[SPEAKER_02]: Hey everyone, this is John.
[SPEAKER_02]: You likely don't know, but I started another show called Retro Recall.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a podcast for visiting the video games of my youth to kind of enjoy the magic and fun of them all.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing it with Tom from the Fallout lore cast and the Lord of the Rings lore cast.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's available on both podcast and platforms, but more importantly, available on YouTube as it's a quite visual show.
[SPEAKER_02]: Give it a listen, and if you like it, all the links below to our YouTube and Spotify to hear more.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks!
[SPEAKER_02]: Have a great day!
[SPEAKER_03]: Double dragons are back.
[SPEAKER_03]: Billy and Jimmy Lee are ready to avenge the death of Billy's girlfriend Marion.
[SPEAKER_03]: Way to be a solid bro Jimmy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could at least act like you care.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get over it!
[SPEAKER_03]: and embark on a quest of punching, kicking, harder punching, bigger kicking, point you about this guy's A&B.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, in retrospect though, this game is a pretty solid inspiration for Street Fighter 2.
[SPEAKER_03]: You look at some of the moves, but more than that way.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's not all.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you are going on a chewing gum and kicking ass mission without any chewing gum,
[SPEAKER_03]: How would you dress at the occasion?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, obviously you do it in George's in a gene vest.
[SPEAKER_03]: How else could you get the proper flexibility and range of motion for all those kicks, punches, bigger kicks, and bigger punches?
[SPEAKER_03]: What kind of footwear would you choose?
[SPEAKER_03]: Wrong.
[SPEAKER_03]: Barefoot.
[SPEAKER_03]: Anyone who spent time in a pre-nuclear war in New York City can tell you, the only way to truly experience that city is barefoot.
[SPEAKER_03]: To join them, as it kick ass, tick names, and likely contract tetanus among other things, fighting through such incredible early 90s topics as post-new clear war New York City, a helicopter with a broken door, an undersea base, an evil forest, and an even more evil evil mansion.
[SPEAKER_03]: All the finally fight a final boss who may make zero sense whatsoever, but it still fun is hell.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, John, you made me play Double Dragon 2, and so now we're here to talk about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the thing we're doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You play it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I granted you the great luxury of re-experiencing Double Dragon 2.
[SPEAKER_03]: You had probably forgotten about, and now it's back, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, so thanks for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm tearing these guys up.
[SPEAKER_01]: out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so you and I've been playing Double Dragon 2 and now we're doing this show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this was your idea, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, like, you want to explain what we're doing here for everybody?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so this is the whole idea here is let's go back and revisit these games of our youth because we all spent incredible amount of hours and a basement, you know, wherever it was in the house, the TV was it had an Nintendo or Super Nintendo, whatever it was playing these
[SPEAKER_03]: And much like a lot of old TV shows, you have these really strong, in my opinion, positive memories of these games.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the thing I remember, because if you jump off of here and you fall down the hole and then you lose a life, so I'm definitely not going to do that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that despite the graphics, despite the lack of buttons you can press, either these games are still just as fun today, as they were back then for us.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not sure if you were 14.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're first looking at Nintendo Switch.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're like, why did you ever play this?
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think it's awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: And these games really were fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe not all of them.
[SPEAKER_03]: but some of them are very, very fun and hilarious.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, so okay, so that's what we're doing here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you and I, and so you're John, I'm Tom, so everybody knows our names.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're gonna figure out if these old games hold up and we're starting with Double Dragon 2.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think everyone needs to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: For no reason by the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: For no reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: Randomly, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just like, hey, let's play Double Dragon 2.
[SPEAKER_01]: We both played it when we were kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you and I are not completionists.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not speedrunners.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, until recently, we hadn't even played this game in like 35 years or something, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think I had not played this game since well before the internet was available for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I think I prayed it, played it within like the first year or two.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'd probably never played it after that ever again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what we're doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to find out does this hold up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, because you drag me in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I
[SPEAKER_01]: I gave you a challenge, and I wanted to see who which of us could get further in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like this isn't the only thing we did, of course, we played a lot of the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then we went back and gave one attempt to see how far we could get before we got hit or killed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to reveal who won and lost that at the end of the episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the loser had to play one of the worst NES games ever.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the punishment.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're going to get to see whoever lost suffer through some of that real quickly at the end of the episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: So.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's coming up, but before that, we're going to cover some other fun stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to go over some fun facts.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to hear some of our reactions that will be intercut into the episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's also, we're going to just little stories and things will tell us we go.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here, let's get into it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have prepared what?
[SPEAKER_01]: A bunch of actual facts about double dragging, too.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's go into.
[SPEAKER_03]: So double Dragon 2 was released in the U.S. January 15, 1990.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the number one song in America when this was released was another day in Paradise by Phil Collins and I'm gonna be honest I have no idea what that song sounds like.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know oh my god.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can play that song in my head because I think I hear it in publics every time I go to the grocery store Oh god.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I probably know it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just don't know the name.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one of the way if you play it like oh, yeah, of course.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm aware of that
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not the one with a cool drum filter drum solo, but that's in the air in the night, which was like a decade before that It's it's like chill older Phil Collins.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh Okay
[SPEAKER_03]: So this is just to help people understand what was going on at the time cool thing the movie tremors was released almost within like a within a week of this game coming out Hulk Hogan defeated Mr.
[SPEAKER_03]: Perfect in the Royal Rumble so good luck Googling all of that John Macon row also became the first player to ever be kicked out of the Australian open for what was the correct call on the part of the judge
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you do you did you watch tremors as a kid?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember I think I watched it at like I Some friends and we got together and somebody rented the VHS of it and I remember being kind of actually scared like As like you watch it today, and it's super goofy, and it's like the effects don't hold up And no one knows what to call it Michael worms are suckers are or suckwits This valley is just one little schmork is born
[SPEAKER_01]: But as a kid, I was just like, oh my god, this is terrifying.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I've snipped movie way too many times if I'm being completely honest.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I referenced it more than I probably should.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know why.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's why I say I also have friends of mine who are very envious of the couple's gun collection.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I'm okay, and they're working actively to copy it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, sorry for that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But double Dragon 2 obviously is a sequel to Double Dragon 1.
