Ep. 001: Prince of Persia ‘89
Jordan Mechner's Dungeon, Revisited
The argument of this inaugural Low Five Gaming episode isn't really about whether Prince of Persia holds up — it does, and Alex and Luke both know it. What they're actually working through is something quieter and weirder: what it means to return to a game you never beat, one that's been sitting in the back of your brain for thirty-plus years, waiting. Neither of them has cleared all 12 levels. Both of them are probably going back.
Prince of Persia is a 2D action platformer designed, programmed, and essentially willed into existence by Jordan Mechner for the Apple II and released by Broderbund in 1989. The game dropped into a world that wasn't quite ready for it commercially, though it eventually found its audience the old-fashioned way — through ports. Practically every retro system you can name has a version: NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Gear, DOS, and beyond. The SNES port is the outlier of the bunch, with remapped levels and a 90-minute timer instead of the standard 60 — interesting as a curiosity, but not, as Alex puts it, "true Prince of Persia." Metacritic didn't exist in 1989, so there's no score to cite here — the game's legacy is its own review. HowLongToBeat clocks a completion somewhere in the two-to-three hour range, though for most first-timers, those 60 in-game minutes will expire well before the credits do. Luke played a DOS version sourced from the internet; Alex bounced between the Windows 10 Store version and a NES ROM through an emulator, with brief detours into everything else.
What the episode gets into, at length, is how strange and specific this game's design DNA actually is. On the surface it looks like a platformer, and the Mario comparison comes up — but the guys land on something more accurate: it plays like a puzzle box. You move left and right, you backtrack, you feel out the space before you commit. The 60-minute timer hangs over everything, and the instinct is to rush — but Luke makes the point that the game actively trains you out of that. Death resets you to the level start, not a checkpoint, which means you learn every room by dying in it, and then you run it cleaner. It's speedrunning logic baked into a 1989 platformer. The sword combat — parry, slash, step — is simple on paper but has a surprising amount of give. Getting a guard chomped by one of the game's guillotine-style doors while you walk through clean is, by unanimous agreement, deeply satisfying. Luke hit a wall at level 8 that he hasn't solved yet. Alex got taken out by the fat swordsman and called it a day. The shadow prince — your mirror-image doppelgänger — gets a nod of appreciation from both of them. The skeleton fight gets a separate, equally enthusiastic nod.
They also spend real time on the game's cultural context: Persia is modern-day Iran, one of the oldest civilizations on earth, and the game's hero is conspicuously not Persian. Luke doesn't cancel Jordan Mechner over it — it was 1989, different era — but the observation lands. The Ubisoft Sands of Time remake, being developed by Ubisoft India, earns genuine excitement for that reason alone.
Side Quests this episode included Luke's time with the Final Fantasy VII Remake (gorgeous, cinematic, a weekend-only game) and Evil Genius 2 (campy Bond-villain base-builder with fair but real criticisms). Alex came in hot with a PS Vita rabbit hole that produced Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, Enter the Gungeon, Risk of Rain, Super Meat Boy, and a brief pit stop on Immortals Fenyx Rising — originally titled Gods and Monsters until Monster Energy apparently had opinions about that.
This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by the new McDonald's chicken sandwich. Kind of smacks, not gonna lie.
Want to play along? Dust off whatever Prince of Persia port you have sitting around, and see how far you get before the hourglass runs out. Find the full episode wherever you listen to podcasts, and come talk about it in the Low Five Discord. We'd love to know if you've actually beaten level 8.
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Yo, what's up everybody? This is Alex of low five gaming with Luke and Alex. We are super excited to bring you this episode on Prince of Persia. So, without further ado,
Prince of Persia not the new Prince of Persia. But the 1989 Jordan Mechner Prince of Persia, which is funny to me because our last talk we covered Super Metroid and I was thrown back with that one and then it was your turn to pick a game. Yeah, after complaining about how archaic your game was, I really decided.
So we threw way back. Even even further back even harder. Potentially, well, cool man. Let me, let's tell everybody why we chose it though. Why did you go with Prince of Persia for to focus for this month or this past month? So we do have a history with this game that's kind of fun and delightful to dig up.
Shouts out to floppy disks out there and all the landfills or wherever these floppy disks are at. But this is not to be confused with, okay? There's different kinds of pocket Edition that's getting the nitty-gritty to get him. Get them ready, you get them, Graham got original big ones that are like five inches or whatever.
The real flopping, they flash around, right? So, this would be the 3.5 inch hard. Plastic. Puppy disc old technology that you do not see around anymore. So, we had a family computer, which, you know, we could many delightful stories there. But we had a family computer and early early games.
So I don't even have much like these memories are all very fuzzy and I guess we got this floppy disk from a cousin and I don't know. Do we have the full game? Or did we have one of those trials? You know, I was thinking about this today shareware thing, right?
I was thinking about that today and I'm not sure if it was shareware or not, but what I can tell you is it was the full game, okay? But here's the here's the caveat is that it's different yet but continue. Yes. But the deal is, so when you played it though, I think you could play up through maybe the first or second level.
Yeah. I definitely plan on hitting this. But yeah, yeah. But then you had to reference the manual to proceed so like they would you know, scream would come up or basically there was a bunch of different potions. Mm-hmm. And you have to select them, right? So you would have to reference the manual to whatever, they're asking you in the game to do the right potion, and if you didn't pick the right potion, you would straight up just die.
So I think we ended up getting like a copied version of the manual or maybe our cousin borrowed as the manual as well. So there's that and then the neighbor neighbor friend family as well. They had like Apple laptop or something. So I have some confused cross stream memories of where I was playing it and when I was playing it and I don't have any concept of my age or really abilities, but the, the sound and I don't know if we're gonna have a dedicated moment where we're just gonna talk about, like, the sound effects of this game, but there are deeply burned in the pitter-patter as feet.
