I'm Anthony Sitko from Capes on the Couch, a show that examines the mental health issues of comic book characters. Part of the Guinea Geek network. Just like the show you're checking out now, shows on the network are individually owned and opinions expressed may not reflect others. Find other stupendously geeky shows@gunnegeeknetwork.com.
Thank you.
Um.
War, what is it good for evil minds that plot destruction, politicians hide themselves away. They only started the war. They rally around the family with a pocket full of shelves. It's always the old to lead us into wars and always the young to fall. Nothing changes, just rearranges. And the band played on, played on, played on. And welcome to play comics, where once again, we are here talking to a wonderful friend of the show, looking at a video game based on a comic property, kind of, and I don't care. I decided that it counts. Today I am here with, once again, Carrington Martin to look at Gundam battle assault. Carrington, how are you today?
Hey, I'm doing pretty well. We're recording this on New Year's Eve, and so it's going, man. 2023 is now behind us, and I'm looking forward to 2024. But first, before looking forward to what's coming in the year, I'm looking forward to recording this with you today. My good friend Chris.
I'm very excited that you're excited about this because we've had to push this around a little bit because life is stupid and people need to tell us plans that we're involved in. That's not important to everybody else.
This is true. This is true. But, yeah, we're here now.
That is what is important. The other important thing is you somehow haven't been here. You have been on, like, 17,000 of episodes here, but you have not been here since episode number 64, where we looked at Superman 64.
What is up with that? I don't know. Again, life, man, it sucks sometimes. I haven't even done podcasting in general in quite some time, so it feels good to kind of, like, get back in the saddle as well, because I miss it, man. I miss it. Superman 64, I remember that with you and how great that game is. Sarcasm. If you guys cannot pick up on.
That or not listen to the episode and find out because one of us actually liked it and thinks it's worthwhile.
There you go. There you go.
But today we are here talking about something that you love that you told me you have to be on an episode for. And even if you had to be on an episode with somebody else that you had never talked to in your entire life. It's Gundam. So, Carrington, what is it about Gundam that you love? Because I've been a horrible person, I still haven't really gotten into it. Even though it's giant fighting robots.
I was going to say, what more could you want other than giant fighting robots with the veil of very heavy political theming behind it? And it is done wonderfully and beautifully. It's been a manga because it is japanese. For those of you who don't know, it is japanese manga. It's also an anime, which is how I was introduced to it as a kid. And there are several mainline series, there are several spin offs which we will get into because of Gundam battle assault. And it's not even just like big robots fighting each other, like your typical american type of storyline. When I say as a kid, you're not picking up on a lot of the heavy political themes, but you just realize that there was a lot of just drama going, like, oh, there's good guys and there's bad guys and there's like, kind of good guys and kind of bad guys and twists and turns. I did pick up on that stuff as a kid, but now that I'm older, I feel like I can appreciate it even more now for what it is. And I will not talk about SD Gundam.
How safe is it to get into Gundam, considering that the entire world is trying to implode.
For your mentality? It's actually pretty easy. Still, it's not even like a reflection of our political environment today or what's going on. Well, it can be, I guess, but it won't trigger anything. How's that?
That's very good for me to know because I was honestly worried about that. It's probably a very big subconscious reason why I hadn't really tried to get into it yet.
That is totally fair. I mean, my favorite series is Gundam Wing, which is where a lot of the characters come from in this game. And I think that's a good one to start with. But that's just my personal opinion because that was my first introduction to the whole universe.
And Gundam Wing was the one that we got on tsunami, right?
Yes, sir. Yep.
So where does Gundam Wing fall in the overall Gundam timeline?
I don't know. I don't remember. I used to be really into Gundam Wing and used to remember a lot of that stuff. But I'm 30 years old now. I casually watch Gundam now as a whole thing, so I don't remember. So I apologize. And I'm sure there's people out there. When I say there's a lot of series, there's a lot of spin offs. It's hard to kind of keep track of them all as well. But if you watch Gundam Wing, it's not like you're going to be totally lost either, in a way. Again, people are probably going to be mad at me, but it's kind of like a final fantasy where you can kind of get into one and feel like, get what's going on without having to play all of them. They're almost like their own thing, but at the same time, there is an entire universe within Gundam, so they do all connect still. But you don't necessarily have to watch it from the very beginning. Actually, maybe not. Less Final Fantasy, more Star wars, because they were not released chronologically.
