Low Five Gaming

Super Mario World

• Studio Low Five • Episode 16

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Luke and Alex talk Super Mario World.

Super Mario World is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was released in Japan in 1990, North America in 1991 and Europe and Australia in 1992.

Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development developed the game, led by director Takashi Tezuka and producer and series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Koji Kondo acted as the game’s composer.

The player controls Mario on his quest to save Princess Toadstool and Dinosaur Land from the series' antagonist Bowser and his minions, the Koopalings. The gameplay is similar to that of earlier Super Mario games: players control Mario or his brother Luigi through a series of levels in which the goal is to reach the goalpost at the end. Super Mario World introduced Yoshi, a dinosaur who can eat enemies, as well as gain abilities by eating the shells of Koopa Troopas.

Super Mario World is often considered one of the best games in the series and is cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. It sold more than twenty million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling SNES game.

Luke and Alex played Super Mario World  on the Nintendo Switch via NSO. Alex also played a good chunk of the Game Boy Advance version of the game.

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by the McRib and definitely not by Kirko's chains.

For those who would like to play Luke and Alex's Super Mario World inspired Mario Maker 2 worlds, you can find them using the following Course IDs:

  • Luke's: 0MD-NJW-6RG
  • Alex's: Forthcoming. Apologies to those who wanted to check this out first day or find this on a pod catcher that's slow to update episode descriptions. Send us an email or hit the DMs on social media and we'll get you that code!

Send us a Text Message! We'll respond on our next episode!

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Email us at hello@lowfivegaming.com.

Low Five Gaming is a Studio Low Five Production.

Alex:

Hello and welcome to another episode of Low Five Gaming. Welcome back, everybody that's been listening along. And if this is your first time, hey, what's up? Glad you could join us. We are a podcast. Um you made it.

Luke:

You clicked on a podcast and we confirmed it was a podcast. We've made it.

Alex:

Oh boy. Leave it in. But yeah, so we're uh we're a podcast. We're uh myself, Alex, and my my brother Luke, we pick a video game each month, try and beat it, and then hash out our experiences. Uh, we also invite folks to join us in our adventures uh via our Discord. Uh so we always are talking about you know a whole bunch of stuff in there, but also whatever game we landed on for that month. Feel free to join us. We'd love to have you in there. You can find an invite link in the show notes as well as at our website, which is alo5gaming.com. And this month we played a game that Luke chose, Super Mario World.

Luke:

Yeah, so we're as a podcast, we're we're a bit all over the place. We are both a backlog book club. But then we'll hit you with the you know the current events, like the biggest game of the year, you know, Kirby, not Elden Ring, not God of War, Kirby. We'll hit you with the day one releases, but we'll also hit you with a lot of the the old schools, the backlogs and the bucket lists, I would say. So this one, uh, this one's a solid bucket list game. It's an all-timer, and uh, I just wanted to be able to say I beat it, even if it's got a little bit of uh Nintendo Service online asterisk to it. I still beat it, whatever. Fuck it.

Alex:

Yeah, dude. We'll get that. And uh little disclaimer for folks, Luke's bringing that late night energy. Didn't do any cocaine this time around, throwing it back to an energy drink sponsor.

Luke:

Yeah, energy drink. I would like to clarify. No, but my babies sure did. And uh, we tried to record once and they were like, nah, rage. And I was like, Word, you run this house, you got it, boss. And then we, you know, we hit him with some bath time and then we hit him with some bottle, and now they passed out. So hopefully, you know, we make it. We'll we'll see. We're praying.

Alex:

Well, it's a good thing you played on the NSO, dude, and then the rewind feature, otherwise, you get real worked up on this chat. Because I tell you what, Super Mario World, not the easiest game of the world. It's it's very approachable, but it's tough, dude. It can be tough.

Luke:

It's approachable in that like it's fun and it's cute, but like I often think when I'm playing these games, maybe this is tune of the weeds already, but I'm often like, if this was the only game I had, I would not mind how grueling this is if I was just like hashing it out button on the couch all day. As an adult trying to beat this game, you're like, I don't have time, like rewind, I don't have time, rewind.

Alex:

We'll get into it a little bit too. But this game, you know, like I believe we both beat it with a little asterisk because we we played on the NSO and uh did uh cheese it a little bit with that rewind. Uh I tell you what, there's asterisks. You know, I did play this as a kid, and there was a lot to explore. You've got your main game, but then there's uh you know, there's basically to like complete the game 100%, like you put in a lot more hours. But uh let's slap some uh let's slap some background info on some folks here, huh? Hell yeah. So Super Mario World is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo entertainment system, the SNES or the SNIS. The game was released in Japan in 1990, then in North America 1991, and then a year later, 1992, Europe and Australia. Lead developer was Takashi Tazuka, and the producer series creator was Shiguro Miyamoto. So Miyamoto had his hands all over this one, which is kind of cool.

Luke:

Koji Kondo on the beat, my guy.

Alex:

Oh, is it really? Yeah. Oh man, that trifecta, I tell you what. Yeah, yeah.

Luke:

Yeah, yeah. Killer killer tunes, man. And the music really is like it's good. When you when you play for a while, like you'll just be like walking around doing dishes like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, and you're just singing along in your head.

Alex:

Like, I love it. I love it. And this game, uh, Super Mario World is often considered to be one of the best games in the series, the Mario series, and it's cited as one of the greatest video games ever made, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide. And uh I tell you what, in 2022, sold 20 million copies. I can only imagine how many people got their hands on this game in ill-repute ways.

Luke:

Hmm.

Alex:

I don't know what you're talking about. This game's been emulated the fuck out of, dude. Like I guarantee, you know, people are playing this game all over the place. Uh I'll every which way sort. Great game, though. I said this was dropped on the the Super Nintendo, but then it was released for the Game Boy Advance under the title Super Mario World Super Mario Advanced 2 in 2001. And also dropped on the virtual console for the Wii, the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS consoles, and it's part of the Super NES classic edition, if you got one of those minis. And it's also on the Switch NSO. Um I'm sure it's like the mentioned.

Luke:

Some people say it's like the greatest game of all time. I bet you it's like the crown jewel of like the 2D platforming version of Mario because you have like the 3Ds, like 64, Galaxy, Odyssey. Um there's some heads out there that would probably argue Super Mario 3 would be there. It's probably 3 for many, but Super Mario World for the others, and uh, you know, the series introduction to Yosh. Yeah, and Yoshi. Deep in the lore is that my wife, when we thought we had just one child, would not let me name said one child is Yoshi. But I think you insulted me on that one too. I was like, I don't know, bro. No one, no one really had my back on that one. It was actually quite disappointing. Uh we should have asked our podcast community. They would have been down. They would have been down before we knew there were twins. We thought one single child didn't know the gender. We just referred to it as Yoshi, like our little Yosh. So I love me some Yoshi.

Alex:

Uh, just to put a bow on this background stuff. The player controls Mario or his brother Luigi on his quest to save Princess Toadstool and Dinosaur Land from the series of antagonists, Bowser and his minions, The Koopalings. And gameplay is similar to that of earlier Mario games. This game introduced Yoshi, which is pretty rad. Fucking great character, dude. Great addition to the whole Mario world.

Luke:

Oh, yeah. Makes for some good platforming. Uh, did they have the spin jump in prior 2Ds? That's the research one of us should have done, but like the breaks blocks or like lets you make some tougher enemies where you just bounce off instead of getting hurt. Like, so that's a pretty cool.