The door closes like a little gate shut that you started off in that super, super crunchy, Persian style. Like love, love the crunchy, Persian music that they intro on exit levels with and the little delightful noises they make. So, we play this game as kids, and then it's just always kind of been around and that's mostly due to my own curiosity of like, reaching back.
So, I'd get a new computer. And at some point in time, I'd always like, get that itch not reach back and find a DOS file somewhere on the intranets. And yeah, play it and get a little further and all these little things like smack in the tiles above you.
You don't forget where all of those are, right? So the rediscovery of those is kind of funny and then, like your first little sword fight. Yeah. It's a nice little. Nice little milestones. So, how about you, Do you have any other specific memories? You'd like to add there? Yeah, no, it's interesting.
So when you decided that you're gonna throw way way back right? You know, I wasn't opposed to it, but I was like, dang. That's why I haven't dug up that besides excited about it. But it was interesting because it was after our talk about super Metroid. We fired it up on your computer and you kind of did a little run run through for me.
Yeah, I wasn't ready to dip my toes in the waters. I was like I'm I'm not ready. You just play I'll watch you a little bit. Yeah, leave your I believe your first comment was something along the lines of how fluid it was and you're like oh you were for real for real been play time that I was like uh yeah immediately a bunch of memory started coming back right?
Because like, you bring, you brought up the point that this was a game that was borrowed to us or given to us from from family member, I don't knows how old we were at the time. I was probably, I don't know, like maybe 10, 11 12, something like that.
But this is a game that, you know, we have a plethora, there's always been a lot of games out. But like today there's just so many so you can play whatever you want and back then, you know, there's still a lot of games but you're limited to what you had and you know, there wasn't the the internet wasn't the same.
In fact, this was maybe not. I suppose it would be the internet would have been up but we're talking Tyler. Yeah, screechy noises, right. Aunt coming over to use your computer and printer for like two hours and you were trying to game. So what event for us for us it would have been the early mid 90s that we're playing this early maybe.
Yeah, what I remember though is playing this doing run-throughs of those game with some of the neighborhood buddies oh really? We come over and we'd hang out by the computer and we just try and get as far as we can. So watching you play that first time actually brought back a lot of that that nostalgia and those memories and it was interesting because you were playing and there's a couple things when you're getting those and I was like, oh isn't the sword in the next place there or like and then there's the, there's a point, the game fairly early on where you meet like the shadow for the shadow prints or whatever which is like this reflection of you.
So that was interesting. Like I knew that was coming like the fat. Not. Yeah, swordsman the fat swords, Mr. We'll talk about that lady. You know, beside knew he was coming and there was another thing. You like, there's another point skeleton fight, right? When you pass the skeleton, the skeleton was narrow and I was like, oh, I don't trust that thing that I think pop up and then you're like yes you really tried to make it.
Yeah I really tried to downplay. I was like no and then he came in that I was like, oh so definitely it started. Oh there was a flood of memories which is instantly a lot of fun and it made this game playing this game replaying this game fun as well.
So, that's kind of the back story, but I shoved this game, like, I guess that's one of those things where it's like, I played dabbled in a little bit on ports for Nintendo or something like that, but it's definitely not something that I've put a lot of focus on for a long time.
So it was fun to go back to that's kind of why I picked it is because it was deep enough in a mutual nostalgia zone or like yes I had been playing it but I just kind of wanted to help you or guide you and resurfacing as weird because like I said, those those like audio in these games, you know, you, clap you boot up a classic Mario game.
In the first thing you're gonna notice, is the music and a little sound effects in the first level. And that's usually what most people actually experience the original Marios. They only get past the first level or maybe the second one, right? Right. But those musics they're just so deeply burned into my skull in the strangest type of way.
So yeah, so that's the reason I decided to do it here and kind of drag you along there and then the reason I've been playing this game more. So is pandemic related. So unless you live in Florida we've been in a pandemic. Yeah. You know shout out. Florida. Yeah, but also, whatever.
So, and I got this new gaming laptop. We have in front of me. We're not gonna open it up because it's gaming laptop, so that fan just goes hammer time and would probably ruin all the. Yeah. But The first game I actually did is I found a DOS file and I loaded up on here.
It's so funny like the base controls of the arrows and shift and everything. So, and then at some point in time, we went to distance learning and in my advisory, I was just kind of bored and only one kid would show up. Shouts out to the little homie John.
Um, he's the only person that would show up and one day I was randomly playing it and I was like you want to watch me play Prince of Persia and he was like super excited for it and like if we think this is really old 1989. Did you say 89?
Yeah, so this is old to us. This kid was born in like, something like 0405. So like Lord knows. This is like a historical timepiece for him, right? So and he'd always call it speedrunning. And we'll kind of get to that later. Not too much foreshadowing, but you know something that his generation certainly be far more into than like us.
It's a newer trend and I know people are age do it but you get my point. It's new recorded trend right? Think people have been pushing through. Sure a while. But and it's a newer phenomena like within pop culture gaming, definitely. So yeah. So he would he'd be like all right.
And then the next day I thought that that was mostly just like him humoring me. But the next day he's like. So like you gonna boot up Prince Persia dude. So like and this is deep like this is over you know before winter break coming out of Thanksgiving you know everything due to travel was like extra shutdowns.
Schools went fully distanced as opposed to hybrid. And then we just kind of developed this, you know, as a teacher does with the student often just kind of like a friendship Loki, you see these kids more than pretty much everybody else that you don't live with sure over the course of the year.