Are you suggesting that people should watch the prequel trilogy?
I never said that. Never said that. Okay, good.
I just wanted to make sure.
I'm just saying you can get in, you can get out. There's even series that are, like I said, like I said before, we won't mention SD Gundam. There are a couple of them that are kind of outside the universe. Yeah, there's a couple outside the universe. So I'll just leave it at that. That are still with the Gundam name slapped onto it.
There are definitely some series that I have recorded with people but haven't released yet. I do know that there are some crazy series, some of which are much cuter than others, some of which are much more worthwhile than others. And most of that discussion is going to come in the battle assault two episode, which has been recorded already, but we're recording this 1 second. Whatever. They're going to get released first because, I don't know, we're just going to do it out of order kind of.
Because that's just like Star wars.
Yes, just like Star Wars. Gundam, for me, when it came out was just not something that caught on to the attention of me or when or my friends. Oh, gosh, when was it that came out? I'm trying to remember what grade I was in.
I was going to say, you're a little bit older than me, Chris, but I'm also shocked you're not that much older, but you're slightly older than me, so I am shocked you didn't get into it because the tsunami blocked me and I was glued to the tv every day from like four to six or four to seven or whenever the tsunami block was.
All right, so the tsunami premiere was 2001, so that would have put me the summer between middle school and high school. And, gosh, I don't even remember what was going on that year. I mean, nothing important in the history of anything happened that year at.
Yeah, nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing. It was a total normal year for the United States of America. Totally joking with that, by the way. Again, if people can't pick up on that obvious sarcasm, but yeah, 2001. I can't realize that tsunami came out. 2001. For some reason, I thought it was before then.
Well, tsunami might have been before that. I was jumping straight to when Gundam premiered on it.
Okay, got you. Now that makes more sense. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. Because I'm like, I know I watched Dragon Ball Z before then, but that also makes sense.
Oh, I mean, dragon Ball Z probably started the day I was born, and they finally finished throwing that punch right before this came out.
Right? Wow, what a way to introduce Gundam wing in 2001. I'm surprised censorship allowed it, but also.
It did premiere in July, so it was before everything. They didn't exactly know that they were going to have to go back and retitle Jimmy E. World albums and recall games.
Fair. Fair. Because there's nothing that ties itself to any event that happened here in the United States that happens. There's no ties. But the amount of censorship that happened once that event happened, like taking in the air tonight by Phil Collins off airwaves for a long time, stuff like that. So you never know what was going to be censored, what wasn't. But Gundam Wing, I don't think was. Other than the normal conversion from Japan to America, there are still some. In Japan, the robots bleed blood, but in America, they bleed oil.
That's one that actually makes sense to me because last time I checked, robots didn't have blood.
Yeah, exactly. It didn't always happen in all the gundams. But if I remember right, Gundam Wing, that was a thing. I think I'd have to look into that. I just remember being told that as a kid, and I kind of ran with it. So I could be really toy off base with that one.
Or somebody could have been lying to you.
Exactly. Yeah. That sounds like something like everything in the early 2000s.
Just like the Laura Croft's nudity code.
Or. I'm trying to think of anything else that may have been crazy back in the day. I don't know. There were all kinds of things back in the 90s that happened in early 2000s when it came to gaming and tv and stuff like that, but I remember hearing that, so I ran with it.
Gundam, though, to me, seems like a giant franchise, which now, thanks to you and a couple of other people I've talked to, I know I don't have to go to the very beginning to catch up on everything. It seems like kind of like comics, where I can get into it at a better getting off start than just picking randomly. But also, I might be confused about a couple of things once I start. More so than starting a brand new series of brand new things even, but nothing too bad. And then eventually, pretty quickly, I'll know what's going on well enough to know what's going on. That's a wonderful way to say it because I'm a professional.
And I will say mobile suit Gundam is like the first of the series and can be a little tough to get into. Like, in my opinion, it's a little on the slow side and the animation is kind of outdated because it did come out in the 80s, but it is still fantastic. I feel like Gundam Wing, however, because it did come out, I believe it was in the 90s. It's easier to digest while still covering a lot of heavy themes. And the animation, obviously, the budget by that time was much higher. So the animation's better and it's easier on the eyes a little bit. Those kinds of, like, little things like that, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, mobile suit Gundam, fantastic. It's the OG. It started the whole thing, and it is great. Fantastic. But for a new person, I could see might having trouble watching it as opposed to some of the later ones, if that makes sense.
