. There are worlds in some of our older assassin's creed games that are still extremely rich in quote. So I guys, I want to. I want to hit whoever wants to speak first. Is this something, nothing or everything? They're remaking older Assassin's Creed games because they feel like their library isn't coming out regularly for Assassin's Creed. Is that something, nothing or everything?

Speaker 3 15:37

Out of curiosity, how many Assassin's Creed games are there at this point?

Speaker 4 15:41

At least it's got to be, I'm guessing, 20 of them bones, because there's one, two and three. Right, there's four. They had like a spinoff of China something. Then they had three.

Speaker 1 15:52

RPGs there's 13.

Speaker 4 15:55

Okay, so there's 13.

Speaker 1 15:57

Sorry, I just did a quick search. There's 13.

Speaker 5 15:59

I did too.

Speaker 2 16:01

I was testing my knowledge.

Speaker 1 16:03

So there's since 2007, they had those 13 main installments.

Speaker 3 16:08

That means they're only engaged Main installments, though those are the main installing ones.

Speaker 2 16:14

I was going to say there was an engaged one wasn't there, or am I like bugging out? I swear there was an engaged Assassin's Creed. No, it was Prince of Persia.

Speaker 4 16:22

I'm sorry, but keep in mind everybody this is in addition to the three already announced Assassin's Creed. No, it was Prince of Persia. I'm sorry, but keep in mind everybody. This is in addition to the three already announced Assassin's Creed games. They have a live service Assassin's Creed game coming out. They have Assassin's Creed Shadows game, which is almost like the samurai ninja game that's coming out this fall, and then they have one that they've already announced called, I think, Codename Hex, which is like witches and all that kind of stuff. It's supposed to be a supernatural Assassin's Creed.

Speaker 3 16:45

You just sold me on that one and I've been kind of bored of the Assassin's Creed games for years. But you throw out a codename. Hex, that's all about witches. Suddenly I'm intrigued again.

Speaker 4 16:53

I don't know, it's not my franchise, but I'm aggrieved.

Speaker 3 16:57

I think when you look at the big picture of it being 13 games over the course of since 2017. That's four years without an Assassin's Creed mainline game You're really telling me that you need to put out more Assassin's Creed games. I think the problem will be solved is that you need to put out less Assassin's Creed games.

Speaker 5 17:12

Find a new formula for the games Less Watch.

Speaker 4 17:14

Dogs games.

Speaker 3 17:15

Yeah, like. Quit putting out the exact same formula and putting a different skin on it and thinking that everybody's going to buy it. Come up with a formula Give us a new Rayman, for the love of fucking God. Sorry, I did like Rayman Legends, man Rayman.

Speaker 4 17:25

Legends was awesome.

Speaker 3 17:26

And the one that was either right before or right after. It was fantastic as well, too. Like give us that instead of another Assassin's Creed game or Splinter Cell.

Speaker 4 17:34

Oh God, man, that's the dream.

Speaker 1 17:37

I don't, I don't. So the question is them making these remakes? I think it's. I'm going to say this. I'm going to say it's something in regards to the Ubisoft thinks that they need to do that. That's weird, because I don't think it's, I think it's nothing, because I don't need these games to be remade. They're good. Like I can go back and play some of the old ones and still be like, yeah, these are good, these are good games. I can play them. I think, play them. I I think.

Speaker 3 18:16

I just think that's weird, I don't, I don't why we don't need to have these remade. I think if you go back and play assassin's creed 2 it's gonna hold up and look, just fine the controls might be a little bit archaic, but it's not gonna look like somebody took vaseline and smeared it all over the front of your television exactly play the playstation 1 game yeah, but I mean, yeah, it's.

Speaker 4 18:32

I think this is weird. I do think this is something personally because, like I don't know why, what's the business model of remaking these older games that are still playable to this day, like? Xbox has the backwards compatibility for it. Yeah, you also have these games on your subscription, called ubisoft plus. Yes, so these are already available. So to sell people, you're probably going to have to do the GTA collection thing of delisting the old version of these games, and then basically making people buy those again.

Speaker 3 19:03

It's not like you're doing the Resident Evil 2 and 3 treatment, where you're given a game that's 20, 25 years old. The whole facelift and reboot make it an entirely new sexy experience, I mean you're just putting a fresh coat of paint on something that doesn't need to be painted.

Speaker 1 19:13

Yeah, entirely new sexy experience. I mean, you're just putting a fresh coat of paint on something that doesn't need to be painted. Yeah, it to me, I think the thing that the reason it's something is it to me it's like does ubisoft not have new ideas? Like that would be my concern. I'm with roger on this one.

Speaker 4 19:26

Yeah, I, I'm wondering, though I'm. You know I've always had the saying ubisoft swims the sevens, because every game they usually come out is that seven out of ten?

Speaker 3 19:34

you know what you're going to get out of it, but at the same time I'd be happy if somebody called me a seven, so I'm not going to complain too loud.

Speaker 4 19:39

Yes, for sure, for sure, middle of the road I bet.

Speaker 5 19:44

I'll take a C.

Speaker 1 19:45

Yeah for sure, c, you get degrees, that's right.

Speaker 4 19:52

That's right.

Speaker 2 19:53

So go ahead, bear. No. So for me this is something it's very strange because, first and foremost, you just come out with a West Coast Far Cry Like there's just so many like or even an Alaskan Far Cry would be kind of dope.

Speaker 5 20:16

But to me the problem is that Far Cry is the exact same game that Assassin's Creed is just in first person, which is also what Watch Dogs is.

Speaker 3 20:25

It's the exact same formula across the board with 98% of their games, and it's a tired formula at this point.

Speaker 4 20:31

Same thing with Avatar recently.

Speaker 2 20:33

Yeah, you know what Ubisoft really should do. They should put their energy behind trying to absorb the Nemesis system from Lord of the Rings From. Wb. Basically, yeah from WB, because if they could get that, because, let's be honest, I know this is completely off topic, but the Nemesis system was the next progression in open world games, absolutely.

Speaker 1 20:53

It felt like it yeah system was the next progression in open world games.

Speaker 2 20:55

It felt like that was the future yeah that was supposed to be the thing that we look forward. We that was supposed to think we'd be sitting here now complaining about, like oh great, another random npc coming up with a story to you know, just like how we complain about fran setting free that tower and raising that flag, boosting that signal, like that was supposed to be what the Nemesis system was. So I think Ubisoft can definitely go that route.

Speaker 4 21:20

I was mad. Hogwarts Legacy didn't have that Nemesis system.

Speaker 1 21:23

I'm like okay.

Speaker 3 21:25

I'm like man, I would love to be up with it.

Speaker 4 21:27

Yes, or beef with a classmate man. I'm like I want my little a classmate man Bro.

Speaker 2 21:37

They could, I can't. Wb did make Hogwarts oh my god why did.

Speaker 5 21:41

I Okay, and this wasn't even in their Batman games.