So we're just hanging out kind of help me get through it, because not a lot of kids are showing up to classes, is a weird place, your home all time, which is cool, but also a little strange. And then, you know, we were just sharing this experience and it got to the point where I couldn't do it and advisory anymore because the game is on a one hour timer and I started to get good enough and far enough where I was like, bro, you got to get the first hour.
I can't really keep you here in good conscious. Like I have a class to teach like we got to get you out of there. So, um, we had to time it out a little different. Mm-hmm. And then he's using the school's Chromebook. So, they block everything, including Google Maps.
So, there's just some random beat with school sensorship, but it was fun. The first day back, I was able to an advisory put it in front of them. I was like, it's your turn button and he was kind of excited. He's like oh cool. And it was amazing for me to watch him die and all the most obvious pitfalls because like, he'd been talking so much trash about anytime I died.
And like, how'd you get stuck on that again? So so funny to watch him and kind of stumble through it. And try to remember what he had seen me do right. Try to figure it out himself so occasionally, when he's not too sleepy because, you know, teenager, I'll throw it in front of an advisory and just kind of check in and see how I was doing.
He's been able to get through the first few levels, so that's cool. Yeah, no. Is, it was a fun experience to especially cuz, you know, I'm a younger brother talking to my older brother about this shared experience. That was basically passed down to me. So it's very much like that as well, right, right.
So, you know, there's a cute little cute little boat at the end of that story. No, I think it that's a, that will lead us nicely into talking a little bit about the game itself. But first, I just want to point out that this game is a bit older 1989, is the release design made programmed and everything by Jordan Mechner, who's kind of a pioneer in this that railment at the time, I guess, you could say, early PC gaming.
Right? Right. So that this was dropped on the Apple 2 system as well as dust and apparently didn't sell super well at the time. Yeah, until it started getting ported to pretty much everything. Yeah, so it's been poured. I mean, if you can think of a retro video gaming system, it's probably been ported to it.
And that's when it started to increase the sales and really become more of a cultural phenomenon is when it got added to, for example, Nintendo. Yeah. You got on Game Boy, what? We're able to track down the price. So, Yep. So it's got a Gameboy ports, a Gameboy Color port, a Sega Genesis port, Nintendo port, Super Nintendo port, and they all are fairly like pretty darn faithful to the DOS version or the Apple 2 version with the exception of the Super Nintendo's.
So Super Nintendo has upgraded graphics but they also change the layout in the maps already which is interesting and they've added 30 minutes to the timer. So it's it's kind of a different game but it does critically like I did decently and it's a lot of people do enjoy that version of it, but it, it's not true, it's not true.
Prince of Persia. And I even get had, you can get it on the Microsoft store for free with advertisements, but just take off the advertisements because they're very, like, my opinion, clickbaiti exploited. Like your computer. Has a virus like I think it was two bucks, right? Yeah, it was nothing.
Um but it's funny. I don't like that version. As much as I was like in the Das, I was playing it off of but it I thought slightly different videos slightly different feedback. I swear, that's I switch between them sometimes and I swear I can tell but yeah, no sorry interrupt but let's go.
Some of the other ones are more towards like the Prince of Persia, too, hmm, stylings. Like, I noticed that when you'd show me pictures, the different ports is the updated. Had that more rounded look and then, right? Yeah. So the I mean, then all the different ports like they're not going to be, they're all.
I'll have their slight differences which is actually interesting. So, I did jump around. I also had the the gaming PC, which is funny because it's this beast of a machine. And here I am, playing super Metroid on it, via the this Nest mini and now playing this old Das game.
So this thing can handle games like Cyberpunk pretty well. And here I am. Playing a 1989, Prince of Persia, dang near $2,000 right gaming, nap time. The first thing I got a boot up is 1989. It's Persian classic nonetheless, though. Like, it was interesting to jump between a different ports.
So I actually played the majority of my time. I played it on that, Windows, Windows, 10 version that you can get from the window store. But when I wasn't playing that, when I actually found myself playing a Nintendo port via VR Rahman and emulator sure, which is interesting because the graphics are slightly different in the like you bring up the point that even between the DOS version that you found line and the Windows 10, there are slightly different controls.
So that's also the case with all these different ports. So, granted that with the, with the Nintendo ROM that I was playing, I would use a controller, so that was a different experience in itself. Sure. Then the keyboard but also just some of the, the way that you step, the way that you run jump, that's all slightly different.
And the controls are then in turn different because there's sword play in this mind you. It's not like it's not like super, pretty intense dog. That's right. For yourself. But so there's, you know, but what I did notice is the the difference in these ports. It was difficult for me.
Is that, you know, if I was playing the windows 10, you're using the arrow keys of spacebar. And I think the shift key are the primary buttons. Whereas, if you're using a Nintendo controller, you've got the directional pad and then be an A. But like I did notice that, for instance, when you're playing on Das, you're holding shift to make him to take a smaller stand, whereas letting your holding like B and the Nintendo version, which isn't like that big of a leap.
But then, there's this other things. Like, if you want to hold on to a ledge, you also hold shift I think. And then it's like on the Nintendo version. You can also press A or B it just like got a little confusing, but that's actually a nice transition. As far as like, what is the game, especially if you Prince of Persia memory?
I mean, the was it the following games was a predecessors another? Where I'm here, the predecessors, the modern 3d action platforming they're far more popular through Ubisoft. So like, you know, it's definitely worth going through. Like what even what is this game for those who weren't playing? Crunchy PC early games.
But like it is a 2d action platformer and what you're saying with a different, the different timing. And how many steps it takes? The game is very precise in a sloppy type of way, like your characters kind of floaty. Sure. He slipsy slides in a very confined way. So like I almost find it very interesting to learning like a keyboard or like base games like cuz you just have those arrows and it's not just a platformer and that has to do with like the actions.
