8-4 Play 1/2/2026: BALL DROPPIN' NEW YEAR'S FREE-FOR-ALL

[ding] [music playing] [music playing] Welcome to the first 2026 episode of the A4 play podcast you're first to only We made it! Place for talk about Japan and Games and Japanese Games That's right This episode recorded definitely in 2026 Right And not It's a great year Feel that new year Not banked Pre-Christmas 2025 Absolutely Oh, there's crazy stuff that's happened the last two weeks since we recorded that last podcast Oh my gosh, maybe we'll get into some of that later But before that New Year's resolutions Everyone, mine is no more nicknames What? Gabe Daylyone is the new day It's a new year What is your New Year's resolution? My New Year's resolution But nicknames back I was going to say play Claire obscure Didn't you do that over the break last night? I was going to focus on No, instead, I got lost in an analog 3D hole Oh, what were you playing? Going on too I forget what the full title name is Yeah, we know what you mean Oh yeah, it's a good steep cut Yeah, it's a good game Battle for Naboo Jet Force Gemini Or is it called Star Twins Here in Japan Oh, a lot That thing's great! Your New Year's resolutions How is your break? My break is very restful And I didn't change out of my pyjama as a single time As you know, that is my goal Going for that Guinness record Yeah, I want my skin to fuse with them And they with the couch And you know, I think I'm getting closer every year Every attempt is a little bit crustier And did you have any other New Year's resolutions Besides getting as crusty And as one with the couch As possible I mean, resolution implies some kind of Improvement Right? This is well-generally Generally Can I unsubscribe? No, you can't And you can't pass the question either, you have to Make something up We can come back to you if you need more time Yeah, I got nothing John Ricciardi Hi, happy New Year Happy New Year Resolution Oh God, I don't know I am going to finally finish Lost Odyssey Because I didn't do it last year Like I told myself I would I mean, I'm in disc 4 But I've been there for like 5 years Isn't that about long enough that you should start over from the beginning? Absolutely not Once you get to disc 4, that's like you can feel it You're close, you know That's what it kind of opens up So unfortunately it's the It was the paralysis of like not knowing where to go Or rather not being able to decide where I wanted to go That has sort of left me frozen there Okay And I did say I was going to finish it last year But I didn't And I think I said at the year before too Not in the podcast just like you know, turn myself To yourself, yeah Speaking of talking to yourself are very special guests I see him nodding over there when you're talking about disc 4 of lost Odyssey I don't know if that's just out of politeness Or if he is a big fan But I am a fan You are a fan, you were playing that when we In the past life when we knew each other And saw each other every day One Mr. Secret Agent Che Chow Hello, hello Friend of the show back in the park already Well that's like not a big name That's more like a friendly reference Secret agent, yes So lost Odyssey came out when I was working at Microsoft Oh, no kidding Turn 10 Studios 360 exclusives I have to play this game That's right, you were there in the good era Like one of the best errors actually Peter Moore was rocking Should we get your comments on the Halo Campaign evolved You do even know what I'm talking about The latest upcoming Halo game You worked at also at 343 Studios I follow all the news Yeah You want me to, you want my take on this Just thoughts yeah, give me the hot tot take The Che Chow hot take It looks shiny Right, and I don't know Like it The library, Che Do you remember in your If I may Kind of shitty sunset, San Francisco apartment We all lived in shitty apartments at that time We were in our 20s I had to get on a flight to Japan The next day I had been 2 or 3 a.m. We've been doing various things That night through the evening When we were playing for the first time Halo, not released yet Halo, me and you co-op And got to the library part of that game And it was literally like 2 or 3 in the morning And it was like I mean we're having the time of our lives But we got to the library part And we're kind of like Wait, what the fuck is going on here Like this is just going on This is the same thing And like is it broken Is it it was you know Not it was a review copy of the game But and then I got up like a couple hours later And jumped on a flight To Japan But yes, we experienced the majesty Halo together But also the low points Which is the library And the reason I bring this whole story up is I'm very curious now What do you do in the year of our lord 2026 Hey, this was part of the original game It's kind of become this mythic thing But it kind of became this mythic thing Because it was kind of shitty And so to what level do you try to Change that and fix that You can't touch that You think so? You think that it's like holy crap You have to just leave it be Before like upset with sprint I mean they're upset with everything Well they're upset with some stuff And like lead among them This thing from here And that had served a very specific purpose And because there are a lot of like Unintended consequences of any change But also if you just do nothing Sometimes that's really bad too right I don't know. I mean you do your damned if you do But there's a reason why that game is Legend right? I mean yeah Right so good and bad But also like you know There's now more recent examples of like If you have the guts and the willpower to do it Like a Resident Evil 2 or 4 That is like a holy game or 4 And like to think of touching that now But you if you go in With a good team and with confidence you know I would say those games Aren't they don't touch the Halo Legendary status in terms of like Bungie it was like Lighting the bottle yeah you don't fuck with it And then so you know that's kind of my point is And I was that 343 for six years And like I feel so Bad for those guys because There's like a no-win scenario Like you want to modernize Halo But then your most like your Most hardcore fans will just like drag you down Because they're like you can't touch Anything right and yet And then now it's like okay well then this game is gonna Age weird it's gonna be kind of outdated Because we're not modernizing you Right right so it's a no-win scenario It's a tricky yeah that balancing act It's like the fans will love you to death Right they're just like you know if you touch any Any mechanic right Like not touching multiplayer at all Just avoiding that entire I know Which I felt like it's kind of a cop out I felt like I want to see them go away But you know I mean it's like a stopgap Right because I think they're working on the next Halo Right right they're gonna remit And so my honest opinion is it just feels a little bit Tired I guess you know I don't know if I need Another one another Halo one after yeah yeah Well they already did one I know yeah not that long ago And that one went over great You were there for that I was there for that one I think it was you you designed I think the multiplayer A little bit yeah That was all that was all you No it's also like Like you were saying Jamie right It's like all these like Expand you guys come out of the work just like Taking shots like it's America It's not Japan where people will just shut up And be like whatever it's like no no no no You're going to they're gonna let you know about it Yeah I just I feel bad for three or three Yeah yeah yeah yeah we'll hopefully You know I think that part of the strategy is like Get back some goodwill by going back to like The tried and true territory And like opening up some new people You know last couple one gamers That too that'll be interesting that too Yeah crazy to see our friend Brian Gerard Wearing the the PlayStation t-shirt On the stream but good to have you in town sir How are you how are you doing how is your new years Good good resolution Yes So I recently bought a synth Right so I'm thinking about again one too Yeah would you get You got a teenage engineering OP one field All those things are so nice It is like a very nice cool shit A little synth I actually brought it to Tokyo But awesome It's got what you can sample everything And so and it's got a really cool synth engine in it So yeah so there's an intro video Is that they're like one of their new ones They made an intro video to one of their Newer ones And it's really like kind of weird and funny And quirky in how it yeah How it actually demonstrates how you put it together I don't want to say more but if people are interested You should find it on YouTube yeah No I'm very British So how I discovered it was Holy random a few weeks ago On YouTube there was a it's just on my algorithm Some some grown Japan Like did the Beatles cover on it And it was all