On the other hand, I'm 37, so those kind of cartoons, the older, slower ones are what I grew up on, so it's something I'm used to. It's not a big deal.
Okay, fair enough. I just wanted to make sure that I put that warning out kind of thing. But that's just my opinion. Your guest that did the sequel to battle assault might feel differently. Like, everyone has their own opinion, but that's just my opinion.
Which Gundam series is your favorite?
That's a very good question. I will say my heart, I guess, still belongs with Gundam Wing. Just because I grew up with those characters. I think they're all written very well. G suit Gundam I like a lot as well, because that one's really cool. That's the only one from my memory I could be wrong. So in normal Gundam, you have people battling mechs. They've got controls, they have things and buttons they press. But G suit Gundam, that's where once they entered in the gundams like a suit came over them and they used their whole bodies and stuff to control the gundams. Kind of like a Pacific rim kind of. I just. I think that's also really cool. It's so good and so well done. I would say those two are probably my top favorites, but they also get better from there. Blood orphans is a recent one. It is top notch. I have no complaints about that one either.
It sounds like I'm just going to have to pick one and go for it.
Yes, absolutely. Because I can sit here. If I looked up the list of all the gundams, because there's a lot of them, I could be like, oh, that one's great, and that one's great, and that one's great, and that one's great. But I'm just going to keep it. Those three. How's that?
Let's just say that if we looked at a list of all the gundams, I would definitely have to look at it on my portrait style monitor because it's not going to fit on the landscape monitor. How much experience do you have with the Gundam manga side of things? Or is it all anime for you?
It's all anime for me. I didn't grow up with mangas, really, or comics in general, so a lot of that stuff is new to me.
Yeah, growing up for me, I knew manga existed. I knew they were comics, but different somehow. And most of the time, I remembered that. You read them backwards. Yes.
And it is still that way. Even when you buy them here in America and they're translated, that's how you still read them.
Well, I've seen people do with the art. I don't remember what it was for specifically, but if you take the art and you flip it over, it exposes a lot of little. Well, exposes might be the wrong word. It either exposes or creates a lot of little artistic mistakes because it was made to be looked at in a certain direction. And when you flip it, it's suddenly not the way it was made to be looked at. And so angles can get wrong, lines can get wrong, all kinds of crazy little things. So it makes perfect sense to me that you would just continue to have to read it what we consider backwards.
Yes, 100%. And I feel like if you were to ask me also like Carrington, of all the bigger, big mech animes, mangas storylines out there, Gundam was really the OG that kind of set it all off without it. Just think about transformers here in America. Gundam Wing is bigger than that in Japan. That's how much Japan loves the Gundam franchise. I feel like transformers here in America. People love it. It's recognizable. But I'm sure I could find people here that I'd be like, it's know, just okay. But Japan, they love Gundam. They love it. They have built life sized gundams in Japan that can walk nice. That's how much Japan loves. Gunnar puts our love to transformers, to shame.
That is super cool. And I wish that we could do things like that.
That's what I'm saying. That's exactly what I'm saying. When we love things, we just buy the toys or the games or whatever. Japan's like Nabra, we're going to recreate this in real life.
Yeah, we buy toys and we definitely don't cover our entire desk with a.
Lot of spider webs, which there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just trying to get out there, like the difference of culture, of how we express our love for our franchises.
It just pains me that Japan can get all behind Gundam. And yeah, you're going to get arguments about which one is the best and stuff, but that's just part of being a fan. It's a part of it that I love. And we will never have anything that, no, no.
And that's saying a lot because we do make a lot of cool stuff here within our media here in America, but we never take it to the next level. Individuals might take it to the next level with some cool cosplay, but to me that's still small scale. That is your individual thing and you're trying to express how you love it. But as a country, what one thing do we love as a know a majority loves as a country to where we can say we love this thing, we're proud of this thing we're going to show our appreciation for. And I can't think of one thing America has produced where we show that kind of love.
We're going to ponder over that as I drop some promos for a few other shows.
For all the latest in Transformers news, listen to the Transmissions podcast network. Every Wednesday we have the flagship transmission show about all the Transformer toy news that you have ever asked for. Every Friday we have alt mode, which talks about all the comics, movies and tv shows and any other media that Transformers are appearing in. And every other Monday we have a new episode of Empire of Rust, our live play rpg podcast with an original Transformers story. Check us out@transmissionspodcast.com.