So those sword fighting sequences sure, which are pretty sweet. I mean, all you really have is like a combination of blocking and attacking, so if you press up, he does a bit of a parry. But like the way the game can kind of like it's it's a little deeper, it's not the deepest puddle, right?
But it's a little deeper than what you think right on the surface, especially from like a action platformer from 1989. And there's some interesting elements to it, like, you're on a timer. So you're supposed to try and do your entire run or beat the game within 60 minutes, unless you're playing Super Nintendo, you got an hour and a half.
Yeah. But so, you've got the timer part of the story that we're just, not gonna go by because you gotta save a princess. It's the whole thing is, yeah. Well actually that is interesting because I ended up excited when you decided that I did this game, I went ahead and got a hold of the official Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia too.
The shadow of the flame strategy guide by Russell DeMaria. I believe his name is, I may have butchered that situation but the point is that it was and it's actually been a fun beat the game. I can see the map, I just nasty gaps and void. All those things exactly.
But very interesting is he the author of this walkthrough work. With Jordan Beckner to almost give more meat to the, I have gives kind of an intro and outro. And then the walkthrough itself is almost has been storyized. It's been given a story, right? So like but when you first fire up this game it does give you a very little bit of a backstory.
Essentially, your Aladdin. Yes. And which is, you know, that's what when I was playing this and thinking about this, and reading a little bit about the story. The strategy guide I didn't dig super deep into this, but it did start me thinking on this idea of like the story of Aladdin and how that's been told throughout time different ways.
And I think that the Prince of Peugeot kind of pulls up on that, it's an old story. But basically you're this popper that comes into this new kingdom. The Sultan is gone Jafar. Is there at the Palace in his steed and Jafar is captured a princess and basically forcing her to marry him and you the hero of the story the person you're playing as has to say the princess, right?
With the classic like sand dial time or whatever you call those like, from like those burger where you flip it and all the sands, go by. So you got like an hour. So yeah, and that's that's pretty much the breakdown of the intro that the game gives you which you you mentioned.
You skip every time just like I get it, say save the princess whatever which is fair. I never get a Jafar. It's whatever you. I ain't getting there. So because the strategy guy does add a an element of story to that is a little bit more burner. Yeah, of guide.
I've never seen that. Yeah, which I didn't read anything but like just in flipping through. I'm like what's going on right like yeah so that's when you explain it to me, pre, mmm. Yeah, but but yeah, so the the stories it just gives a little memory to the story.
It doesn't change it up much, but it's the main idea as you're trying to escape this dungeon that's bars thrown you in and save the princess so you can marry her and live it happily ever after. Yeah, yeah, it's like it's this 2D action platformer, but that's almost not fair because, like, what we think of that is a combination of a few games ago.
Let's use Mario, and Mario famous platform or ever. But like, in a sense that I view those types of games, like an obstacle course. Right? Mm-hmm. Where it's just like you got to get from the left to the right. And you have to avoid these various obstacles, where there's game is very much a puzzle.
Sure, each and this is the goofiest comparison, I'll make, but like, kind of like toad treasure Tracker where you have like, it's concealed little like area. And it's just like it's really much about unraveling where everything is and like getting these different things that you need or like get to point A and then you can do this and like eat a little scratch, a little bit here, metro and style where you could find out like, oh, that that panel hits loose and there's a bigger potion that gives you an extra like a heart.
Um, so that I found triangle but that was it. I felt like a little potion down or something down to the bottom. It could be no it is triangle suicide you. Right. But yeah, so there's that and then there's this like concept of, like instead of lives you have time like you might die a million times over some levels.
Do have checkpoints but for the most part, when you die, you'll start right at the beginning of that level. It is very interesting because it changes the way you play this game, like the first level, your first time through can take you like 20 minutes or the first few two levels.
May take you the whole time and then 12 levels in total. Yep. Which I have not made. Yes. No, I can recut a new podcast when I get to tonight, but it's brutal. Um but like it teaches you to play in a different type of way. Sure which I find very unique for that era and that's why I found this game to be kind of prominent in my mind.
Like it is different because like, at this point, I can breeze through those levels, but it's, I don't know. So we talked about how speedrunnings like more of a thing now, especially popular, but people have been doing it forever like this game. Kind of teaches you, the principles of it.
How do you get through this almost as fast as possible? Because you're on the timer, you're on the timer and you want to get to like those harder levels. You're gonna need extra time, right? So the quickest. You can get through those early levels the better. So it's very much teaches you to like, kind of master it like death is no longer an obstacle in this game.
Death is just kind of like something you accept which is interesting almost like plays into some of those road like aspects that we see in a lot of games that are in, in the role, like, genre I guess. Yeah. It's like death is just part of the experience, right?
Like, you shouldn't really fear it. It's just gonna keep happening and you just that's how you measure all those jumps. And you, I think this is a perfect time to mention the fact that eventually, Jordan Vector did work with he's like, sold the right. So I don't know how this I don't have all the details on this but basically they made a movie, right?
So we've got the sands of giants out to the very much. Not Iranian Jake. Oh yeah. Hey, which is also worth mentioning your guy. The Prince of Persia is super white and yeah he got to mention that. So here's a here's this week's history corner. Here's me. Pouring. Some water like teacher guy getting ready for long rant here.
Um history corner Persia is the ancient name of modern-day Iran So if you don't know, it's one of the oldest civilizations in history of the world. I mean you got your cradles of the earth Mesopotamia, you got China, you got India, and you got Iran's one of them, you know, if you know math, you can think some Persians, right?