[SPEAKER_03]: Both of them were originally arcade games.
[SPEAKER_03]: Double Dragon 1 came back coming out in 1987 in the arcade, and then porting over to Nintendo in 1988.
[SPEAKER_03]: We didn't cover it because it doesn't look very good as you can see here.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was just, it was famous.
[SPEAKER_03]: Double Dragon 2 was released in 1988 in the arcade, but two years later came to NES and this was good because it actually was ported over well.
[SPEAKER_03]: It looks good, the graphics hold up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Although they did actually change some of the story a little bit, namely changing the final boss.
[SPEAKER_03]: which is weird.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the final boss had a gun, which seems like cheating when all I have is my hands and my feet, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: But, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_03]: Additionally, the game was a massive success.
[SPEAKER_03]: They sold over a million copies from the first year, so actually one of the most successful launches Nintendo had.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was well reviewed, although this is an era where I might say well reviewed, there is no reviewing company, you guys, there is some of the, there's all hate, but we go
[SPEAKER_03]: Most of them came into existence in the late 90s.
[SPEAKER_03]: So when I see well, someone's older brother told you it was a cool game
[SPEAKER_01]: yeah or yeah there wasn't really the internet and there were a few magazines but they were also there were things like Nintendo power which was basically just marketing material for Nintendo so of course they were going to review things well to take the review from the company that made the game and makes a lot of money from it telling you this game's awesome it's the old line of like it's like your mom telling you that you're pretty it's nice
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, she's kind of invested in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: I had a great in the curve.
[SPEAKER_03]: Games are actually pretty simple though.
[SPEAKER_03]: The part the reason I really in the staff to log these games by the way is these games were quick.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I did a full play through the game in a little over an hour.
[SPEAKER_03]: versus today, where you buy a game, and if it doesn't have 40 hours of play, we're like, oh, this thing's tiny.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's gamey short, nine stages, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And although you did have to play on the hardest difficulty to get the real ending, like that about this, that was something that's an intendo invention, which we didn't have 100% completion scores.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, it was originally an arcade game, and so the difficulty on arcade games was supposed to be harder because that would make you put more coins in.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then by like 90, whatever year this was, you said, by 1990, Nintendo had figured out that people didn't want the difficulty of an arcade game because they didn't have to keep putting coins, and they just wanted to be able to get through the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is a little bit easier than some of the games that came earlier, but it's still difficult enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: That if you don't play it well in cheese some of the bosses You're not going to make it to the end and then you'll have to play you start at the beginning you have to play over again or whatever No
[SPEAKER_01]: This dude, are you kidding?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you freaking kidding me?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how they kind of padded out the experience in those old games.
[SPEAKER_03]: So one thing that's fun about these games is you had an A button and a B button.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there were two buttons on the controller, which sounds crazy today, because hey, oh, we bought new controllers to play all these retro games.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got me, I got the new Pro 3, a big, a big dough.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to say do, but I think people say dough.
[SPEAKER_03]: Something earlier, yeah, we got one.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can also use next box controllers.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so you can use, yeah, but then.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at many buttons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at all the buttons.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's insane.
[SPEAKER_01]: Any of them, but two.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just two.
[SPEAKER_01]: few buttons and they do a lot with those two buttons so so like to their credit I was skeptical going into this but So many things come back to me playing these old games.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whoa, okay the final boss of level three is treadmill with a big hole in the middle
[SPEAKER_01]: Why you'd be able to do lots of moves, but you only have two buttons, so you can push one button, you push the other button, you push both buttons at the same time, you hit buttons while you're in a specific position, and then you do an uppercut because you're crouching, and then like all of those little details, so you do the knee thing, and then you do like the spin kick, if you click it in the middle of the air, so they were very creative in their way of actually utilizing the controller to give you more options,
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was really cool and I kind of hadn't even thought about it in 35 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, well, yeah, because we're so used to it today.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that's when makes these games funny as it is.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is like, you have one button for punch and kick.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so you had to turn away.
[SPEAKER_03]: Which one you're doing?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you look away from the enemy to kick, which was like, wait a minute, was this funny?
[SPEAKER_03]: By the way, if I wanted to kick you, I kick you when you're behind me.
[SPEAKER_03]: Alright, punk, correctly.
[SPEAKER_03]: Kick it, kick it in the go-nads, and then lady-nads.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's something very action movie about that, by the way, if you watch it, because the hero is always fighting somewhere from the front, and so it's sneak up behind them and they would really quickly go back to fighting in the front.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or like Ninja Turtles, the Ninja Turtles movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, yeah, yeah, all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: But all that's what all this says, you were limited.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think too, like we should mention on these games is I wouldn't pull it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So on my computer, I have Cyberpunk.
[SPEAKER_03]: Cyberpunk is 84 gigabytes on my computer.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the game that we're reviewing here is 257 kilobytes, kilobytes, not megabytes, kilobytes, right, which means from a coding standpoint, right, you want to hear who codes or who don't code.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know this, you have to have actually really tight code to make it fit in 257 and not have errors.
[SPEAKER_03]: Cause if you give me unlimited code, I can have fun extra bits.
[SPEAKER_03]: So every piece of this game was actually rather meticulously made
[SPEAKER_03]: in order to have it function the way it does.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is, it just looks hard, it hits.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on one of those old cartridges, if you had games that were larger by 1990, they could make the games that were larger, but they had to have more chips in the cartridge, which would cost the manufacturing more, which means they'd get less profit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So being efficient with their code was a profit-saving measure.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, we're talking about a time where, I mean, I don't want to go into the cost of a floppy disk.
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, they were not cheap.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then we get into some MSDOS games.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to talk about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it is.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's what these games they didn't have as much because even with the buttons, how hard you press down on the jump button determine how far you jump.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is really just, I mean, we saw that today obviously, but this was, yeah, mind changing for a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it was, it was innovative for it's time for sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I still stand by, this game also, I'll be kind of the reason I told Tom to play this first is, this is a game I owned as a child and I actually had beaten as a child and I really did love it and I was excited to go back and see what happened when I went to play it again with a lot of fear if I'm being honest about like, hey, this thing I love is a kid is going to be horrible, wasn't it?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I didn't own it, but my my story is especially during the summers my mom would take us my brother and I who's year and a half younger than I am, so we're close to the video rental store and you could rent a game for a dollar for seven days for a week.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all summer long, every week we'd go back to the story and rent another game and both of us got to pick a game.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Double Dragon 2 was one of those games that I think we rented multiple times.