Speaker 4 21:45

recently the bootleg Gotham Knights game.

Speaker 3 21:48

But it's gonna be in the Wonder Woman game. We don't talk about that game either here, Sebastian Yay.

Speaker 2 21:55

But no, but all seriousness, Ubisoft, and I'm okay. First off, shout out to Ubisoft for always lowering their prices within a week.

Speaker 4 22:04

Amen to that, amen to that, you can count on that $30 discount by a clockwork.

Speaker 3 22:11

And throw it on Game Pass three weeks after they just lowered the price.

Speaker 2 22:16

Yeah, I'm not against, though I don't think they should remake these games. Man, not, not in the world where you especially when you have like four new assassin's creed on the horizon like remember, like you mentioned earlier, sebastian, they had what was it hex? And then, uh, the red ended up being uh um shadows, shadows.

Speaker 4 22:37

I believe hex is the, the witches, and yeah, there was two other ones there's a they're making a live service like open, like yeah no shadows is the one. This is the ninja one yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 22:51

And why would you want to take away people from the new experiences by giving people a facelifted uh uh black flag? Yeah, because you know everybody's gonna go play that yeah, when, when?

Speaker 1 23:05

I'm sorry, but it doesn't need to be, because black plague was really good and I could go back and play that, yet the shanties were amazing yeah, these were super dope, some of the ghost ships so I've always.

Speaker 4 23:18

I've always felt this like, especially after I started playing the rpg versions of those. It's like I love the different environments and I love the different locales, but I almost wish it wasn't assassin's creed anymore, like If you take off AC, off of it and you make it Age of Egypt or War of Egypt, or you just make a whole new series and don't connect the futuristic storyline of a person going back and playing in that time that sandbox, I'd almost feel like it would appeal to a wider audience. I do agree, yeah, but I do want to ask this question, like um, especially to roger um. We talked a little about xbox earlier, about like them having, about like their wins and, you know, like momentum, as far as zeitgeist goes, and does momentum matter, does it not? Ubisoft started off this year with a kind of a momentum shift here where they kind of had a um, what was it um?

Speaker 4 24:18

prince of persia prince of persia reviewed pretty well, um so, and then now they got assassin's creed shadows coming out and then also star wars. If all those games hit, it'll feel like that momentum shift that that whole company needs. And because ubisoft always, is always going to sell, well they, ubisoft is going to ubi, but like as but everyone knows the first call belongs maybe I mean, but still I'm like they knew, they knew what that game was, just like they knew what, like their monopoly game is their uno game is you know?

Ubisoft's Game Releases and Impact

Speaker 4 24:50

like they put out games and they're like if it makes sales and makes sales if it dies, it dies. We're just gonna put something out. But like it felt like this year was a momentum shift, just like we were talking about with xbox, where, like we want that momentum shift. Do you feel like if? Do you feel like if star wars outlaws is that same exact ubisoft formula as assassin's creed watchdogs? Do you feel like it's going to kill the momentum? Do I think it's going to kill the momentum? Or do you think there's no momentum to begin with? No Based off of one game?

Speaker 1 25:25

Damn Red Bash just called you right out. Yeah.

Speaker 3 25:29

Just like there's no return of your text.

Speaker 1 25:34

Yeah, exactly, I think if it feels like an Assassin's Creed game but in the Star Wars universe, it will get a seven. People will be like, yeah, it's Assassin's Creed except in Star Wars. And people will be like, yeah, it's cool, but I think at least what we've seen. I don't think that's what we're going to get. I think we're going to get something pretty dope with the Star Wars Outlaws. I think this could be a big, especially this year. I think this could be a pretty big game for Ubisoft. I think this could be a contender for Game of the Year.

Speaker 4 26:10

Wow, I want someone to bookmark this Also.

Speaker 1 26:14

Remember, last year I said that starfield was going to be a contender and that didn't happen but, a whole steak dinner

Speaker 4 26:20

you did I still owe you that too uh, yeah, it's all good I'm, I'm saying herbs, herbs, yeah, yeah, that's right that's right so if that is, if that is a game of the year contender like Starfield not Starfield slip of the tongue, we know that wasn't going to happen. But if the Star Wars game Outlaws is a game of the year contender and you already have Prince of Persia and let's just say Assassin's Creed, shadows is an eight out of 10, generally a pretty good game, great game.

Speaker 1 26:52

Does that feel like ubisoft has that momentum now three games, I think yeah, see, I think I think the hard part is, uh, while prince of persia did really well and I think it's a fantastic game, it just didn't connect with a lot of players, like there's just not the player base isn't there, um, and I don't know why. I don't know why. So we'll see, I think. I think I think, if, if star wars outlaws comes out and it's as good as what I think it's going to be and it's contender of the game of the year, I think this is a momentum shift for them and this is a big year for them. I do think this is a big year. They can at least point to it and say look look at all the really fantastic games that we came out with. Right Even internally, morale, I think we'll, we'll go up. So I think this is a, I think this could be a big shift for them.

Speaker 4 27:45

Could this be basically their version of Vince McMahon leaving the company? And triple H is taking over and there's a blood there's a bloodline. Now there's a guy coming in and finishing the story. Could this be like that?

Speaker 1 27:57

level of moment. I don't know if it's that finish the story hold on hold on hold on, I don't think it's.

Speaker 3 28:02

I don't think it's that level I, but I think I think internally damn it, sebastian, I didn't even want to get mad, you just fucking did it I think I think internally, I think this is, this is this is a big year for ubisoft.

Speaker 1 28:15

I think this is internally, this is a good morale booster for them.

Speaker 1 28:20

I think that they can point to this year and say we did good right like look at, look at the cool things that we did this year I think they were going to do that regardless, like they took the money to the bank if uno sales like five, five million copies, right, they were gonna do that regardless, yeah, but I mean, I think I think, like, look back at, uh, sparks of hope, that was a good game, like that was a fantastic game and I think that that was a game that they could hang their hat on.

Speaker 1 28:44

I just I'm I'm thinking that this could be a couple games this year that they could hang their hat on and say, hey, we, we can and we should continue to deliver this quality of of games and and I feel like it's weird that they're like but now we want to look at remaking assassin's creed, like come on, no, move forward with what you got here. That's, I think that's the part where I say that's something in regards to like, why are you doing this? Why would you do that when you have, when you have, this potential for really cool stuff coming out here?

Speaker 2 29:14

I think this is a we're still doing the everything.

Speaker 4 29:20

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 29:22

I think this is a strong something and I think we're running into an issue of somebody coming out with too many games, because, for sure, let's be real here they ended the year with avatar, uh, somethings of pandora. It's avatar pandora, but that, from what I, I didn't play, but somebody on our team reviewed it and they were like it's a good game, like it. I haven't heard. This is the thing.

Speaker 4 29:54

you never really hear anything, just bad yeah about ubisoft games yeah but it's just the middle of the road concept.