Um, so it's modern-day run and they're very much Middle Easterners and like, they are not Arabic. Never say that you'll get in some trouble with some Iranian. So there's just some life tips. But the game, you're very much a white guy told in this, all white outfit is even blonde.
I should play. He's yeah, so like it's all wrong, right? So if it bugged you that Jake doesn't know how was the prince and the Prince of Persia movie. Yeah, this is gonna be worse, just yet. That's how you know is made by a white, dude. He think it threw it.
All right. And then what makes a problematic though is that everyone is not white, right? The enemy swords menu, face are like darker skinned in like that that's that's troubling. Right? What's the deal? Jordan. Yeah, so like it's like he did know of shades but it's funny that he's got like these super like the bad guys are all.
Like, I don't even know how to describe that attire but like, turbans and like swords very Sultan like henchmen like yeah. So like, you know, I don't think he was trying to make a political statement for the game. I was 89 is a different time, right? So I'm not canceling, a 1989's Prince of Persia but like I did have a laugh going through it with modern sensibilities and I was like, wow, okay I'm not sure the year but the Super Nintendo port that I mentioned, the hero is slightly darker shade which I think is progress.
Sure. Sure though, actually playing the game going through it, what? It's like during our modern sensibilities, I'm gonna open up by saying it holds up, great, right on it, that's right in the modern landscape. Like these types of games are kind of popular, almost with a different art style throwbacks.
Sure like. So I thought that and then the crunchy tunes, man. Yeah, those tunes are so many tunes. I want to mention to as early or you a compared this game. Well, it's a 2D action platformer, right? So then obviously we're gonna compare it to Mario now for those I'm gonna just go out there.
I'll live and say you're probably familiar with Mario, but yeah, so if you're familiar with them, are you you know that there's a start in a finish? You move left to right for the original ones anyway. Yeah. Now, with Prince of Persia, it's interesting because you go left right back forth and you get a little puzzle box, right?
So like, even though you're on a timer, like you are in Mario, you are able to go back and forth and you, you know, or as Mario, the screen is locked and you have to continue to progress. So I think that's that's interesting and does play into this idea, but you were kind of teasing with the whole speed running.
It's like, because once you understand this game, you can cut through that thing, really fast, you're on a beeline. Absolutely right. But like, the exploratory phase, right, where you're digging, and you're trying to figure out each level and it's like, actually really liked that sure. Like, when I got to the levels, I had never been able to get to as a kid.
I'm like, okay, now we're in completely foreign territory. So it was very much like a different game. So the game changes, right? Like you have your first playthrough. It's just very exploratory, it's taking your time, it's unlocking, the puzzle and then it turns into that speedrun. So that's like a very cool transition for such like an old game totally concept.
Yeah. And the, you know, the artist simple it is you know the the programming and the technologies and that we had for the Dawson the apple two systems but it's also like it's it's kind of like pretty. Yeah, you start off in like kind of simple dungeon but like later you do and enter the palace and like some of the artwork and stuff is when you change up to the palace and the brightness comes in.
Like, that's an exciting moment. I can imagine the first time doing that in that era, like sure what the screen colors were like, but it was really cool and like the doors. Yep. The doors are very pretty, and they do use, like, actual Persian architecture. Yeah. Which is for, some of the artwork, that's really cool.
Also, I'm gonna mention like the game is very much, obviously, like he built the game for it to be fun, but like me, the strangest dungeons ever seeing just a huge pillars that lead nowhere and like self and had a lot of time, a lot of time out of torture.
His people interesting. It's interesting. Architects mentioned, too, so that we're time, I'll play through talking about this. Side-scrolling, you know, back and forth to be platformer and we've mentioned the sword place. So there are enemies that you sort by with, but there's also other obstacles. So you're doing a lot of jumps.
You classic classic, right? Love them. So you've got your standard pits or like you basically you fall too far, you die. He makes a horrifying noise as you slats those side. Effects are pretty good. There's also spikes you can either fall into spikes or you can go through like a spike hit where spikes will shoot up into the air, basically and bail and kill your character, very horrifying.
But once again, time and the other major obstacle / batty is the, the chomping, like, what would you even call those? It's like a real team. Almost, it's like a guillotine door. Yeah, like very creative architects up in these dungeons. But that's a nice little multi succession too. So, oh, you have to make your way through.
And if we're talking about speedrunning, like, they'll slow you down, you have to tiptoe. You gotta, you gotta do the jump, you got a time it out, right? And then, we can zip back to the nostalgia zone. Our grandfather put like on his steps. This weird little leg. I'm not gonna call it a blade, but it was like a piece of metal that like shot up.
Like I want to say four inches. At least the shoe scraper to get dirt off. Yeah. Off your phone. Yeah. And it was in between like a slanting rail down so as a kid who was bored at my grandparents house, I was definitely role-playing myself as the prince and I would like go in between that all the time.
Pretending that I was narrowly escaping those chomps and like that is so dorky and that's why I love this game so much is because when it gets burned into this, nostalgia zone to such a degree sir you have these moments where you're like that is delightfully dorky and then this super menacing chomp that comes through is kind of a fun obstacle and also I'll mention that there's nothing more gratifying than a sword fight.
Just blocking the dude back and like no bless and then getting them to get chopped in. The chomp is just very grand sword. Fighting. I really, I was a lot better at it on the Windows 10 DOS version that I was playing as opposed to a lot of the other ports that I tried.
But you can get kind of like even though it's very simple you've got a parry a slash and then you can step forward and back and that's pretty much all you do. So you get to do a bit of a flow when you're trying to figure out you know when you're attacking these, these baddies or whatever and they're attacking you.