[SPEAKER_01]: These guys think in their bad dudes here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, because we liked it a lot, but I didn't own it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there was definitely a point in time where I absolutely never played it anymore.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I just want to, when I'm just this nostalgia I have right out where you just described is awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: Of like going to a store, picking a game out based on its box art.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's that lucky.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, we had you know, off a baby.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, I'll be honest.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I'm in my 40s now.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is kind of how I buy wine.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's basically a system when you're now like, I don't know, this one's probably good.
[SPEAKER_03]: They put effort into the label.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: But that's how we would buy it or buy or rent video games.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was rentals.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're going there like, I don't know what they're going to have.
[SPEAKER_03]: And sometimes you went home with something that was either impossible, cough, cough, battle codes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, right, or you trusted the Nintendo seal of approval and that didn't always That didn't always mean it was good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was supposed to mean it was like, oh, this is one of the better ones But what didn't always yeah some of the enemy also truth is and we're gonna review some other games guys I mean some of these games were light years hard.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you go back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, just like
[SPEAKER_01]: what yeah we've already played a number of them because we've been like working on future episodes but yeah that like you've mentioned a few times well I got I got so far and I had to put in a cheat code and I did cheat code I can't I can't beat this yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna don't person I have I have a family I have a child and I'm getting wrecked by something that's 257 kilobytes right right and and decades of experience playing other games
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, I mean, I am not the person, I'm not the nine year old who was playing this game.
[SPEAKER_03]: I am, I know.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, still, I got nothing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I got nothing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, my games are incredibly hard.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's, but let's talk about Double Dragon 2 and what makes it awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, yeah, what makes it awesome?
[SPEAKER_03]: Tell me, tell me where what makes it awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: First of, it's an 80s action movie is everything 80s about it that you have two characters, you play one of them and they just are going on a ass kicking mission of punching things.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's all it is.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's everyone, everyone I meet, I'm punching in the face or kicking in the face.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_03]: You also have random spikes on everything.
[SPEAKER_03]: which is weird because the warrior's movie was from the 70s but same general concept where we're going to end up spikes on our clothing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And everyone is wearing this was true 80s, the tightest things possible.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it is tight pants after tight pants after tight pants, the whole way through.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, right, and it's in gotty colors, like that's the other thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like these are bad ass like a gang members and all of a sudden they show up in like bright vibrant colors and it's yeah, that was the 80's that's that was fine for the 80's so okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and what I like is if you're getting some of the 90s games, you don't see full gen code genes, but we start seeing some of the outfits change a little bit where the clothes get a lot looser, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: I do wish at least one person.
[SPEAKER_03]: The game was wearing an 80 style sweater, but we didn't get that lucky.
[SPEAKER_03]: Although there is a guy in a members only jacket.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, and we're covering him shortly.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Fantastic.
[SPEAKER_03]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: Speaking of that, you do the entire game.
[SPEAKER_03]: in Jortz and a gene vast and I'm pretty sure barefoot.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is eight bit guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it should be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we keep laughing about this and I keep going between okay, is he actually in Jortz and he's just wearing flesh colored boots like these are supposed to be tan or brown or something or are it does he have like jeans that are tucked into his boots and he's wearing boots but there's only so many pixels he can't really tell.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think he's barefoot and the reason I think he's barefoot is because I watched a lot of 80s fighting movies and everyone was always barefoot because Somehow it was a belief that you were able to fight better without shoes on and there is some semblance of truth to that You know the UFC they don't wear shoes anymore But that also might just be because they don't want people kicking them on the face with shoes on.
[SPEAKER_03]: I actually raised both of the matchmakers about that But yeah, you know, it's just one thing, but yeah, they are he definitely is not wearing gloves
[SPEAKER_03]: That much is very clear.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's true or sleeves, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Those were clear.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in some of the box art, he has tape on his wrists like the brothers have tape on the wrist, but not on the hands.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's also also I love that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I should mention that I did by a tie boxing for many years.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I do love the idea that this busy people taped up their wrist, so they wouldn't spring in their wrist, but didn't predict a single knuckle because those were going to be just fine.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't, doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_03]: knuckles are hard as steel.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, these are, well, they are, you know, Billy and Jimmy Lee.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're, they are a lot of experience.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is all calluses apparently, just not so works, but I like the idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess so, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and in every, it's, it's like the karate kid, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like this idea of like this, these younger guys, somehow can take on in this entire game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, the karate kid does not take on an entire gang.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gets his butt kicked a lot until the end of the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm about to get more big trouble, little China.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think that's supposed to be more like it's like yes, all right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm just going to I'm starting here.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going there everyone in between.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm punching the face right right and yet somehow at I don't know the I mean these guys are supposed to be really young.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're supposed to be like brothers who you know like 18 20 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like that and yet yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But somehow they have these like steel fists that have been punching faces for years.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I mean, why wouldn't that work?
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that's what, uh, duck and Dutch duck, uh, the guy from Blood Sport.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's duck or Dutch.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one of those.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, man.
[SPEAKER_03]: I remember whoever.
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to say, no, it's Dutch.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a 90% it's Dutch is his name.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm so bad at names, I'm so bad at names.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can picture him in my head, but I can't tell you the name.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, 80s movies, some of them, like if I've seen it, I haven't seen it once.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's kind of how I explain it even at era.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like I've either not seen it, like my wife is still mad, I've never seen dirty dancing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Never seen it, but I've seen Commando.
[SPEAKER_03]: Dozen, dozen, yeah, so in the ass.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I had a girlfriend and a girlfriend in high school and dirty dancing was her favorite movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she made me watch it with her.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I had to explain to her the themes of the movie were about the woman becoming more sexually liberated throughout the film.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what are you trying to tell me?
