Nintendo 2024 Highlights, Best Switch Games, and Future Predictions with Brian Shea From The All Things Nintendo Podcast | The Gamerheads Podcast

Welcome to this special episode of The Gamerheads Podcast! This week, Roger is joined by Brian Shea, host of The All Things Nintendo Podcast and veteran game journalist. Together, they dive into the biggest Nintendo highlights of 2024, reflect on the greatest games of the Switch era, and share their hopes for Nintendo’s next console. Whether you're a lifelong Nintendo fan or just curious about what's next, this episode has something for everyone.

Nintendo Year in Review: Top Picks

Roger and Brian count down their top three Nintendo games of the year, including Tears of the Kingdom, Balatro, and Star Wars Hunters.

Celebrating the Switch Era

A nostalgic look at the greatest Switch games of all time, featuring Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Looking Ahead: The Switch 2

Hopes for Nintendo’s next console, including expanded backward compatibility, GameCube classics, and the return of Miiverse-style features.

Follow Brian Shea on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/brianpshea.bsky.social

Check out The All Things Nintendo Podcast on apple podcasts and YouTube.

Support The All Things Nintendo Podcast on Patreon.

Chapters

• 0:00 All Things Nintendo Podcast Discussion
• 11:07 From Music to Video Games Career
• 20:07 Sonic and Star Wars Gaming Discussion
• 29:17 Gaming Discussions
• 42:46 Nintendo Switch and Game Favorites
• 49:11 Indie Game Praises and Mario Odyssey
• 54:37 Nintendo Game Favorites
• 1:03:20 Switch Sequel Hopes and Zelda Fandom
• 1:11:18 Nintendo Podcast Discussion and Recommendations

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This episode of the GameHeads podcast is brought to you by Seven Bridges Premium Gourmet Yum Yum Sauce. Enhance every bite with our savory blends of flavors, perfect for meats, vegetables and crispy treats. Whether you're dipping, drizzling, marinating, grilling, roasting or snacking, seven Bridges Yum Yum Sauce takes your culinary experience to the next level. Get yours today and make every meal a gourmet delight. Hi, I'm Celia Schilling from Yacht Club Games. Hey, this is James from Mega Cat Studios.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Hey folks, this is Matt aka Stormageddon from Reignite and the Fun and Games podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:36

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

Speaker 2: 0:43

Hey, this is Sebastian with the pronerdreportcom and the Single.

Speaker 1: 0:47

Player Experience podcast. Hi, this is Chris, mike and Garrett from Daylight Basement Studio. Hey, this is BaronJ67 from Level One Gaming. Hi, I'm Jacob.

Speaker 2: 0:55

McCourt from the Left Behind Game Club Crossplay Conversations and Video Game Trivia. Hey, this is Todd.

Speaker 1: 1:00

Mitchell from Code Right Play Salutations. This is Mike Carroll from Stroll Art.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Hey, this is Jeff Moonen from Fun and Games Podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:08

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

Speaker 1: 1:12

Patrick from the Backlog Odyssey. Hey, this is Rune from Runic Codes. Hi, this is Andrew from Spaladobirds. Hi everyone, jill Grote here from the Indie Informer. Hello, this is the Crypt Master and you're listening to Roger Richier. You're listening to Roger on the Gamer Heads Podcast, and welcome to another episode of the Gamer Heads Podcast. My name is Roger. This week, I have a very special guest. We're talking all things Nintendo, so of course, I have to bring on Brian Shea to the show, the host of all things Nintendo podcast. Brian, thank you so much for joining.

Speaker 2: 1:57

Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to come on your show and talk all about. You know what I talk about on my show all the time, which is all things nintendo.

Speaker 1: 2:07

So, uh, I appreciate you reaching out and uh, wanting to have me on yeah, I, I'm a huge fan of your podcast, by the way, like I love your podcast and I love the format and I love the guests and I love the discussions you have. Um, before we get into, because we're gonna be talking about our top games and the highlights for the switch overall, since next year we might be seeing a new switch, hopefully, or some new product of some sort almost certainly right.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Yeah, hopefully uh but before we get into all that, why don't you tell us about yourself, first a little bit about your background, and then your podcast as well? Sure, so.

Speaker 2: 2:43

I. I mean, how far back do you want me to go, I? So I mean, I guess we can go all the way back to when I was a wee lad. In third grade I started writing for the school paper like my elementary school's paper Really and I wrote about sports because I was just obsessed with baseball especially and I just had a blast doing that. But I was like, oh well, that's like not something people do, and so I went right back to like hating writing because, like when you're in school you just they make you write about like the things you don't care about at all.

Speaker 2: 3:18

Yeah, so it's the same reason that a lot of people think they hate reading and it's because, like, they make you read, like I mean, some of them are classics, but classics, but a lot of them are like, oh, I don't want to read this book, like I don't care about, you know, insert book they made you read in high school here. So a lot of people are kind of conditioned to hate reading, the same way they are to conditioned to hate writing. Yeah, and that's certainly where I fit in to that. And, like you know, I didn't ever enjoy writing a school assignment until fourth grade when I got to like that we had to do like two biographies. One was about a family member and one was about a famous person of our choosing. And I chose Cal Ripken Jr, who was my favorite favorite baseball player.

Speaker 2: 3:57

Yeah, and I then I wrote a biography about my grandfather as well. Those are the two people that I chose to profile and I was like, oh, that was actually kind of fun to write. And like I realized that like, oh, if I write about something that I'm passionate about, I actually enjoy it. So you know, then went right back to hating it all the way through high school and then you fast forward to college and I was an RA and so you know I had a lot of office hours when, like you know, I was on duty and you know, making sure the dorm wasn't burning down or whatever.

Speaker 1: 4:44

So I ended up that literally did happen.

Speaker 2: 4:45

One time where I had to. I had to, the dorm caught on fire and I had to like run into the building as it was filling with smoke to make sure nobody was like thinking it was just like a, because people would skip fire drills all the time. Yeah, so poor choice of words on my part there, but yeah, so I I got, like you know, my first year as an RA. I was an RA for three years my sophomore, junior and senior year of college. I was just bored and I was, like you know, kind of on like music forums, like message boards. And I was, like you know, kind of on like music forums, like message boards. And I met some friends and one of those friends in particular like DM to me in like the message board messaging system and was like, hey, I'm decided to like start a music website of my own. Like, would you check it out and let me know what you think? If you think it's a stupid idea, just tell me.

Speaker 2: 5:22

And I checked it out. I was like, oh, yeah, that, yeah, it looks pretty cool. Like, if you need any help, you know, let me know. That'd be cool. And she was like well, actually, do you want to like help me run it, and I was like, oh okay, I was just kind of like saying that out of, like you know, a gesture of kindness, but like, yeah, sure, like let's do it. I have nothing better to do when I'm sitting in this office for like four hours in a row.

Speaker 1: 5:40

So I'm doing that built on right, so you don't have to worry about that anymore exactly.

Speaker 2: 5:47

so I'm sitting in this office that is not burnt down and I, uh, to be clear, the building did not burn down, it just caught on fire, okay, um, but we, thankfully the the fine men and women at the salisbury maryland fire department, uh, they did a good job of putting out the fire. Um, so I, uh, you know, I started just basically overseeing this music message board and I there's a lot of things, there's a lot of touch points that I'm going to get to that are going to very obviously date me as, like, how old I am. So the first one is I started thinking like, oh, we could do more with this website. So I started reaching out to bands via MySpace and, you know, just messaging bands and being like, hey, like you know, I run this website, I'd love to interview you and like, do like community Q&A and stuff like that. You can come on the website. We could have, like members of our community submit questions or I could just straight up interview you and, like a lot of the times, they would allow me just to straight up interview them.

Speaker 2: 6:53

So I got like some fairly big name bands, like you know, started off like local bands and then, like, worked my way up, like, worked my confidence up to, like you know, internationally touring bands and yeah, so I had a good time doing that.

Speaker 2: 7:06

And around that time I also got an internship at the local newspaper as one of the few different internships that I had in college, and I was just kind of writing for the entertainment section. Again, same similar type of deal like bands would be coming to you know, my town or the beach town that was right next to it, and I, you know, interview them for a story, being like, oh you know, saliva is coming to town, so, uh, here's an interview with like the, the singer of the band, and like talking about, like his tour and everything. So, got it, got to doing that and I interviewed like a johnny cash impersonator and like it was, it was a, it was a fun, it was a fun internship. But it's funny because the, the editor that oversaw me the last piece of advice that she gave me was get out of print. No matter what you're doing, get out of print because it's dying.