done through Like just that one device And she had samples some of the precautions Just from like everyday Tokyo And Beatles on your memory It was in my life I think yeah And it was like amazing And she did and she showed Like kind of how she did it Like kind of how she did it And so I was like okay I'm gonna get that Nice. It was very expensive though I mean it's a questionnaire Overpriced like all this stuff is overpriced Well yeah overpriced I mean it's it's very Like bespoke like Yeah they they do crazy stuff How much are we talking about? Like I'll be I try to find like cheap Burzans but no That doesn't happen right It's um $2,000 Yep nice. Yeah. We're talking about Oh Mr. I'm gonna buy like every steam Machine I bought a $10,000 video card That's my $50,90 That's a steam machine I know I could have got a $50,90 So this is a new year special It's very free form Yeah it's very open We have the core of the show Is gonna be listener questions Thank you people who have sent those in But we'll go off on some tangents Um we'll talk about stuff That we've been doing other than games maybe Uh as well uh at some point But uh do we want to start With uh some hot hot topics That crowd sourced Yeah as they say Here's your your first question From beer money vick on blue sky Uh what is your favorite worst gif You've ever received Gift Gift Favorite worst gif Yes like this is like Something that really sucked us To look back on it fondly Yes I'm gonna just buy everybody else time to think about this Because this is the kind of question you want to really Like have time to think about I'll just say a bad gift and keep it Video game related I wonder if we've all had this experience where You have a relative That knows you like video games But doesn't Know anything else other than that So like randomly walks in Which still seems so weird to me You know it's like you wouldn't buy a book for somebody Without knowing like Do you own this book already Do you like this kind of book Like I don't know I guess it's yeah maybe that's a bad example But I always felt weird like what a fucking crap shoot That person just did And how it was generally usually like very awful Yes, that was one of my favorite types of interactions When I worked at EB Was visibly like lost in She's grown up, comes in and is like please help me I have a 16 year old and I don't know what to get Right, and so it's like all right We need to get into like investigative mode What have you seen on the television? What does it look like? Describe it in visuals If you don't know what it's called Is it sports? No, okay, is it violent? Yes, okay, is it modern violent or like old timey violent And you narrow it down 20 questions and you get the more timey violent Well, that's what the question was Is it Grand Theft Auto or is it got a war? Is what we were figuring out there Yeah, that or like yeah, and if it's not a game It's like hey what TV shows are they into Like give me something here But actually mark you know what it reminds me of Is what you know it's mentioned It remember we used to do on the EGM All this like all those Every fucking December issue was like Here's like a game for the guy who has everything Buyers guy categories Buyers guys So like we like Game for the guy who is like You know, whatever slightly weird It's a Halo fan and you know like this game Yeah, but like nobody ever used it for that Right? I don't know Somebody might have anecdotal evidence We kept doing it for some fucking reason I would hope somebody was using it Here they all dressed up as elves I was in the room, I didn't have to do it myself Because I had just joined but I was along for the ride I got to watch that craziness Oh my god, the gift guide So yeah, back to the area where you have all that time Yes, what? Favorite gift or just a bad gift I mean I didn't finish yours What was it? I was a kid Nikki, which is not a terrible ninja Yeah, it's not a terrible game but it's pretty like Come on, just just ask me Or come on I got Zillian for Sega Master System For the Master System Was that bad? I don't remember You thought it was terrible It was a mission Was that a card game or was that a cartridge It was a kind of a play on another game Then I can't remember the name of It was like you were a guy running around Platforming levels is big on the Commodore 64 Impossible mission or something I think it was Okay, come on No, it wasn't that platformy It was like you just walked I played the game You just walked to the right Wait, are you talking about Zillian 2? Zillian 1 Really? I think Zillian 1 was multi-directional And you walked left a writer And it was actually in Japan I think it was called something else It was based on a TV like an anime Yeah, I think it was an anime I read something, whatever that says, it's like stylized G-Non or something like that G-Non, yeah, I don't know, it looks like an anime Not a great game Okay I don't think I have an answer to this Because I've been thinking And all the things that I can remember Are the presents that were really really good That's not the question, Tina I know it's not But I don't know, I'll like it Like you're talking about But you know, they did their best or whatever But all I can really think about in the similar vein Is very unexpected My dad gave me Pokemon Silver one year And it was like a very good Oh, well, she has one like that already And this one seems new, I'll get that one And another time he bought me a Game Boy game That every time we went to Blockbuster I would pick up, it was in the used bin I would pick it up and look at the box And then put it back And he noticed that I was doing that all the time That is the kind of research that I want What about Gabe, John? Rememberable game gifts Don't not necessarily be good or bad I am responsible for any bad ones I got Because I pretty much asked for Like I was very specific about what I wanted It was no one like to surprise me with something But I made some bad calls Like I remember when I was like I must have been like eight or nine I asked for these These super controller things snapped on top of each other So bad, I had one of those two And you have a little choice to Yes, I would love So I come from an era Long before the internet And there weren't a lot of pictures back there There aren't a lot of pictures of me as a kid But I was like oh I hope I have some pictures Opening video game The only fucking one I have is this super controller Like I don't want to show that off You have a happy expression on your face though I don't remember Because I wanted it Yeah I couldn't have known yet that it sucked It was still in the package I was probably glad that I got this You should share that picture And just like Photoshop in a different object Something actually good Yeah they were terrible Jobbin So this is actually relevant to the analog So that jungle green N64 I got Was Christmas gift if I remember correctly And the thing is The compact with the So there was a couple It's just because Donkey Kong 64 is garbage it wasn't broken Well not just that but like it was actually Erasing saves on games that I would play from Are you sure it wasn't just haunted Did you try communing with it Did you ask it nicely Did they buy it in Chinatown or something There was actual tears that I shed Over losing like my Majora's mask safe No no no no okay so you were feeding the ghost That was what it wanted it wanted your tears It needed to be stronger So did you replace it or something No we still have it in the basement Yeah so that so you know The game was just a mom or dad coming in a night And wanting to play in a raising your safe No no no no that's unbelievable No definitely So I love that N64 but it was You don't know when it would try and bite you So the problem is you've acquired another green one That ghost is now going to move across the globe And take up residence in your new green N64 I have a genuine question are you sure you just didn't need a controller pack and like didn't have one No it would it would it would erase Jeff Force Gemini saves it erase Zelda game A saves like it was it was So kart saves too It wasn't controller pack and you're like maybe this game will be the one where it's not gonna erase my save Let me just keep trying the same thing over and over again And sad every weekend maybe it won't happen Kind of Like we didn't know you could just mail it to Nintendo and they'll like replace it or whatever So like that's true It was haunted and you just know that it broke in like comics could be fixed or you know Anything like that All right next question game What is this from John at King Droll What is your most anticipated game for 2026 What's even coming in 2026 GTA GTA of course It won that award of the most anticipated game That's why I know But do you guys really you guys like actually just think about GTA 6 all day No Also will it come out and actually come out this year I mean