Speaker 2 30:01

You know it's, it's they're mcdonald's every time yeah, mcdonald's you know what you're getting you know like bro, they just came out with x def they. This year we're getting X-Defiant. You had Prince of Persia, because that was this year right.

Speaker 1 30:17

Yeah.

Speaker 2 30:18

With the Prince of Persia. You're getting a new Assassin's Creed, and what?

Speaker 1 30:24

else Outlaws.

Speaker 2 30:27

Bro, what other company is putting out that many?

Speaker 4 30:30

AAA games, except for Square Enix. Basically, yeah, like that.

Speaker 2 30:36

But it's not even just niche triple a games. These are big name ips. Yeah, you're putting out triple a titles that all could have their own state of play yeah, that's true each one of these games could.

Speaker 2 30:50

So what's how? How are we not talking about ubisoft is having the greatest year ever, like, but you, the cons? It's almost like the consistency is ruining them. No, no, no, let me stop. No, that's not even right, because I like. I like what you said, phil. Solid sevens across the board. You know what mcdonald's is gonna taste like amen.

Speaker 4 31:10

You know what mcdonald's is gonna to taste like, so I'm like it's going to show you until they show you that they can deliver you some steakums like consistently.

Speaker 2 31:20

And guess what mcdonald's is always, there's always somebody at mcdonald's there's always.

Speaker 3 31:25

There's always a line.

Speaker 4 31:26

There's always one, three blocks away yep, do you think there's an audience for that?

Speaker 1 31:30

there's legitimately audience yeah, do you think there's a push, though, for all these games because of the fact that they just came out with that Ubisoft Plus, that subscription-based service where you can play any of their games day one, and it's almost like they had to have some games on there. Skull Blows, too, was another game that came out this year too.

Speaker 4 31:50

They've been doing that for 10 years.

Speaker 2 31:51

I'm gonna tell you I think ubisoft plus is a result of them putting out too many games I'm saying yeah, yeah, I don't, I don't think these games are coming out to fill. I feel, uh, ubisoft plus. I think it's the other way around. It's like hey, like we have so many games out, how do we make money on them long term?

Speaker 4 32:14

the launch lineup for the play and Xbox y'all when like Watch.

Speaker 2 32:17

Dogs. It was all Ubisoft games.

Speaker 4 32:19

Watch Dogs, and yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 32:21

And FedEx Rising or whatever the hell that was called that was. Ubisoft.

Speaker 1 32:24

They put out five launch titles. That's another really good game too, by the way. Yeah.

Speaker 3 32:27

But it's the same formula is the problem. This is my only problem with ubisoft is 98 of their shit is the exact same formula. Yeah, I like their games and I play them. I always have a good time with them. But I also note I'm getting each and every time I've got the newest far cry that's downloaded on my xbox and I haven't touched it yet.

Speaker 3 32:45

I think that's six, because I too recently and by too recently I mean in the last two years finished up five, which I thought was a fantastic experience. But I'm not quite ready for another ubisoft experience yet. It just cause not an ubisoft game, but again the same formula haven't touched the newest one because it's the exact same game.

Speaker 3 33:02

I am tired of playing this game, but the second grand theft auto 6 comes out. I'm going to jump headfirst into that and love the hell out of it, because it's going to be a slight deviation from that Ubisoft formula, which is overly saturated.

Speaker 1 33:14

My Xbox yeah, but I think I think that's what. That's what made the Mario and Rabbids Sparks of Hopes game such a fantastic game, and I think that's what they did.

Speaker 1 33:24

Do that yeah games man and and and same with the, with the, with the Prince of Persia game, because it was so different. It wasn't that Ubisoft cookie cutter type, you know. I guess not cookie cutter, but you know what I mean Like the infrastructure there of just basically that Assassin's Creed type of formula, like those are so different and I wish that they would lean more into that, because even they did the division, they did the division, did one and two, yeah, but skull and bones leans into the even assassin's creed type thing.

Speaker 1 33:59

It's different because it's like, well, we're just gonna take the sailing part on a black flag and that's all that is. That's just a flag.

Ubisoft's Lack of Soul

Speaker 1 34:06

It's like okay it's literally the whole it's all it is, but it's not even. It's not even the adventure part, like outside, like where you're like running. Yes, you can run around towns, but that's it. You're not doing anything beyond that. It's weird that they keep. I mean, I get it because it makes them able to produce games a lot faster if they can lean into that. Hey, we got this formula that works, let's just keep leaning into it. But when they break away from that, they come up with some really cool concepts and really cool games every once in a while they put out a mac rib, and it's no.

Speaker 3 34:37

I almost wonder if part of the prince of persia problem. I'm sorry, baron.

Speaker 2 34:40

If you want to go, you can go, man no, no, I just real quick looking at this list of games. It's so many games that you forget it's, but it's forgettable why don't we talk about them as being one of the greatest publisher developers of all time? Because they put out forgettable. Why don't we talk about them as being one of the greatest publisher developers of all time?

Speaker 4 34:54

Because they put out forgettable games. Man, they put out a lot, it's just forgettable, you know.

Speaker 3 35:00

It's because so much of it's copy and paste.

Speaker 1 35:02

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 35:04

Like this is nuts, like the Crew. Ghost Recon, watch Dogs, rocksmith, assassin's Creed. On an X-Smith Like Far Cry. Watch Dogs, rocksmith, assassin's Creed.

Speaker 1 35:13

On Racksmith.

Speaker 2 35:16

Far Cry Rayman, this is nuts.

Speaker 4 35:22

Have you went to Walmart and you go to the pasta aisle and you see all these different brands of pasta and then you see Walmart's brand, the Great Value but then they have six different boxes and they all kind of look alike but they deviate a little bit because they're slightly different types of pasta, but they all taste the same. That's ubisoft. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 35:49

it's essentially any pasta, though in all fairness. I mean, they're all the same ingredients, just a different shaped noodle, and how it's going to hold the sauce yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, which I guess we just compared, ubisoft is just a noodle, is all ubisoft is yeah, that's right, that's right it just feels like there's quality differences, though you know like tasting it's a. It's a seven of a noodle yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 36:11

That's right exactly it's like a wild list of games, this is a very, very wild list of games that if you take out just about most of these games and put them up in any year, it would do. Okay, it's in the conversation, but that's the thing.

Speaker 1 36:28

That's the thing they're good at being okay right yeah but this year we're seeing like and I wouldn't say just this year like sparks of hope, like did really well that one got like pretty high scores. Uh, prince of persia, persia got really high scores and I think I think this is the thing is momentum shifter man.

Speaker 1 36:48

Yeah, if, if, if, uh, star wars outlaws gets really good scores. I think this would be a really cool moment for them to lean into and say look it, we can do more than just Assassin's Creed type games. Right.

Speaker 4 37:02

Baron, how old are you? I am 33. Okay, so we're basically the same age. So do you remember growing up how, like I feel like we're out of this conversation, phil.

Speaker 1 37:12

See you guys later.

Speaker 5 37:14

Let me sit back in my grandpa chair.