Speaker 1: 7:58

And this was two years ago. This was 2009.

Speaker 2: 8:00

Okay, okay, um, or 2008, maybe, uh, it was my senior year of college, so, um, you know, kind of around that time I was also starting to get into I mean, I've been a gamer my entire life, but I was really starting to get into guitar hero and rock band and so that was like really aiding in my like musical discovery and everything. Yeah, I discovered so many amazing artists and songs through the guitar hero and rock band franchises, um. But so the second touch point was I would. I went to circuit city because it was going out of business and I got a copy of fallout 3 on clearance because I heard it was a fantastic game. You all the outlets were giving it like nines and tens and whatever.

Speaker 2: 8:47

So I got like a collector's edition for like thirty five dollars and I was like, well, let me play this. And I played it and I was doing these interviews with the bands and everything and I was like I kind of like this game a lot, to the point that I want to write about it. So I wrote a game review about it and like why I liked it so much. So I wrote a game review about it and like why I liked it so much and I was like, hey, I really enjoyed that. I'm going to do more of that. So at the time I was so into.

Speaker 2: 9:13

Guitar Hero and Rock Band that I was playing competitively, and so I was, like you know, going to tournaments in the local area that my college was in in the eastern shore of Maryland, and I never came in anything other than first like for I think I won like five or six tournaments, so I was like really good at Guitar Hero back in the day.

Speaker 2: 9:28

And, in fact, to you know, really, really date everything. There was a this is a fun little story here. So my, my partner at the time, she wanted to. She was a big country music fan and she wanted to go to this the show that was happening on campus. And I was like I don't really like country music. And she wanted to go to this, uh, the show that was happening on campus, and I was like I don't really like country music. Can I just, you know, can you make it a girl's night? And like go see this country artist and I will stay back and I'm just going to play guitar here all night. And she's like, okay, yeah, girl's night sounds fun. So they went to the show. They're like, oh, yeah, she stayed and took pictures and signed autographs and everything. And then you, I was like, okay, I'm glad you had fun. And then you fast forward a few years and it's uh, the biggest pop star on the planet named Taylor Swift.

Speaker 1: 10:12

So I actually had the opportunity to go see.

Speaker 2: 10:14

Taylor Swift and like when she was like 16 years old and I, and for free signing autographs.

Speaker 1: 10:20

Yeah and yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:21

So like, yeah, I could have had like a picture with Taylor Swift and like autographs and everything, but yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:26

How would I have ever guessed that this like one hit wonder, seemingly, country music 16 year old girl was going to end up being like, or, however old she was, she was, she was very young, she was touring on her first album, but yeah, so Guitar Hero is both, you know, given and taken away, and taken away, um, so you fast forward. Uh, you know, I'm doing guitar hero rock band obsessively and there is a website at the time called examiner, and it was kind of a content farm where they would just bring on like thousands of writers and their whole stick was like oh, you can write about your local market, right Like you. There would be a person like I. Your local market, right Like you, there would be a person like I.

Speaker 2: 11:07

After I graduated college, shortly after that, I moved to Pittsburgh and I had, uh, you know, become the Pittsburgh concerts examiner, so I would write about the concerts that were coming. It was very similar to what I was doing at the newspaper when I was in college, and so I, you know, I wrote about the concerts that were coming to Pittsburgh. Sometimes I got to go to the concerts and write reviews about them. So I got to like, I got like backstage passes to Megadeth, which was really cool. I got to meet Dave Mustaine and I have like an autograph of like one of their albums Just happened to see them, so that was really cool, and they were looking for expansion in their national publication at the time and into the world of music, video games. So I was like, hey, you know, here's my credentials with like Guitar Hero and Rock Band and like I wrote about them all throughout, whatever, as I was playing them and they're like, ok, you're hired. So it was just like I mean, it was 100 percent like a freelance thing. It wasn't anything like full time. I was working a full time job at the time that I absolutely was not about, and so I started writing about that. And then I took on, like you know, I became like a staffer at like a small volunteer blog about like just video games in general, and then in 2010, I founded my own website alongside a friend who had also worked at Examiner and we had met through that and um ran that. It was called videogameriderscom and uh helped run that and uh, you know, hosted the podcast. That was my first time doing like any kind of podcast hosting and uh, you know, did that, started writing freelance for um you know, website website websites and magazines official Xbox magazine. I wrote a few articles for Joystick, a couple for Kotaku, I think. I wrote two for IGN and biography. I wrote one about for the biography website. Yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:00

And then on my third attempt, fourth attempt I got hired at Game Informer. I got rejected three times prior without even getting an interview. And then, on the fourth attempt, I got a couple of interviews and, lo and behold, they hired me and I could not quit my job that I was working. I was living in Austin, texas at the time, yeah, and I could not quit that job fast enough. And you know, they're like, hey, you're going to relocate to Minneapolis. I'm like, done and done, I will do whatever it takes. I've been, you know, doing this basically for free or you know, pennies on the dollar for like what I should be getting paid for the better part of six years. So I was ready to do that.

Speaker 2: 13:40

So, you know, started at Game Informer as an associate editor, which was the entry level position. About a year and a half in, I got promoted to digital editor, overseeing the digital magazine, and then I think it was 2020 got promoted to senior editor and then, 2021 or 2022, became online content director and I've been doing that ever since. And then in 2020, I was doing that ever since until Game Informer was shut down earlier this year, unfortunately in 2021, I started the All Things Nintendo podcast and, as you can tell, I like to talk, so I started a podcast. It actually started out as a column, like a written column. I was going to do it that way and our editor in chief at the time, Andrew Reiner, was like well, why don't you do it as a podcast instead of a written column? And the original plan was every two weeks I would write just like kind of like a Nintendo report, basically, or like write about a Nintendo topic. And when it shifted to become a podcast, I was like well, it has to be weekly. Then, like I don't want to do like biweekly or monthly or whatever the column was going to be, want to do like bi-weekly or monthly or whatever the column was going to be. So I started that and kind of experimented with the formula a little bit, eventually settled on you know what I do now, which is like typically news first segment, um, like a main segment of some sort, and then the third segment is typically, you know, a top five list, followed by like kind of a lesser known e-shop gem that people can shout out. The guests will usually shout out Um, and yeah, a lot of it was actually kind of discovered on the fly. Um, like I had no idea what my sign off was going to be and I just said what came to mind on the end of the first episode and stuck through the entire entirety of its life cycle to this point. You know, 165 episodes deep now, um, but yeah, so I ran, ran that.

Speaker 2: 15:25

And then, april of this year, you know, we got hit with a layoff prior to the closure of Game Informer and I was just like, look, we were stretched so thin I didn't have the time to do it during the day. So I talked to our final editor in chief, matt Miller, and I was like, look, like here's the situation, like I'm so busy at work because we were, you know, a skeleton crew and it's like I want to continue this because there's a great community of people that have like gravitated towards the all things Nintendo podcast. The problem is I don't have time to do it during work hours anymore. So the options are we either, you know, we stop it and it's over, and that's that we had a good run or I take it independent. And I was like, would you mind if I took it independent? And he said, no, not at all. Like, do it, do it. Like we love having it, but, like you know, I think you should do it. So Matt gave me his full support, he was a fantastic boss. So, like, I really appreciate him doing that. And that's when I started.

Speaker 2: 16:24

You know, a free patreon in april of uh of 2024 was when the podcast went independent after the layoffs hit at the end of february 2024. And then, uh, you know, I've just been kind of building it on the side. And then, when game informer closed in august of 2024, four months after, I was like man, that was a stroke of luck that I took it independent, because I just would have completely lost access to it if I didn't. So, uh, you know, and then when Game Informer closed, I did build out the podcast quite a bit. Um, you know, started getting new guests on, started, uh, you know, making sure that it was, um, you know, be able to be monetized through things like patreon, um, and then that led to the creation of an entire second podcast that is on patreon as well, called all things gamers, which is just the industry-wide podcast, and uh, yeah, I mean, I guess that's my life story, starting with third grade all the way up till now well, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 17:21

The thing I love about your story is the fact and I and I I've heard you talk about this before is the fact that you started writing independently on your own Right and started writing for you know, like a website and in build something from your passion. And you know a lot of people like wonder how you get into this industry, right, and and I've told people the same thing I'm like, just start writing right, just start writing and just create a podcast, do something that you enjoy doing, and if it's just a hobby, it's a hobby, but like you can eventually start building that and making it into something your own. And uh, and that's what I love about your story, it's like you know, I, I it broke my heart when game informer closed. I mean, obviously, probably your heart warped, but I mean it broke my heart because I was a huge fan and I've been a fan since I was a kid and um, and I and I know a lot of people that work there too. So, like it was, it was an awful situation, yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:23

I mean, it was kind of that added layer of like sadness, of, like you know, I I lost my job, yeah, my job that I worked very hard to get and I was lucky enough to hold for nine years. Eight months I was really excited for my 10 year anniversary and then also, like you know, a lot of these people I loved working with I was no longer working with them and then, on top of all that also, my favorite magazine of all time was no more. So it was like a triple whammy.