I do I think it's coming yet Yeah Mine is I don't have like I don't know what it is but I am sure something is going to happen for Zelda's anniversary It's the 40th anniversary even Zelda maker It could be like 8 swords I'm hoping for like 16 swords or something like that That's too many swords Minish cap remake Resident Evil for the love of a good sword fight Resident but I don't know yeah same here Requiem Yeah actually Yeah early in the year there's Resident Evil and I'm really excited for the Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined February Oh something else was February that I was surprised to see is coming so soon but I forget what it was Early next year is going to be pre-stacked So I mean that's what I meant this year yeah I forgot it's already 2026 It's only been two days to come We'll be making we'll be making typos in excel on the dates for like the next 3 to 6 months Up until like a few weeks ago I was still writing 2024 on the episode that is Well Jay Chow anything you're Hi What about Soros or whatever Soros did you play in April? Oh yeah Did you get into Returnal because I could see you getting into Returnal I played some it was Falling asleep It was like very It was moody The grind was just kind of putting me to sleep sometimes I think Okay so the only thing I can think of right now Is maybe Slade aspire to Oh is that coming next year? I mean this year All right Tina are you looking up I'm genuinely looking at a list of stuff that's coming up right now because I can't think of anything Resident Evil is a good one though I'm pretty excited about that Yeah I think That's Jay You guys live in the fairs yard High guard Oh yeah Great show under Save that for the end of the show Chow That's our closer This final fantasy 7 is The last one going to be Actually it just occurred to me that a couple of a few weeks ago It wasn't on the game or I thought they would show that the last one on the game or is it at least announced the title Oh yeah Unless the title No I don't think the titles Yeah It's not going to be reunion because they used it That's what I'm wondering It reunion would have made sense but if it's not reunion I think my guess is Requiem But then Resident Evil took that That's why they couldn't announce it But they talked about it They've got it down to two is what they had said like a few weeks back Remembrance How great would be if it's Revengeance That would be great if it was Revengeance Oh, Duskbloods I don't know, I have conflicted feelings about that one Is that going to be this year? That's still 2026 Same with Elden Ring which got pushed into 2020 That was shown in the game awards as part of the like coming soon on and tend to Yeah that was yeah so I think that's I forgot to go back and watch that closely and see if any of you like new hype for that In a minimal way because I'm pretty sure it's another multiplayer thing Which I you know that immediately just makes me not interested But I really want to see what it looks like And what it sounds like and I'm gonna buy it Because it's an entirely new thing Like I didn't bother with Night Rain Because as much as I loved Elden Ring I knew I wouldn't enjoy that game Right But because this is like an entirely new setting and IP and everything I want to give it a shot I am you know we're joking about GTA I am legitimately excited As somebody who will probably not play much of that game Yeah I am very excited for that release Like even just seeing the trailers Just for like what does a billion dollar game look like Like what is the equivalent of like the horses balls In Red Dead Redemption 2 shrinking according to the weather That's going to be happening And you know people were doing it with the trailer where it's like hey the condensation On the beer that's on the table Is actually like warping the image of the TV that's behind it Just that shit And then also all of just the Crazy content that's actually I'm actually more excited about the stuff that's gonna come out Around the game than I am for the actual to play the game actually myself Just the videos that people are gonna be making Just all of the stuff that is going to Like the emergent stuff that's gonna come out It is gonna be an event And then many people playing one game All the crazy shit that's gonna happen on like Here's what you get every Corvette in the game And put it all in a bargain garage I've never finished a single GTA I've played a bunch I actually didn't even play five at that point I was like I know at this point I never finished them I know I'm not going to I just skipped it But I kind of want to try six for the reason that you're talking about It's a two big of a thing Enough people that it'll be annoying on the internet Yeah the imagine the funny thing is Like there's no possible way for that game to sell Like less than 50 million copies Literally could do Like every major catastrophe cyberpunk Launched level of bugs And plot And like nobody liked the story and whatever And you know it's just like Apparently it's big out here too Talking to someone yesterday who was saying More than Monster Hunter or Dead on PS5 Like there's a lot of people that really wanted Even in Japan at all What if they sell it for a hundred dollars Actually they haven't said the price yet have they That ought to be interesting too I think they said they're not going to do Crazy pricing though I think that crazy though Crazy there's a lot of people who wouldn't buy it No I hope they fucking do Because they could they could Healthily help reset people's Expectations about prices All for those going higher as we've talked about I thought about another thing Soaks on DLC That's going to be within the year Yeah so they say Speaking of that did you finish all that Expedition 33 over the break That Expedition 33 new DLC I mean what would you define as finish I don't even know It's like a new part of the thing in a boss And there's yeah there's a new area There are new cosmetics They added there's like a Colosseum kind of thing or like a Like an endless boss rush Hmm place where they added new fights To that That's the extent of my knowledge I played through the whole new area And kind of called it there because that's About as much as I need Yeah It was definitely It was very lighthearted and like They were just making it To have a fun time to give us a fun time There were not yeah Heavy on the floor drops There wasn't there was some sweet Sentimental stuff in there But it wasn't the main Right The main goal Got it. Oh that's cool Yeah I thought it was neat how they Announced that at the Game Awards too That was fun Little if they didn't win the year I guess they would have just tweeted it anyway But they saved that for the last So that that was pretty cool When that comes out But it's not a game It's not quite a game But it's definitely what most Did you hear that Half Life 3 is going to be Don't do this to me That's the launch title That's HLX Because everybody really got up And to a froth about that apparently Because when it didn't happen at the Game Awards A lot of people were legitimately like Disappointed I mean that would actually sell hardware But that's true You could just play on the normal PC No I know I'm not But I mean you know people like Aver Going to buy it anyway Yeah it's going to go under the TV I want the face plates Give me some good face plates And I'm in Next question here from Drew Young He's saying I'm going to summarize his question Over the holidays do you prefer playing a new game Something familiar that's a classic Or catch up on your backlog Maybe you see the answers yes More of a see I mean I like to hit like the Old Genesis games Or that I hadn't played for finished Or maybe Yeah Like basically stuff on my backlog is number one But I will play something new Like this year was Metroid Prime Remastered But you know I also Like to just grab like a very old Feeling game and play it too It's those Christmas vibes you know Because that's what was around when I was a child game Jay what do you what did you play over the holiday Um I'm kind of you know I think in my old age I'm turning into like You know these days like people go like you're not just a gamer It's like you're you're like what what kind of gamer are you And people just play like one game forever Right and so for me that I play two games Um even though I subscribe to like Game pass and I have like a million steam games I play Tarkov So I play a ton I play Tarkov Tarkov Tons of Tarkov and then Not again arc breeders at all I do try it I played it But it's I don't know I like I like the kind of the real world Like the more grounded weapons and just you know so And then the other game is Legends of Rintero which is you know The car game the the riot car game Okay, all right. Wow. It's Tarkov Relayed to Cardinal If only if only they need to do that crossover Seriously. Yeah We're excited for marathon at all No release. No