Video games are a unique medium. They can tell stories, immerse us in strange, fantastic worlds, blur the very boundaries of our reality. But at the end of the day, video games are fun, whatever fun is to you. I'm Jeff Moonan. And I am Matt, aka Stormageddon. And on fun and games, we talk about the history, trends, and community of video games. It's a celebration of all the games we play and all the fun we find within them. And there's so many more games out there. So we hope you'll share in that conversation with us. Fun and games podcast with Matt and Jeff. Find us on certainpov.com or wherever you get your podcasts and happy gaming.
Those are some great shows to check out. But first, let's finish up with this one. So, Carrington, I did not think of anything that we love as much as Japan loves. Did you?
No, I didn't. Unless guns count. But we're very split on that also, so I can't even say guns anymore.
Yeah.
But there's nothing.
Speaking of guns, Gundam Battle Assault, it not only has the word gun in it, sometimes the robots have guns.
This is true.
Gundam Battle Assault was released in November of 2000 over in Japan, a little bit later here in North America because obviously they had to see that North America actually liked it before they took the time to localize a game. And localizing a game is what they did because they took an older Gundam fighting game, kind of morphed it into being battle assault for us, which I think was a wonderful move because then nobody asked why we didn't get the original game created by Natsume and Bandai. Natsume has done nothing that we have looked at on the show, but they have definitely done some things that you've heard of. Harvest moon, anyone? Yeah, or at least the newer ones because I have the official Netsume site up right now and they don't go older than PS three and PSP, but I know that they're older than that and I just don't feel like looking up another list.
I was going to say Nazi May is an old company. I'm pretty sure they've been around since the 90s or 80s. They've been around for a hot minute, give or take.
Actually, I say all that and I am going to look on a different because, yeah, like Natsume knows what they're doing. They did a lot of converting things to different stuff and things like that, but they also did a lot of games that we know about over here. You had Powerblade on the NES, Shadow of the ninja.
If I could, if I may, real quick. Natsume is like the THQ for Japan, where they just take a bunch of licenses, try and see what works and go from there.
That makes a lot of sense. And I'm glad that you brought it up like that because I scroll a little bit more and there's Power Rangers and WWF and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Yeah, they've done a lot. They have done. Seriously, they've done a lot of stuff over the years. And that's just me going from memory. I didn't know about Buffy, but I do remember Power Rangers.
Buffy might be involved in some weird co working on things because I didn't take time to actually look at what the Wikipedia list said. Bandai, on the other hand, we have looked at a bunch of games that they have worked on here on the show. Every single Dragon Ball and Digimon game that we have looked at. Dick Tracy, another Gundam game that we have looked at. 79 rise from the Ashes muscle the Rocketeer. So there are plenty of games that Bandai has done. They know what they're doing, or at least they put things out. The story of battle assault, though, is really interesting to say. I'm not sure if there is one. Even on the scale of fighting games.
Having a story, it's super basic, which is why I was disappointed in it personally. Now, I did not play this when it first came out because I did not have a PlayStation to play it on. So this is me as a 33 year old man playing it in modern age. If people like this game, I do not want to crap all over it and be like, oh, it's so bad. It's so terrible. This is just me now getting into it because I do not have the console that it was released on. Yeah, the story, to me, it was like your average cash buy in fighting game storyline. You have the good guy, who in this case is Hiro Yui, who's from Gundam Wing, and he's just fighting robots until he gets to the final boss, and then that's it.
We could actually go through the story mode script and kind of analyze it a little bit, but there is no need to because every single fight is, oh, hi, there's another person. Why are you fighting me? Because one of three reasons. Okay, well, I beat you. Oh, well, there's somebody else who's going to try to stop you. Oh, hey, there's a person. And it just keeps cycling like that. That is seriously about it. And even on the scale of Street Fighter, oh, you're just fighting random people to get into a tournament or mortal kombat, where those are super basic, but for some reason, it works with them over here with Gundam. I feel like it might just be suffering from the fact that even if we didn't know when we played this when we were little what the whole giant Gundam story is, we knew that there was a whole giant Gundam story.
Yes. And it's almost disappointing because it's supposed to be set in the Gundam Wing universe again, which is the one I was introduced to, the one I essentially kind of grew up with in a way. I've watched that series more than once, and I was like, this is super basic. I would think they would put something into it that makes it stands out a bit more. But no, as far as story is concerned, it's super generic, super basic as we've already said. And I was just disappointed in that aspect.