Speaker 1: 19:05

Yeah, that's you know. But you, like you said you were really lucky that you were able to take all things Nintendo independent, because a lot of places would have been like, nope, that's our stuff and we get to keep that. So you, you know, you're very lucky that, first of all, uh, the people there were kind enough to be like, yeah, take this independently. But the fact that you were able to do that at the right time too, like was really really in your favor so yeah, serendipitous that like the breaking point was like one layoff earlier than the everybody's fired layoff yeah, unbelievable.

Speaker 1: 19:33

Um, well, I'm glad you're on the show, I'm glad in in folks. I mean we'll talk more about this later, but go check out the podcast, to go support brian uh, because it's a fantastic podcast, and support his patreon, and we'll put links in the in the show notes for Uh, so that way you can support him and the show too. So, thank you, yeah, um, so I wanted to have you on because I wanted to talk about Nintendo and um, and in full disclosure, like my other guy, my other hosts that do the podcasts, they're they don't, they're not big fan. I mean, they're okay with nintendo, but they're not like big fans of nintendo, like I am right. So, uh, and, and I thought, well, who better to have somebody on than brian to talk about the best games of this year and then talk about overall, the overall switch, um.

Speaker 1: 20:19

So let's start with the top, our top three games from this year. I thought we'd just go back and forth and talk about our top three games. Uh, brian, I'll let you go first. What are your? What's your first game on your list for your top three games from this past year?

Speaker 2: 20:33

do you want me to count down or count up? Like, start with number three. Yeah, let's start with number three, okay. Uh, this was a tough one because there were two games in contention for this final slot, like one and two were pretty locked in. But I'm gonna do sonic x shadow generations. Okay, and you know, I I think that having sonic generations remastered is awesome.

Speaker 2: 20:56

But shadow generations, the second campaign that they added for this release, is really an awesome like, maybe the best 3d sonic game yet, like, and it's not even starring sonic, which is funny, yeah, um, but yeah, like, they just really figured out, like, how to make these levels feel good, how to, like, the physics feel great. The powers are really fun because shadow has, like these, these different doom powers they're called, where he can, like, you know, pause time, or he can, you know, turn like surf on the water, or he can even grow wings and fly and, um, it's all kind of framed in like a story that runs parallel, in like kind of like an alternate dimension, as what's happening in sonic generations but, like you know, there is a little bit of crossover here and there. Uh, so it's a fun story. It, you know, gives a fun nod back to like all of shadow's past uh adventures, starting with sonic adventure 2 and all the way up to, for some reason, sonic frontiers, gets a level, which is interesting because shadow is not even in sonic frontiers but he has like a level dedicated to sonic frontiers, which is actually cool because, like you know, any game that came out after Sonic Generations in 2011 didn't have a level represented, obviously because it didn't exist until after that game.

Speaker 2: 22:15

So to have them go back and be like OK, well, you know, here Sonic Frontiers now has a level, that was kind of a really cool way to to give you a little bit of an update on that front as well. But, yeah, it was really well designed, just excellent 3D Sonic game linear 3D Sonic game. It's not like Sonic Frontiers where it's open, except there is the hub. Instead of being like a side scrolling hub world like Sonic Generations, the hub, instead of being like a side scrolling hub world like Sonic Generations, shadow Generations adds like an open zone Sonic Frontier style exploration area, but then, once you get into the levels, they are linear, kind of similar to Sonic Frontiers in that regard, but the levels are definitely the main attraction because it's, you know, fun to go through the kind of the history of Shadow with like a greatest hits.

Speaker 1: 23:02

Yeah, ok. So, brian, don't hate me for this, I grew up with just nintendo, so I I I had a friend that had sega, but I never really got into to sonic. I I'll admit, I just never did. Is this a game, though, that I could start with, or should I be going for like no, don't start with this game, roger, you should start with a different sonic game. I mean, it is like.

Speaker 2: 23:27

It's kind of like, if you're like, oh, I want to get into guns and roses, what album should I buy? And it's like you could say, appetite for destruction.

Speaker 2: 23:33

You could say use your illusion, or you could just say, the greatest hits, which is essentially what sonic x shadow generations is. So like it. It is a little bit different in that regard, because they're not just like oh, here are the best levels from this. It's like here's one level from almost every game and they're remade. So, like you know, the first level, the first act of each zone is 2d and then the second act of each zone is 3d, so it's like you get the both gameplay styles, um, but that said, like, if you're wanting, like a 2d platformer, I would say, just go buy the sonic origins collection.

Speaker 2: 24:07

Okay, because that's sonic one, two, three knuckles and cd all with, like like the graphics are the same as they were, but, like you know, widescreen support modernized, like no, there's no live system if you play like this, the story mode and, uh, they added some moves that have come out in the time since.

Speaker 2: 24:26

So, like you know, sonic has the spin dash in Sonic 1, and then he also has the drop dash, which is the move that they added for Sonic Mania back in 2017. So they went back and retrofitted it to have all that and also it's all tied together in a chronological story with animated cut scenes in between each game. Okay, so Sonic Origins would be the best place to start, I would say, but Sonic Generations is also a fantastic starting point as well, just because it's a celebration of, at the time, his 20th anniversary. Now, you know, we're 33 years deep into Sonic history, so it's a little bit different, but it's still an anniversary celebration game that does a good job of paying homage to the entire history of sonic yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I I I have to get, I have to play some sonic games.

Speaker 1: 25:13

I I that's one area that I just I just that is I'm embarrassed to say, but I just I never really got into sonic, so I I feel like I need to now let me ask you this are you a more of a 2d or 3d platformer guy?

Speaker 2: 25:27

uh, I'm probably more of a 3d platformer than a 2d, and yeah, I say, start with either sonic x shadow generations or sonic frontiers if you just want to get like the most recent, like this is what you know. I would say that sonic frontiers has its problems, but it also lays a great foundation for what the future of the franchise is going to be like. And Takashi Izuka, the, the, the creative officer of Sonic Team, even told me like yeah, this is kind of the blueprint for what the franchise is going to be going forward, so you can get a little bit of that through Sonic Shadow Generations or you just just, you know, go extremely in on, like the, the newest adventure, which is sonic frontiers. But I'd probably recommend, if you were looking for 3d platforming purely, then sonic frontiers. But if you don't mind a little bit of 2d platforming and a tiny bit of a history lesson, then either um, I mean yeah, then sonic x shadow generations okay, cool, um, well, good, pick my.

Speaker 1: 26:28

My number three is a is a game that uh came out this year, obviously, because it's this year. Um, I have a kind of funny history with this game. So this is star wars hunters. Oh, okay, um. So I got into it and really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1: 26:45

And then, uh, at PAX, I got invited by Nintendo to try out the game. And they're like come check out our game. And I was like, oh, okay, I've been playing this for a long time At this point I already have over 40 hours into this game, but sure, I'll come check it out, right. And and I played with the developers and and it was, you know. They're like, oh, let's, let's tell you about the game. And like everything they're telling me I already knew. But I was pretending I didn't know, cause I didn't know how to say like I know everything about this game, right. And then they're like, let's play around. So I picked the character and like, oh, that's the healer. And I'm like, yeah, I, I know, I know, I know my characters. And we won. And then the next round I played, I came in second overall. And they're just like you're, you're pretty good at this game.

Speaker 1: 27:36

I don't know it's beginner's luck, I guess, but I love the star wars hunters game. Uh, it's play. Uh, I have over 80 hours into this game now, uh, which is pretty ridiculous because the matches are like three minutes long. Yeah, it's pretty insane. Uh, I play this probably every day, uh, just to do my dailies. Uh, and the crazy thing is I'm not a competitive player Like you. Put me down in front of like Overwatch, I'm just like. Or Fortnite, I'm like I'm not that good, but this one, like I get like competitive. So have you played Star Wars Hunters at all?