Alex:

Yeah, that was a big part of this game, too. So, like, you know, because it came out for the Super Nintendo, you've got a new controller, so you're moving away from your Nintendo controller with the two A B buttons and the directional pad. So you got the directional pad, and then you got four buttons, bruh. And you got shoulders and shoulders on the uh on the Super Nintendo. So that's part of why this game was such a big deal and a change for Mario is because we had a couple extra actions for for Mario to do. But uh, why don't we why don't we talk a little bit about why you pick Super Mario World? Why do we why were we knocking this one off the list, bruh?

Luke:

I made I don't know, I was feeling some type of dorky. I mean, I know you're a man who appreciates a good list, a good a good list, a good task, a good weird, random note-taking. I mean, Alex is the king of digital files. He enjoyed making Christmas lists as a 30-year-old man on Google Docs. That's it, that's the type of thing.

Alex:

I don't know if people are gonna know what to give me.

Luke:

Yeah, I know, right, right, right, right, right. He's like, Did you consult the list? I was like, Oh my god. Uh, but anyway, uh, I was bored and I made a list and I was just thinking of games I want to beat. You know, we're talking all timers, so you know, if you got like the Portal 2s or the other kind of games we've played, like what are some games that you know you're always kind of what am I gonna play next? And then like, oh, I've always wanted to get around to that. Super Mario World was there, it's on the Nintendo Service online, and it's like been kind of fun to play. And I do have some, you know, some warm and fuzzies to play in it on the Game Boy. Uh, I always thought the music slapped, I always thought the colors and the environments were super fun because they are, and I was never very good at it. I could make it past like the bridge and the cave, but I'm pretty sure like as a kid I could make it like into the woods-ish area, but it definitely would stop there. It's a little hairy once you hit those woods. Yeah, and then the last the last little piece was like I was waffling between games to choose, and like part of me really wanted to make some Mario Maker levels, and I was like, this will be a cool excuse to do that, and more on that later. I definitely did do that little when a little win a little hammer time. And when Alf is gonna find some time, he's gonna do some bonus content. We're gonna watch him struggle through all my levels. I think that'd be hilarious.

Alex:

Oh, I'm all about it, man. I've been working on a little Mario level uh Mario Maker stuff for you to check out as well. I'm curious to share that with you.

Luke:

Yeah, I'm curious to play yours. I don't know if you've ever you've ever made a level.

Alex:

Yeah, I've made some levels. I didn't get as hard into it when it dropped as you did, but I I played the story mode and like I didn't do a lot of the creation, but uh so it's been fun digging around the creation mode more this time around. But uh makes it better. You mentioned you mentioned the you you know we had it back in the day on the on the Game Boy Advance. I remember I probably picked that thing up from Target like uh must have been like maybe a junior sophomore in high school, something like that before uh before a family road trip. Uh that was money, money to have, but that was one of the first games that I had for the for the Game Boy Advance. But we didn't have a Super Nintendo growing up. So did you play this at any homie sauces or anything, or was it purely on that Game Boy Advance?

Luke:

I've had as an adult one good old time with my buddy Jared, where he got his Super Nintendo from his ma at his apartment, and we were visiting, and they were they forced me to drink all those spotted cows. I didn't want to have any of them, but they they forced me. And I had many, and we tried to take down because he had beaten it in the pandemic. It's kind of cool. He and his wife played it together. Uh, she kind of was like almost like a scout, like kind of looking stuff up online and just kind of like there. It's you know, it's the pandemic, that's how they hung out for a little period of time, and then uh, but he there's a different way into the castle. If you didn't know this, that you don't have to go through Larry's castle. And uh he had to do that because that was way easier. And he was like, it's harder than the actual last castle, and it is like really hard. I had to rewind. I mean, I I was gonna try to do it like pure just to rub it in his face because we did not beat it that night, sure. But then I was like, I gotta beat this game, and I spent all my time making levels towards the end. So that's the only time I've played it uh in native. So that's my long way of saying I had one time where I played it native and it was dope, but other than that, it's I thought it was for the Game Boy.

Alex:

Okay, cool, cool. Yeah, yeah. So this one, you know, like I mentioned, I we didn't have a Super Nintendo, but I had a handful of you know, a few different homies that that did, so I definitely poured a lot of hours into hanging out at their houses and kind of going through this. And it was interesting to like go back and play because I had definitely like yeah, sorry, continue elder millennial, geatric manual, whatever you want to call us, dude.

Luke:

Whatever.

Alex:

But um, you know, I have a very like strong memory of those first couple worlds because if you start up a new file, like that's what you're gonna tear through, you know, in the first hour of gameplay or whatever, or less. But I also like remembered a few little secrets, it did really frustrate me a little earlier on when I knew that there was like something, or because the way this works when you're on this over map world or whatever, before you go into each level, I knew for a fact that there was like a secret level off to one side, but I couldn't remember how to get to it. And I didn't really have too much trouble looking, like it didn't bother me. Sometimes with games, I'm like, I'm not gonna look anything up, I'm gonna try to play this peer. But you know, the one of the beauties of playing games like we used to back in the day is like you get that, you know, kind of the trope is like you get that out in the the playground, the recess recess or whatever, you know, oh you gotta do this or whatever. But you know, if people had Nintendo Power, like that kind of stuff was in there. So back in the day, me and the homies, we used to pour over the the Nintendo powers, look it up all the secrets, or you just like ended up being homies of someone that knew, and then they would show you um how to do that kind of stuff.

Luke:

I was annoyed I couldn't find the the haunted house secret where you just fly up to the top. Oh, dude, I was gonna bring that up later, but we might as well now I tried finding it on my own and I was like, I know it's there, and I for some stupid reason couldn't get it. And then I yeah, it was so frustrating.

Alex:

So we we both cheese this game a little bit or a lot, I suppose, because we played on NSO and it does have that rewind feature. So if you fuck up, you can hit rewind and so um so it wasn't a it wasn't a pure win for me on this this round. I what have been playing it in tandem though? I was also playing our old Game Boy Advanced card, actually, but I'm not I'm only about halfway through, so I didn't make it as far playing pure. But a key thing about Mario, and I'm just gonna drop this for anybody that doesn't know, most people fucking probably know this, but all right, so like when you go, you got your first overworld part, and then you move up on the map. And that first level there, what is it called? It's donut planes, right? Sure. So on Donut Plains, there's one of those little flying dudes that you can once you beat it, you can go back into the level, play again, and the first enemy is one of those little flyers with a cape, right? If you hit him, you get a feather, which allows Mario to fly. Okay. Then you can print start and select, and it leaves the level because you've already beat it, but you have that power.

Luke:

I didn't know that.

Alex:

And then you can go back in and you can get two feathers because you can hold one in the box at the top of the screen, right?

Luke:

Right, right.

Alex:

Uh, so that gives you two power-ups, which is dope. And then you go to the donut ghost house, which was the level you're talking about with your with your feather power-ups, and right away you can run and go to the left, and then you turn back around, run, and then you fly up to the left, you hit that ramp, and you go into the secret area, which brings you to the top secret area, correct? Yeah, and so that opens up on the map. Once you're done with that, it brings you to an area that you can get, you can decide whether you want to get a flower, which gives you firepower, uh, another feather, which gives you the cape, and then in the middle, there's a Yoshi, right? You go, you so you get the Yoshi, you leave, you come back, and then if you have the Yoshi, that's a one-up.

Luke:

All right, it's very important if you're playing it, if you're paying this, like to actually like with honor, I suppose we should just say it's very crucial that you're just hitting the shit out of this.

Alex:

But that's how we cheesed it back in the day, dude, is we were going, we just go back to the top secret level over and over and over until you got a shit ton of one-ups. And then you can't. When I was playing with my buddy, we had to do that when we were trying to beat Larry's Castle.

Luke:

We had to farm.