And the fact that it's supposed to be set in the Gundam Wing universe is kind of a weird thing as well, because you don't just have Gundam wing characters in this. You have characters from a variety of the Gundam series, which would be cool.
If it was like, hey, I unlocked a character for versus mode. You know what I mean? Like, have, like, a little Easter egg. You got to do this. And you unlock somebody from the previous Gundam stuff, which I think would have been a cool feature because that's not unique to fighting games or just gaming in general. They still tried to work some people in, and it didn't make sense, and I was very confused.
And maybe it's just us looking at it now with, like, just have a stupid hand wave of reason why these universes are coming together. And I'm fine. I don't care if it's a dumb reason. I just want there to be a reason.
Yes, this is a very recent example, and you can crucify me if you want to, but there is a somewhat explanation in the Fortnite universe why Darth Vader would be shooting master chief with a gun.
All right, cool. I can work with that.
There's a. I mean, the reason is just basically, like, there's basically an overlord that tries to pull people from different universes, and that's why we can have different franchises in this game. It works. I'm not super in depth or anything, but it works. Whereas this, it's just like, yeah, here you go. There's characters.
Does that overlord happen to be a giant glove?
No, but that's why it also works in super Smash Brothers, because they're all toys and they come to life and makes them fight each other.
See, nobody complains about super smash brothers stuff. The only complaint people get about super smash brothers characters is that they want their favorite character in there who wasn't in there. Like, it's a stupid reason.
That is very true, but it works for what it is, and I don't complain about it. I don't question why, going from the 64 version to the switch version, why master hand is still around even though you defeat him every single time, but yet it still works in a way. Whereas this, it doesn't even feel like an Easter egg. Where you have characters from different Gundam series, it doesn't even feel like an Easter egg. It almost feels forced to try and get as many people to buy it and like it as much as possible.
The really bad part about that with this game is that they took Gundam battle master that had already existed in Japan, reworked, the story reworked, who was in? Like, they didn't create a game from scratch, but they kind of almost created a game from scratch making this. So it's not like they had to just kind of gloss over things that Japan would know about that we wouldn't.
Which is also another issue I have, because when this game came out, only Gundam Wing would have been out, the OG Gundam would not have been released yet because Gundam Wing was the first gundam we got in America.
On the other hand, big fighting robots. So I'm cool with like, as a game concept that just seems just, I.
Just weird from a, I guess, marketing standpoint to why you would include characters which have not yet been introduced to Americans yet, but yet you're localizing it for us.
Japan does weird things.
What can I say that is true? I mean, as a japanese person, I can also agree with that, but so do Americans.
That is also true gameplay wise. I mean, the game is no street fighter. You're slower, you shoot things, you run out of ammunition because you're not having magical powers. And I think gameplay wise, it works really well because you're in a giant robot, you're going to be slower, you're going to run out of ammo, you're going to overheat. And I really appreciate the fact that you're not going through rounds like you are in a normal one v one fighter. You're fighting until your thing is destroyed. And essentially it's the same thing, but it just works. They took the time to make that work, and I can appreciate that.
It did feel weird to play a fighting game where the characters move slower than I'm used to, but I'm not into, let's say, street Fighter, where it's much faster. You know what I mean? I can't move that. I can't think on that level because it's just not me. So on one hand I appreciate it, but on the other hand, it was just also a huge adjustment as a game.
I like the faster fighting games. I just suck at them, but I like them same. This was just so cool because the way it's presented, you can still see what's going on with your character a little bit because they have that headshot down in the corner. You can see everything overheating. They themed everything out to where it makes sense for what is happening with your giant Gundam suit or depending on who you're fighting against, not so giant Gundam suit because the other one is super huge. It's just beautiful.
I was going to say. You saying it's beautiful like the animation and art for a PlayStation one game, fantastic. It looks gorgeous. The animation is absolutely amazing. I cannot believe how good it looks. That made my heart so happy. I don't want to crap on the game endlessly because there are things that it did super, super well, like next level well, and the animation is top notch for this game. The graphics are top notch for this game.
I'm going to guess that the story mode just overall is one of the things that you didn't like.
It was just disappointing because Gundam is one of. I'm not going to say it is the, because I don't even think it's the best anime out there, but it is definitely up there as one of the best anime or just one of the best franchises out there in general. And so the story is everything when it comes to Gundam, you know what I mean? And so to see it get the short end of the stick, I was like, what is this? What is this? It looks like Gundam. It plays like Gundam, but at the same time, at its core, in a way, it doesn't feel like Gundam, if that makes sense.