Speaker 2: 28:14

I have not. So it's just, it's like a PvP hero shooter, kind of right yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:20

Yeah, it's, it's like Overwatch with Star Wars characters, but not the one thing I appreciate. It's not like the Skywalker characters, right, it's just new characters that they created, kind of different archetypes, yeah, exactly, and it takes place after the fall of the Empire, like right after Empires I mean Return of the Jedi. So it's kind of a cool time too, and they have, you know, callbacks to, to some of the movies and stuff like that, but all new characters and it's supposed to be like this. Yeah, this tv show that people watch and they have announcers and stuff like that. So it's, it's, it's a fun. It's a fun little run and you know, I will say it runs better on mobile than switch, to be honest. But yeah, it's a lot of that. It is, yeah, but, and there's coming to PC now too, so that's that's pretty cool. So, but that's my number three pick of Star Wars Hunters.

Speaker 2: 29:17

Awesome. Yeah, I have not heard much about that game. I've seen some videos of it on on YouTube and everything, so I have like a very baseline familiarity of it. But I had a similar situation with that when I went to Blizzard to play. I was like the first person who got to play like the story missions in overwatch 2. Yeah, and you know I the the uh pr guy who invited me to this opportunity was like oh yeah, like I know you like overwatch, I know you're like well familiar, like you're well versed in it and like I put a thousand hours into overwatch 1. Literally a thousand hours is what. Like my my time was on my profile. Yeah, and I get there. And you know I get I'm playing with like the director and like the, the multiplayer design director and like all these different people and like we're doing, you know, pve co-op. Yeah, and you know I'm just wrecking shop and like taking out, like the ai npcs left and right and they're like, oh wow, you're pretty good at this.

Speaker 2: 30:14

I'm like, yeah, I've, I've, I've paid my dues in this, this, uh, this game, so yeah I had a similar situation yeah, that's awesome so my number two is a game that technically came out last year but it hit switch this year and that is slay the princess oh, that's such a good game.

Speaker 2: 30:35

It is slay the princess, the pristine cut is the version that came to consoles after being on Steam exclusively last year, and it is a kind of a time loop, visual novel narrative driven adventure where it's like kind of choose your own adventure, like you know you're, you're basically told I'm not going to give avoid spoilers as much as I can I'm assuming, since you're singing the praises of it, roger, that you have also played this game and you know like there are plenty of twists and turns. Yeah, so you know you basically are. You start off and you're in the woods and there's a narrator and he tells you like OK, well, you've got to go up to this cabin and in the basement there's a princess and she's, you know, chained up and you need to kill her because if you don't, she's going to end the world. And just like what, like that's strange. You get there and she's like this like sweet, innocent looking princess who's like just confused as like why she's there, and then you can take different actions over the course of it. What I did was I was like trying to talk out of it and then eventually like I was like trying to talk out of it and then eventually like I was like okay, well, I've just got to get down to business with this. So like I drew the knife and like tried to kill her yeah, and she like defended herself and ended up like I stabbed her but she also stabbed me.

Speaker 2: 31:49

So like we're laying on the ground dying next to each other and like just before your eyes close, she goes oh, you think this is the end, and it like kind of gave me like chills down my body.

Speaker 2: 32:01

I'm like what, what do you mean? And then you wake up and it's like, oh, you're in the woods again and the narrator has no idea that like you have like been here before and you're able to ask questions like, oh, this seems familiar. And it's like what do you mean? This is the first time you've ever been here. And you go and like things change each loop as like the, the interactions evolve and you start learning that there are ways to, we'll say, approach these interactions and ways to actually win these interactions and progress the storyline and it's very cryptic, it's very, uh, mysterious, but it is such a cool exploration of like the time loop mechanic and the narrative, uh, visual novel style of gameplay. And you know I haven't finished it or seen it all the way through, but I for like the five or so hours that I put into it.

Speaker 1: 32:58

I was absolutely enthralled yeah, yeah, I love this game a lot. Um, this isn't a spoiler, because they say this. They say it's a love story. So when you first play, you're like what? Um? But once you get through it, you'll understand. You're like, oh okay, I get it, um. But when I first played this at pax east last year, uh, and the moment I I remember putting down the headphones and just turning to the creators and just said this is the most amazing game I've played. This is so. The voice acting is so good, the premise is so good. This idea that you have free will but you don't really have free will Like, what a, what an interesting. And then the time loop mechanic too. It's just such a great game and, like everybody I saw said, you have to go play slay the princess.

Speaker 2: 33:45

This game is phenomenal well, the reason I was so intrigued by it was that at the game awards last year, you know, we were asking everybody I'm just going around talking to people like, oh, what were your favorite games of the year? Because you know that's just what you talk about when you're in a thing that's meant to celebrate the best games of the year, yeah, you inevitably get on to that. And then I started asking people what is the most underappreciated or underrated game of this year? And multiple people told me slay the princess. And I was like, oh, that that does look really cool. I've gotten some press releases about it. I haven't checked it out, but, uh, I'd love to check it out at some point. So I added it to my steam wish list and I never ended up picking it up. So when the pristine cut came out, I was like, oh, I've got to check it out now. So I got it on xbox actually, and I've been, uh, playing it on that and having an absolute blast.

Speaker 1: 34:30

It lives up to the hype yeah, yeah, it's so good and the creators are so kind and so like. They just like, when you talk to them, they're just so grateful for like any anybody first of all playing their game, but then they're just, they're just really humble about it too. It's just I don't know, I think if I made a game like that, I wouldn't be as humble as they are, like just because it's such a good game, so well I I mean, it's always great.

Speaker 2: 34:53

I haven't had a chance to meet them, but I wish I I could, because they, uh, they're put out a fantastic game. And I love talking to people who put out amazing games like that because they uh, you know it's, it's always fun digging into like how they, how they came up with certain ideas and and stuff like that. I mean that's why I love my, my career so much, because, you know, I get to do that for a living most of the time.

Speaker 1: 35:16

Most of the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, that's a really good pick. Um, my number two, uh, is a game that just came out not too long ago. Uh, it was a game that came out at a perfect time. I was actually laid up, uh, after surgery and uh, legend of zelda, echo of wisdom came out and I was like this is perfect. I can lay in my bed and play this game while I recuperate. I absolutely love this game so much. I think that the puzzle mechanics and how you can solve different things, like it wasn't quite obviously to the tears of the kingdom, but it feels like it. It certainly leaned into like hey, if you can do weird things in tears of the kingdom, why can't you do that in echo wisdom too? And it was great to be able to play as a zelda, like finally. Well, I guess there's been other games, but I mean it's the first mainline one.

Speaker 1: 36:15

Yeah yeah, what a fun game and just just a beautiful. And I love the aesthetic, you know. Same with the remake Link's Awakening. So I love that aesthetic. I wish that there was more of a tie in to that game. That would have been really cool, but I really like this game a lot.

Speaker 2: 36:35

Absolutely, it's a great pick. It's actually not in my top three. That is not going to be my number one. In case you were thinking, it might be um, which I would say most years, if there's a zelda game, it would be my number one. I I like to your echoes of wisdom. It just kind of uh, I kind of just fell off of it and it's unfortunate, and also this was a sneakily good year for uh, the switch, um, and just the year in general. But yeah, that's a great pick, thanks. So what's your number one? It should come as no surprise to anybody who listens to the all things Nintendo podcast that my number one pick is Bellatro.

Speaker 1: 37:13

Oh, yes, Mine too.

Speaker 2: 37:17

It is a perfect, perfect roguelite card game and they use the poker mechanics, poker inspired mechanics, so perfectly and basically, you know, the developer doesn't even like poker which is hilarious.

Speaker 2: 37:35

And you know he just made an amazing game that borrows a lot of the rules and scoring mechanics of poker and adapted it into a roguelike with upgrad, uh the witcher and cyberpunk and dave the diver and vampire survivors they've all these crossovers with amazing games and it looks like they're just going to continue doing that and making this game just continue to be an incredible juggernaut. And it's, you know, an indie card based roguelike that got nominated for game of the year, yeah, at the game awards. So like that says all it needs to say yeah, I love this game so much.

Speaker 1: 38:25

This is one of the types of games that you play it and you look up and you're like, oh my gosh, I've been playing this for like three hours. How is that possible? Uh, that's what I love about this game. We we had the opportunity to review it and, uh, when we reviewed it, we were like this game is the most amazing game. I participate in the Indian farmers critics uh, fantasy league and I picked this game up like right after. I was like, yeah, I'm picking this game up, this game is so good and I'm so glad I did because, yeah, it such a good, such a good game awesome yeah, well, I'm glad we agreed on number one.