Alex:

I had almost forgot about that, but I was like, but then it came back to me. I was like, oh yeah, I gotta farm those one-ups. And I was like, you know, because like you know, how the internet works or whatever, I've been like looking up uh different Mario things. So uh just by the way, the internet works, like I fed some Mario content over the course of this past month. And dude, there's like some crazy glitches where if you like jump at the right time in a certain way, like it glitches out that that level and it just gives you 99 lives. But like I feel like I feel like you know, putting in the time and going to the top secret level over and over and over again, that's like the pure classic way, just to to up your to up your your health count or your number your one-up count.

Luke:

And there's other like goofy ways that are like like re like you have to replay a lot of levels. That's like natural. It's like you have the moving bar instead of like the flag, you get the one-up, you like get the moving bar, and if you get up to the goalposts points, you get to yeah, yep, you get to like do a little mini-game for some for some one-ups. There's just these little areas to like you do learn to like backtrack in a loving manner. You backtrack instead of it being like tedious, you're like, fuck, and then you gotta go back and grind. So it's a very short game, but like like total time, it's very short, but it's also grueling enough where like it's the original Dark Souls, not fucking right. There's a ton of secrets in this game, dude. Yeah, there's the red levels where it's there's two separate paths, and like that leads to just so much. There's all the different hidden Yoshis and like the whole thing.

Alex:

That's a nice sign posting, by the way, because it's usually gold, right? So, like the little icon on top of whatever level you're gonna go to. I think it's gold, and but if it's red, that signifies there's two ways, two exits. Uh, which means there's some secret thing to do there, which is a nice uh nice to know if you're not expecting that. And if you're like, for instance, you brought up the forest earlier, dude. Like, if you don't find the secret path, it doesn't let you progress, it just puts you in a fucking circle. It's so frustrating, dude. Fuck that for us.

Luke:

And then there's the different like hidden power blocks that like will make a lot of levels easier and like give you assists almost. That was I found those, I think for the most part, I actually found those in the wild, except for maybe one. So I felt pretty proud when I ran into him in a level.

Alex:

I was like, this isn't cheap, I got help. We own this game on the Game Boy Advance, and it's it's worth mentioning that it's slightly different on the Game Boy Advance than the original Super Nintendo version. So in the Super Nintendo version, you can play as Luigi, but only when you're playing two players. So the second player gets to play as Luigi, but he has a he works just the same as Mario, just looks like Luigi. Shouts out to Little Brothers everywhere. But in the in the Game Boy Advanced version, you actually uh have the option of uh it's a one player because it's you know this Ingle System Game Boy or whatever, handheld, but you can go back and forth, but you can choose whether you want to play as Mario and Luigi. And if you play as Luigi, it does that like floaty like jump thing that Luigi does in like Mario. I saw I didn't really put that that floating thing fucks me up. So not about it. It's a little too slippery. Uh but that is everybody jumps for it, right?

Luke:

That's annoying.

Alex:

And another big change is they added more Yoshi coins, so you have your regular coins and then they have big Yoshi coins, right? And the big Yoshi coins, if you collect five, I think you get a one-up. So there's more Yoshi coins in the Game Boy Advanced version, which leads to you uh just it just results in you basically getting more one-ups in a shorter amount of time as you progress like through the game. Yeah, so those I believe are the main differences, aside from the fact that obviously the Game Boy Advance also has just the two buttons being able to have shoulder buttons. So to do the spin jump that you're talking about earlier, you have to hit the the shoulder R button, uh, which is a little weird to get used to if you're used to playing it like on the Super Nintendo controller, but not that big of a deal.

Luke:

What's really annoying is that in Mario Maker 2, they moved it to the triggers. I don't know if you like designed your level to have to use it because I did because I was like a pretty key part of Super Mario World is to do that spin jump. So, like in my level, yeah, because he'll blow up box and stuff, right? You have to blow up boxes. I think it makes you bounce higher. So if you bounce off of an enemy, you get like a little extra bump. I think if you do the spin, I think it's even higher. And then sometimes there's some enemies where they would hurt you, but if you spin jump, it doesn't hurt you, which is pretty tight. An example would be the boss battle with Bowser, the stupid like glass orb shit that he drops on you, the cannonball thing. Like you can if you spin jump off that, you don't get hurt. That battle, oh man, we're all stick to the freaking well, not if you cheese it with the rewinds. Yeah, dude. I'll tell you what though. So I mentioned that I was playing on the two platforms.

Alex:

Yeah, the thing about the rewind, it was fun, and it like honestly, it makes this game so approachable. So, like, it's just a great way to revisit it. It's 2022 dog.

Luke:

I don't give a shit about honor when it comes to I don't got time to fucking master this one game I'm gonna have all year.

Alex:

Yeah, well, for me, dude, like it's cool because like I just have that cart in my game in my in my analog pocket now. So like that's a game that I just go to if I'm like feeling like playing some quick game Game Boy or whatever, right? The majority of the time I played on the I have, you know, I'm fortunate enough to have one of the the Super Nintendo controllers, so it was kind of nice to to be able to do it that way.

Luke:

That'd be cool, yeah.

Alex:

So my it was it was all right for me. I guess you were talking about Mario Maker, but for me, like it was it was nice to get that peer, that uh that you know, that peer controller. I always like to like play these games the way that they were kind of developed to be played. Not that it really matters, it's just really like nerdy thing for me.

Luke:

Don't pretend like this isn't just justification for your toys.

Alex:

Do you want to know something really clowning about that controller though? Is when I went to go play it, it was dead. Yeah, and I was like, Well, shit, I don't want to like so I so I plugged it into the wall with like a long USB cord that I have. So I was still I was like tugged into the wall playing with it, but it gave me a true feel, dude. It's like I was still wired up.

Luke:

Don't you have an SNES mini? You could have plugged that into your RCTV, dude. That would have been Doug. I could have got a sweet adapter to let me do that.

Alex:

I just missed the opportunity, but yeah, yeah, it was nice. So I did like mostly on the controller, but then I also like you know played handheld a bit, and I actually learned that fucking the joystick is nice, bro.

Luke:

I don't use the joystick, I use the D pad on the pro controller on the switch. Uh the joy-con drift isn't helping right now, but like the D-pad is more precise when you're trying to land on blocks. I've noticed. Do you hold run? Do you hold run every moment that you're moving?

Alex:

Because yeah, the thing about playing on the NSO and doing you know, taking advantage of that rewind feature is I just tore through shit, dude. Like I would and then if I fucked up, I'd rewind. And it's just like it's kind of fun because it makes it look like makes it look like you're killing it, dude. Because you get in a groove. But the thing is though, is when I realized that they kind of like it tainted me because when I when I play on the uh when I play on the Game Boy now, like I try this like I'm just used to tearing through it because that's how I approach this game. And dude, it's I'm like, oh, yeah.

Luke:

When I play my own, when I play my own levels in Mario Maker, I'm like, God damn it. And I'm double tapping, and I'm like, that's not gonna, it's not like I'll be playing Madden and I'll throw an interception and I'll double tap it. I'm like, that you're gonna have to live with that interception. There ain't no rewind.

Alex:

Right. It definitely, it definitely did. It spoiled me a little bit that rewind feature. So it's it's for me, it's been cool to go back and forth, but it made me realize that like you know, you have to be a little bit more precise and know what you're doing in this game. How aggressive did you use it?

Luke:

This is this is a decently interesting conversation. How aggressive were you with the rewind in this game, like from start to finish, or selective, or I'm gonna just be honest, dude.