Definitely makes sense. Looking at the story mode from a technical perspective as well. It's presented in text boxes and headshots, like not even slightly animated headshots. It's just there's your still image as you read the text box. And I would have loved to have had some voice acting or something in there. On the other hand, I'm happy that there's not horrible voice acting, so I'll take this over. Horrible voice acting all day long.
Absolutely. And I feel like at the time, playing other games from Japan, if it didn't have a. If it didn't have a big budget. A lot of times this is what we got from Japan just to try and appease to mass amount of people. Not just within Japan, but outside of it as well. Because I mean, voice acting did exist in the n 64 PS one era. I mean, just think of Starfox. It is all voice acting. So it's not like it didn't exist back then or the hardware couldn't take it. It could, but a lot of things that came from Japan, I feel like, especially when it was like a anime manga franchise, this is what was made to try and make it easier to localize because you know how hard it is and expensive it is to truly voice act and voice act multiple times as well.
I don't because I've never done it.
That's true. Neither have I. But that's just from, I guess, a logical business standpoint, I guess, is where I'm coming from. Much easier to hire a couple of translators and just have a type away at it instead of recording three, four or five people all at the same time for different languages.
And especially on a game where you don't know exactly what lines are going to need to be used.
Especially for at this era too, of just anime. The amount of changes that are made to dialogues to make it make sense, going from one country to another. Not because of necessarily like, oh, there's no word for this when it's translated. No, it's just cultural differences to try and help people understand things. I know there's a whole, is it dubbed versus sub? And I'm in the middle. I think there are times where dubbed is where you should be and there are times where subbed was where you should be. It's situational.
I mean, there is a perfect solution.
What's that?
Watching both at the same time?
Exactly. Yep.
Overall, this game, from what you're saying, sounds like it's a step in the right direction, but not quite to what Gundam deserves.
Absolutely. That's a great way of putting it. I don't think it's all bad. I don't think it's a bad game at all. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
That's even worse.
I know. Because Superman 64. I am angry at not disappointed. I'm angry at that game. Gundam. Gundam battle assault. I'm disappointed.
That being said, if just in a vacuum where this is the only Gundam game that exists. I know, right? Because I have to take away your answer of no. I'd give them a different game. But would you give somebody this game as a bit of a primer course for getting into Gundam.
No, there's no way. Absolutely no way. I don't think I could show someone this game and then they would be interested in the franchise. There's no way.
See, I did have a friend who told me that he would give somebody this game if they had already had some Gundam exposure. He wouldn't give them this, first off, not at all. But if they had a little bit of exposure to it, then he would give them this and then say, hey, which Gundam suit did you like the best? We're going to get you into that series.
That's a good way of doing it. I could see that for sure. Not a bad idea at all. Because even. Because going from series to series. Yeah. The way that the gundams look, that art changes based on for many different reasons. That's a good way of putting it, for sure. I didn't think about that. But if I'm just, like, giving this person, like, oh, Karen, I heard you love Gundam. I heard about this game, Gundam battles. Should I play it? I don't know about that.
Play it as a fighting game because they're fun. Yeah, that's about it. If you knew somebody who was interested in getting into Gundam, what other comic or manga series would you give them to tell them, hey, it's kind of like.
That'S a good question. And you're talking specifically leaving it in Japan, right? Because I can't say something like, oh, it's Power Rangers on steroids. And even better than that, I mean.
You could, but I think you could get a lot closer.
I would say probably maybe something like, Gurren login. Yeah, gurn Login. Yeah.
I don't know about that one.
It's another giant mech anime. It deals with war and things, and without revealing too much, it's got a bunch of things going on with it. I feel like people are going to get mad at me for saying that, though, because it's just like, oh, it's just one giant robot, Amy for another. But, I mean, it still has a bunch of heavy themes in there. It's emotional. It's got a lot going on with it. So if you guys know Gurren Login.
Is it less sad than grave of the fireflies?
It is less sad, but it is still very sad.
Okay, good. Because as much as I love grave of the fireflies, I hope I never watch it again.
I'm right there with you, honestly. So Gurn Logan still made me cry, but it did not turn me into a fetal position. Life sucks because this sucks. It's just emotional because of certain things that happen. But it's a great series still.