But, you know, you can definitely Perry and kind of push them off a lips. Like, keep a step learning until you run out of room and send them into the spiky pits. That's right. Once again, very gratifying. There's that. I also noticed that if you crowd them, you can get to the other side of them.
I don't know if you ever find that way. Yeah, that's how you got to beat that big fatty sometime, right? You got to push them into that pit or else you're just gonna get, smacked up, dude, he's a normally start fighter, that's actually as far as I got on this run and I didn't get any further than that really.
But that's so there's definitely, I would say he's a choke point. Yeah there is we mentioned and grants. We haven't made all the way through, so there's probably a couple more, but that reflection is another another person or another leg better. You have to fight, who are some of the other, What are some of the other obstacles and or enemies that really are choke point for you?
So definitely gonna have to run through this with, like a record. So we can give you some sweet visuals, but I think like the first really cool like game design. Shouts out till mario maker too. Because when you're like, creating those levels, you very much like timing, like how doable is this jump?
So level ones. Pretty easy. You head to the left, you find your sword. You had all the way back to the right. And then the dude, the sword fights just ridiculously easy. If you're gonna pick up this game, anytime, your opponent's elbow moves? Mm-hmm. Your animation is faster than theirs so you can usually hit them first.
That's not perfect with that big baddie. And he actually like the the chain of combos like this game almost has combos because he'll carry and then you'll carry and it'll be like, like the sound effects like tick, tick tick and then someone gets hit, and it's actually really cool and it looks great.
It flashes a little bit, it's different flashes depending on whether they're color. Yeah, yeah, no. So, a sound of them getting hit is once again, the audio in this game is very gratified Level two. That's a level one's pretty cut and clean. You do you go ahead to the left, you find your sword and like a cool crunchy noise.
You had all the way back, the same area that you came from. There's some stupid extra little potions if you got hurt, but that's pretty much it, right? Right. And then level two, the first big, you start off with the sword fight that guy's fine. But the first thing that I find pretty cool is you have this big led you jump off and down below you can see the sword fighter waiting for you.
So you have to jump in such a way that the second you land. He comes charging at you and he's intentionally pushing you off another ledge that you land in some spikes. So like your first time through, you're probably gonna die to him a bunch of times. And with that student, I watch play.
It was awesome watching him try to like because he'd run and get the running jump and then he'd run into the guy and if you don't have your sword pulled, they won't hit kill you. So when you run into a situation, you have to like have enough time to pull out your sword, so if you tip total edge, you do the standing long jump with just enough space, where you'll pull out your sword and you smack shift right away.
He hits them and then you have the advantage. Whereas, if you let him sneak up on you or whatever, he's gonna knock you off most times. So I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah and then at the end of level two, there's like this one big jump where they're kind of teaching you that you got to hold shift to like, hold on to allege.
So, a playthrough like a year ago when I couldn't remember how to do that. I had to watch somebody play it because I kept, I was like, I'm pretty sure you can grab his ledge. And I just So that's a big deal and then I could keep going. But I'm gonna zip through to like the really big jump and level three.
Okay, where you got a, you got to grab that door, as it's closing. Oh, exact through, and that's what leads into the skeleton fight. Eventually the skeleton fights really cool too. And then the, the Sultan that sword fights. Crazy sure. He's so hard. And like, he always hits you and like it's best to try to get to the side of him and either just run away.
Because right do that, you can do that in a couple or you can try to hit him in the hole but like he'll you'll die a lot to him, right? You're not super patient. Yeah, impatience is a funny thing because they mentioned that because this game even though you're at a timer.
So I think the timer for me when I played it makes me want to just run through this game. That said you're gonna have a lot better time if you take your time and kind of poke around a little bit and figure out your flow and try and make those jumps, whereas I like, and I play Mario this way to where it's like, I'm just trying to run through that level as fast as possible.
Probably because I played it so many times. Yeah. But I that same what I realized that I would be able to progress further in this game. If I just took my time, that was kind of a changing point where it's like, okay I can like I don't have to try and tear it through this because I'm actually gonna get further if I take my time to do that because there's a lot of different things, there's a lot of visual cue sign posting.
Like if you jump there might be it might shake a little tile on the top of the ceiling then you can realize that you can go up and you know once you tap that thing and have it drop, you can go up there that texture lotions either to heal you or like give you an extra health bar.
Yeah. And then there's other things like you step out of tile. It might close one of the the doors that you're trying to get through here to be careful. That kind of stuff. So they make you time your jumps all the time. Totally. So it's interesting but then you die on something small and it just makes you rage and you try to catch up to that exact moment and then you die and different thing.
That's super small. You made it to the the fat guy. Yeah. Did you finish that level or could, you know, I think he knocked me into the pit a couple of times. Basically, my sword fighting skills are shit. So he there a couple times and he's tough. So you at the end of that level, you make this big jump and then your evil little shadow twin whatever that is I'll figure it out someday when I beat the game, right?
He steps on this thing with shuts the door. You catch the ledge. He shuts it. You have to let go. And then level seven starts with you falling to a horrible death, unless you grab the ledge, which is, yeah. No, it's hilarious because if you're not paying attentionally, ah, split right and then it just starts again at the top level or splat.
Yeah. So then you got to grab it and then you go through that level, is it insanely hard, but like, a trips you up on like the dumbest stuff and like so you're like, like I I knew that was coming. I can't believe, I let that, and it's like, it's hard obviously, or else you'd breeze through it, but it doesn't feel hard.
You're like, no, I know. I can do this. Just like stay patient. Then you get the level eight sir, and we're not gonna go break down by each level. I mean, that could be a separate fun time, especially to do with the audio or the visuals. But like The eighth level is when things were really good brutal and I can't beat it sort of tried.