Alex:

I used to tore it up with the rewind. Yeah, but I did not, but I didn't on the Game Boy. Then that that was the whole point. Is like, yeah, I mean, that's how I wanted to approach this game. I wanted to like tear through it on the switch to beat it, and then I kind of want to keep it as like a back burner game on the Game Boy to kind of continue to plug away at it like in a more pure fashion.

Luke:

It would fluctuate depending on my mood. Like, there'd be times where I'd have all the time in the world to just keep mastering level, and then there's times where I was like, don't care, would just rewind. Yeah, and I really tried, especially when the levels weren't too hard. It's just what it comes down to is there's just like a lot of levels where you have to go through a lot of bullshit, and then you get caught up at this one moment. You're like, I just I just don't care anymore.

Alex:

Dude, I use it's so hard. Like, if I lost my if I lost my cape, I would rewind it to get my cape back. Like not all the time, but like sometimes, like most of the time, to be honest, on the on the switch. I was, yeah.

Luke:

Yeah, that's funny.

Alex:

I actually lost I love doing it that way. I had to. Oh, dude, it's tough. Like that final fight against Bowser. Like, I remember playing that as a kid and like having a really tough time. And like I tried to go at it a little bit more pure, but then I was like, Yeah, not gonna work, not if I want to beat this.

Luke:

Like, see, my thing is like I could do it if like when I died, you started me at the beginning of that fight. Yeah. But all right, this is actually gonna transition into one of my biggest gripes about the game. So if you didn't have to do the whole fight over again, get all the way to him and then fight him, that's one thing. And and then like two back-to-back gripes is that when you lose a level, you lose your power-ups. So, like often you lose in a level, especially the first time. It's like I'm not gonna backtrack to do that thing you talked about to get that cape. Like, that might work in the first few levels, yeah. But like, I'm not gonna do it. So, like a lot of times you're going through the toughest. Wow, a lot of times you're going through the toughest levels with like a one-hit thing, and like that's some true high-end Mario platforming, but like you know, it's too easy to fuck up. Rewind. Dude, I dropped that. I dropped that video in the Discord of the dude's button work, classic. It's amazing how some of these levels are just there's bananas, they're fun, they're like mesmerizing, it's like soothe core. I'm like, I don't know how you're doing that. Um my biggest thing though is that when you get hit when you have the cape, you don't go back into big Mario and then small Mario, you go right to small Mario. Doug.

Alex:

That's another thing I forgot to mention about the Game Boy Advance that's different. So they changed that. Oh man, they changed that. So if you lose, if you lose the uh like the firepower, like the flower, or if you lose the cape, it makes you big Mario. But in the in the OG or the SNES version, or the like the one we played on the the the Switch, yeah, it drops you all the way back to to small Mario. That's tough.

Luke:

Is it like that in Super Mario 3 and 1?

Alex:

Uh I can't remember. I would I would have to assume so. Like I don't know why they would change that for Super Mario World.

Luke:

It's just so unforgiving, man. I'm like, I don't know. It makes it doesn't need to it doesn't need to be that hard, dog.

Alex:

I mean, they must have got some feedback, dude, because when they dropped that the when they dropped the Game Boy Advanced version in 2001, they changed that up. That's another way that makes the Game Boy Advanced version just a little bit easier and a little bit more approachable. No doubt. So Mario, like they're all the same. You're supposed to be saving the princess, right?

Luke:

But I I kind of chuck them with stress.

Alex:

Yeah, when we started up this one, so there's an opening blurb that it gives you, and it just kind of made me laugh because it's like this is the story, this is what we're this is what we're signing up for, and it's welcome. This is Dinosaur Land. In this strange land, we find Princess Toadstool is missing again. Looks like Bowser is at it again.

Luke:

And then it all starts.

Alex:

It's like, all right, cool. And you're thinking about big spoilers, but there's a closing blurb as well. So when you beat this game, Mario's adventure is over. Mario, the princess, Yoshi, and his friends are going to take a vacation. And then you know what happens, bro? Well, you beat it, right?

Luke:

Oh, sure did. Peach kisses Mario.

Alex:

Big blush, man. He's jersey into a tomato. Yeah. Then fireworks go off and shit. Woo-wee. Saucy.

Luke:

Then he finds out that it's actually his uh it's his sister. They're twins separated at birth. And uh she runs off with Han Solo. This is weird. I don't know.

Alex:

Yeah, but uh, you get it. Uh I enjoy that ending though. Like, I mean, that part is side, like that. I mean that's goofy, it's whatever. It's classic Mario. But then he does like this whole slideshow. Well, you get like a tree that says thank you, and all the Yoshis and the whole fam shows up. That's kind of cool. Right, right, right. But then it goes through and I drop this in the Discord too. But did you see all the screenshots that I dropped in there of all the different baddies?

Luke:

No, but I was gonna bring up how cute that is and how they're like featuring, and then it showed all the different bad people, and it's like the characters in this game, like the levels themselves are the characters, but like the the all the enemies like having names and like guest storing, like PD Piranha, like it's just cute, right?

Alex:

Because think about it, dude. So like Mario's so ingrained in our gaming experience now. Like, we already know what a like what a Goomba is, and we already know but like what's up with like the names of all these things for for whatever reason. But could you imagine playing this game for the first time, first time playing it through, and then it's like featuring all these people, and you get to learn that like the little turtle with the with the spikes is called spiny, or like that weird flower thing that you saw fire is volcano lotus.

Luke:

He genocided that many different uh species, right?

Alex:

Or like those weird football guys that's charge and chuck.

Luke:

Those fucking football guys.

Alex:

Oh my god.

Luke:

I was annoyed I couldn't put them in my Mario Maker levels. I was me too. I was like, it's like I need some charge and chucks. Like, there's so many charge and chuck puzzles or like obstacles in this. I can't believe I can't.

Alex:

That was like quintessential. I wanted Charge and Chucks, and I wanted the Dino Rhino man, the big, the big like two uh trying to or no, no, what's what's the rhino? What are the what's the dinosaur with the the horn for the nose of the two triceratops?

Luke:

Oh, you mean the ones the bosses or the goofy things? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alex:

No, there so there is a tri there's an actual like triceratop boss, it's weird you have to fight it like a few times on the big like cog that's turning or whatever. Yeah, yeah. No, there's like there's like the blue one without the horns, it's called the dino rhino.

Luke:

But I really want a dino rhino in my Mario Maker.

Alex:

Yeah, it's so funny. But dude, I appreciate that. I thought it was really cool. I took little screenshots of every single slide. I think there's 13 of them because I wanted to know the names of them, and I was gonna be like, Oh, I'm gonna sprinkle all these in my Mario Makers because it's been so long since I played that game. I forgot that uh yeah, like, dude, there's like a third, maybe a quarter of the actual people.

Luke:

It's like that game is so expansive, but it's also shockingly, like right, but it's I mean, it's obviously huge, yeah.

Alex:

Exactly. I mean, you said yeah, yeah, yeah.

Luke:

Yeah, you said it, but quicker in first. All right, moving on, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Alex:

Well, cool, man. I mean, we've you know, we we mentioned the overworld, uh we've got the the layout. There's the there's technically nine zones or worlds, right? Did you how far did you get the star world? Is this uh you can like I don't know, Mario does it?

Luke:

Okay, cool.

Alex:

Yeah, I did about the same, and that's another thing. As a kid, like we search those things out and you try and like fuck those ones up, and the but what the star world does, and I don't know, I don't know if you know this or not. That a lot if you beat all those, you go to the special zone, all right. You know about the special zone?

Luke:

That's dope.