[SPEAKER_01]: And she was like, no, stop.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the film is.
[SPEAKER_03]: But anyway, I want to say my foot loose.
[SPEAKER_03]: No idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm aware of its existence.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's all I have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, OK.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they've got badass clothes.
[SPEAKER_01]: They punch with their knuckles and their toes.
[SPEAKER_01]: That rhymes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm now a poet of some sort.
[SPEAKER_01]: What else makes this awesome?
[SPEAKER_03]: But we've also got, there's something about this being pure, I mean, it's the Japanese game made about the 80s.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we've also got hilarious enemy characters because everything, and this is post anime, anime obviously is older than this, but this is this idea of characters becoming caricatures.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I have a personal love in the game for the enemies.
[SPEAKER_03]: We actually didn't realize till writing this show that they had names.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because the funny thing about all this era is like there wasn't like a manual that came with your game.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was a box and the box art.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, some of them had manuals that you didn't write.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of them had manuals, but most of the time like a lot of my friends would never read the manuals.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I was I was the kid who would like open up the game and the first thing I would do is read the manual in the car in the way home.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, there's no manual.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, a lot of people didn't have them.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, punch in kick.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I like a lot of them.
[SPEAKER_03]: So a couple things I like about the game.
[SPEAKER_03]: First off, one of the first characters you bump into is a dude.
[SPEAKER_03]: And his name is normal.
[SPEAKER_03]: What's actually plural?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Williams, but we'll go with Williams.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll even call him Bill for all, like, he's Bill.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, Bill, you meet, because Bill cartwheels into the scene to come attack you, like we're fighting against Cirquey Soleil.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I just really enjoy that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this comes up a lot.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is a comic character that the whole thing who will do a cartwheel when they come into the game and then punch you, which is both confusing and hilarious at the exact same.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, these are the moments that make you realize that this was a Japanese game, and that they were doing inspiration from American stuff, which is pretty common in Japanese culture, but they were also doing the weird Japanese thing of, and Americans did this as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not just a Japanese thing, but there are definitely things that happen in Japanese, media, anime, games where they're like, okay, wouldn't it be cool if this happened to,
[SPEAKER_03]: with no justification other than just like this would be really cool and show me to have a cartwheel happen or whatever this is 80's 90's stuff there's just stuff in there like you know it's almost at front of my day where growing up in this era every time my life I've changed the propane tank on my grill and I dropped the propane tank I've been amazed I didn't die
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's just 80 stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: So in this scenario, William, how is the enemy going to come onto the screen?
[SPEAKER_03]: Simple.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to cartwheel in.
[SPEAKER_03]: Very important.
[SPEAKER_03]: The cartwheel in the car.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a way to actually put still true fear in your animals.
[SPEAKER_03]: And at one point, he cartwheels him and throws a pipe at you, which is where, where was he holding the pipe on the part wheel?
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just that kind of cartwheels.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does one handed cartwheels.
[SPEAKER_01]: And pipe that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure the names get better.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then he's named Roger.
[SPEAKER_03]: Our roper.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I thought it was Roger.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a roper.
[SPEAKER_03]: Equal enjoyable.
[SPEAKER_03]: Dude was spikes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Roper is just a very large guy, but his outfit confuses me because he has spiky things on his shoulders.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it's not a shirt.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it looks like a punk rock style where I've just got spikes up here, but on my vest, but there's no vest.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, oh, it sounds like a strap, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like overalls, but just the straps, or like, yeah, what are the suspenders?
[SPEAKER_01]: So you speak, like, you know, suspenders?
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe it's an homage to Road Warrior, where he's wearing football pads with spikes on, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: And just, just eight, but maybe that's what they were going for is, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: Because it's game by the way, I should have mentioned it, is set post-apocalyptic.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: but it's in the year 19xx.
[SPEAKER_03]: So this happened to the 90s, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of the areas in the 90s, exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: They wrote a game that came out in 1988 and they were convinced the next 11 years, which, you know, within the next 11 years, we would have a nuclear war and recover from it.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's how much faith these writers had in the global society.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's not like it wasn't great, but I hope that after Roper, the next one you meet is Grease a woman who has with a shaved head and a mohawk in a skintite pink romper and her name Guess what you think her name would be we've had Williams we've had Roper
[SPEAKER_03]: What would her name is, Karen?
[SPEAKER_03]: Close, Linda.
[SPEAKER_01]: Linda, she's the only one of these people who has a normal name.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Linda's, Linda's are Karen's who just work in HR.
[SPEAKER_01]: that's they're the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just have the better job.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: The only thing I'm hoping for is when did the song?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: The song Linda Linda did come out in 1987.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's a small chance.
[SPEAKER_03]: Small chance that this was them working in the song by the blue hearts, which is an extreme for those of us who are punk rock kids.
[SPEAKER_03]: Very, very famous old punk rock song.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe could be could be also also these they'll come out in like two's most of the time Which means they're like in groups you always you always fight, but they're the same person twice or like four times Yeah, but they all just have twins.
[SPEAKER_03]: They all have just like oh you you these are all clones That's that's my okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the enemy has like they they've got it's kind of like when we had Those molds you could you'd make what like play though whatever it was that's how they made enemies these video games Here's this one again
[SPEAKER_03]: I think these are the things we'll get to later, where they had basically one character and they just changed the color.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and that's all you, but the thing on the color is how tough they are about to be, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, he won't break, but after, Linda, the next thing you're going to bump into is one of my favorites in the whole game.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is a dude in very heavy 80s sunglasses, what appears to be a member's only jacket and some sort of thing on his hands that are either claws or brass knuckles.
[SPEAKER_03]: And his name, Gary.
[SPEAKER_03]: Give a guess.
[SPEAKER_03]: What, what, what, what, what, what, what?
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, his name, Gary.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a very, that's name that puts fear in my heart.
[SPEAKER_03]: It would make sense.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, his name is right arm.
[SPEAKER_03]: He has two arms, by the way.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wait, both of his both have the fist things on it, but he's named right arm.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, I'm not sure that's a name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe, oh, no, maybe that's just like a gang name.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, his gang name is a right arm.