And if anybody wants to yell at Carrington for that choice, first off, don't, because that's mean. But also, I didn't give him any warning, so he had no time to prepare for this question.
100%. And I had to start thinking of different because a bunch of different big mechanics started going through my head. I'm like, that doesn't work. That doesn't work. That doesn't work. And I was like, and then I got the gurn lock and I'm like, yeah, that works.
And then from the game side of things, what game would you give them to convince them to go check out Gundam?
I would give them Transformers Beast wars on n 64 and be like, do you want a better version of this play Gundam?
Nice. I didn't tell him that one either, but it must be a much easier answer.
Yes, because Transformers beast wars is awful. It truly is awful.
For proof, you can go listen to the episode of Transformers Beast wars, which I will have linked in the show notes.
Boom. See, I'm glad you did that game already, because I wasn't sure if you did or not, because that game is awful.
I decided Transformers counts because I have a bunch of friends who like Transformers, and it was an excuse to get them on the show.
There you go. Don't be wrong. I love Transformers. I don't want to take that away from anybody. And Beast Wars, I love that show. But that game is awful.
Yep. Karen said it has been great having you on the show again. If people want to hear more from you, where else can they find you? Around the Internet.
So if you want to follow me specifically on the interwebs, just look me up as Desert Fury 90 on the good old any social media platform, honestly, because I'm elsewhere other than just now x, formally known as Twitter, such as Blue sky. And there's another one I can't remember. But most social media platforms, that's where you can find me. And if you want to follow my show, which we are doing research again, and hopefully we can start back up soon. Shortly. KnK's indie gaming podcast, formerly our indie gaming corner podcast, formerly known as real dudes podcast, because it's just Kyle and myself now, hence the Knk.
No, I knew that. I'm not that bad today.
No, you're good.
I'm so excited for that to come back to, because just the love you two have for indie games and the depth you go into looking at those, it has made me wish that I had newer consoles so that I could get some of those. That's the thing. I listen to y'all's show without being able to play the games most of the time because that's how much fun the show is.
Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. I think what sparked me and Kyle to go as a duo as opposed to a rotating cast, which, if you guys go back through the history of the show, it's definitely a rotating cast. A lot of people noticed, I guess the love and care Kyle and I showed and the chemistry the two of us had, and we still have it to this day. We still have that love and fire for indie games, even if we have not produced an episode in a month or two. Still, if you guys need a suggestion for a great indie game, it's kind of a cheap shot, but I really would highly suggest it and why it's a cheap shot because it just won indie game of the year at the game awards and that is sea of stars. Definitely. Check it out. It is fantastic. If you like games that are basically big homages to old ninety s, two D sprite japanese rpgs, that's exactly what that is. It is wonderful.
Yes, because that is my jam right there.
There you go. There goes a suggestion right there. And if you're looking for something a bit more unique and moody, I would check out dredge. Because they made a horror game out of a fishy game. Yes, I said it. And how does that work? You have to play it to find out.
That sounds weird as heck and I'm going to go check it out.
It is. And it is amazing. Do you love crafty and things?
I do.
You have to check out dredge. You don't have an excuse, my friend. I'm sorry. Those are the rules. I don't make them.
Okay, then I'm going to go check it out because I don't want to break the rules.
Thank you. As always.
If you want to hear more from me, the best place to do that is to head on over to playcomics.com, where there's links to all the social media things. Because blue sky links are very hard to tell you what they are online or in an audio format like this rather, but there's links in the show. Notes and clicking links is so much easier than trying to remember how to spell things, which is probably the second time you've heard that today. If you want to help support the show, you can be like, oh no, look, class or Dan McMahon or Carl Antonovitz and give me money, because this does cost money to make. Or you can just take it and share it with a friend or an enemy or a complete stranger or basically whoever you want, because sharing the show is very good, too, and that's a very good thing, and I would appreciate it very much. Don't forget that play comics is a part of the Gunnegeek.com network, home to shows such as legends of S-H-I-E-L-D where we are back talking about right now. We're talking about the second season of what if we're gonna be rolling into talking about Echo, and then from there we'll see what happens. It's going to be good things. I know that because it's just a good show. If you like the music that I'm rudely talking on top of right now, head on over to soundcloud.com. Best day to check out best days music. But most of all, just grab a game, grab a stack of comics, go find yourself a new favorite character.
Yeah, it really disappointed in that. It was just like, and I just put live.