It quite a handful of times both in my time in advisory and in school, trying to do this. And for this, I play through I certainly try to beat it. I considered buying the save states, I was gonna say this is you playing in the Pierce forum, right? So there's no save states and I don't think on the DOS version, it gives you pass codes as you progress does it.
No, not okay. So like in the Nintendo version in a couple of the other ports, if you beat a level, it gives you a password. So you can actually enter that password and it will bring you to that level award later. So that helps you move through the game a little bit quicker, but like I say, you're playing the Pierce farm.
So that's come on, I'm out here on this brutal energy. Yes. So every time that you pick up, you started to from ground one all the way to like level eight or whatever, right? And if I was dedicated to yes and if I was dedicated to beat this game, I probably would have bought the same states.
Sure. Yeah. On Microsoft, it's like five bucks and I was like, that's not much, but it's kind of like, it wasn't like a full send like the two bucks. What's sure? It's not whatever guys. Like so yeah I mean it's almost kind of like I do kind of want to chase this ghost though.
Hmm. So like the idea of beating it in that way like wasn't gratifying like I'd rather come into this being like I still can't get past level eight. Sure. But there's a there's a baddie face right away where he no longer steps towards you. Every time you step stores him you take, he takes a stab at you.
So you have to adapt the strategy of like stepping forward. And as you step forward, lifting your parry blade up and then you can basically the best thing you can do is just keep trying to block and knock him back. Like, forcing him to block, you will knock him back.
So you have to try to knock him into these spikes and he's actually One of the toughest dudes in the whole game other than the big fat guy. So it's him and then that levels are so brutal. Like, you just you go all the way. And then there's this period of time where you hit a tile that like, drops a door, but it's not like permanent.
It's on a timer and you have to run back through all these chomps and like that. I've only gotten to that point. Once it go spicy in half. Yes, none. You just get to sit there as your little pool of non-grade. Blood is just sitting there and you're so mad and you have to fight that one guy just described just.
So it's not like this all just get right back to it. It's like I'm only made it to that point once. Sure. And at that time to get to level eight, you've dealt a lot of stuff. You're not exactly patient anymore. Yeah. So, like, I'd like to beat this someday, but oof I can all like, I hope that that's like an intense difficulty spike.
And that's nine through 12 or maybe forgiving but like, No thanks. So what I'm hearing is, you didn't be this game, but it's still on sound that backlog. You want to check it off at some point. So the nature of my relationship with this game has previously discussed, it's just kind of funny for me to.
I'm just gonna be like an 89 year old man trying to get passes like children. Yeah. Not like it's just, it's just so funny to just kind of return to it and return to that place and hear those crunchy. Sounds like there's just a nostalgic game and I don't do that with a lot of games, right?
Actually. Like I'm never the dude or rewatches movies. Mmm. Like I'm just not a recap guy, so like it's funny. It's a little bit the last time we talked when super metro. And I think it's really interesting because I think that there was a period in time where I personally was that guy because that's what we had right?
Yeah, we're availability, right? So like I would watch Star Wars like two times three times a week, you know, because that's the media that I was like into but also we had it, you know. Yeah same with Prince of Persia. Like the thing is is like we're playing this game and we played a lot because we had it.
We had a, we had a handful of other good games too. But got, you know, Xbox game pass. I've got 40 some odd switch games, you know, steam sales, just assaulting my wallet, right? So it's like, there's just that plethora content that I feel epic. Fang begging us to download games for free.
I guess. But that's a thing you know I think it's harder to or I don't know if it's harder but it's a the way that society has moved forward. There's just this plethora games and it's so much easier to jumper at least for me to jump around and dabble in different things as opposed to really focusing on and beating something which is one of the reasons why I wanted to start this podcast is because it's really that it's forced me to dedicate time to a game that whether it's this one or last month Super Metroid this month we're playing Haiti.
Yes. So no longer super old frustrated. We brought it back up to the current times new brutal? But gentle games, right? But it's not, but it's been nice. It's been able to has been cool to try and focus on something and it's interesting for me to hear that you will continue to play this throughout time because it is for me, as well.
A game that I think I will have some fun fighting up from time to time. I don't know if I'm gonna go all in and like try and beat it, but it's definitely a game that I playing. It made me realize that it was, it was definitely fun to tap into some of that nostalgia, from back of the day, playing with homies of around the block part of your little to use an overly fancy word.
It's part of your gaming zeitgeist, Mike. Yeah, that's kind of part of the ethos of what made us gamers and like, Yeah, I mean, you, it is fun of like, with podcast. It is fun to have a mission when you're playing a game. Alright, other than pure joy, which sounds silly as hell because, like, we enjoy playing games, but like, when you have all these selections and you have all these games in front of you, it's just kind of fun to get that little extra push, right?
And I have actually on eBay, I had found a, there's a Game Boy Color. I think I'd try to get a Game Boy, Color copy, long story short as it never sent, I don't know, whatever happened with that markets exploding, right? But but yeah, so but I bring that up because I think that I will continue to play this on the Das via Windows 10 version from time to time.
But I would also like to get a hold of the Sega Genesis version because as opposed to the superintel which I mentioned, which changed up the game a little bit, the Sega one stays true to its pure 60 minute form. I don't call me on that, for sure. Yeah but I'm pretty sure that it is that the Super Nintendo ones.
The only one that really switched it up but the Sega has the increased graphics but with like that original gameplay and it's just another great excuse for me to bust out that Sega from time that's like our oldest workings like artifact from our childhood, The Sega Genesis shouts out to moms who get rid of shit at garage sales.
So we're gonna swear last, but we can swear at mom and get rid of. Should a garage sales shoe Genesis? For sure, I still have my original DMG Gameboy but that was really more. That was like really more. That was a you thing, right? Because for our age because what do we have six to eight years between us six, six years.