[SPEAKER_03]: He has both arms with only about his right because I've fought the guys facing left and right.
[SPEAKER_03]: So if they're identical, both ways.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's actually one of my fair ones that fight in the whole game because it's actually, it's one of the tougher ones.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then after that, the next, where you fight a boss but then you're gonna fight the next regular person is a dude with like flowing hair and sticks.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he attacks you with sticks, which, by the way, seems unfair.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I, this, this person gets sticks and you can't pick up his sticks.
[SPEAKER_03]: Other guys hit you with stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's one.
[SPEAKER_03]: This one hits you with sticks.
[SPEAKER_03]: They are his sticks.
[SPEAKER_03]: They don't drop.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't drop.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and another thing we have to point out, anytime somebody drops something, once you kill those people who drop the thing, and the, forgotious to the next year's away, because, well, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get it going away.
[SPEAKER_03]: You take their weapon, you can use it till it would, like, you know, it always flicker than go away.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, you just get to use it.
[SPEAKER_03]: You only can use their weapon against themselves.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, a few times I was like, cool, I got a pipe and then I was like, oh, yeah, the enemies go away.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've happened this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where did they also do like, where did you mention that there's two weapons in the game?
[SPEAKER_03]: One of them is a throwing knife and another one is a grenade.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, which do not do that much damage.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, in comparison, throwing a knife at someone.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I'm just going,
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, no, or the grenade knocking you down, like honestly if the grenade didn't explode and use hit someone with a grenade It would probably do more damage and reality than it does to you in the in the video.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but that's not important That's what that's also makes these games fun is they're just silly, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm right
[SPEAKER_03]: But then I think my absolute favorite is the guy and we'll cover this later.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, did we did you say the name of the the flowing hair section?
[SPEAKER_03]: Tommai.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I was tough.
[SPEAKER_03]: Tommai.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Tommai.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: First word is chin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second word is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tommai.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: That feels foreign and I don't know what that means.
[SPEAKER_01]: But maybe it means something.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: absolute favorite character and the whole game.
[SPEAKER_03]: Turns out his name is Bolo, which I do think is an homage to Blood Sport, but Bolo is this massive person with an incredible mustache and the tightest white pants I've ever seen in my life.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, just this person was not going to have spaghetti any time soon, and of course, you've got to learn to go fight, you know, and then bleach his pants afterwards.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's just the, and these characters were hilarious.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's this giant thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: We pick you up and he punch you or just pick up in the throat.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a bolo.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bolo's awesome, and a lot of these also, these ones are the bosses who then of course in later levels become regular people you just have to fight, which always kind of rail.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's common thing these games, to Tom's point where you're trying to preserve space and data.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yep, then we get to a bore, which is he looks, I don't know why he looks like the Sandman to me.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like the Marvel comics, I don't know why, but I always think of Sandman.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's what I thought of as a child, and I got older, and I realized I just didn't know what spray cans were in the early 90s.
[SPEAKER_03]: So when someone was that color, I was thinking, oh, he's the color of Sand.
[SPEAKER_03]: It must be like the Sandman in the comic books.
[SPEAKER_03]: Playing it now, I realize, no, it's meant to be one of those people on like Venice Beach who just gets like leathery, he's in color.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, is this the much with bleach blonde hair?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this is the Arnold looking guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh, now it's another, it's Arnold.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got to fight Arnold.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, just my brain was a bandman from Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm Spider-Man villain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not not the image comics.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sandman Yes, mythology kind of thing going on.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, not to be very different kind of look not the scary one But with the hits really fun of the game and I tell I work we'll put some clips up to you guys can see it is Your first of your final boss is called doppelganger
[SPEAKER_03]: This is the key part of the game that, because what I'm going to be doing here is actually fighting myself.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's just a it's a clone of you, but the doppelganger has a dead rip of canon raius, how do you can, yes, he, I mean, when I say they're, I don't mean he shoots a fireball, he even has the hand fin, right, and the fireball comes out.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is a dead rip.
[SPEAKER_03]: Also, we should have mentioned that you can also do the hot, the hot cookin, whatever, other than the air, thinning, yeah, things, right, that's also in this game.
[SPEAKER_03]: This game, we were talking
[SPEAKER_03]: Just said, was it six years?
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it six years?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's fine, though.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it was like 93, 92, 93.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a few years, but I don't think it was six.
[SPEAKER_03]: Street Fighter II, oh no, wait, Street Fighter II was 1991.
[SPEAKER_03]: When I do one, okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, oh, so the game, this game came out in Nintendo a year before, but the arcade is three years before Street Fighter.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, yeah, final boss, a lot of influence I will admit, I have no idea what's going on there.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a classic when you play these all the Nintendo games, it's really hard to follow the plot.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because I'm sure there was a plan here, but at the end of the day, as we said,
[SPEAKER_03]: You fight a final boss who appears out of nowhere, and I can't tell if he's a wizard.
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought part of you say, okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, he knows the person knows the way of the ninja.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's all.
[SPEAKER_03]: The ninjas.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's all.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because like your level starts changing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, you're also fighting him in what is listed as a like, was it was a forbidden mansion?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like this is forbidden.
[SPEAKER_03]: No evil.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm fighting him in an evil mansion where as a new derp eyes on the walls looking at you, it has been Oh, thirty years of memories come back guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, it makes no sense.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, right fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: So right here's
[SPEAKER_01]: But by the late 80s, there was established lore across multiple movies that were all about ninjas in the magic of the ninja and the legend of the ninja and all of those like kinds of things and they very firmly established that ninjas were mystical kinds of warriors that had magical abilities.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there were kind of like warrior assassins or something and this feels very much in line with any of those earlier 80s films.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, but one of his attacks is to put his arms out and spin directly at you like a double axle or a triple axle So that's his that he actually goes into the air.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is a triple axle.
[SPEAKER_03]: He does They hit you with like a spinning multiple spinning back hands.
[SPEAKER_03]: But what does that move called and figure skating?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the triple axle he's doing?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's it's super fun, but you kind of you.