Speaker 4 37:16

Yeah, up how like I feel like we're out of this conversation, phil. See you guys later like so you remember, uh. So what was your perception of the champion's name brand growing up? Oh, remember that brand champion.

Speaker 2 37:28

Okay, so, okay. So if you didn't grow up boxing, you did not wear champion brand, because that was walmart, broke people close. So now to see champion brand be a boutique store clothing wait really yes, yes champion brand go try to buy some champion right now.

Speaker 3 37:52

I still got a pair of champion shorts that I had when I was 16. That was fucking 30 years ago. You can sell that on ebay for you could oh my god, vintage champion, what it might have some red stains on it, but whatever look fresh, fresh from walmart, what bro you're now chic. Yes, really dude yeah, you guys are fucking with us right now, right? No?

Speaker 1 38:17

I feel like I go to walmart right now and buy some champion stuff really big ass rib and not a big but the thing is, it's like it used to be.

Speaker 4 38:26

It used to be that off-brand. It used to be something like as it was generic.

Speaker 2 38:29

You didn't want to get caught.

Speaker 4 38:30

Yeah, you didn't want to get caught wearing it no, no, for sure, not that was the ass, but like no. But now because I, because of like marketing and influence, and then evidently some people say quality, they are now looked at like nike. Yeah, ubisoft could have that opportunity, is all I'm saying. They could be the champions of the game industry as far as like, really changing perception around and saying, instead of the sevens out of tens, instead of like we put out a whole bunch of games, but maybe, maybe some would resonate you, but we're mcdonald's.

Speaker 2 39:03

Basically, this is their chance to upgrade and be something more and I keep interrupting, feeling I'm yeah, but if Outlaws has some heart and it has a good amount of heartstring moments, it will definitely be in Game of the Year talks because it has all the proper, it has all the notes, has the cute sidekick, it has open world Grand, the auto s style star wars representation, not as long as you keep a lightsaber in the foreside of their hands. Yeah, you are going.

Speaker 3 39:42

It needs some heart and to avoid skywalkers at all costs yeah yeah see, as you say that baron, that kind of like it resonated in my, in my little brain of mine as to where I think my problem with the Assassin's Creed games are in to an extent, but not as much as the Far Cry series is. You say heart, but I'm going to say soul.

Speaker 3 40:04

There you go, like cause it's it doesn't feel like as much as it feels like when I'm playing an Assassin's Creed. I'm in the city. The connective tissue that's there doesn't make me give a fuck about the story, for lack of a better term. It's just a story that happens while I do cool stuff and explore a cool environment. That's there, as opposed to and I'm going to give the nod to Far Cry, especially Far Cry 5 with its redneck back-ass hillbilly stuff that's happening in Montana. I cared about that. I cared about the protagonist in 3 as well, like far cry does the?

Speaker 3 40:33

protagonist better than assassin's creed does, which is why I tend to gravitate towards them more. There's a little more soul in it, but not a full soul where it's. This is why it's a seven instead of a nine or a ten, is because that soul and that vibe just isn't there.

Speaker 4 40:48

All the pieces are in place, but it's just it's not internal, and that's what made ghost of tsushima special absolutely yeah, it is the far cry formula it was that same formula, but they gave it heart, they gave it a soul.

Speaker 3 41:02

It's what makes it special is because you give up.

Speaker 2 41:05

You care about the characters, yeah how did that was? The most frustrating thing ever was to watch another company make the best assassin's creed game.

Speaker 4 41:16

Yeah, ghost of tsushima is that it was it was crazy along those lines, watch it happen.

Speaker 3 41:23

I cared more about the characters in tenchu one, two and three than I have about any character in an assassin's creed game yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 41:31

But I mean, but like speaking with that, like that marker full of like items and such like that, that checklist, open world game, the ubisoft formula, it's like horizon forbidden west and horizon zero dawn are the exact same game, but they have soul you actually remember who the main character is you actually remember the environment?

Speaker 1 41:51

yeah, but I would say fenix phoenix, rising, had that had soul that did it I like phoenix rising I did too.

Speaker 4 41:58

I still haven't played it it has the unfortunate of being what they quote unquote, called the zelda clone. You know like, oh yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 42:07

So it's better than zelda.

Speaker 4 42:08

Don't let anybody lie to you, I said I agree, I agree, I'm right there with me, you, you are on the same page.

Speaker 1 42:15

It is very good, Just like any other Ubisoft game. You can find it pretty cheap. Just keep your eye open for it.

Speaker 2 42:22

I still haven't cracked open my physical copy of Valhalla.

Speaker 4 42:28

At this point, just go ahead and let it go.

Speaker 1 42:31

Honestly.

Speaker 3 42:32

Barrett.

Speaker 1 42:33

You can trade that in herbs and gerbs for a gram as long as you have a championship, a champion shirt or shorts with it, then you're fine so this is an opinion piece by kotaku I'm going to read out to y'all.

Speaker 4 42:49

Is the nintendo switch going out with it? Might be kotaku I can't remember where I got this from now but is the nintendo switch going? Is the Nintendo Switch going out with the bang or just pretending to? The launch of Luigi's Mansion 2 HD on June 27 kicks off what looks to be a very solid run from Nintendo for the rest of the year, which the company kept secret until the recent Nintendo Direct earlier this month. It would be followed by Nintendointendo world championship nest edition in july, the legend of zelda, echoes of wisdom in september, super mario party jamboree in october and mario party brothership in november. Those games might sound like a solid lineup, but will there be? Will any of these be a contender of the year, or are they just for a niche audience? Guys, I want to kick it to you, this esteemed panel of gentlemen Is Nintendo Switch going out with a bang? Or, if you take a closer look at the lineup, is this kind of a little lackluster? Guys, is this something, nothing or everything? What is your opinion on all this?

Speaker 1 43:51

Don't forget about I know it's not this year, but Metroid Prime 4, too, your opinion on all this, don't forget about I know it's not this year, but metro pine far too.

Speaker 4 43:59

But that might be a switch too, though that might be. No, it's coming on a switch, it's coming on okay, so so let's let's hypothetically say metro, metro prime 4 is included on that list. Yeah, yeah, did metro prime look like a modern game to you? It?

Speaker 1 44:13

looked like a Metroid Prime game.

Speaker 3 44:16

It looked like a Metroid Prime game, that's because, realistically speaking, the graphics on the Switch aren't that much better than they were on the GameCube. I said it.

Speaker 1 44:24

I mean you're not, he's not wrong, You're not wrong.

Speaker 4 44:29

I don't think they made a Metroid for a long time for a reason right.

Speaker 1 44:33

They came out with Metroid Dread Sebastian. This is so messy.

Speaker 4 44:37

Wasn't that about like 13, maybe 14 years? I think I was a high school when they talked about Metroid Dread coming out right.

Speaker 1 44:44

No, dread was last year.

Speaker 4 44:48

No, you remember when Metroid Dread was originally announced though.