Alex:

Yeah, so I didn't I didn't this run either, but it's basically like uh it's like new game plus almost. No, it's not exactly like but it is like it is like an in it's a more intense version of the Mario. It's not like replaying the same levels, it's a whole different, like, but essentially it's like this secret Star Road area, um, where you put in you're put into different environments, like the classic environments that you've seen throughout, but everything's a lot harder, and all the levels are based on like silly names, like it's you've got like tubular and mondo and way cool, and like all these silly, like this game did not need to be harder.

Luke:

That's crazy, dude.

Alex:

I know, but you know, I've seen some people like play this up. It's some like we mentioned earlier, like the people's finger work and shit, and just knowing. I mean, you have to memorize, like that's the only way I can think of a lot of muscle memory, yeah. Uh nuts. So, like, I didn't fuck with the the special zone and the star road this this run, but um, you know, do you have a favorite area? Uh I mean for nostalgia purposes, like Yoshi's Island, Donut Plains fun. I actually am kind of into the the haunted houses, like I like the extra house leading memory or the ghost house.

Luke:

Like, I love the vibe, I love the I love the music. I love like so. When I made my my world, because now I'm Mario Maker, you can't just make levels, you can make worlds, which is really cool. I was like, you can only do four levels in a castle. I guess I can get into this in a bit, but uh had to make a ghost house. I was like, one of these has to be a ghost house. So I thought those were they're hard, but they're cool, right?

Alex:

The one I'm not a huge fan of is fucking chocolate island. Fuck that shit. I'm over it. It was hard, and it was weird, dude. It's like it's like oddly, I don't know. I don't know what it was like for whatever. I don't know. There's something about the vibe of it, dude. Like, I actually enjoyed like the Valley of Bowser more. Like, I was like, good, I'm done with chocolate island.

Luke:

Like it's kind of funny. They like started throwing in random ideas. They're like, depending on how fast you get to this point or how many coins you collect, you like get into these different areas, you know that level. So that's. Those kind of cool ideas, so they do a lot of like this game's got a lot of fresh ideas.

Alex:

Yeah, it's riddled with all those secrets, special areas, which is super cool, dude. Uh, and then the star world, we which we kind of mentioned just briefly earlier, is cool. It's like these levels up in this like star platform thing, and those unlock the different colored Yoshis, which is a lot of fun because all the different colored Yoshis, you know, green is your standard, your blue shoots fire. Uh no, no, no, your red shoots fire, your blue uh can fly. And I forget, I think like yellow does like a stomp or something like that. It's it's cool. Like the Yoshis have different powers.

Luke:

Yeah, no, so like each of the levels is like they did a really I mean, I mean, they've definitely done this. Like, I I know in Mario 3 with Overworld, they did this for sure. And then the classic example is just Mario from the overworld to like the little dungeon level is level two, but like just the different vibes, um super fun in this. Like, they're just the different art that you get in the different areas. I got very frustrated at the Forest of Illusion because I was dying a lot and trying to figure stuff out, but in the end, I thought it was pretty cool. Like looking back on it, I'm gonna remember it fondly. Sure. Uh, same with the vanilla dome. I kind of just like the alternate path over the bridges, so I was pretty dope. So I'm just gonna do that really lame answer where I'm like, they're all my favorite.

Alex:

You know, it's it's cool, and it gives like if this, you know, this we say this for a lot of the games, like the older games we play. Oh, I have so many fucking games now, bro. And then, like, you know, like I'll but I didn't, and like we didn't back in the day, so like this game definitely presents itself for like, yeah, you beat it, but like, did you fucking beat it? Like, did you like 100? Like, it I would try really, you know, I did try and complete this game as a hundred a hundred as a kid, and like it's just so cool, like that you can go back and it's fresh and it has all those secrets, and it's like you ever beat it as a kid, like you did actually beat this game as a kid with your friends in tandem. So, like, I never like did a like a sit-down, like this is my file, it'd be more like hanging out with a homie playing off their file, and then we would go like take down Bowser or whatever, and try our best to, or like we would spend a day like getting all the way to Bowser or whatever, and then have a hard time taking him down because he's tough. Or I'm just gonna be completely honest, bro. Like, we would get all the way to Bowser and then I pass the control to the kid that actually owned the game to beat it.

Luke:

All right, so to talk about that Bowser battle, sick. Um, but also the amount of time how embarrassing it is before I realized that you can kick an object up. Dude, I did the same thing, I totally forgot about it. You were grabbing one of those Koopa trap or Koopa Mex and then jumping off the other one and trying to kick it. Do you know how hard it is to like time?

Alex:

I was I was trying really hard not to get I had I went in with a cape, and what I would do is I would sprint and I would fly up in the air and time it in a way where I could throw it at him, and and then I like and then I realized that that was like really I mean it works, it's like a good it's a strategy, but it's tough to like keep your power or whatever. Um, and then I was like, Oh shit, you can like throw it up. I forgot about that.

Luke:

I was on like the second or third phase. Doesn't make it that much easier, it's still tough, but still, dude. I was on like the second to third phase of fighting him before I realized that you did not need to jump off of one Koopa to throw the Koopa at him. And I was like, Well, this would have made things a little easier, and that's why I'm glad I had the rewind. Because if I didn't have the rewind, it would have taken me days to figure out what my dumb ass dude, those mecha koopas or whatever they're called.

Alex:

Yeah, I think that's what they are. They're tough too, because you like you need them to take down Bowser to throw them at him or whatever. Um, but they they like you you basically knock them out, and so you what I'm trying to get at is like I would hold on to one for too long and it would like come back to life and it fucks you up, and it's like, oh shit.

Luke:

There's a few enemies that do that. Fucking hate it. Um but transition, I used that as inspiration for my Mario Maker castle. Uh, you'll see it someday, but I recreated that little fight in a really lame way because it's Mario Maker and uh I'm not like some hardcore, but I have a Bowser inside the little Bowser ship. And two of the little and then two of the little Koopa Mechs, and uh and you're on top of this little castle. But it's funny in Mario Maker, he jumps into it, he ducks into his ship, grabs out two bombs, and throws them. And the material I laid down as the ground that you stand on, I didn't realize can blow away. So, like if you don't do the battle fast enough, like you will actually fall out and die. So I was like, I accidentally made this kind of cool and really brutally hard. Nice.

Alex:

Yeah, the Mario Maker stuff, it's because I wanted because you're you tasked me with like using like create create some create a world or create some levels using Super Mario's inspiration, right? So I had like Mario World, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Luke:

So I kind of went into it with like because also it should be bears mentioning that you can basically hit different assets, skins, and physics in Mario Maker. So like you can do an original Mario and it looks like that, but it also handles like that. So, like, right to be specific, you had to make a Super Mario World level, right?

Alex:

Right. Yeah, but uh so I as I was playing, I would kind of take notes of like, well, this is a quintessential like Super Mario thing, Super Mario World thing to me, and I wanted to include it, but this was before revisiting Mario Maker 2 and realizing that some of this shit I wasn't able to do, which kind of bumped me out, but like I'm excited to show you. And for anybody that's listening, uh again, check the show notes because I'll drop some links to to both of our worlds that we made that you can play them and kind of see what we're talking about. I tried to like gather inspiration that I I don't almost don't want to tell you, dude. I almost want to you just go check it out. But like because I've I did some things to kind of skirt around the fact I wasn't able to do exactly what I wanted, but it's almost like an homage to to a couple these things that uh I wish I could have included. I found ways to kind of include them. I think you'll notice what they are.