[SPEAKER_03]: As a hybrid beat it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it seems like it's really anticlimactic when you beat them because it's over like,
[SPEAKER_03]: Boom!
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, here's the sound effects.
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope you have some bucks.
[SPEAKER_03]: It picks bad ol' as finally over.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mmm.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now we get the great reveal.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's Billion Jimmy got their revenge.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's the part that we're about to send.
[SPEAKER_03]: Good the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's not at out the journey, but the fans we make along the way.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is my girlfriend not dead?
[SPEAKER_03]: That's important.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is 100% right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right?
[SPEAKER_03]: This is where these games I will be honest.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do fall apart a little bit when you then try to dive and do it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And like you were Tom saying why are we playing this?
[SPEAKER_03]: All I had was because it's fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would not go with what's got a really dynamic storyline.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because the entire storyline is I, Billy,
[SPEAKER_03]: I, whatever, I, my girlfriend gets murdered by said ninja wizard and then my brother joins me to go beat up.
[SPEAKER_03]: And by the way, there's no even reason why these people I'm fighting, I'm fighting.
[SPEAKER_03]: Are they with the evil wizard?
[SPEAKER_03]: Are they not with the evil wizard?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think it's implied that they're like through.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's, because by the way, he's just a apocalyptic frame.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just going through a post on apocalyptic, like hellscape to try and find
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the fact that Helicopter is employed to try to stop you makes me think that this is less of like, I just happened to pass a roving gang who wants to kick my butt as opposed to this dude is out to stop you from getting to him.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's, I feel like it's heavily implied that these people work for him, right, but then we'll use the first Helicopter experience as a mild plot hole.
[SPEAKER_03]: It has a gun on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh God.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no way not to get hit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wait, there's what the heck it does.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's almost impossible.
[SPEAKER_01]: And unless you know it's coming to avoid the bullets by going back down the ladder.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it just has to have a gun.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's at very fixed point.
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't really, it's right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Two directions, but whatever, a bit, let's not criticize the eight bit.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I do like, I love like, why is this happening?
[SPEAKER_03]: Just why, um, but it's awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: That thing's like it's also awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: The helicopter scene.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, Tom and, Tom sent me a note during his door broken.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's go at it.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, at least we all fell out.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we're playing this game.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't see never a Korean player.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're on the helicopter and randomly, the door will just open and suck things out of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Who keeps it?
[SPEAKER_03]: Who keeps opening the door?
[SPEAKER_03]: You, the opponent, whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it doesn't, but I like it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It closes again.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's say, it,
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and it says deadly as to you auto door, but it just it's just broken.
[SPEAKER_01]: So my name on the highway was open on you and then oh, and then close again like right who's opening and closing it why it's opening and closing I don't know I don't know and it says deadly to you as it is to the other like the enemies get out there get out the door get out the door like yeah if it's easier to beat a lot of them by just getting in them in a spot where you can knock them out the door
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, I will say the one part of this game that drives me nuts, and it's not this game.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's every Nintendo game specifically falling.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the ability to jump is something that for any of you who are young enough to not play these games, you've no idea the nightmare that was jumping in a 2D scroll game.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is highly stressful.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and the host of these games employed a system where what you had to jump on would appear
[SPEAKER_01]: If the amount of times I died, yeah, the cheesy death of, and you had to hit both buttons to jump.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you just mashed it wrong, you wouldn't jump correctly.
[SPEAKER_03]: You also have, I mean, there are these little things where it's like, I died more times I think to falling in the game than I did to combat.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's the truth of.
[SPEAKER_03]: This game, Super Mario Brothers, the Mega Man series.
[SPEAKER_03]: We got the other, I mean, the even actually we got the Sonic the Hedgehog that's like the number one way you die.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it is the, this is, it is hard.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'll be honest, it does, you know, take a little bit of an idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll take a little bit of an idea as you just go, oh, not again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you watch your little life number deplete as you Yeah, not something like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, so I can like I can that's okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay It is what it is, but there's some there's some those a uh the evil mansion there's a piece where you have to jump on to an appearing disappearing platform in sequence I may have spent more time there than I did in all previous levels.
[SPEAKER_01]: combined.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, this is a problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to see reoccur on future games as we play them as well because yeah, but we won't get into that yet because that definitely had the same issue with some of the other games and we playing lately.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, we haven't asked you, so obviously I'm hyping this off point of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you enjoy it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like the nostalgia of it is is real.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like everything even from the simplest point of The there's something about
[SPEAKER_01]: when you're a kid and you get a toy, or you play a game for the first time, there's something about the the physical feeling of something or the visual design of something that elicits kind of an internal joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the best way I can describe it, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't know if did you play with Legos as a kid?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no, there was something cool about just being able to hold the little Lego figure in a hand and like move the parts and and old Nintendo games feel the same kind of way because everything's so blocky and there's something so I don't know you see the the animations and you see the way that they designed the shape of the fist in the punch and like all of that comes back to me and this like kind of visceral joyful sort of way it's I don't know it's a very deep in your brain sort of thing that stuff was great and
[SPEAKER_01]: and to go back and to look at it through adult eyes and the adult, you know, decades of experience, I mean, we're both in our 40s.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, this, like, I played a lot of games.
[SPEAKER_01]: This wasn't as hard for me this time as it was the first time I played it when I was a kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got further faster.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then I still died to a lot of the same cheesy stuff that I didn't remember was there, like the helicopter, you know, like twice.
[SPEAKER_01]: I climbed up to the roof of that thing and then just got shot
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I now I remember now that I've seen this that I have to climb back down the elevator to avoid it and like All of that stuff is still there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, the games are still frustrating But from a nostalgia point of view, it really is an enjoyable thing to to be able to Go back and actually experience that and I don't think it would be the same thing had I kept playing over the years
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, very much.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's the idea is, is we're trying to go back and do retro recall.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going back to what was it like?
[SPEAKER_03]: These things are like, for me, I got little like not bruised by my thumb, like the edge of my thumb from just jamming the button over and over again, started to get like a little like, and I remember that as a child being something that, you know, you're holding, I mean, these were the Nintendo controller, which also kind of.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not a sharp edge, but it wasn't a soft, it wasn't our own day, it was a great addition.