release window No release window. Did they not something March March $40. Okay $40. Okay Interesting. Yeah I think that's a good price point Like arc breeders is 40 Hell divers is 40 Like I think I think arc launching and being a success gave them a cover Yeah cover fire I mean that's those round What they were saying Right that's kind of what everybody expected But I that's still a tough Tough market to break into you're not free I think That Sony pulled after like six days Concorde. Concorde. That was $40 Concorde. That was $40 What's going on? What do you got? I know I was the answer to everything This comes from Randy Tutelidge What are your favorite N64 memories? Let's go with you Jon. It's pretty broad Yeah. Got a pick your favorite though Right now My old sporing But my single favorite N64 memory Is going to the forest temple for the first time in Okinawa time One of the few times in my life that I got whatever whatever Sinistasia or whatever is like I forgot I was in a room Like literally like at that moment Right Mine was also a creative time related It was a little more broad it was So it came out right before things giving Yeah Yeah it was like the 21st and 21st and something like that So that was my first Year at EGM I just started in the fall So I had moved to Illinois You know I had an apartment there And yeah it was Okay I'm not going to go home for things giving I'm just going to stay and play the shit out of Nice Like get baked and play over a no time And forget what time it is And like not care about the clock or the sun Or anything else that's going on Sleep when I have to You know eat denies Which do you remember I lived like right next to a denies Or buka depepo Oh my god We get days from buka depepo And just play the shit out of ochering a time And that's what I did And it was glorious and amazing I played that for a review for EGM So I had already played it But when we got the review Did you finish it for the review My review picture in EGM Is like right before the final boss But you can't you don't know it Unless you know see I was very good at picking shots That unless you knew it was a spoiler What was it? What was the picture of? Standing in front of the Again it's castle like we know you walk up You can't really see the bridge in the background But like there's the rainbow bridge It's like back there dark sky It just looks like a cool Zelda picture If you don't know what it is You totally did that on purpose I would always show proof of mine Yeah in my EGM And I was very meticulous about like Making sure the shots look good When we weren't doing stuff like Drawed paintings over our like three names And then put the you know put the screenshot In the in the in the You know stuff like you do like that Maybe it wasn't a piece we wouldn't have done that in the magazine But it was something we would put the something stupid in the image I think for me it's probably a tie between Playing gold and I with my brothers And we would always play Did you have three brothers? I have I have two brothers Right so who was just three of us We would play with only proximity minds So we would run around the map Throwing proximity or walk Proximity minds around corners and stuff And you'd just run around and just randomly die And be some of the funniest stuff we were doing Whatever I was 10 It was fine And the other one is probably It was a birthday party And there was a kid who was Destroying everyone at smash Did you kick his ass? And then someone said Gabe do you think you can take this kid I remember his name was Jason Did you kick Jason's ass? No I falcon punched him so fucking hard In real life Oh shit no stage No I humbled him in smash It felt really good Who was he playing as? Who were you playing as? I took Captain Falcon I think he was beating people up with Pikachu if I'm not mistaken Or Link Who even are you? I mean he needed to punch him in the face Captain Falcon said that I'm not playing a game Alright Tina, I know you got an answer to this one I've been sitting here thinking really hard because I have several If it's Spandor Kazooie we're bleeping it out That was a fun little video game Um No because you know It's like a If it were a movie it would be you know like the All the different scenes are flashing by so quickly We got it for Christmas one year Yes And we got it with Mario first and that was great And we go to blockbuster every week and rent a new game And you know try out a bunch of different things And lots of funness But I think I'm going to narrow it down To figuring out the Cafe and Andrew Sidequest with my sister Nice Because we had our own save files But what would often happen is that we would just both be sitting in front of the TV Playing on one or the other's save file Usually hers Because she's a little older and she would usually make progress faster than I did So I would just be sitting watching her play and we would be you know Well, what's that over there that looks weird or we would talk to somebody new And go oh my god that means this go look at this go look at this and you know Put our brains together and figure it out And The way that that side quest goes through All the regions All the days it's pretty complicated It's so intricate and you have to go through Majora's mask Yeah Oh I'm sorry yes And you have to basically be at the very end of the video game to be able to complete it To have the equipment that you need and have The abilities that you need to be able to get to the places you need to when you need to do it And so and it's so interesting I watch to play through someone do a blind play through Last year And the first thing he did was fixate on that side quest He was like guys we're going to knock this side quest out today before we do anything else I'm like bitch know you're not you can certainly try Like he hadn't even left town yet and he's like obsessing over this side quest Not the game for you probably Oh no he loved it it was great But it you know it took a little getting used to But the emotional impact of that side quest is not to be Undersold Good one. Chated you to be do yours? I think mine is probably Related I think it was like Some PR person came by with pod racer And we just sat all night and played pod racer because we had to review it like New lap record right there And then how many times did you say that that's pod racing Oh god This is how many How many dozen They would say that often it's a term to be like this is pod I distinctly remember having I won't call it an argument But I like a disagreement of me being very skeptical of people is like Okay, is this really a good game Or are you just Everybody swept up in Star Wars at the moment It was right and it was like a game that was passable it wasn't terrible And it was Star Wars related I'm excited for the new one by the way Yeah, the new racers or any more star racers I mean it was one of the coolest sequences in that movie at least anyway So there's something there No, I just remember people came by with review builds and we like Smash Brothers Nintendo came by With the system change With this handcuffed person case With the build Right on, that was a good one How long? Yeah, we got a question here from TSUMI What's the best meal for Christmas day in Japan? That's meal? That's meal So when I don't have to leave my house for Nobody does Can take a bread chicken No, I don't, I do them but not on Christmas day Oh, turns out you don't have to do that on Christmas day No, there's like Christmas cake or something I have done Christmas cake several times Yeah, but not in anything fancy Like good, I mean you know go get like a nice cake at the local cake Yeah There's actually just like like those you know it's not even like a bakery It's like a cake place you know for like those kind of cakes But I don't think I've done the KFC thing on Christmas Because yeah, it's you got to reserve it and everything if you want to do it proper With like the bug and everything And that's a lot of chicken Well the thing is there's much better chicken too Like so I get a family chicken every year Well that's easy to do That's cool But we're getting wrong That's cool You go to the convenience you get a fami chiki You get a little plastic tub that has like two slices of cake in it and you're good Oh, I thought you were gonna do the viral The pancakes or the hamcakes Or the hamcakes People live with a fami chiki I don't know about this, it's like a two years ago or something It's like a TikTok thing The other day I finally tried that fami chiki dedicated bun for a time With the tar-tar sauce With the tar-tar sauce for 90 yen you get a sauce Typically they had that thing for like five years and they've only had one bun Like how you not have various varieties of who buns I mean honestly it's a pretty perfect bun for the chicken I don't want to have a tartar sauce on a my chiki Have you had it? I had it once, it was fine