Speaker 5 44:51

The original Metroid Dread.

Speaker 1 44:55

Yeah, I never heard of it before. Okay, can I start this one?

Speaker 2 44:59

Because yeah because I'm going to dunk. I'm going to dunk on it.

Speaker 1 45:03

You're going to dunk on it.

Speaker 3 45:04

I really have to use the bathroom, but I don't want to miss this because this could be fun.

Speaker 4 45:09

I'll tell you we're getting spicy. I want to start with you, Baron, oh, okay.

Speaker 1 45:16

Wait, who's starting Me?

Speaker 4 45:17

or Baron. Rock paper, scissors for it Okay.

Speaker 1 45:21

Rock paper, scissors shoot.

Speaker 3 45:24

That was the most awkward game of rock paper scissors I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 1 45:29

Yeah, that was weird. You win Watch a three-legged race in a company

Speaker 2 45:32

picnic party.

Speaker 1 45:33

It was like One you win.

Speaker 3 45:34

yeah, watch the three-legged race one, two holy shit, it's not getting better. I am going to the bathroom that was bad, bro.

Speaker 4 45:43

You got it, roger, okay, okay, so I think I'm a number between one through five. Roger, what's the number two? All right, baron, what's the number?

Speaker 1 45:51

okay, it was one so I say, great, it's three okay all right, so okay, whoever had to go, uh, so I think, uh, so it's something, nothing or everything. If this is like the going out with a bang or going out with a wisp whimper, yeah, like this story do you think they're they're looking at the lineup.

Speaker 4 46:14

Do you think it's something, nothing or everything that they're going out with a bang? Or do you think it's something, nothing or everything that they're going out with a whimper? Your interpretation of the question uh, I think it's.

Speaker 1 46:25

I don't want to say it's everything, because that that would overhype it. I don't think we have to overhype it, like, but I do think that it's. It's something I think that nintendo like. Here's the thing nintendo could have been like cool. I hope you all really liked playing on a switch. That was a good time. See you, when we have the switch too, here's some indie games that are still coming out. But the fact that they're like listen, we're still supporting it. We've got some games here. One tells me that obviously they want to support the switch. But then also I mean and I think we know this already right, or hopefully we know this that it's going to be backwards compatible, the new one. So the fact that they are still coming out with software.

Speaker 4 47:08

Yeah, hopefully we hope right. We hope Small versus. We hope Small versus right, we hope we hope small.

Speaker 1 47:12

I think it would be silly, Weird decisions they do make weird decisions, true, but I think that it's something that the fact that they're still coming up with some good games at the end of this year here that convinces people to go buy the switch. Yeah, okay that I think that. That I think what they're trying to do is saying, hey, listen, like when a switch to comes, you'll be able to play these games, hopefully on the new one.

Speaker 1 47:36

So I think it's something. I think it's something. I think I think it's better than them just saying thanks for thanks for the memories.

Speaker 3 47:44

All right. So I'm going to counterpoint just real fast on the end of that one. Nobody just pieces out on a system at the end of its life. They'll still continue to release games for like the next year or so, like every console pretty much ever has done it Like it's not just a well, Switch 2 is coming out.

Speaker 3 48:00

Everything that's out is going to be out. They're still going to throw out a handful, a small handful of games, which is all Nintendo really puts out a year anyways, much like Microsoft. It's a small handful of games, but so yeah, they're just not going to cut it off at the knees with the second that the Switch 2 was announced also playstation, released at the end of the ps3's life cycle, the last of us okay, but it's more than just a handful of games.

Speaker 1 48:22

We got the new zelda game coming out. We got the brothership games. We got the new mario party game coming out. We have the I mean, I know it's not new but the luigi mansion game. We also have the uh, I know it's not new, but it's a remake, uh of the thousand years door and also of the Super Mario Bros RPG. Those all came out on the Switch as well this year. That's four. I'm shocked, look.

Speaker 2 48:48

I want to hear from you, Matt.

Speaker 4 48:50

Is it something, nothing or everything? Are they going out with a bang brother or are they going out with a whimper?

Speaker 2 48:56

This is a something because they're going to go out with a bang because it's Nintendo. This is I agree with that. This is the company that sold the world a Mario game and then removed it.

Speaker 2 49:13

This is the company that has the capability to sell us our childhood at full price is the company that has the capability to sell us our childhood at full price and they slow drip it to us. This is the company whose physical games will be the post-apocalyptic bottle caps. This is the company, within the same cycle, who sold us cardboard boxes. Within the same console cycle. It's true um and a ring and this is the same company who will offer uh upgraded deluxe edition of Mario Kart 8.

Speaker 5 49:58

For the third straight system.

Speaker 2 50:00

For the third straight system, and it will. And then they'll charge you for a season pass to unlock all the maps that were on the previous consoles.

Speaker 4 50:12

Man, that is some backhanded complimenting. I like the way you. I was about to say. It sounds like they're going over the bank just because their name is Nintendo. It doesn't sound like the quality of any of those games sound elite.

Speaker 1 50:23

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa what.

Speaker 2 50:26

Look, this is. This is what it is as somebody who plays a switch and somebody who buys physical edition switch games, because I'm a firm believer that Switch games, they are going to be the bottle caps of the future when things go to hell. It's like how many Switch games you got that? Mario Kart 8?

Speaker 4 50:48

Here's some water for your family. Yeah, let me lick it and make sure it's real.

Speaker 2 50:55

Yeah, it's real. People are out here slinging bootleg cartridges like, hey, I got an original. No, nintendo knows what they're doing and they're selling to who they? They have the world. They have the world in their hands. And as long as they keep providing experiences and they're not afraid to branch out every now and then give you know and then take a weird turn and port hogwarts legacy onto their content, yeah, like, as long as they keep doing those things though like they, let's be honest they don't have to come out with a Switch 2.

Speaker 1 51:39

Yeah. Phil I agree with you. I agree with you. I don't think they have to come out with a Switch 2. They don't, Phil.

Speaker 4 51:44

I don't know about you, but it sounds like they're saying they could put minimum effort out there and still get an A+, because that's who they are.

Speaker 2 51:55

Is that what this sounds like? Bro I don't compare them to any other console when I talk about.

Speaker 3 52:00

Xbox and PlayStation. There's a cell phone.

Speaker 2 52:01

You can't fucking talk on Ooh, I like that, I like that. I'm gonna be quiet because that was gold.

Speaker 4 52:12

That was absolutely gold.

Speaker 3 52:14

He says it every week it's not gold. It's a true story.

Speaker 1 52:17

It's a fool's gold. What is the?

Speaker 3 52:19

difference between an iPad and a Switch.

Speaker 4 52:22

You can make a phone call on the iPad.

Speaker 3 52:24

And the iPad runs faster.

Speaker 4 52:26

I was like the iPad actually runs faster.