Speaker 2: 39:02

Maybe, I don't know, maybe, uh, echoes of wisdom, if I play a little bit more, will slot higher than sonic x shadow, just because it's. Sonic x shadow is an amazing game, but it's also half of just like a remaster. You know half remaster, half new game. So it's kind of hard to like give it the full shine that it would deserve if it was just a fully new game. But for you, you know it is a fully new game.

Speaker 2: 39:23

You haven't played any of them so I know uh, but maybe echoes of wisdom would take number three, if, uh, you know, all things being equal, yeah yeah, uh, overall what would you?

Speaker 1: 39:34

this is kind of an audible here, but what would you give this year for the switch like an overall? Grade or score.

Speaker 2: 39:41

You want to add a 10 or letter score?

Speaker 1: 39:45

You know we do letter scores, so let's do that score.

Speaker 2: 39:47

Yeah, I will say normally I would do this on my podcast, so I haven't thought about it. I'll say C plus B minus OK, so it's not like the best year. They've had some amazing third party games, but where it lacks is in that first party category, right. Like you know, you look at some of the other years that Nintendo has put out the games that it has on the switch and they've been pretty consistently great over the course of its almost eight year run. At this point, yeah, this year it's pretty clear that a lot of the A teams have moved on to switch to and, you know the B teams also do great work.

Speaker 2: 40:27

But it's not like we're getting Tears of the Kingdom, it's not like we're getting Mario Wonder. It's, you know, a remake of Mario versus Donkey Kong. It's a, yeah, kind of a fine game starring Princess Peach doing, you know, dress up with different abilities and everything which you know no shade at that game. But it's not, you know, a Tears of the Kingdom level hit or a Mario Wonder level hit. And then you know there's no Pokemon game this year. There's you, knowio and luigi.

Speaker 2: 40:58

Brothership was kind of divisive, but it also, um, you know it was signaling the return of that. But we got paper mario, thousand year door, which is great, but it's, you know, a remaster, so like, if you look at, like the biggest games and luigi's mansion, 2hd, a lot of them are remasters or remakes. A lot of them are like, just kind of like lesser known titles. Uh, the, the biggest, the highest profile one would be echoes of wisdom, and even that was also not developed by, like the zelda, a team that was grezzo, so it's, uh, it kind of follows that same pattern. So I mean, that is really where it's lacking, which has not traditionally been the case for for switch. Uh, nintendo has been the best developer for switch, and just not this year, right, yeah, yeah no, I agree, I think I gave it a b minus as well.

Speaker 1: 41:44

Um, for a lot of the same reasons that you said. Um, I think the third party games like bellatro and and uh, even uh, sleigh the princess, I think you know certainly helped with the switch. Um, but yeah, overall it just didn't have the games like it, like it did in the years past. It's funny to me to think that tears of the kingdom was just last year, right that's crazy.

Speaker 2: 42:10

It feels like a like 10 years ago, maybe not that long it feels like.

Speaker 1: 42:13

It feels like three years ago.

Speaker 2: 42:13

Yeah, it feels like it's been a while and I just thinking about that. I was like that was just last year, that is that's crazy.

Speaker 1: 42:16

It feels like three years ago. Yeah, it feels like it's been a while and I just thinking about that. I was like that was just last year, that is that's crazy yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:26

Yeah. Well, that leads us to our next topic that I want to talk about and that is looking back at Switch and the all time hits, I guess, guess, are our favorite games on the switch. Um, knowing that next year is probably going to be a new system, I want to take a moment to to give kudos to the switch, because I will say, brian, when they when this podcast started right before the switch was released, so oh, wow, yeah, and um, and and, at the time it was a different, it was a different crew, but we all, all three of us, were like what is this thing? Like they had people playing basketball on a rooftop and then sat down and played basketball on their switch and we were like what is this? This looks weird. This is never, this is never gonna last. This is what are they thinking. And then, uh, you know, eight years later, I'm like this is a really amazing system.

Speaker 2: 43:30

Well, that's what nintendo does so well. Right, he's like you're like what is this? And like I remember thinking about, about the wii, I was like, oh, come on, motion controls. And now I've kind of come full circle and I'm like, oh, motion controls. But like there was like a three-year period where I'm like this is incredible and unfortunately that period, that that kind of honeymoon era, ended before skyward sword came out and I've never finished skyward, so I've never made good progress in skyward sword.

Speaker 1: 43:57

Yeah well, there's another game you could play on a switch if you wanted to. That is, although my son really loves that game on this on the wii, by the way. He he just thinks that's such a fantastic game and I was like, yeah, okay, you know, that's cool. I mean, you're nine, that's awesome. I'm glad that you enjoy that. Uh, so, uh, so we'll go round ramen again on this list here. Uh, I'll start with you again. Um, I guess we'll work our way up from the bottom up. So what is your first game that you have?

Speaker 2: 44:28

so my number five.

Speaker 2: 44:30

Let me do an honorable mention um, because I did not play this game on switch, but I'm happy that it's on switch and my hoodie gives it away. It's Persona 5 Royal. For people who are just listening to the podcast they can't see my hoodie, but I have a Persona 5 Royal hoodie on. And again, I played it on PS4 when it first came out and, yeah, it's one of my favorite JRPGs of all time but it's such a perfect fit for Switch and you know I'm happy it's there, even if it's not making my top five. But my number five is Tears of the Kingdom.

Speaker 2: 45:10

Oh, it is a terrific evolution of what started with Breath of the Wild, maybe one of the most memorable gimmicks a Zelda game has ever had, with Ultra Hand and Fuse and a really fun story. I know it gets a lot of hate in like the story department, but you know I thoroughly enjoy the story. I like the characters, I like the, the flashback scenes and everything, and you know the dungeons were a pretty big improvement over Breath of the Wild. So yeah, Tears of the Kingdom my number five. Also my game of the year last year.

Speaker 1: 45:42

Yeah, nice, nice, that may be on my list too, but it's not number five For me. My number five is a game that I was really impressed that they were able to continue the life of this, and that's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Yeah, I love the fact that they came out with new tracks. Yes, you had to buy the expansion. Well, I guess you didn't have to, but they did come free with the expansion. Well, free with the expansion, or you could buy them, I guess, but that was unexpected and I was really impressed with that. And I will say, mario Kart has been always one of our favorite games in this household. Mario Kart Wii was the first game that my wife and I played against each other and the first time that I realized, oh you, you could swear like a sailor when you so Mario Kart 8 is definitely on my list and that's number five for me.

Speaker 2: 46:41

Now let me ask you this it's early on in your dating with, uh, you know somebody that you are trying to pursue a relationship with. Yeah, you're playing mario kart 8 deluxe. The person that you are dating or on a date with say, we'll say, it's like your second or third date. So very early on, yeah, they're in first place. You, you get a blue shell, do you fire it? Oh, boy.

Speaker 1: 47:05

So this is, this is hard because, uh, knowing my wife now, I would definitely throw that shell at that, right, because she would not show me any mercy. So I would not show me any mercy, so I would not show her any mercy. Uh, but probably not. Uh, but uh, for sure, now, absolutely, and I have. I mean it is.

Speaker 2: 47:25

You know, that's where a lot of the swearing comes from for me, the only answer is yes, like yeah, you gotta you gotta show them what this is going to be early on yeah, I mean that's why I I did some dates. Uh, when I was in the dating scene I took some people to, uh, you know, the arcade, yeah, and I was like, all right, well, we're gonna play some street fighter 2 and uh, I was just merciless and there was no.

Speaker 1: 47:53

There was no other date after that there was no second date.

Speaker 2: 47:56

Some of them there were Playing with fire is when you do Mario party on a first date. Oh yeah, yeah, I've done that as well.

Speaker 1: 48:11

Yeah, if I may tell a quick funny story, when, when I was in the dating years and years and years and years and years and years ago, uh, I was dating a girl who said I'm really good at at my uh Dr Mario, like really good, and I was like okay, and she wasn't, and I crushed her. And then years later my wife is like um, yeah, I'm, I'm okay at Dr Mario. I'm not great, but I'm okay. No, she's like I would put her against anybody else because she yeah, she usually asked.

Speaker 1: 48:38

I usually have to have her like five levels above me or more for me to even be competitive with her. And she's still yeah, she's really good. So, uh, so, yes, so I guess you know, maybe you should throw a shell, because you know what it's if they, if they want to continue to play with you and be competitive, then that person's a keeper, right?

Speaker 2: 48:58

So it was. If they run after the blue shell, it was never meant to be.

Speaker 1: 49:04

That's right, that's right, that's right. All right, so let's move on to our, our next force, number four.