[SPEAKER_03]: We got rounded controllers that didn't eat into your corner of your finger when you're holding them.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, this is a small child trying to hold that rectangle controller and like reach over it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And like the corner would dig a little bit into your thumb.
[SPEAKER_01]: right right these are silly things but I'm getting these flashback because I'm playing the game of like yeah that was awesome right yeah as you mentioned Street Fighter 2 when we got Street Fighter my brother and I got Street Fighter 2 from Toyser Us and we got it home we put it in our Super Nintendo we played that until our thumbs
[SPEAKER_01]: were bruised.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we didn't want to stop playing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we put band aids on our thumbs.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we could keep playing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the next day we were in such agony and we couldn't play for a little bit because we were in so much pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, a blister.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was ridiculous, but yeah, there was something about being able to go back and play.
[SPEAKER_01]: And speaking of my brother, I remember playing through this with my brother.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was in the first double dragon.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had to take turns kind of like Mario and Luigi, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But in the second one, you could both play if I recall.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is actually one of there's only a few games I had this.
[SPEAKER_03]: I actually had a two player.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think.
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, there's no research into this, but I assume this is one of his it sold so well because my brother's nine years younger than so we didn't play games together of this era.
[SPEAKER_03]: But there were a lot of kids like you who were there a couple of years of their sibling.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: The ability for them both to play at the games same time and, you know, as a parent, now listen to them, the yell at each other at whose turn it is, it was nice, let's go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, and that brought back nostalgia like my brother and I don't talk a lot We were one good terms, but we don't, you know, he lives far away We see each other a few times a year at most and he's a year and a half younger So I was of course the first player one and he was player two and always and Especially getting towards the end like end bosses.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember feeling like
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, it's a good thing my brothers here because I can aggro the guy and we didn't use the term aggro back in 1990.
[SPEAKER_01]: But like I would aggro him and he'd come up and hit him from behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we were able to beat the games because we could or at least this specific game because we could double up on everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: And not being able to do that in this experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: And left me going, you know, I wish I was playing this on my brother.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, there is something about these games that you're like, I don't know, it's just going to your friends.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that's what a lot of this show is going to be about, is just going to your friend's house and playing video games with your friend.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that was, that's what we did.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that is the 90s.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know, it's yet later to the 90s, some of the gaming companies figured this out, they leaned them at more heavily into it, but there was just something about it because when we're covering an entendow game right here, and the entendows whole success was the lead to bring the arcade into your house.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, if you were lucky enough to live somewhere where there was an arcade nearby, you still had to have enough, you know, coins to apply it, but it would be there.
[SPEAKER_03]: But if you didn't, it was the accessibility wasn't there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Having some like this, you could play was remarkable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I remember the kids on my street getting an Nintendo before I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: And specifically, in fact, one of the kids we didn't like, we would go hang out with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a jerk, but we would hang out with them because we got to play as Nintendo.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, these things are
[SPEAKER_01]: Tim, why are you such a jerk, Tim?
[SPEAKER_01]: He lived in the big house on the other part of the street and his rich parents and he was, anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so so does it hold up final verdict according to you does it hold up very much so I mean I think this game is remarkable.
[SPEAKER_03]: I really do think it's fun I here's how well it holds up.
[SPEAKER_03]: I recorded it so for a full play through so we can make this show and I can't playing it after that
[SPEAKER_03]: Nice, so I know this game, so I still have that, it's still fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I would mess around with it while having coffee in the morning.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for me, I mean, it's just a yes or no.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yes, because we'll then nostalgia, we'll just do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So obviously, you and I are both biased here.
[SPEAKER_01]: But also,
[SPEAKER_01]: It does some cool stuff, for its time, it was kind of ahead of the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's the falling, and there's the cheap falling stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are moments where it feels like you should hit the enemy, but he hit you instead.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that stuff can still feel cheap, but I mean, we still play Dark Souls and Elden Ring.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they're you fall on like gravity is still one of the biggest villains across video games and there are definitely Definitely enemies that you still feel like you hit them, but they hit you instead like that is not Specific to this era of games So I would actually argue that dark souls and Elden ring are easier and less mentally frustrating than something intended to release
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they are still very much spiritual successors to that time of gaming So but yeah, I mean the graphics are I mean think about the system that this was on and the number of kill abights They had to build a game and they were able to pack all of this stuff into this console and make it work as close as they could to the arcade version
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this is, it's a legit game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that this is definitely something that I would play again.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's definitely something that if I can corral my kids into trying sometimes, I get them to try.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that's something that you've tried as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, actually we're just thinking, what's the name of the connection that Nintendo used for the back of a TV?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, the plug that went from, yeah, because I thought coaxial it wasn't, uh, yeah, it's coaxial the Atari used coaxial composite was composite around why the NES for RC.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know why this is this one is random memories of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Good, how long would it take me to teach my child how to plug an intendo in?
[SPEAKER_03]: And it might have been East because it was a coaxial is that go go in, but versus like the RCA's, which were technically, yeah, they were color coded, but the TV weighed 50 pounds.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, and it's pushed against the wall.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you were options were to either potential fatality of it falling on you, potential of fatality of breaking the TV in the house, or reach behind blindly and try to make these connections.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on top of it, the cords were short.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the controller, like the cord from the controller to the actual content was like, I don't know, four feet, five feet long, and then the cord to the TV.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the TV's back then were small.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We would all sit on the floor right in front of the TV in order to actually like reach everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was a totally different experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, you said back on your big screen TV with your wireless controllers and
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean it was these things were you would lie on the ground usually can't leave me I might never lie there.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm looking straight up because the couch was too far back Right, oh, it was like you you sit on your butt until your butt kind of got sore that you've lying your stomach Yeah, or sit on a pillow side.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and it was all in the floor in front of the TV and yeah, it was just something
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love thinking back on this stuff because Candle was a simpler time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, in my life.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't have stress.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't have those things.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, yeah, always stress.
[SPEAKER_03]: I had was Larry the gate.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm more gauge and family and you know, all this all the stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was some job.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was a I go back to third grade.