Luke:

That's funny because I actually wrote, and I'm gonna read my dorky Google note of Mario Maker ideas because I didn't I had the same the same thing as you where I was like, oh man, I'm gonna do like I was playing, I was I'm gonna do this idea, and then I didn't do any of it when I actually made the level, unlike what you did, but I just said fun but mildly challenging slide. Like I really like the game, I really wanted to do it, but I never did that. I've done those in the past. Uh, different elements, water castle, ghost, treetops. I sort of nailed that out. Have pipes lead them there, maybe a choice between I was getting super heady with my concepts, dude. I was like, You're gonna have these like three pipes, and like one's gonna lead to a water sub-area, the other one's gonna lead to this, and like yeah, that didn't happen. And I wanted to name the level Yoshi's Sacrifice because you can jump off of your Yoshi and it gets you way higher. And I was like, the final platforming was that you're gonna have to leave your Yoshi behind. Yeah, oh man. I was gonna name the level Yoshi's Sacrifice, but I never actually I don't like to build the levels around the Yoshi's, so I told myself this was a quintessential Yoshi game, so I was gonna build it around, and I didn't do that to give a brief overview. I made a whole world, so I made four new levels and a new castle. And you can choose and move around your overworld in a kind of a cool way. So there's like the one I have like a I call them all like low five gaming stuff. That's what I did too. Good, good, good, good. I was like, I was gonna name them just like lowfivegaming.com, so people might find it on accident, but I don't think I did. I was like low five gaming one slash one, because that's how like they name things of Mario usually. It's like world one level one. Um, so there's a base level, and then there's a sub-level where you have this like middle mini boss fight with Bowser Jr. It's a little little option if you want it, and you can get a bunch of one-ups to make the whole world easier if you actually do that. Then level two on the overworld, you go over this really long bridge, and then level two, I designed to look like a long broke, and I called it broken bridge. Oh fuck. Yeah, that's actually that's actually a cool design. So I'm excited for you to play that. Uh, I kind of want to watch as you play, it's weird as that sounds. Uh and then I made a ghost house, and I might have made the ghost house a little too hard. I wanted it, I wanted it to be tricky and have some goofy ass little thing. So, like, I'm pretty proud of it.

Alex:

I'll play my hand a little bit on on my inclusions that it has to do with the ghost house and it's doors, and that was like the most frustrating uh limitation that Mario Maker had for me is that I wasn't able to use doors the way I wanted to.

Luke:

Uh would you want to do because I had uh play around some stuff, but like a lot of in in Super Mario World, there's a lot of times where in a ghost house like you have to collect the coins, hit a plow power block in order to clear a door and stuff like that. Like you could still do that.

Alex:

Uh yeah, so basically, neither doors or tubes allow our single direction, which is you so basically I wanted it to be like you have to traverse the level in a certain way to do the secret thing that I had set up. But the way that the game works is that you can enter uh that area through the exit, you know, like you can't be like this is an enter-only door and this is an exit-only door. The doors always go two ways, yeah.

Luke:

But you can make it where you fall out of said door, so you can't backtrack.

Alex:

Yeah, I you'll see, dude. I I figured out a way to like to make it what I wanted to do work, but it was just one of those things where I was like, Oh, come on, that seems like such an easy inclusion. Just make it so it's a one-way deal.

Luke:

To finish up, I made a despised water level. Oh, we're I've always hated water levels, but I thought it was kind of cool how like once again, I thought it was really cool to use the map and like to make the level based off of what you're seeing in the overworld. I thought that was really fun. So that's why I did the bridge and the ghost house. I just wanted to make a ghost house and then Bowser's Castle. Um, I kind of already told you about that little fight that I've recreated. And then there's a little uh there's a little surprise midway through the level that I definitely think that if anyone gets through the level, they're gonna be pissed. So I'm very, very excited for you to play that. So, Mario Maker, did you enjoy because you had you had messed around with the level, but you always kind of felt like you had a little bit of a creative block, like you didn't ever I feel like that was your deal. You never knew how to get started or like couldn't randomly come up with ideas. Like having the prompt, did that make it easier for you to get into it?

Alex:

I mean, for sure. It like made me like create a list of the stuff that I wanted, it gave me inspiration for sure. I think like one of my problems when I first when like Mario Maker 2 dropped, uh, wasn't so much that I like didn't want to create levels, I just like got stuck on the fact got like super like fixated on the fact that I wanted to plow through the story first, and then I got bored of the story after a while and and then like then I was kind of burnt out on the game because I had played it for about 10-ish hours or so. I don't know how many hours, I just threw that number out there. Um, but you know, like I was like, Oh, like I before I start creating, I want to finish the story part of it. And like to be honest, like you don't have to do that story, like, and that's kind of what I think quite pointless, actually. So that was that was on me, just being just like being like fixated. Sometimes I'm like that.

Luke:

So yeah, uh, before we move on to our unsanctioned sponsor, not only is Al gonna put some of our courses in the show notes, but you should share them on the socials, uh, just little screenshots. I can send you a picture of my my world screenshots. I think people should play, like it so other people can play it. It's been kind of funny because some of my old levels are getting played more because those levels are made. Yeah, and uh I get a few likes in the random. It's pretty it feels pretty good when you get yeah, never too many. Don't get me wrong, never too many, but it feels pretty cool when you get some random likes. I'm not gonna not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie, dude.

Alex:

Uh I I think like we don't have to go into the weeds on it, but I would definitely recommend this game. Like, you recommend this game.

Luke:

Yeah, and my Tyler shout out for this podcast is I bring it to work and he play tests, so he hasn't beat the castle yet, but it was fun. He hasn't played it since the last time I brought it in like three, four years ago. So you're talking about Super Mario Maker, though. I'm I'm talking about Super Mario World. Oh, yeah, it's a bucket list. I'm gonna force my children to play it someday, and they're gonna be like, it's impossible. I'll be like, I don't care, it's cute. So it's it's cute, man. I don't care. It's hard, but it's cute. Play it with the NSO, rewind, have fun, just get through it.

Alex:

Which brings us to the end. The end screen. What you know about that end screen, dude. That we didn't already talk about. The the end that straight up is the end of the game, and it forces you to hard reset your system. Shoot, I hate when games do that.

Luke:

For real.

Alex:

I know I let it sit for a while and I was like hitting all the buttons and shit, and it's like straight up, you have to hit reset. Even on this, even on the switch, they didn't change it. You had to you had to actually go in, get out of that fucking shit and get back in.

Luke:

Yeah, I was salty about that. That's funny you bring that up. I was like, really, though? Yeah, fuck. Just let me just say I cleared the level.

Alex:

All right, Word. Cool, man. Well, uh, let's take a little break and hear from our unsanctioned sponsor.

Luke:

All right, so our unspanction sponsor, I'm gonna bring a little bit more. Um we're we're doing nighttime vibes here, but uh, I got some filth that's like totally fueling my body right now. You know what season it is, bro? What's that? It's a big rib season, bitch. Get fucked. Rib season?

Alex:

What is it not rib season, dude? You always make a ribs.

Luke:

Mick ribs.

Alex:

Oh, get the fuck out of here with your mick rib callback.

Luke:

I'm pretty sure the original season's assist. If it wasn't just me saying I like shitty garage beer miller lights, it was the when McDonald's is doing the push to do their chicken sandwiches. And I'm like, they solid, dog. Like, I'm just I'm just a filthy trash, trash eating. I don't give a fuck, dude. McDonald's hits the McRib hits. The fact that everybody hates on it only fuels my desire for McRibs more. So you all can get fucked.

Alex:

Dog, we're gonna get an angry note from from Kirk Cousins Chains that we didn't fucking shout them out for our unstation sponsor.

Luke:

Big Kirko eight chains. If he wasn't shredded with his eight pack, would be eating McRibs. But he's shredded with his eight pack. Um, Minnesota Podcast. Uh, we love the Bills low-key because they're like the second most cursed team, they're lovable, they're northern, they're they're shit on by these big markets. So I still love me some bills, but that was a crazy win. That's dope. Kirk Cousins is a goober.