Speaker 2: 49:11

This is again a game that I am going to say. People have heard me sing the praises of this game many times on my podcast Vampire Survivors oh, so good Is a single stick bullet heaven, it's called, where basically it's the opposite of a bullet hell, in that you are the thing that is shooting off a million projectiles, taking out thousands upon thousands of enemies, leveling up your character and exploring a giant map. There's several. I mean, there's a ton of giant maps and like a bajillion characters. At this point, it's crazy and, uh, it is so good. It's one of the greatest indie games I've ever played and uh, yeah, it's my go-to when I travel. It's one of two go-to's when I travel and, yeah, I did not expect myself to enjoy it and it ends up being one of my top five games on Switch.

Speaker 1: 50:04

Yeah, it's so good. I did not have this included and now, looking back, I probably should have included it, because I put a lot of hours into this game. Have you played the Ode to Castlevania?

Speaker 2: 50:13

updates. One round, I played one round of it. I have not put a significant amount of time into it. Maybe I should play a couple more rounds before this week's all things nintendo so I can talk about that alongside the other topics. Yeah, but like, yeah it's, it's real good. Every single thing they've put out has been fantastic, even the contra expansion, which felt a little bit like fish out of water, but it they made it work yeah, yeah, the uh, the castlevania is interesting because they do something.

Speaker 1: 50:40

Maybe they did this with the castle or the contra one, because I didn't play the contra one, but there is a moment where everything's um side scrolling instead of the isometric yes, down, uh, and it's kind of weird. It threw me off at first, like what is happening here, what's going on, um, but I love the fact that all the characters, they included all the music, like it. Just, you know, you knew that that had to happen and I'm so glad that they did that. So, yeah, what?

Speaker 2: 51:06

let me ask you this because not to derail us further. Yeah, but that's fine. If they could do any crossover, what would they? What would you want them to do? Because I can imagine like they give, they do a stage based on the game, they do music from the game like in their own style, and they add a bunch of characters from that game or or even a franchise. If you want to do a franchise, like go for that, what would you pick?

Speaker 1: 51:31

Oh man, this, that's a good question. Uh, I a good question.

Speaker 2: 51:41

Uh, I mean, it would be really cool to see like a legend of zelda level. That would be incredible awesome. That would be awesome. They would have to, you know, keep it only on switch, unfortunately, which I I don't mind because I, you know, I play on switch primarily. Uh, I've been thinking final fantasy would be just phenomenal. That'd be really cool. Also, I don't know if you have ever played power wash simulator.

Speaker 1: 52:00

I haven't I should, but I haven't but they've done like some.

Speaker 2: 52:03

They did like a final fantasy 7 crossover. With that they just did a shrek crossover where you can clean a swamp. Um, they've done a few other like gaming related collaborations. Yeah, but I would love a nintendo collaboration like you have to clean like a mario kart or an r-wing or something or like clean like the outside of like hyrule castle, like that would be such a cool expansion for that game.

Speaker 1: 52:31

But I digress, that's not on my top five games.

Speaker 2: 52:35

As much as I like power wash simulator in, like the right situation, like it's not, it's not there, yeah yeah, that's a really good pick.

Speaker 1: 52:42

Uh, I, I probably should have picked that game, um, but my, my next game is, uh, probably on your list too, because I've heard you talk about this game before uh, and that's mario odyssey. Yes, uh, I love this game so much and again, when this game, this game, was announced, I was like what is this? You're taking this hat, you're throwing it on different characters. This is weird. This isn't Mario. And then I played it and it's like, oh, this is fantastic. I love this game so much. Uh, it just, you know, I loved the galaxy games, uh, on the Wii, uh, and, just you know, kind of harkens back to those in some, in some aspects. I just love the exploration and I loved, I really loved New Donk City. I loved what they did with that and I love the music and I loved seeing Pauline in the game. It was just great. It was just a really good.

Speaker 2: 53:33

It's a good game yeah, it's my favorite 3d mario game now, which I did not expect to happen, just given how much I love mario 64 and how impactful it was on me. So, uh, yeah, it is on my list, not, uh, not at number four though okay, all right, what's your?

Speaker 1: 53:50

what's your next game?

Speaker 2: 53:51

number three we don't have to talk too much about it because we already have bellatro. Yeah, like I say on my podcast all the time, bellatro and vampire survivors are like cheat codes on flights because like you'll look down thinking you're gonna play for like 10 or 15 minutes, and then you look up and it's been two hours, and like you're halfway through your flight to los angeles and you're like, oh, okay, cool. So yeah, we've already talked about it. It's a phenomenal.

Speaker 1: 54:15

Everybody should play bellatro, yeah that happened to me on the way to pax this past year at other games I was going to review and I was like, well, I'll just play one quick game of bellatro and never one quick game nope, the plane landed and I was like, okay, I guess I'm not playing the game that I was planning to play.

Speaker 2: 54:34

That's how they get you uh, uh.

Speaker 1: 54:37

My next game here is uh is a game that that I think a lot of people got a lot of people through the pandemic, that's animal crossing. Yeah, um, I put, so I mean put so many hours into this game and this is the game that I convinced my wife that she needed a switch so that way she could play it too, because she loves she played animal crossing on the wii and she is a collector, so she likes collecting everything in games. So she has notebooks upon notebooks of like when to collect certain things, what you know at what point, at what time, and blah, blah, blah. And it's really fun to watch her like puzzle all that stuff out and write all that stuff down. So, yeah, uh, this time around, we, we didn't have kids when we had the we, uh, we do have kids now and they wanted to have their own residency and, uh, she got my son and I got my oldest daughter on my island and I got the better of the two because my island looks a lot cleaner.

Speaker 2: 55:41

There's so much satisfaction in making your island incredible. Yeah, I remember my, my former coworker. She was just an Animal Crossing obsessive and still is. I mean she's still. I think she still plays it fairly regularly and like she put in like 800, 900 hours into that game or something like absurd like that. Yeah, and I would visit her island like even just like a month or two into the games being released and it's just like she'll have like halls of waterfalls that you have to like pass through and like just her giving me a tour I was was just like we're not playing the same game, like how did you even do this? And like she would manipulate the calendar and everything so she can like fast forward through time and like get like she beat the game in like three days or something like that.

Speaker 2: 56:32

So it was like you didn't have to wait every day to do stuff. Um. So, yeah, she, she really showed me the potential of the game and I, you know, I played the normal way of just letting the clock go naturally and, like you know, the natural passage of time, yeah, uh, but yeah, I really enjoyed animal crossing. It did not make my top five though. Yeah, it was my first animal crossing game and I I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah, yeah, it hit at the right time, obviously. Yeah, yeah, we all wanted a little island escape yeah, that was a weird time, for sure.

Speaker 1: 57:03

So, yes, it was. Uh, what's your next game?

Speaker 2: 57:08

um, I think that when I when I say this game, you'll know what my number one is. Okay, uh, it's super mario odyssey. That is my number two. Okay, um, like I said, it's the. The creativity at play with this game is really second to none. Like there's only a few games in recent history that I would say reach the level of creativity and it's, you know, fittingly enough, it's probably a game from this year.

Speaker 2: 57:31

Astrobot and, um, maybe mario wonder did a good job of like, kind of flexing the mario team's creative muscles.

Speaker 2: 57:41

Yeah, and, uh, yeah, super mario odyssey just terrific use of music, as you would indicate has an incredible soundtrack. It really does a great job of continuing on like, kind of like some connective tissue with Mario Galaxy, but also some connective tissue with Mario 64. And, honestly, the biggest letdown for this game is that we never got like true, meaningful DLC. I know, and that's why my theory is that Mario Odyssey 2 is going to be a Switch launch title, because I think they probably started working on DLC for it, because think about the way the kingdoms are structured in that it was tailor-made for them to add more to that like, just like, add more to the map that you can go to and it's like, okay, well, here's a whole new kingdom with more moons to collect and maybe a new boss or something like that, after like three kingdoms. If they could have done that, that would have been like guaranteed fire right, like that would have been like guaranteed success for them.

Speaker 2: 58:36

But I think that what they did was similar to, uh, tears of the kingdom, where they basically just started messing around with it and they're like, oh, we could build an entire new game out of this. I think that's what happened with mario odyssey and that's why we never got dlc for, aside from like the luigi's balloon, hide and seek or whatever it is, and then, like there was some other thing that they put out. But I, mario Odyssey is just a phenomenal game and I've been wanting to replay it for a long time and it's, you know, so many great moments scattered throughout that game and you know the the final sequence is one of the most memorable Mario sequences that's ever existed.