[SPEAKER_03]: But ever, you know, I'll do some social studies.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know,
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so I think we both gave it a thumbs up.
[SPEAKER_01]: It holds up.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to move on to Mega Man 2 next week Which is going to be fun because you and I've been playing that as well and another classic game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of people have think favorably on
[SPEAKER_01]: do in the dance because I'm so good at this game and a lot of people still speed run it today, a lot of people still playing Mega Man series is extremely still pop-hopped.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's because they're one of the best Mega Man.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, find out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'd establish the series in some really cool ways, but before we get to that because that's next week, we have to reveal who won and who lost our challenge.
[SPEAKER_01]: And John, John was, so I did the challenge first and played through and got punched by the first set of the two guys who show up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought to myself, oh, this is like the first 30 seconds of the game, clearly he's going to do better than I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here we go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see if I can not get damaged.
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh
[SPEAKER_03]: That's for its damage, that was quick.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just wanted to take this, it was not I did.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh man.
[SPEAKER_03]: So like deals, what I had to do next.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so okay, tell them about the game that you ended up playing.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, so we found a website that listed the hundred worst Nintendo games of all time.
[SPEAKER_03]: I disagree with them on some of them.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because on our teams I had and liked, but that's not important.
[SPEAKER_03]: I picked the game Cliff Hanger.
[SPEAKER_03]: We made this, and we made this channel that got the goals, talk about games that are fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, I guess, you know, I guess the takeaway here is that not all games from our childhood were good.
[SPEAKER_03]: For some of them were downright terrible.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, and this appears to be one, which you know, that is based on the movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: Not good movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's just a loan called Cliff Hanger.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this was a game.
[SPEAKER_03]: So they would do this back in the 80s and 90s.
[SPEAKER_03]: A lot more than I thought where a movie would get a video game release.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think the most famous failure is the ET game.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously with that is.
[SPEAKER_03]: typically well-known of oopsies, but some of the games actually work good.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can't know there's a few games that actually work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that early Batman game on, yeah, yeah, the NES game, or some of the Star Wars games were pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you're going to get a few like that, but Cliff Hanger was not Cliff Hanger.
[SPEAKER_03]: First off, as you guys will see in the clips, has the graphics components of an Atari game.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what it's a mountain.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a mountain.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why don't I have sleeves on it was horrible.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just, yeah, the watch it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Watch me play and watch off for you.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're going to see some suffering.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: The rule we had for the challenge is you have to play the game for at least 30 minutes.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was not a fun 30 minutes.
[SPEAKER_03]: I felt like three hours.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure it just.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's terrible.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just everything about this.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like this is it was a phoned in game that Randomly also gives you the entire movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I guess you don't have to see the movie you could just play a terrible video game and get all the same plot points But you miss on Jordan on John Lethgall.
[SPEAKER_03]: What you never want to miss out on John Lethgall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, there's that All right, well, I'm sorry you had to suffer
[SPEAKER_01]: over.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bye.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're going to do this again next week, and this will be a weekly thing, so if you're tuning in on YouTube or on the podcast feed, both things are available.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you want to actually see the footage, check out Retro Recall on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're happy just listening along and enjoying in the reminiscent of these old games, then you can do that on the audio feeds up on Spotify or wherever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, if you want to help us out, then subscribe, come back, comment, review, do all the things because that stuff is important.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're committed to doing this show and bringing you different games and talking about some of the good ones and some of the really bad ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: There will be episodes that we have to cover terrible ones, and we will suffer through that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you all know this is a part of the Robots Radio podcast network, John and I both do other shows, which we'll talk about in a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you'd like to be part of that community, there's a link in the description.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can join us on the Discord.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can jump into the channel, the Retro Recall channel.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can tell us about your double drag and two experiences.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'd love to hear your stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: Become part of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that we have a big community already based on our other shows.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we'd love to get more of you reminiscing about the retro games that you played in your youth and all of that stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: So come bring the nostalgia.
[SPEAKER_03]: Please, dude, because this is honestly, guys, one of my favorite things is sitting on my friends, talking about this type of stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, remember such and such, oh my God, I remember that game, there's nothing better.
[SPEAKER_03]: So come in, tell us your experience.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we, I mean, that's a tell us talk with us.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll be in the discord with you, like, well, let's chat about, you know, who was the dumbest boss?
[SPEAKER_03]: What was a hardest thing?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's a fun, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you play it with your siblings?
[SPEAKER_01]: Was, did you play it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you beat it by yourself?
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to know all of those stories as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, for something as we'll cover, did you ever beat it?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, there is like, like, like, have you ever seen the ending of battle toads?
[SPEAKER_03]: I would assume most people's answers.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, yeah, I didn't beat it as a kid.
[SPEAKER_03]: For sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: I gave up.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I beat Super Mario 2 in 2014 on an emulator.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'd never beat Super Mario 2 in my life.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, wow.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was, yeah, it was my 30s.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I celebrated.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so what other stuff do you do?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, people know to check out your info.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, I'm John Marcadi.
[SPEAKER_03]: I also host the, you know, other person hosts the 40K lorecast, which is a show focusing on Warhammer 40K.
[SPEAKER_03]: The lore around it, along with the history of 40K, a show talking about, again, Warhammer 40K, and the history of playing it online.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, me, I've been doing since the 90s.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I've been gaming since the 90s, and I have refused to grow up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I so I do the fallout forecast, the Elder Scrolls Lorkast and the Lord of the Rings Lorkast, all of which you can get on audio feeds and some of which you can get on video versions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some more some episodes more than others because it started as audio and some of them get turned around into video formats.
[SPEAKER_01]: But.
[SPEAKER_01]: Check all that stuff out if you are looking for links and connections to all these things robots radio.net has links to all of that stuff including lots of other hosts that make really cool shows and another thing that we do with the network is we have the Rocket Club which is a program where people sign up and I personally help them launch their own shows in order to make them successful.
[SPEAKER_01]: So come check out all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for tuning in and we'll be back next week with Mega Man 2.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see you next time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shadow Demon, you shall not pass.
[SPEAKER_00]: We call it