Speaker 3 52:28

No, like it's a true story. It is nothing but a glorified iPad or a cell phone that you can't make a phone call on. You can't even fucking party up on the Switch. It's an overrated system that people will love and adore because it's got your Marios, your Zeldas and your Donkey Kongs on, are they? Great games Because they do a good job with them. Are they great games?

Speaker 4 52:45

Yes, hold on, hold on Good job, good job.

Speaker 3 52:49

Do you get more than one every three to four years?

Speaker 1 52:53

Yeah, but see, but here's that, yeah, but yeah, so here's. Here's the thing, though. If you imagine, if they had a mario game every year, I think the assassin's creed yes, exactly my point but there is a mario game every year.

Speaker 3 53:06

Yeah, you get a rabbits, you get a different version with the same character in it.

Speaker 4 53:09

You don't get. There's a mario game every year, not I mean olympics yeah, let's go look okay, okay, okay, hold on hold on luigi's Mansion. Mario Strikers, we got Brother Ship. We got Thousand Euro Door Pay for Mario.

Speaker 2 53:23

RPG.

Speaker 4 53:25

I'm like we got the Mario sports games. We got Mario. Every year Mario.

Speaker 1 53:30

Kart, mario Kart, hold on, hold on. When I say Mario game, I'm talking like either. Hold on, hold on, on, hold on I'm either talking about a 3d mario game or a 2d platform mario game. Those we don't get every year.

Speaker 4 53:45

Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, we can get a zelda every year, right, no, no, we've gotten three on the switch at this point.

Speaker 3 53:54

Well, you get zelda in a game every year.

Speaker 4 53:56

Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. We got, we're getting one this year, right, yes, did we get one last year yes, yes did we get a lynx awakening the year before.

Speaker 3 54:06

That, yes, oh roger with the heart eye roll with the heart eye roll.

Speaker 4 54:13

If that's three years in a row, is that not yet? Every year?

Speaker 3 54:15

yeah, but let me tell you that's a after pandemic that doesn't count, it's a lot of yeah, buds going on, hold on yeah, but you think we were toppers yeah, man, I love this tonight we haven't had a lot of Zelda games in a long time.

Speaker 1 54:36

We were dry for a lot of like. We did not have a lot of Zelda games in a long time. We were dry for a lot of. We did not have a lot of Zelda games in a long time. What do you mean? I don't know. Maybe you're right, Okay, but from Nintendo Capcom was making.

Speaker 4 54:48

Who else would get Zelda games from Capcom? What Zelda game?

Speaker 3 54:53

they put out Philip CDI.

Speaker 1 54:55

No, capcom came out with Minish Cap cap. That was. That was capcom. That was when he was at I don't know are you serious?

Speaker 4 55:06

yeah, that was capcom, that wasn't nintendo okay, so we're talking about a game that you know. Baron and I were about like four years old for right. That's my point that's when capcom put out the game is what he was saying so, but since nintendo's put out a game, have we not had one every generation? And then also, have we not had one every year for the last four years?

Speaker 1 55:29

right, well, okay, switch. The switch is unique. The switch is unique how?

Speaker 4 55:35

so is this, because we because?

Speaker 1 55:38

how's this? Because we had a lot more zelda games on this system than we had on other previous. Roger, do you know why this is unique?

Nintendo's Game Releases and Innovation

Speaker 4 55:45

this is where I have to party up for the switch and you can also play, play um a lot of nintendo games on that thing and better and better fps allegedly. Yeah, what? So I, I'm, I'm curious, uh, I'm curious. So we got four zelda games. We had what maybe I think the switch has been out seven years. We probably had more than seven mario games have come out right uh, it depends on what you're including.

Speaker 3 56:13

I mean, we obviously had odyssey, we had the 3d remake of the one that was on the wii. Uh, what was that one called? Oh, super mario brothers you.

Speaker 4 56:22

Then there was the one with bowser's fury, which I think was the same one too. That's three, and we're counting up to seven, right, because that'd be like seven years right yeah, if you want to include, like rabbits, party, party, party.

Speaker 3 56:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, okay, okay.

Speaker 4 56:39

So if mario's in the title does, does it count as a mario game do?

Speaker 3 56:43

people look at it in the store. No, no, no. Mario. With mario in the title, it doesn't count as a mario game. Why would it?

Speaker 4 56:49

possibly be a mario game. I was about to say people don't look at that in the store and say, oh, it's a mario game. I'm gonna buy. Buy it because it says Mario on it.

Speaker 1 56:57

Ah, these people are dumb. We love you.

Speaker 4 56:59

Roger. We love you, roger. So we got about 13 Mario games About like what? Five Zelda games the last five years. At this point it seems like they're it sounds like Nintendo's rocking it.

Speaker 1 57:11

That's what I'm saying, that's what you're saying Sebastian, yeah, dude.

Speaker 4 57:18

If you want to start that nintendo coke, they definitely are. It sounds like they keep putting out the same thing over and over again, like ubisoft. Is what we're saying, right?

Speaker 1 57:24

no, that is not a way they're getting away with it right, they're not coming up with the same thing over and over again. As ubisoft there is like listen, listen, here's well, hold on hold on hey listen, hold on.

Speaker 1 57:38

Hold on is tears of the kingdom and breath of wild kind of very similar to each other they're similar but the the mechanic with the arm is so different and like that was the big, that's your fallback oh there's a different mechanic far cry five is kind of similar because it's not, you know, similar listen, because there was so much you could do with that arm mechanic that could break the game, and it didn't. That's amazing. That's amazing In Far.

Speaker 4 58:06

Cry 6, you could summon a gator to help fight. You couldn't do that in 5. I'm just saying.

Speaker 1 58:11

I'm just saying Mario Wonder opened up a whole different, weird world, those wonder worlds that we didn't see before and then the caps.

Speaker 2 58:23

I will say one thing I do like about the general progression or the new release of Nintendo games is you'll often see a new mechanic to add a fresh experience to it now. I haven't played Mario mainline since like 64. It just.

Speaker 1 58:42

I knew I liked you Baron.

Speaker 2 58:43

I kind of I just felt, you know but You're a man of taste, I see.

Speaker 3 58:49

Of culture. Of culture man. Look at how mad Roger feels being the Nintendo fanboy in the group for the only one.

Speaker 1 58:56

I'm not the only Nintendo fanboy.

Speaker 3 58:57

That's the thing. Show your Meebo collection.

Speaker 4 59:00

You invited the wrong people to my.

Speaker 3 59:01

Meebo.

Speaker 4 59:02

Show your Meebo collection.

Speaker 1 59:03

Okay, so maybe I have it in my collection.

Speaker 2 59:05

Tell the truth, shame the devil. I do have a lot, no, but it is sad looking at the Legend of Zelda timeline when you go back to 2000. Actually, you can go to 98. So you see Ocarina of Time, and then you got Link's Awakening the Majora's Mask, and then Oracle of Seasons, four Swords, wind Waker, and then you get to 2011, and you get Ocarina of Time, skyward Sword, wind Waker, link Between Worlds, majora's Mask, twilight, princess, breath of the Wild, and then the cycle starts again Link's Awakening, skyward Sword.