Speaker 1: 59:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense that they're holding back. I mean they have to, whatever they release, whenever they release this new switch. Right, there has to be a 3D Mario on it. There just has to be.

Speaker 2: 59:28

You have to think about it. It came out in 2017. Mario Odyssey did we have not got. I mean, unless you count Bowser's Fury, which is a new mario game technically, but it's a side game that's not as large as a full 3d mario game. Yeah, I think that what we're going to get is some sort of hybrid of mario odyssey and bowser's fury. I think bowser's fury was a was the the mario team testing out an open world format for the mario franchise, and I think they passed with flying colors.

Speaker 2: 59:56

Yeah, and I would not be surprised if the next 3d mario game that almost certainly is going to be a launch title for switch 2 does not borrow heavily from both of those games and combine them in some way. Uh, because you have to imagine, like you know from the time, that we because we got breath the wild and mario odyssey the same year yeah, crazy. And then we got an entire second 3d zelda game in the time since and we haven't gotten another mario 3d mario game in that time. You would think that, like they have a 3d mario game kind of in the hopper and they're just waiting for the right moment to to fire it yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1: 1:00:35

Yeah, I mean it was cool that we got wonder, but yeah, and I loved wonder I did too. That's such a. It would remind me very much of the first mario game, so um I think it's.

Speaker 2: 1:00:46

I think mario wonder, even though it didn't make my top five list, I think it's the best 2d mario game since super mario world agreed.

Speaker 1: 1:00:53

Uh, my number two is a game that I didn't think I was gonna like all that much, um, but then I looked and I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe how many hours I have hundreds of hours into this game, and that's splatoon 3. Oh yeah, I love that game so much. Splatoon's awesome. I. I listened to you talk about it and how you said, like pro players use the controller right, like I can't play that way. Yeah, the motions, I can't play that way. I tried.

Speaker 2: 1:01:22

I tried too, I'm terrible. And everybody says it takes like who was I talking to? I think it was probably on my podcast. I don't know who it was, but they were like oh yeah, it takes about 10 hours to fully adjust. I'm like I don't have 10 hours to adjust and like be terrible at a game exactly like I'm gonna play for like 30 minutes.

Speaker 2: 1:01:41

Be like this sucks. I'm going back to the way I played splatoon 1, 2 and 3, which is just traditional like two stick shooting controls. Yes, yes, I love splatoon I listen.

Speaker 1: 1:01:51

I listened to that episode and I was like, okay, I'm gonna try it. And then I was like, nope, I'm just'm going to try it. And then I was like, nope, I'm just going back to the. It's hard, it's really hard. But what's fun is that my son really got into this, and so did my oldest daughter too. My youngest daughter. She was three at the time when we started playing this. She just likes to paint the ground, so that was just fun for her.

Speaker 2: 1:02:12

Well, hey, that's the main goal in the multiplayer.

Speaker 1: 1:02:15

That's true, that's true, uh, but my son got really good and it was really fun and where my kids go to school, they they didn't have enough people, which was unfortunate, but they were going to start their uh, an esports league of whoa splatoon.

Speaker 2: 1:02:29

Yeah, that's's a shame, it didn't work out.

Speaker 1: 1:02:33

Yeah, because they have Rocket League and then they have Smash Brothers, and then they were going to do Splatoon and that was the game that my daughter was like, ok, I will play that, I will join the esports, and they just didn't have enough players.

Speaker 2: 1:02:49

We didn't have any of that when I was in school. What I don't either, I would have loved to have been in, like the, the golden eye e-sports. That would have been incredible. Yeah, it's crazy. The Star. Fox 64 multiplayer e-sports. Like I'm all in on that, I would.

Speaker 1: 1:03:08

I would dominate that I would have still been bad. So, but yeah, that's my, that's my, that's my number two. So, all so, but yeah, that's my, that's my, that's my number two. So, all right, here it is Number one it should be pretty obvious at this point.

Speaker 2: 1:03:20

I already mentioned the game a little bit. It is the Legend of Zelda, breath of the Wild Day one switch release. You know, I as I've said on my podcast many times, it gave me that sense of wonder that I never thought I was going to feel again after Ocarina of Time. Ocarina of Time was my favorite game of all time for about 20 years and I thought that by the time that you know I was that 2017 had rolled around, I had been completely desensitized by open world and you know that kind of gaming format. But Breath of the Wild somehow showed me something different and had such a profound impact on me and gave me the feeling that I had as a middle school kid playing Ocarina of Time and you know, just the feeling that, like anything is possible, you can do whatever you want and like this world feels endless, which you know you go back and look at Ocarina of Time now you're like, oh my God, this world is so small, but at the time it felt huge.

Speaker 2: 1:04:18

And, like you know, the story is so great in Ocarina of Time and I love the story of Breath of the Wild as well. I want to continue, you know, reliving those moments through replaying the games, because that's how much I love Breath of the wild. I kind of replay breath of the wild every four years. It's turning out because I'm really starting to get the itch to replay it.

Speaker 2: 1:04:40

And I replayed it, uh, in 2021 I think it was so four years after its initial launch and we're turning the corner to 2025 pretty soon here and I'm really starting to feel the itch to replay it. So maybe if the switch 2 does give like kind of like performance boost or anything like that, like it bumps up to like 60 frames per second or whatever, because they've already confirmed it's going to be backwards compatible, maybe that'll be my excuse, because that's you know how I finished ghost of tsushima when I why I was playing on ps4 and then the ps5 came out and I got a ps5 and I finished it on ps5 and it gave it bumped up to 60 frames per second. I was like, oh my god, this is like a different game now. So I really want that for switch to. I know we're going to talk about that a little bit later here, but uh, that maybe that'll be my excuse to do my third playthrough of breath of the wild nice, nice uh I.

Speaker 1: 1:05:35

I kind of figured that was gonna be your number one game.

Speaker 2: 1:05:37

Yeah, I mean it's my favorite game of all time, so I would imagine it's probably my favorite game on switch.

Speaker 1: 1:05:42

Uh, my number one game is uh, tears of the kingdom.

Speaker 2: 1:05:47

Oh, okay.

Speaker 1: 1:05:49

Um, so I I liked breath of the wild, Um, but there was something about Tears of the Kingdom that just I don't know. It just connected with me more, I don't know why. I think partly was the mechanics behind it and the fact that you can basically break this game and it still works, and it was just crazy the amount of things you could do. There was times where there's this really funny puzzle, like later on I found out, oh, that's the way you're supposed to solve it. But like I built this tower really, really high, really, and then it jumped off and glided and I made it and I don't, and they're like that's not how you're supposed to beat that, you're supposed to do a catapult thing. And I was like, oh, that's what I was supposed to do with that, but it allowed me to do my stupid ways of beating these levels right. And it turns out I didn't do the puzzles anyway. Anybody else did. I was doing it my own ways, which was cool. Um, I asked.

Speaker 2: 1:06:45

I love that I asked ag al numa about that. I got to interview him last year at the game awards, him and hitamaru fujibayashi. I don't know that I saved the the full quote, but basically I asked him like hey, how do you feel, like when you, you know, meticulously design these puzzles and these like obstacles for people to overcome and then they like completely break the game in ways that you never envisioned? Like is that fun for you, is that frustrating for you? And he was like, oh no, we love it because, like, people are having fun, because, like you know, think back to like when cheat codes were a thing, like cheating is fun. So, like you know, we're happy that people are having fun doing this and like kind of breaking the game in ways that we never anticipated. So that's great that they embrace it as well, think they embrace it as well.

Speaker 2: 1:07:36

Yeah, and I will say that, like you know, tears the kingdom, I you could not make a super hard argument and I would believe you when you say that it's a better zelda game and a better game overall than breath of the wild. Breath the wild is just my number one because it had such a strong impact on me and it was like I. If tears the kingdom came out first and then breath, the wild, came out second, I think tears the Kingdom would be my number one.

Speaker 1: 1:07:54

It's just that, like you know, with the impact that it had on me, that's what that's what puts it at number one for me, yeah no, I agree, and I think I think for a lot of people, I think that that was the case for them. Right there they said Tears of the Kingdom technically might be a better game, but Breath of the wild, just because of the fact, the impact that I had, um, put it above tears of the kingdom. Um, I, I, just I, I. Still, to this day, I, I, I cannot get over the fact of, like, how you can do anything you want in that game and it will let you. It's like they're not going to stop you. If you want to do stupid things, you can do stupid things. It might work, who knows?