Alex:

Yeah, for context, the day of recording is 11 13, 2022, the day the Vikings somehow fucking won that game against the Bills.

Luke:

When you're listening, after we win the Super Bowl against the Bills, he said it out loud.

Alex:

I can't believe you jinxing shit.

Luke:

I think I said it. I said today, I was like, I know better than to be excited, but that was fun, dude.

Alex:

It was fun, it got me going. What a fucking trash game. It's about as trashy as the McRib. Get the fuck out of here with that.

Luke:

Just like everybody's out here trying to like better their lives, and I'm like, just love the McRib that's in front of you, my dude. Like, I get extra pickles. This is only number two. It's been a very rough weekend. It's been a very rough weekend. I needed an emotional McRib, and I got me an emotional mcrib. And you know what hit that mcrib? Did my child cry throughout my rib? Only about half, but you know what? It was a soft cry, so I was able to ignore it for a little bit and shovel the mcrib down my goddamn gullet.

Alex:

Let's let those tears drip on my on my rib patty a little more salty.

Luke:

It's so good though. Like, and not even the last time you were talking so much good shit, dude. Give us the farewell of the mcrib. I'm like, you're bringing back the mcrib McDonald's. Eat a dick. You're not getting rid of the mcrib.

Alex:

But we're not doing the shamrach shake ever again either. Stop until it comes to until it comes to March.

Luke:

Is that last year that they said it was leaving, or is this year is like McDonald's just like going through some shit? And they're like, you know what? No more mc ribs. This is it. You better, you better appreciate us. It's inflation, it's hard to make these mcribs. Um, no, they're gonna bring back the mcrib. I did predict it's not coming back until 2030, though.

Alex:

You better fucking freeze get that shit vacuum sealed, dude. Vacuum seal them.

Luke:

I don't actually like the McRib that much, but when it comes out, I do get two, three of them, and I don't eat that McDonald's. So I don't know what any of that means to you, but like it's a good time. I'm not gonna miss it, but when it comes back, I'll be right there for you, baby girl. Make me miss you. There you go, you sweet, sweet barbecue temptress.

Alex:

Low fire pickles brought to you not by Kirk Cousins' chains, but by the nasty ass McRib.

Luke:

We appreciate your chains, though, Kirk. But also, I just had to I had to have a soliloquy on my McRibs. I mean, this man comes with like donuts and pastries. Like, no, we're not a classy podcast. We're we'll McRib boys.

Alex:

Get yourself a McRib. Yeah, got it. Why you always gotta be fucking doing McDonald's shit? They got plenty of money, and they're not giving us any.

Luke:

I'm just a filthy boy. I don't know, man. I just because the McRib gets hated on so deeply. And I'm like, you know what I like? The McRib, eat a dick. I don't care, it's delicious. All right, cool.

Alex:

Yo, welcome back. We got some side question.

Luke:

Uh, you're an unhinged NPC right now. What type of quest are you gonna give me, my guy?

Alex:

Doug. Uh road 96. I played as well. So you might as well. I'm just gonna read my list. You're not gonna let me talk about my side quest. Road 96, dude.

Luke:

This is a fun game. My name's and I've uh I've done like three runs.

Alex:

I think I escaped one. Nice, yeah. So I got super into it, man. It's some it's one that I've been eyeing for a long time, and I was just kind of waiting for it to hit a sexy deal. It's a cool game, it's cool. And it is, man. It's uh it's they say it's procedurally generated. I've seen some shit on the internet where people are like it's not procedurally generated, whatever. It doesn't fucking matter, dude. You basically play as these teenagers in the this dystopian country where like the government's all corrupt and shit, and they're trying to escape. Really hard not to equate it to the United States and escaping to Canada. Uh it's like early 90s, isn't it? Or late 80s, early 90s. Uh, I would say it's like yeah, it's right around that time because there's tapes, you know. So like you you can collect tapes, and the music in the game is really tight, dude. Like, so you're you play as a series of teens and you always try and make it, and you like either get captured or you die, or you make it across the border, and you make all these different decisions, you meet all these folks. I can't remember off the top of my head right now, but there's uh a set, there's like a uh cast of characters, and on each run you run into select ones.

Luke:

Uh I do my Sonya voice, but I'm not trying to wake everybody up, or those two, or those two robbers who are just constantly like, Woo, yeah, they're mentioning uh yeah, oh shit.

Alex:

What the name? Oh, but that dude, the game's great, man. Yeah, yeah, uh, the game's super good, and I really got into it. Yeah, yeah, it's cool because it's on Game Pass. Yeah, for sure. I mean, if you're sleeping, if you're not playing it on Game Pass, you might as well. But dude, I had so much fun with man. I think it's a great story, I think it was a cool concept, and it really like it really encapsulated me. There was like I played it for like three days straight. I was like, I need to fucking finish this game. I love it, I want I like the story, and then like I had so much fun with it, dude. It was it was super cool.

Luke:

Roger, kind of random myself, but I've only done a few runs, and it's cool. Like, I I love the art style.

Alex:

I think the you know, I think the social commentary part of it's really fun, and I just think that um, you know, you can you can decide like what type of person you're gonna be on the way out too. Like, you could decide if you're like more politically charged, or if you just out for yourself trying to escape, or you you know, you get to make some cool key decisions, and it all impacts like the end game, which is cool, and then you can go back through and it allows you to like kind of uh the new game plus part for this game. New game plus is such a stupid saying, I don't know why that's a thing, but that that's neither here nor there. Uh, that allows you to go back and like keep all the things that you acquired throughout the game. So it kind of like, for example, you can um uh the what I think the kid's name is Alex or whatever, and uh, I'm not I'm pretty sure, but anyways, like he hooks you up with this um like a hacking system that allows you when you go through like allows you to hack certain things. So if you have that, like it allows you to do when you reach certain points of the game, it'll allow you to like unlock a certain item that you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't have that. So that's that's a cool thing about coin. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, um, so that game, dude. I love it. I uh I'm actually yeah, super into it. That was a super cool.

Luke:

Did you play it on your computer?

Alex:

No, I played it on the Switch. Uh so like when I got my OLED, there was like a handful of games that I really wanted to play on there because and I've heard that like this was I read some article that was like this game in particular, like looks really beautiful on the OLED, and it did. Uh, you know, the colors and the and the artwork on there was is really nice. Um, so road 96, dude. Uh highly recommend, highly recommend. Another game that I got super into and actually beat the other night was well beat, quote unquote, was Hitman, the 2018 remake, the the start of the new Hitman trilogy. You beat one level, you didn't beat no Hitman game. Get the fuck out of here. I did I wrote the credits, bro. But I didn't like, you know, that's just it. So like the Hitman, like uh basically it's it's not that long of a game. I think you know, 10 hours you can you can go through and beat the original season, they call it season, but it's basically the story that you run through. Um, so I beat all the all the different areas, but I haven't gotten through and mastered it, and that's what Hitman's all about, right? Is like once you understand the level going in and trying a bunch of different shit. No, I hit it raw, but like it's interesting because there's uh I think it's called like Patient Zero. It's like a DLC add-on. I have the Game of the Year edition, so I have that on there or whatever. So it's I bring it up because I noticed because I started that the other night, and it you can pick objectives and or you have objectives, but you can pick uh what are they called? Well, essentially they're like I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head right now, but you can go into your menu and you can focus on uh something, and you know, you choose like okay, I'm gonna try this objective, and then on your screen, it basically gives you like a waypoint to go find a certain person or whatever. So it makes like yeah, so it makes like going through and like doing that kind of thing a little bit easier and more approachable. But I noticed on patient zero, like you really truly you don't get that option, so you have to like explore the level a little harder. So it's gonna take a little bit more time for me to to run through that. But having those waypoints and then the waypoints are the easiest thing in the world, like that you might have to figure out ways to get around stuff, like it's still definitely it doesn't like make it super easy, but it it made it a little more approachable. Maybe but uh dude, I've been wanting to play Hitman for so long, and I finally I was like, you know, screw it, I'm gonna go for it.