but it's not like I don't know Would you prefer it sauceless to sauce yourself? Just your question No, I think I would prefer other varieties though Of like, you know, I don't know, seasonings or whatever It's like Japan's obsession with mayo Like I don't, it's fine but I don't need mayo on every single thing But what other seasonings would you, because keep in mind Chicken sandwich, barbecue sauce, I don't know Keep in mind, tartar sauce is viscous enough that it will not make that bun soggy Catch up will make it soggy, hot sauce will make it soggy But you could always just put that on the side and pack it too And that's more money than it won't be 90 yen anymore 95, come on Check this out Christmas has become date night for me, so it's usually just a nice restaurant Not Christmas Eve, Christmas is a nice Christmas night Cuz it's also her birthday It's also her birthday That's hard to argue with Wife Wifeing Jesus Tussumi has another question here What's the best amiibo? No amiibo Correcting The gaming Jesus amiibo Yeah, one of the kind, okay, you're right, I stand corrected, that is We fixed that recently by the way, cuz like I performed surgery No way, something broke on it, I forget Tina got the Lord himself Disconnected from the base Yeah, and the TV image had come away from the TV I'm on the TV, but I fixed them That makes me so happy We should have that on display We should love the podcast That was a friend of the show, Mr. Steve Farma Who made that for us? Custom amiibo for 8/4 play Gaming Jesus That's right, we're our rare one now Absolutely, yes, you're right, I stand corrected That is by far the best amiibo What else? This sims from Andre Hey, where's Graham? Yeah, what's Graham? What is Graham up to? He moved away We saw him last week at the bone-in-kind The end of your party We live in the hills With his little family The hinterland, that's right, he's a daddy I think we can say Took a year off when he had his kid Because you can do that in Japan Sure can, came back strong But yeah, it's kind of hard to do the podcast Because we like to do the podcast in person And so, the truth is The truth is, I blackballed him over his opinions On armor scores, I knew it It was UI/UX, and I'm like, I cannot share the microphone with somebody that will not acknowledge how fucking horrible The UX is in early armored core games, and some fucking apologist No place for UI in the. No place in the podcast No, he thinks there's no problem with it The UI in all front-stopper games Yes, like legitimately is like, oh, the same button doesn't open and close the map on Elden Ring That's your problem That is a user error thing That is so. But we did get out of that The one good thing that came out of that is all of the videos of people just eating themselves off a cliff Because you're on torrent and you open your map, and then you hammer the button to close it And then you have to dash into the interface Yes, exactly Exactly We love Love Graham, wishing the best Yeah, I like to have him on the podcast anytime He's just busy and not local anymore And so, yeah This comes from Alex Baker, a T.K. Shredder on Blue Sky From the golden era of gaming, what was the first game or system you were excited to pick up early, either as an import or bought locally in Japan? What does the golden era of gaming mean? I was going to say, let's just open that up to anything Because that feels like a discussion Yeah, you can have your own golden era Can you repeat the question part of the question again? What was the first game or system you were excited to either import or buy locally in Japan? Oh man You're excited to pick up early I know what mine is When you import in Japan and early are not, like those are not I think what they want to know is something you've had I think that what he means by early Yeah, it's not like flying yet It's like, did you get it before it was out? For me, I had a bunch because Well, I had some that I bought But better than that, and I'm sure I've told the story over the years Somehow, I had a rental shop when I was like 10 years old, 12 years old I guess That rented Famicom games Like, just 15 minutes from my house And so I rented Super Mario 3 You know, I had a year before I came out I rented, you know, megamit, whatever the latest megamit was the time I remember is probably like two or something I remember renting like the Japanese version of Guardian Legend before that came out They rented a Famicom and they rented the cart and a honeybee adapter Oh, okay So, you know, that was how I got really good at Super Mario 3 before I came out But like. What about system? What about system? Which is the first system you imported Ah, probably Oh, I know Well, first one I imported would have been a Saturn Saturn or Playstation I got both of them from Japan, but I don't remember which I got I imported an S64 too, that didn't come first, that came later You were in Japan when Ken, our mutual friend, friend of the show Ken Ogasawara got my S64 at launch Yeah, I think you were with him when he did Or something like that, you weren't you in Japan that summer? I was in Japan that summer, yeah Yeah, I got my S64 early That one was cool, the gap wasn't so much I had a Super Famicom already at that point But like this doesn't feel the same to me because I got that after I had a Super Nintendo Right, you know, I bought a Mega CD, I had a Mega CD from a friend Rich Friend who had bought one and gotten a Wonder Mega and so he sold it to me He sold it to me for cheap and I had fun at college Wait, could you use college? You needed a Mega Drive for that too though, right? No, you could use a Mega CD with the Genesis? Yeah, oh, okay And I blew people's minds at college With like the Lunar opening I, and saw on it like postage stamp size like a grainy as shit FMV stuff, but Saturn was one that was fun to get early. And I have great playing. Playing a guitar fighter and stuff early from what was it? Dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, my, my game import. Yeah. Business. That's where I got my, my mental gear collectors. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Speaking of that summer, or that, that big silver box. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, mine would be, I mean, it's a little bit later, but like, for me, the system that was most, I was just like, can stop thinking about it was Dreamcast, right? Like importing VF3 TB, cigarette to like, from Japan. Famous, famous quote, Dreamcast was a dream blast. That's right. Famously spoken by changing. So yeah, I mean, but that was like the system that felt most next to it. It was like, it was a leap from PlayStation, right? It was like, that was pretty amazing. Even like, I was happy to even get like Godzilla and the penguin game, or like, it was a bunch of garbage, but then, you know, we knew like Soulcaliber was coming and there was VF3 to hold us over. So Stinger, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Terrible games. It's more like Blue Stinger. Yeah. That was great system though. Yeah. And it was so like the output was just so beautiful. It was so crisp and clean and like, I remember just like seeing Soulcaliber and just like just watching it on track mode and just being like, I can't believe this is just sitting here in my house, right? Yeah, exactly. Do you remember I had the Soulcaliber arcade machine in my office and we would like play it in the lead up to Dreamcast. We were so excited about the Dreamcast. We were just playing Soulcaliber Arcade for like weeks. Like, what a good time. And Dreamcast is great. Yeah. Gone too soon. Any import picks? I never engaged in that behavior. In exchange though, I can say, when I first came to Japan, the first game that I bought a Japanese copy of was Ogrinov Time. Nice. And I, this is when I knew basically no Japanese at all. Like, I couldn't have a conversation. And I played it. And because I had played it so many times, I knew what all of the dialogue was anyway. Right. So I would like play it through. And in my mind, know what the English was. And then look at the Japanese and be like, oh, that's how you say that. That word is forest. Oh my God. And I felt like a genius. It was really fun. That's cool. And I played it in Japanese for the first time in like the last couple of years. And for the first time realized why the, I think I talked about this on the show, why the Lake Laboratory guy is excited for the eyeball frog. He's going to have eyeball, he's going to have fried eyeballs for the first time in a long time. And he's really excited. It's a fried egg joke in Japanese. It's Miyaki. You mentioned that. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Mysteries. I don't think I've ever imported a game, but my older brother imported Final Fantasy 8. And played through the entire thing with a eyes on me with a classic, a binder of like Japanese to English translation cheat sheet stuff. Oh, yeah, like printed it out. It filled a like 70 page binder thingy like specific to the game. Yes. Oh, that was a thing. Like when I remember importing Dragon Quest 5 from die hard game club, I guess they recall, which is like game fans, like import store. Yeah. No conflict of interest there. And it came with like eight pages of text about Dragon Quest 5, like within English, like kind of roughly translated information about the game. Yeah. That was cool. Yeah. They would get through the times. Yeah. And that was the version with the song they didn't change, or they did change, but it was before they changed it in Final Fantasy 8. What are you talking about? The beach, like exercise, training exercise that they do. There was a song that was close to a song in the rock that they had to change for America. I don't even think I knew that. Wow. I didn't. Yeah. It was in the demo of the American. That like writes usage thing and the mentioning die hard reminded me like, those old die hard ads, they used to just literally just take like Dragon Quest characters and use them as a Dave. This is Julie. This is whoever. It's like and that is their name straight up straight up. Just like, yep, these are our characters. Here they are saying things about our store and our games and whatever. We're just going to scan all this shit. Like no one in Japan is ever going to notice. I remember the quote bonus, bonus shit or what? Remember the whole die hard thing where they had the page of like racist text. They love to freak on. It's a great story. I mean, you got to look it up. There was a page of a magazine called a game fan went out with like, they put filler text in on a page and accidentally went to print, but it was full of just like a racist shit and saying like it was like, he's all hail the media. He's come somebody who's just like, all hail the media. My knees combat. You know those bastards love to freak on. Military sims. This is a military sim and blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just like and then and then yeah, it got found out and then they what their story was as far as the story was that somebody like to sabotage the magazine. Somebody maliciously went in at the printers and like put that in there. Yeah, no, the issue went off and it was perfect. But somebody some terrible actor because everybody's have to get them, you know, put in a page of this to try to bring them down because they know their Japan coverage is so awesome. It's that they wanted to like alienate that and so they had like an apology in Japanese. But yeah, it was the cover up was way, it was years later, people who worked on it have just said like, no, that was of course. Like they explain exactly what happened. That was just their Lauren Epsom, like, yeah, exactly. That was the placeholder. It was, it was the bastards. And I have like, you know, a famous, no, not famous. But I mean, I have a connection to this famous incident because I was working at the Long Island diehard game club store at the time. And Julie, who Mark just named, I still remember that I was in the store when Julie called like frantically, take them all off the shelves. You have to remove that page from the magazine, blah, blah, blah. And I heard this and I just took like 10 of them. That's why I have a bunch in the shrink wraps. It's like worth money. Over the years, I've given them out. And I think I only have like two or three left. But yeah, I think they couldn't call every, you know, fucking, I mean, I think was in every like super market and whatever. They could call their stores, get them to remove it. But like, yeah, they it was out there. So I had the cyber morph reviews. Oh, yeah, the famous, at least a lot of great stories about the magazine guy wrote on the high on acid. I thought I was like basically changed his life. It's like garbage as a total piece of shit. Yeah. The punchline to this game is actually seeing what this game looks like. It's a Jaguar 3D polygonal game. Like runs it like 10 frames a second. It's like abstract art barely moving. And it's like, there was like life before cyber morph and then everything changed. And it's just like, what the fuck? Even reading that before knowing the story was like, what the fuck is going on in this guy's life? Like, this is wild. And then yeah, the story came out that somebody actually dosed him in the water cooler. Oh, like it wasn't even his choice. No. Oh, wow. He wasn't aware of it either. And like really thought he was just, you know, having a amazing time. Wild West. I mean, he knew he was having an amazing time. Well, no, no, no, no, play cyber morph. He thought he was. I get what you're saying. Yeah, so on some level he was. That's true. It was not the games to the game's credit that he is his amazing time though. What do you got time for one, two more? Yeah, maybe one. I think we got some big finish. Yeah, big finish. All right. This question comes from Maddie, your top three games of 2025. Go. Oh, oh, that's very easy for me because I don't often play a ton of like new releases throughout the year because I fixate, right? Like if I'm playing a game, I'm playing that game until I'm done with it. And then I start another one. But I was extremely fortunate. I got a silk song, Expedition 33 and Blueprints in that order. That's okay. You don't have to make an order if you don't want to. Well, if you want something to argue about, I think I would put, if I had to pick a top one, I would put Expedition 33 only because it's an entirely new IP, like it was an entirely new from scratch thing versus silk song, which was, you know, improving upon perfection. Like Hollow Knight was spectacular. So those are great Blueprints. I feel like because it came out earlier in the year, people kind of forgot about it. But that game is incredible. And I really like Blueprints. Yeah. How how much time did you end up spending in it? I didn't end up spending much more than when we talked about it on the on the podcast. I ended up like watching a few videos and like, okay, so you know how deep it goes. I don't though, because they were speed runs. And so it's mostly speed runs. Yeah. So I don't know all of the, I do still have some part of me that's like, oh, yeah, I want to kind of like find that stuff out for myself. But yeah, because it's it there is so much. And like, it's absolutely a case of you don't know how much you don't know. Right. Until you suddenly find out, oh, wait, there's, oh, shit. Right, right. And it's, there's a lot there. And I haven't, you know, finished it either. But it is. Yeah. I got, I got pretty far. And from what I can tell, I have a little bit left to do. But you know, it's always. Yeah. Hard to figure out. Gabe, you had to write down your top 10. Yeah. I've published author on this topic. Do you want to quickly do all 10? No, three of you don't want to shout out to start menu.co.uk that hosted it. Number 10. Luminous arise. Number nine. We made the list. You made the list. I thought I was just barely lost. So the name, this list is actually called my top 10 without Metroid Prime 4. Even with Metroid Prime 4, you're still in it. All right. We etched it out. Number nine, Hyrule Warriors, Age of imprisonment. Now I feel bad. Number eight, two point museum. Number seven, Pokemon Legends, Z2A, six, it's Monster Hunter Wilds, five, Distranding, two, four, Dyson Sphere program, three World of Warcraft, Legion Remix, two, Silent Hill, F, one Final Fantasy Tactics, the Evil East Chronicles. Nice. Wow. I really want to play Silent Hill. I really, I wish, I wish I had had time. If I could go back in time and do the break over again, I would have hoped to have played Silent Hill on my steam deck all the holiday. You played it? Yeah. That's in my top three, I think. The story is what's really well done. My top three would be, I don't end not in this order because I don't know. Well, I think number one is probably clear obscure. I mean, if I think of everything this year, like, it's not perfect. I didn't, I have issues with it, but I think overall, I had a great time with it. Silent Hill, F, is up there in the top three. Probably, it's great. It's weird to say this because I worked on it, but I really loved Age of imprisonment, played the shit out of it, and did all the DLC, 100% and everything. I had a really good time. This after it came out, not while we were working on it. And then I sort of, bonus pick is Final Fantasy Tactics, because it's not a new game, but it, but the remaster playing through it was amazing. It's just an incredible game. I'll go, my list is lame, just because I haven't, I've barely played three games this year. So Lumina's rise is definitely on there, just because you played it, played the crap out of it, but I still, I still like playing that game. Like I will still jump on and play, and I get my ass kicked sideways, and multiplayer are still consistently, but yeah, the single player, and