Speaker 2: 1:08:32

I remember I skipped one of the biggest story missions without realizing it, because, like there's a story mission where you go up into hyrule castle and, like you know, you face off against uh, I don't want to spoil anything, so it's only a year and a half old, yeah but you face off against a pretty significant like battle and then a big story cut scene plays and it like hints at something that you're supposed to go do. And I went to hyrule castle because, like the the marker was up there and then there's like the chasm that like is below hyrule castle and I was like, oh, let me just go down here and explore what's down here. That's kind of cool. And then I'm like it's getting pretty hard and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, there's ganondorf.

Speaker 2: 1:09:24

So I beat the game without having one, all of the uh, the sages and two, you know, which sucks, because any sages that you're missing you have to fight their boss with the same health bar as the other like battle. That happens, like you know, there's like the, so, like I had to fight an extra boss before getting to Ganondorf. And, of course, yeah, once you get to Ganondorf, you can like fast travel out of there and like heal up and everything. But yeah, so I had to fight like the the waves of enemies that were coming out, which is a very difficult battle, then a boss battle on top of that, and then you know right into ganondorf.

Speaker 1: 1:10:06

So oh my gosh, that's hilarious. See, you can break the game, you can do whatever you want in that game. Yes, uh, that was fun. Um, let's let's talk about then. Hopefully we're looking forward to the switch next year. Um, our final segment here. What's one feature that you would love to see uh make its way on the switch to?

Speaker 2: 1:10:31

well for the longest time I was saying backwards compatibility, because you know, that was the thing that was like make or break for me for the switch 2 and thankfully they've already confirmed that that is 100 going to be in the game. Uh, I already mentioned, like, I hope that they give performance boost to the switch one games, which I don't know if they're going to do that or not. Hopefully they do and hopefully it doesn't come at an extra cost. I'm going to go ahead and say I hope that they add a GameCube library. I hope that they have, like you know, similar, like similar to Nintendo Switch Online. They have a GameCube library and they add a ds library. Oh yeah, and they can figure out some way to do that.

Speaker 2: 1:11:18

I've, uh, one of my guests on the podcast, victor lucas, theorized that maybe they could have it so that, like, because they've nintendo's also come out and said that, like it will have compatibility with the switch, the next switch model will, or next Switch console, and so his, his suggestion was what if you could have used the Switch one as a controller for the Switch two, if it was in docked mode and that allows you to have two screens, with a touch screen on one of them and then you can play DS and 3DS games on that? Yeah, that'd be really cool, so I would like them to. I would like them to figure out some way to get ds and 3ds but if not, just give us a gamecube like collection through switch online.

Speaker 1: 1:12:05

That would be awesome yeah, and I don't know if you uh have seen this, but like we have, we have, uh, we have a mom and pops. I don't want to say mom and pops, this is not really mom and pops, because they have like five or six stores, but a local retail store, like a resale shop, and gamecube games, like, are super expensive. Like I cannot believe, like, oh, double dash, what. It's still really expensive. How is this so expensive? Um, because I always go, because I, my wii is the first gen, so I could always play gamecube games on it, um, same, but I can't afford it. So so, yeah, I would love that too. Um, for me, one of the things that I really liked about the 3DS was the Miiverse. I really liked it. Oh, yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1: 1:13:02

I met some developers through that, because they would have their games and then they would post little posts about their games and then, you know, I just started following them and started chatting, and that was right around when I started the podcast too, and then they would come on as guests. It was just cool. Yeah, it was cool, it was a cool. I loved the fact that it was like organic communications and just like, oh, check out this game and you can learn about games and stuff that way. Either that or do some kind of street pass type thing, because that was really cool too. I love street pass. Yeah, it was fun.

Speaker 2: 1:13:36

It's hard because the switch isn't nearly as portable as like the 3ds. Yeah, like I would just bring my 3ds everywhere with me because I would want street pass, especially if you go to like somewhere like packs. Yeah, like you would just you'd have to stop like every 20 minutes to maximize your street pass, like I. I that would make waiting in line or waiting for appointments that much better, because you would be able to just start like clearing out your street passes and then, like five minutes later, you have a full like lobby.

Speaker 1: 1:14:06

Yeah yeah, yeah, they still have. I don't know if they did this last one, but they did have like street pass meetups at packs where you could just go and, like you know, do the street pass thing. I thought that was cool, that was neat. And then I feel like, was am I wrong? And I'm thinking this, like mcdonald's and other restaurants had like you can go there and like they had something on a hub or something like that. I'm sure they did yeah, it was cool.

Speaker 2: 1:14:31

I um, I know like gamestop had them for a while. Ok, did you ever get any famous people on your street pass?

Speaker 1: 1:14:39

No, I I've heard a lot of people talk about famous people that they got in their street pass, and I never did.

Speaker 2: 1:14:46

I got both Reggie and Shigeru Miyamoto. You did yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:14:51

Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:14:52

That is really cool, I think I got Reggie at no, it's awesome, that is really cool. I think I got Reggie at no, it wasn't. It wouldn't have been then I don't know. It would have been. Uh, I think it was the Wii U launch at Nintendo New York. I went to cover that and that was the first time I ever met Reggie and he was out there street passing with all the people um out who are waiting in line outside of New York to buy buy the wii u at midnight and uh, yeah, I just happened to get him when I I was there covering it. That's cool. And I don't know when I got miyamoto. It's probably at e3 one year or something hmm, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 1:15:28

No, I never got anybody famous. I got, you know, steve and john, and it was random people I have so many random people but yes, bring back street pass yes, even if it's just a phone app even if it's just a phone app that you can install and run in the background I'd be fine with that.

Speaker 2: 1:15:50

I can see them doing that like, but then I mean, I don't know if if phones are communicating in the same way and nintendo doesn't have access to the proprietary technology, but yeah, yeah uh, yeah, so that was.

Speaker 1: 1:16:05

That was our nintendo wrap-up before we head out. Uh, brian, why don't you tell people how they can find you, how can they follow you on social media and listen to your podcast?

Speaker 2: 1:16:15

sure, yeah, you can find me on social media. I'm primarily on blue sky now. Um, I'm still on twitter for now, but it's only in a promotional capacity. I don't really check that I and I send some dms to people to like, book them as guests if they're not over on blue sky or threads yet. Um, I'm also on threads, but it's at brian p shea. Shea is spelled s-h-e-a, um, so, yeah, pretty easy to follow on. Blue sky and instagram, I would say, are my two primary social media platforms.

Speaker 2: 1:16:44

Then you can find all things nintendo on any platform that you listen to podcasts. It's also on youtube, which has a video version. I also pull out like highlight clips from that. And uh, yeah, also there's a patreon. It's patreoncom slash brian shea podcast. Or you can just search all things nintendo and you will find it there. And uh, the five dollar tier gets you early and ad free episodes. It gets you access to the community discord and it gets you uh priority for q a. And then also on uh on the patreon there's the ten dollar tier which is all things gamers. That gets you all the stuff from the five dollar tier and then also an entire second weekly podcast that covers topics outside of, uh, nintendo. So you know this this week we're going to be talking about the state of mobile gaming, and then next week, I'm sure I'll talk about something I don't know. I've been playing that far ahead.

Speaker 2: 1:17:39

But you know, we've talked about all kinds of stuff. Last last week we did, uh, you know, games, gaming related things that we're thankful for, and uh, also things like a holiday buying guide for people. If you're looking to like buy for somebody that gave some gaming and non-gaming related suggestions. But yeah, like we've talked about other big releases. Like you know, when star wars outlaws came out, we did an episode on that. I say we but me, me and a guest, me and a rotating guest. It's it's kind of a one-man show, but then also I have a guest on nearly every episode. So yeah, nice nice.

Speaker 1: 1:18:13

Yeah, I've been listening to all things nintendo since you started and I absolutely love the podcast. Thank you, um. So, yeah, everybody should go listen. I'll put those show links in the show notes. Uh, you can follow gamer heads on blue sky. We're not on twitter anymore. Uh, we've moved all over to blue sky. Uh, so gamer heads podcast, uhcom, because you can actually have your own domain as your, as your handle. So that's pretty cool. Uh, and my handle on blue sky is rogueliter1976 because that's just my game handle, so why not just use that? So perfect. Uh, brian, thank you so much for joining me. It was really fun having on the show and talking about Nintendo this year, and then the you know overall. Uh, I'd love to have you back in the future. It was really fun having on the show. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. This was fun. Yeah, listeners, thank you so much for giving us a listen. If you like what you hear, leave Brian a review and leave us review.