Luke:

And it was super enjoyable, and now I'm excited to I could have adored it in high school, like Metal Gear Solid and games like that, like stealth games, like stealth stealth games where you have to like learn and master an environment. I had like nothing but time, whereas now I like I love and respect it, and I think it's really cool. But I always look at it, I'm like, I'm never gonna do that. I'm not gonna wait around this corner for this dude to do the thing.

Alex:

I did realize, you know, like I and it's pretty I was reading and stuff, and I know a lot of people do this, but like, dude, you have to save scum like a motherfucker in that game to like to really get shit to work, otherwise it's kind of frustrating.

Luke:

One thing is that we have no honor and we will save some we will rewind.

Alex:

Rewind, save scope. People are like, these aren't even gamers, fuck these guys. Yeah, whatever. So it's the same. We're very approachable. We're just trying to have fun.

Luke:

We're just the boys trying to have fun.

Alex:

Sega Minute 2 is a miniature Sega Genesis version 2, so the remake of the Sega Genesis, and it has a shit ton of games on here, but 41 classic titles for the Genesis, 12 classic uh titles from the Sega CD, which is pretty dope. And then it also introduces, I think, seven original titles that were never released. Uh, and I collect all the minis, so I needed to, you know, like fucking Thanos get my get my mini too. And I've hooked it up to that CRT that I shot out last month, and I'm so fucking happy about it.

Luke:

Yeah.

Alex:

But yeah, the Sega Mini 2, bro. Uh, for those of you listening, you can actually check it out. I've got some some stuff on the social medias, low five gaming. You can peek at the unboxing of the Sega Mini 2.

Luke:

Hell yeah.

Alex:

You mean side question?

Luke:

So I got a bunch of games here. I'm gonna be as quick as I can. So, first one, a lot of these are Game Pass games, so like a nice little treat if you got Game Pass is to a nice way to utilize it. Another classic subscription where it's like you almost gotta like do something in order, like treat it like a chore, which is silly as hell to make sure that you're not pissing your money away. Unpacking, great short game. I told you you should play it, but you're like, I just moved into a new apartment. That sounds like hell, and you are correct, especially the later as the game goes. You're like, I do not want to unpack this lady's panties again into her drawer. But because you're a female character, the storytelling that takes place in this game, like through what you're doing, which is unpacking, like in her various stages of life, is adorable. I played it with my wife, it's just a chill little sooth core chill game to play on the couch uh when you're just chilling. Um, I wouldn't crush it in one sitting, but you know, you're drinking your morning coffee and you're playing, it's like super cute, super fun. And like there was some moments where I like I was like, oh my god, like there's like it's maybe a five-hour game at the most. And there's gonna be like some goofy, small little moments in this game that I'm gonna remember and they're gonna be kind of profound, just like in the in a storytelling way, like similar to how Rogue 96, in a much grander sense, tells a really cool story and like through a gameplay mechanic that's just kind of unique. Uh, unpacking is the most mundane thing in the world, but it's like really cute and low five e low fi, not low five e very low-fi-e and cute, it's really dope. Uh, last night, big milestone in Slay the Spire. Uh, Alex likes to drag me for my Slay the Spire time. But guess what's really easy when you're holding crying babies all the time? Turn-based games. Yeah, I've been playing a little more.

Alex:

You'd be happy, you'll be happy with me, dude. I've been playing a little bit more Slay.

Luke:

You should. So you're gonna get to the heart, and then you're gonna unlock a mode in the game, which is like the true way to play the game, which I can talk to another time. But then you face the heart like earnestly, and it's like super hard. And previously I'd only beaten it with the poison stabby guy, his name's the silent, and last night I beat it with the defect, the robot, and I was very cheesed, and I fired out some celebratory texts, and I've only been like a hundred and some hours in, so like this is not an easy game to play, but it's dope. And I was super cheesed that I finally did that. Uh, so that was that was really cool, as dumb as that is. Mario Maker 2. I poured in way more hours into that. That's kind of why I rushed through the end of Super Mario World. Uh, is just because I was just getting so into my Mario Maker levels, so it was fun to do that. And then Madden 23 is a hot pile of trash. I'm gonna still keep playing it occasionally because it's it is what it is, but that game is a disgrace to gaming, and I'm gonna keep buying it every other year or so, and they know that, and I hate them for that. It is it is almost the McRib of games, but it's not as satisfying as not nearly as tasty, not nearly as tasty, and then a really cool game is grounded, it's honey. I shrunk the kids. Uh, I want to say it's obsidian, it's another game pass delight. Sight of spires on game pass, by the way. Um word, and then grounded, you're like this kid. You pick a kid and you've been shrunk into the yard, and it's like a crafting survival adventure action game that's like pretty hard. Um, I have not been able to get too far into it, only like an hour or two, but it's like super dope, and it's like a fun little goofy concept, and the storytelling is really cool already. Cool. The challenging is cool, so like I it's a strong recommend, especially if once again if you have Game Pass, it's a great way for you to play a big, cool, gorgeous game. Very cool that is unique and worth your time.

Alex:

Speaking of unique, fun games and playing games with your wifey. That reminds me, I I picked up via the recommendation of I believe Ryan from Listtop Podcast. Have you heard of Florence?

Luke:

No.

Alex:

So it's a it's a game, it's just on just about everything. You play it on the mobile. It actually would be really nice to play on mobile. Download for the Switch, and you can utilize this the uh touch screen with it. But it's a super cool, like coming of age story for uh a young woman or whatever. But I played it with Anna, uh, my wife, and we had a lot of fun, like just going through the story. It's like it's like 45 minutes to an hour to beat or whatever to play through. But it's a super charming, fun little mobile game. Uh, I got it on sale, it costs like two dollars, something like that.

Luke:

Next spooky season, Until Dawn and the Reservoir. Uh right on. Yeah, dude.

Alex:

I used to I used to hate on like more story-driven, like whatever games, and now now I'm starting to like them. Not story-driven games in the sense of like your god of war, but like the pure, like, I'm just working my way through a story type game.

Luke:

But now I'm gonna walk in sim. Well, cool, dude.

Alex:

I think that's I think that's a wrap on the side quest. Thanks for joining us, everybody. Uh, go ahead and hit our website, lowfivegaming.com. We drop us episodes uh on the 15th of every month, and we'll be announcing our next game, December's game, in the Discord. And you can find an invitation to the Discord uh in the show notes or on the website. Uh much love for everybody if this is your first time listening. Super cool. Thanks for that. And if this is your dude, is this episode 14? Around there, something like that. Thanks for joining. Love it.

Luke:

Unlike the McRib, we'll be back next month.

Alex:

All right, bro. Much love.

Luke:

Peace. Love you, bud. Peace.

Speaker:

Alright, Nintendo. We're gonna do this. We're gonna play this video game. You mean Mario, we're gonna go find the printed, she's gonna be grateful, she's gonna give you a kit, and for the next thing you know, you're gonna get late tonight. Alright? So let's do this. Okay, let's do this. Let's dock this shit up. I'm ready. Okay, and then we're gonna talk to you.

Head Shot

Alex

Host
Head Shot

Luke

Host