I played a lot of different versions of those levels, and I still really like that game. And UFO 50, I've only discovered this year, and I really love that. I'm still working my way through that. Again, it meets me where I'm at, what I need to be, which is like, hey, I got maybe five minutes, maybe 20 minutes, I need to, like something that's going to be fun to play, not a lot of rules, not a lot of shit that I need to learn, but also that it is like, has depth and can be satisfying if I do end up having a bunch of time. And specifically party houses is the game that I really like the most out of that. But I'm also just playing new games of that time. It really does feel like going back to an old arcade, and there's a new game there. And it's like, what the hell is this? And it could just be some new genre or some new freaked, you know, thing that was like, what are even the rules of this, this game? And you can find them out really quickly, but it's not a pre-set conclusion that is like, okay, this is a survival horror game. This is a, you know, first person shooter or whatever. It was just like, Jack in the Beanstalk, what the fuck is Jack in the Beanstalk? Like, how is this going to work? That sense of discovery and newness and stuff of school. And I guess I struggle for a strong third, but I did get mentioned Monster Hunter. I did briefly have kind of the old Monster Hunter feels a little bit. I didn't get to play too much with other people, but I think there was a night or two. I got to play with others. And that was really fun again. It was, it was too easy again. It was even playing with other people. It didn't feel as satisfying as it did. And I never really got into the like wanting a certain thing and finally getting it with armor and stuff. It just seemed like it was much easier to get the stuff that I wanted. And then I just went onto the next thing. So it was not like the rekindling the old flame, but it was kind of like a like a one-night stand with whatever where I was like, oh yeah, those were great times. Like kind of like had a brief memory. I would hope if they still do the old like the G formula, you know, I don't know, they don't call it that anymore, but whatever they call it that this time they kind of bring it back because they learn from whatever the mistakes that happened. And then they're usually really great. Those updates. All the pieces are there too. Like you could even with an update, you could really, I think, quote unquote, fix a lot of the stuff with that game. But to some extent, the cats out of the bag, because people played that first 40 or 50 hours. But I loved it when I did. But then I don't, I don't have like the urge to go back. Yeah. Yeah. Blueprints too. I really liked as a new like, oh, I'm thinking about this game differently than I have about games before. And even though I, you know, only put maybe four or five hours into it, I'd really respect it. I think it's a really interesting game. Yeah. Chey, what about you? Kingdom come deliverance to. Oh, okay. Really good. Yeah, I played that a lot. I didn't finish it. But the writing is top notch. That's really, really, just really grounded, really, really good stuff. Like in the story of wildly popular games. Oh, is it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was a while ago. I was like the spring. That was kind of early or the show, right? Yeah. Yeah. I was like, first off, I remember everyone talking about that when the, when the Star Wars game last year, I mean, sorry. When the, uh, that's when the Ubisoft Star Wars game came out. It was like around the same time everybody's talking about those two games. But oh, Star Wars. Star Wars, the Star Wars, wait, what was the outlaws? Outlaws, right? Outlaws. Yeah. Yeah. Outlaws came out this year. That was a fall of 24. Oh, it was 24. Okay. 24 was 24. I think it was fall of 24. Okay. So like the switch version of outlaws came out last year. 25. Oh, maybe that's what I was like, you know, I mean, yeah, you guys should try it. It's, it's a really interesting RPG. Like it's first, completely immersive first person. Like the combat is like clunky, but you're, you know, you're a knight. So it's slow. It's nice. It's really interesting. Yeah. It's like a sim. How was? Yeah. Um, Hey, these two, you know, I'm just a huge fan of Greco Sovins' writing and wit and the gameplay. So I, I 100% of the first game, not even near finishing the second one, but it's, to me, it's harder for some reason. But yeah, but I'm really enjoying it still. Um, and then the last, I guess it's be clear obscure. Like, you know, like I didn't finish it either, but I'm on like chapter three. Um, it's good. I mean, if you're, if you're there, you're like right at the end. It would not take you, you could be shorter as, because chapter two is pretty, so it's like lost Odyssey and that, like it opens up a lot, but you can, you know, I don't know, just for like a lot of, but you can, a lot of, yeah, tons of reading. Do you read all the stuff? I did, because they were really well written and really well translated. Yeah. So up to that part, I love that game. I can talk about the game forever, but yeah, anyway, you can go to the end. I mean, it's funny. It might be hard. Like, I, I did everything there was to do first and then went to the end and just like steamroller, the boss and was like, Oh, that was kind of anti steamroller. So I, you said steamroller. I just, steamrolled. What, you run them over with a steamroller. Let's introduce that. I want steamroller. 26, let's start. I want to start correcting people who say steamrolled and say steamroller. That's good. Because it is. I like it. I like it. I mean, I didn't mean to make, I wasn't saying lost odyssey to make the connection, but then it occurred to me after like lost odyssey is effectively like, like Claire obscure is basically like, Oh, they said that very, very clearly. Yeah, I feel like very much inspired by when they said Sakaguchi, it was specifically lost odyssey that they were talking about. They were not talking about, but yeah, it just occurred to me like that, that is very much like quest or anything. No, it's very much a lost odyssey. Interesting. Yes. Inspired game. 100%. Yep. Lost odyssey's great game holds up. So one reason my Xbox is still hooked up because I really don't play anything else on Xbox anymore, but I would want to finish that discourse. Yeah, I still have the disc like the 360 disc. Yeah, me too. Me too. Me too. It's always interesting when a game that is, I mean, well regarded, but not very successful at all, inspires like the next big thing. Yeah, I feel like if lost odyssey came out today, it would have done much better than when it came out because when it came out, it was just like, Oh, this made a fake Final Fantasy because he's not making Final Fantasy. No, actually, this is a really good game, but just I'm trying to think of other examples of that phenomenon, though, but I did the one that comes to mind is like harvest moon and and fucking what's it called? Story of seasons. We don't know. Start your value. I love that whenever, by the way, whenever Wario 64 posted about lost odyssey, he has, it's his Final Fantasy 12 with the lost odyssey art behind it. No, what? Because because lost odyssey was basically like the game that he made after he left. Right. Right. Right. Right. And it's better than Final Fantasy 12. So wait, was it 12? Not 12. I'm on 13 maybe. I'm yeah, I remember 13. Mark, you were talking about Monster Hunter being too easy, but that's wild. So I finished it this year. I mean, it's not my favorite list, but it's the first Monster Hunter I got into because like, oh, the previous ones I couldn't get into. Right. And in this one, I was like, Oh, it's now I finally, it clicked. And there's a lot of great stuff in there. Accessibility wise and like quality of life type stuff in there and like the traversal. It just, it lacks maybe now that you're into it. If you go back to even like world, there, there is, I think something to be said for like, it's a little more challenge like to to is the challenge coming from like worse mechanics or like lack of quality of life or is it? No, it's just coming from more like, hey, if you don't really know this monster, you're going to get wrecked. Like, you have to know the tells you're going to have to fight it a couple times and either get really fucking hurt and barely scraped by or die. Like, it was much more of a like fight for your life than it was when it launched. I heard it's been better since the updates. I know they've sort of added some of that back, but at least when it launched, it was pretty easy to just rip right through. If you were a veteran of the series, which was kind of a thing, rip right through and also playing by yourself. Okay. Nice. And also doing it by yourself, rather than needing, you know, other friends. Right. Right. It's interesting to hear you say