Speaker 4 59:46

Yeah, that's what I'm saying that it's nice that we finally get some new Zelda games in there, that's what I'm saying, and this time they just say remix right before they put it out, and then they start it's a remix edition.

Speaker 2 59:59

Let me tell you what was a sad day for me as somebody because, like I said, I own a Switch.

Speaker 4 1:00:04

I do too.

Speaker 3 1:00:05

I don't play. Yeah, that's why I'm so disappointed. That's why I'm disappointed.

Speaker 2 1:00:09

I own one and I usually play a bunch of third party stuff on it. But Huh, but this is the thing that gets right. Um, like these games, nintendo. Please, please, please, for the love of god, let other people make your games.

Speaker 1 1:00:30

Lease out those ips they do, though they do the mario and rabbitsids game. That's one. The Cadence of Hyrule, that was the third. That was an indie studio.

Speaker 4 1:00:42

That was an indie one. Yeah, keep going Roger, keep going You've been so far.

Speaker 1 1:00:50

The Minish Cap Camp Con made that game.

Speaker 4 1:00:53

Oh no, that ain't even in this century. What Well, that's true. No, it was in 2004.

Speaker 2 1:00:56

20 years ago. That ain't even in this century. What that ain't even in this century.

Speaker 1 1:00:58

Wow, that's true. No, it was in 2004.

Speaker 3 1:01:02

20 years ago, man, I did not have gray hair at that point I still had a full head of hair.

Speaker 2 1:01:07

I was definitely in middle school.

Speaker 3 1:01:09

I was a 7 at that point.

Speaker 4 1:01:11

I was rocking with you until you said something from 2004, though I was in middle school. But I digress. Here's a real hot take though that maybe phil might agree with wait.

Speaker 1 1:01:21

Can I just say something? Oracle of agents, oracle of seasons. Four swords and a minish cap are all made by capcom okay, oh wow which one was the most recent one I think minish cap was probably the most recent. Yeah, minish cap yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 1:01:38

So here's, here's the hot take, and this isn't some nothing or everything, this is just me throwing it out here, guys. Nintendo, the nintendo switch generation. They came out with seven actually fresh new games and the rest reports and remakes just seven. Now if any other, if any other console would have came out with that like think let's, let's count it up, you got zelda right.

Speaker 1 1:02:04

Rogers currently googling I can hear it you know, I'm not, baron is actually. I'm not, that was me, that was me, yeah, yeah so you had a zelda, you had a kirby, right.

Speaker 4 1:02:13

You had a mario, you had a dk. I do believe tropical freeze was on wii u as well. Yeah right, it was a port up, so that was a port. Oh no, oh no, we're taking that one back. We had fire emblem. Three houses, that's. We got up to four, right, so we?

Speaker 1 1:02:28

had, I'll give you pokemon legends arceus okay, okay, kirby. Forgotten lands. Splatoon 3, bayonetta okay well, bayetta. I don't know if I count that, this is just from 2002. No, that's just from. That's because they just pulled back from 2002. I want to see what all the games were. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom, mario Odyssey.

Speaker 4 1:02:58

Wonder, wonder, okay of the kingdom.

Speaker 1 1:02:58

Okay, uh, mario odyssey, um wonder wonder okay uh, we might get up to 10. I might be wrong about the seven we have uh, we the soccer game that was at strikers um strikers.

Speaker 4 1:03:12

Okay, the rush game the golf one yeah, yep, the rush, the mario golf rush, I think there was four mario sports games right, four of them maybe yeah, there was tennis as well.

Speaker 3 1:03:23

Tennis, oh yeah, I forgot about.

Speaker 4 1:03:25

That's what it's like there's tennis, golf and soccer. I think striker soccer. So I, that was a three uh, base just based.

Speaker 2 1:03:32

Honestly, even if it was only seven, is that bad? That's because I mean one a year.

Speaker 4 1:03:36

That's not horrible till it's microsoft, yeah that's Because I mean one a year, that's not horrible. Yeah, that's exactly it. That was my point. That's where I was going with this. That's where I was going with this.

Speaker 2 1:03:48

I see what you're saying.

Speaker 4 1:03:49

Yeah, but even then, we're struggling to get to 10, though, outside of the sports games, that nobody liked Roger Playto Pikmin 4.

Speaker 1 1:04:01

Advanced Wars 1 and 2.

Speaker 5 1:04:04

Advanced Wars was a remake. That was a remake. That was a remake.

Speaker 1 1:04:07

That was a remake. That was a remake, okay, fair.

Speaker 4 1:04:09

No remakes, no remasters.

Speaker 1 1:04:10

Did we say Fire Emblem Warriors, three Hopes.

Speaker 2 1:04:14

Oh no, we didn't say the Warriors.

Speaker 1 1:04:16

Did we say Mario.

Speaker 3 1:04:19

Dynasty Warriors won.

Speaker 1 1:04:20

Oh no, we didn't say the warriors did we say mario dynasty warriors one, right, yeah, don't get me excited. Yeah, so there's are you a blade?

Speaker 2 1:04:23

are you a blade, storm guy?

Speaker 4 1:04:25

what? What is blade storm? By the way, tell me more it's an offshoot of dynasty warriors.

Speaker 2 1:04:30

It was a did you play blade storm roger. No, I haven't either, it's my, it's my, it's my guilty pleasure game that's like definitely nobody likes. Turn off your brain and hack and slash. Okay. So imagine Dynasty Warriors, except you're like the leader of a merc group.

Speaker 5 1:04:47

And as you're on the battlefield, whoever you run into is the skill you become.

Speaker 2 1:04:54

So like if you find your cavalry unit and you run into them, you're now the cavalry unit and then you can ditch them and go to your archery unit and everybody has their own abilities and then you can rank up each group at the bar as you're working up your mercenary group. It's basically Berserk, without all the murder and hellscape.

Speaker 4 1:05:15

That sounds actually pretty cool.

Speaker 2 1:05:17

Thank you, that actually sounds pretty cool, thank you. That actually sounds pretty cool.

Speaker 4 1:05:21

I have to disappear for a minute and 30 seconds. So, Roger, what's the verdict? Hold on, hold on.

Speaker 1 1:05:27

We got the Princess Peach Showtime. We have that Legend of Zelda, echoes of Wisdom. Legend of Zelda, tears of the Kingdom. Legend of Zelda, parenthood of the Wild. We have mario brothers, wonders from our brothers, luigi's brothership. We have nintendo world championship, nes edition that's a port man is it, though, because that is a port, that's a collection of games are yeah, but it's, but it's built differently for speedrunner, so I don't know if that, okay, fine, whatever, we have endless ocean. Uh, we have super smash brothers, ultimate in endless ocean.

Speaker 4 1:06:03

A no, that's a brand new game. Nope, that's a brand new game that's a brand new game.