that that the the newest one was the one that kind of got you into it. Because like, I have not played them. I tried the one before this bounced off at real hard because it was just like, rice. Oh, rice bounced off at real hard because I was like, why are there so many tutorials? I don't not fucking understand anything if this is not fun. Like, I tried and it just didn't work out. And then I bought I got the the newest one did not bounce off it in the same way. I thought it was a lot more fun played it for two days and then just kind of never touched it again. I didn't just like it, I think I just kind of wanted to play something else more. I remember I really liked making my character and I really liked how she looked. And I really liked the dudes around me and the lady who upgrades her weapons is like, supremely hot. So that always helps. And I got to like a foresty part and was like, that was a fun day of gaming and turned it off and just never seen it on again. Wow. Yeah, I thought it was. Yeah, I was really into the whole outfits thing like making outfit. Fashion Hunter. I wasn't into the forged lady though. What? Yeah. What? Gemma. I wasn't too injury there. Yeah. What? Who do you think was hot? I bet critical conversations here. No one part hitting journalism, especially hot. But what? What about the lady with the short hair who's like in charge of all of you in the armor? She was better. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. The thing with the girl, you're talking about the girl with like the blonde hair and the big boobs. The fake boobs. She's just like she was too. That's what it is. It's just looked too. Why make them look fake? They're already fake boobs. Why not make them look like real? I'm suddenly feeling terrible that like I as the lady on this panel have initiated it. It's like the bomber jacket. The bomber jacket. 26 already. The bomber jacket thing. Like, you know, and just like, you know, trying too hard. Wow. On that note, Gabe, speaking of trying too hard. What? That's going to do it for this episode, I think. Should we wrap it up there? Yeah. Same else I want to talk about like any special gifts you got, anything you watched over the holiday season, any recommendations for shows, or how about that stranger thing's ending? Oh, nobody saw that coming. Oh, when that person died, I was like, when that person didn't die, though, that too. Yeah. Avatar. Wow. He did it. What a waste of a James Cameron man. Like, keep making those movies. How many of them are there now? How many are there? There's too many. There's too many. Because I remember the first one came out my first year in Japan. And my friends and I went to see it over Christmas break at the movies. It was my first time going to the movies here. We were all very excited. And the thing that I remember the most about that entire day was my friend bought like a carton of apple juice to take into the theater, which you're obviously not supposed to do. And he had this carton of apple juice in his jacket. And the movie theater that we went to, you had to take an elevator to get to your floor for your, where your movie is going to be. And they had an elevator attendant. We're standing at the elevator. The attendant has pressed the button and we're just standing there in silence waiting for the elevator to come. And this carton of apple juice just drops out of his jacket onto the floor, just thunk. And we're all just like, oh, fuck. And he just like picks, like bends down and picks it up and puts it back in his car. And the elevator attendant is just like politely looking at the ceiling, didn't say a fucking thing. And the best part about that is that was more entertaining than Avatar. That is what I remember most. The next thing I remember is the fucking name of the mineral was really stupid. Oh, he's like I don't know, like go back to like, I think he's making a new terminator that nobody asked for. By the way, these are like some of the most watched popular globally phenomenon movies ever of all time. Like, we have to acknowledge that. Like, these are, these things make billions of dollars. Like, they're huge. I have a feeling it's going to be the last one, but we'll see. We'll see. There's a show that's the older show, but it's on came out on Netflix, at least in Japan more recently called killing Eve. I don't know if anybody's ever heard of it. It's very good. It's really old, right? It is. Yeah. Maybe like Sandra O's five or six years. Oh, that's the main one of the main leads who I don't really like at all for some reason, but she's fine in this. It's just really, really. Well, we're in good writing. Interesting plot. I won't even say anything more about it. Fine. Just okay or fine. Like fine. Fine. F-O-Y-N-E, fine. F-O-Y? Yeah, fine, fine. Noice. Purpose continued to show the majority of that. That got finally got my wife to start watching Breaking Bad again because she had stopped after like every, a lot of people stopped at the baths up, like very early. Oh, wow. That's what I was like. That's what amazing show. No, I know, but I mean, understandably, it's like, it's a little too much. You know, but so she went a couple episodes past that. So I'm trying to get, so I want her to get caught up so we can watch better calls all because I watched the first like two and a half seasons of that and then probably met her and then it was like, okay, I'm not going to watch this anymore until she's caught up and then it's been years now better. So I watched the first couple of seasons of the show. I watched the first like two or maybe three. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's much better. I mean, I liked it in the beginning, but I heard it gets great. Yeah, amazing. So I mean, I actually ended up liking it more than British. You're one of those. I'm one of those. Come on. Yeah, it's good. No, but it's good. Not better than Breaking Pat, especially that first season and a half in retrospect is kind of like. They'll been by the end. By the end of the other stuff. I mean, I was like, okay, you have to do this. That was a, what's the end? It really got good. It got like my brother, the guy from Laverne Shirley, though, which one is he? No, I'm squeaky. Yeah, that's it. Squinty or Lenny? I don't know. Lenny or squeaky. Yeah. R.I.P. Penny Marshall. R.I.P. Rob Brian. And that fucked up. Yep. Yeah, that was why you got to bring that on the pot. You brought up Penny Marshall man. I mean, come on. I'm not going to think about it. That's what she died like of cancer like 30 years ago. No, but she was his wife for a while. I mean, that's true. Find us on our homepage. All my fault. 8-4.jp. We got a threat on Resetera. Feel free to leave a comment. You can leave five star reviews on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to the show. Finally, you can follow the show on Blue Sky at eight four play. You can follow me on Blue Sky at Gabriel Delayone. Catch my top 10 article on startmenu.co.uk. We got it the first time. Tina, where can they find you? I'm Tina. But two teas in a Z. Mark. I am Mark back. Do. And by the way, while you're at it, send us a list of questions. We don't have to do this. We can do this more than once a year. It could be a regular segment on the show. Who knows? Groundhog Day is not that far away. Good questions. These things could happen. We got some leftover. I'm John. I am John TV. Jay, where can people find you in the social area? I am Jay Space, C-H-E-S-P-S-E-E-E- at Blue Sky. Nice. I think that will do it. So, yes, from all of us, very happy new year. And I hope you had very safe, fun holidays season. Hey, look at the time. It's 12.26. Look at that. Wow. 20.26 exactly that we're in right now. It was faded. A New Year's miracle. Just like the fact that this show, even on our holiday, we love you so much. So until the Patreon is up, you can support us by telling a friend if you enjoyed the show. And if you didn't, you can keep that to yourself. And you can also just stop listening, really. You don't have to listen to every episode. You don't have to listen to the end, especially. But yeah, let do let us know if you enjoyed this more kind of freewheeling. Talk, as always, we love to hear the feedback. And until two weeks from now, who wants to take us out. Mark talked about, well, are you baked in playing? I guess it was okay, in time, but you mentioned a synth. And I was thinking the last time that I messed around with anything like that was at E3 in the hotel room with you. You had some app on your phone. We were totally stoked. We were just making music. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought it was the greatest music ever. Did you keep it? Did you listen to it with a clearer mind? Unfortunately, no. Lost history. A great, a true great. But John, maybe you could drop another couple double mergers maybe at the end of any other terrible tragedies you want to pop in on the end. [Music]