Speaker 1 1:06:07

What about? Um, let's see what else do. We got luigi mansion 3.

Speaker 4 1:06:12

Oh, really quick, roger um, I'll admit I was wrong, because we do have to wrap up for a second. Okay, all right, so I'll go ahead and admit that there's a good slew of titles, okay.

Speaker 1 1:06:26

You win, roger, there we go. That's all I wanted to hear was that I win.

Speaker 4 1:06:29

Okay, I'll admit that was wrong. Wait what yeah.

Speaker 1 1:06:35

We just concluded that Sebastian was wrong and I was right. Yeah, do you have any other final questions you want to ask us here, sebastian? Are we wrapping up?

Speaker 4 1:06:47

So this FIRE podcast, was it something, nothing or everything?

Speaker 3 1:06:53

It was everything. I enjoyed this game. This was dope. Thanks for moderating this. This was a hell of an dissertation between the four of us.

Speaker 1 1:07:01

Yeah, it was really fun.

Speaker 2 1:07:03

We all realize we don't like Roger and Nintendo.

Speaker 1 1:07:06

What.

Speaker 4 1:07:08

I'm like.

Speaker 2 1:07:09

I like Roger.

Speaker 4 1:07:09

It's just Nintendo man it's just.

Speaker 2 1:07:11

Nintendo Him and his herbs and spices. Herbs and herbs.

Speaker 4 1:07:17

It was messed up for you to make up franchises like that though.

Speaker 2 1:07:21

Why would you lie to us? We're supposed to be friends. I actually respond to your messages.

Speaker 1 1:07:26

That's true, you do, actually I sometimes do. You do sometimes, and Sebastian takes a good long time.

Speaker 4 1:07:33

I miss a couple business days. That's true. That's true. You're like the United Postal Service. That's true. That's true. That's true.

Speaker 5 1:07:37

You're like the United Postal Service.

Speaker 1 1:07:38

That's right. That's right. So, before we wrap it up, why don't we tell people how they can find us? So, baron, I'll start with you. Where can people find you? On social media and everywhere else.

Speaker 2 1:07:48

Yeah, so you can find me personally at BaronJ67, anywhere. That's anywhere. I'd want you to find me. And then, if you want to find the work that I do, it's at lv1 gaming on twitter, youtube. It's youtubecom forward slash, lv1 gaming 20 and we have a live show every wednesday 4 pm, pacific standard time, and then we have a bunch of other content. We just actually finished raising 225 for gamers um gamers.

Speaker 1 1:08:17

That's awesome Nice job.

Speaker 2 1:08:18

Yeah, it was. That's why my nails are painted. I know you guys can't see it, but my daughter's had a good time painting my nails for that charity event. And then they made me play a horror game.

Speaker 5 1:08:29

So it was you know.

Speaker 2 1:08:30

But yeah, lv one gaming anywhere. You see the Phoenix. You know everyone starts at level one.

Speaker 1 1:08:38

Nice, the phoenix.

Speaker 4 1:08:39

You know, everyone starts at level one, nice uh and sebastian, how can people find you and follow you everywhere? Man, if you see it behind me, if you're watching the video, if you're not on the audio, check me out the single player experience podcast. It's the premier podcast for single player gamers to find about good single player games to play and find out what should be in your video game backlog. If you like what you heard, you'd like the shenanigans. If you like segments coming up, we got a slew of them, with a slew of really cool guests coming up. And if you like something or everything, I got something for you. You know, if you're a sports guy, you're going to like the podcast as well, because we have what, just like Stephen A does in that world we have our own A-list as well. So if all that sounds intriguing to you, definitely check out the single player experience podcast, season 2 baby coming right up, I know where can they?

Speaker 1 1:09:18

find you I was gonna say they're coming up.

Speaker 3 1:09:22

You have some really exciting stuff coming up to Sebastian yeah, thank you so much yeah, yeah, yeah, phil oh, I was just letting you guys do your thing, I'm just setting it up. You can find me on Twitter at BNow23 as far as my personal account.

Speaker 3 1:09:34

You can also follow my wrestling podcast if you have any interest whatsoever in that in following omp wrestling on twittercom or whatever it's called these days, where myself and my homie lucio sit down, we break down the week's action for each and every person and everything and just go over our thoughts on what happened throughout the course of the week. We have fun doing it. Uh, also find me here. I'm here every week as well yeah, can they find you man?

Speaker 4 1:09:58

yeah mr nintendo weird.

Speaker 3 1:10:01

Wait to hear his twitter handle, but he's not a fan boy my.

Speaker 1 1:10:07

My twitter is nintendroj. Wait what? Uh, that's my. Yeah, nintendroj. There's a reason for that phil. One time for the people in the back it was, it was uh over time.

Speaker 4 1:10:17

I, the people in the back. It was, it was over time. I, the people in the back tend to.

Speaker 1 1:10:19

Raj is my Twitter handle okay short for it's during a time of my life, phil and.

Speaker 5 1:10:26

I'm not changing it, so anyway.

Speaker 1 1:10:30

So that's there. You can also follow us gamer heads on Twitter at gamer heads pod. That has nothing to do with Nintendo at all, and then you can go to our website at GamerHeadsPodcastcom, where you can hear this show, other shows as well and read reviews as well. So check that out. Baron, thank you so much for joining us this week. That was really fun. I'm glad you joined us. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 1:10:53

I had such a good time with you guys it is really fun.

Speaker 1 1:10:56

Yeah, yeah, sebastian thank you so much for joining us this week. It was really fun. You did such a fantastic job with this, I knew you were going to. Yeah, when I when I said we had a special guest coming on, this is the segment that I wanted Sebastian to run for us, so thank you so much for that.

Speaker 4 1:11:12

Thanks for having me, guys. It's always a pleasure to talk to you all, man. When I'm on this podcast, I can't help but to laugh and smile the whole time. So it's a pleasure being here.

Speaker 1 1:11:23

Yeah.

Speaker 4 1:11:23

I can't help but feel the love that you send to me. You make fun of the family members you know that you actually love the most. That's true. That's true.

Speaker 1 1:11:29

That's true, Phil. Thank you so much for joining us this week.

Speaker 3 1:11:33

Hold on week uh. Hold on. I'm teaching my twitter handle to xbox now 23, oh my god, uh, and listeners.

Speaker 1 1:11:40

Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule and giving us a listen. If you like what you hear, leave us a review. We want to hear what you have to say about the show. Also, leave these other guys review for their shows as well, because that helps all of us grow. Uh, and we're just like what is it?

Speaker 3 1:11:54

rising tides lift all boats or something like that that's the second time I've heard that reference. Not even kidding. Lucio made the reference on the oh my Pod show. Really yeah.

Speaker 1 1:12:01

Really, yeah Nice it's a good one. It is a good one, support independent games journalism. So with that, everyone stay safe and game on, and we'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 4 1:12:15

Bye, bye.

Speaker 5 1:12:19

So, long.