So like I mean, I was probably you know six to eight years old playing the DMG Gameboy. So you were just born. Yeah. So learn. So that it was around. But I think we had like a game board color. So it was just like this, cute little. Like, I remember thinking it looked archaic as a kid.
Yeah, yeah. Big and clunky but the Genesis for sure is a is the remaining system from one of these are one of our first systems. So yeah, that's sort of wrap up all of our, our wistful thinking of the past. I mean, we think about the, the legacy of this game and I towards the future.
Another big reason to pick it is that in the news it's been delayed recently, sad news but they're making a remake of the yeah for sure, right? So the Ubisoft Studios in India, forgetting the specific city but they are in charge of the sands of time, remake sands of time.
Was those 3d ones? Far more popular, right? A lot of people love those. That's kind of like what the Jake Gyllenhaal movie was based off. Yes, more. So than this. So those games are, they were like a big blockbuster and it was like it was like a, you know, your modern day to use the same developer, how they kind of just like they're modern day, IP is like mostly Assassin's Creed and right.
They've kind of left that IP behind which I find interesting because like as a social studies guy like there's a big long rant, I won't do here but like a lot of the reasons I'm into social studies is how like video games kind of introduced me to different cultures and ideas.
Or so like this game, we talked about the artwork and the music. Like I didn't have a lot to connect it to but it did kind of get me on that curiosity. All right, so as we move forward and hopefully as this game and franchise gets due life, just kind of want to remember the OG there.
So, like, you know, I'll be very excited for the remake. I love the idea that it's being handled by that studio geographically. India is particularly close to Iran, right? It's not gonna be made in Iran. There's sure lots of reasons for that. But yeah, no. So like culturally, I think it's cool that it's being headed by a studio in the region, right?
And then like it's just a project people seem to be really excited for to bring that back that GameCube era. Because if we're talking landscapes of what was cool at what time? Like a GameCube was very much my middle school. So like, I never played those games so I'll be really pumped.
Sure? Yeah, so that's cool. I will mention to, I don't know, I don't have all the details, but Ubisoft got all those IP a while ago, so Jordan Mechner. He kind of created design this for Prince of Persia 2, which we didn't talk about too much, but it's a follow-up game that he designed and worked on that game as well.
But he didn't actually code that one. Whereas I'm pretty sure he coded this one. Probably did all this on. I shouldn't say that for sure but I do think that it was like a solo project for the first one and it kind of grew into bigger thing and eventually Ubisoft came in and did a rework of the original Prince of Persia when I was trying to figure out what platform to play it on.
They have an iPad version which is the original game but it's been polished. Unfortunately it's one of those deals like that you run into with with digital media whereas the version of the iPad game that they made is too old to run on my newer iPad. So it's like, yeah, so one and two.
Oh, that's cool. Quick. Shout out to two. I think if we're talking me Aladdin, I think two is very much like more towards like Alibaba in the 40 thieves. Sure, I'm pretty sure that's its. And I flip through this guide that I mentioned, the guy has both games in there and even though the the guide is in black and white, I have fired up to just to see what it's like.
And the color is really cool and I could just tell that that game they took it to the next level. It's more civics. Mm-hmm. Like the first you jump out of a window and immediately have to whip out your sword, right? Hit the dudes. One says hard, yes, you hit the dudes once and they go flying off ledge.
So like it's very much a little bit more of like your modern day action, like, movie, intro scene. Mmm, it's cute. It's kind of cool right on do This is Heria. This is where we're gonna play some outro. We'll give you the crunchy music for the outro and then to the next segment,
This podcast is unofficially brought to by the new McDonald's chicken sandwich. It kind of smacks though ain't gonna lie. That fire chicken or spicy chicken of the three. And yes, I've had all three already at three separate occasion. Yeah, it's McDonald's. You end up there whether you want to or not, I think they own the title for that.
Um, but as a fast food restaurant, right? They have great quality control versus like, you know, like a Burger, King not to throw unnecessary shade on their dead corpse. But like, I don't know, man. If you're just like, I don't want fast food, but they got a solid ass chicken sandwich.
Shit, if you got them ethics against, you know, chick-fil-a. Maybe you just get that McDonald's, chicken sandwich.
What you playing what you plan? Other than Princess? Who's your big ass list right here? Let's just get through next. You want me to start? Yeah, So the focus was supposed to be prince of Persia. Like I said, I didn't get in. I definitely got into it, but not in the same way, it was supermentor at a couple months ago, so it didn't command different much as my time true.
But I also recently imported a new PS Vita from Japan and I've been playing around with that thing which is, you know, RIP Vita store. All right. So uh but the Vita actually you know I started playing around with it. There's a lot of really cool games on there and a lot of games that I as a gamer just overlooked.
And to be honest, like I probably gotten way more into gaming within the past, probably two to three years and there's a good stretch where I didn't game. So like I love handheld gaming, but I totally missed out on the 3DS and Vita time. Like that's just like in my life.
I just wasn't playing games. Now, the life will yeah. But I have them now. His job man. I love them. Yeah, and I'm Aveda, I've been playing some really cool games. I got introduced to bloodstained curse of the moon, which is basically a spiritual successor to New Castlevania. They don't want to say, I want to say spiritual successor but it's it's basically Castlevania.
Yeah, but it's blood-stained but it's really good dude. The Vita also was the thing that introduced me to I hadn't really played much of the rogue-like realm and I think we had a Hades on the mine a little bit, but I was also interested in some of these other games because I'd started doing deep, dives of like, okay, what are the best beta games to play and we're very arcaney experience of a rogue.
Like it was perfect on. Yeah, for the handheld for me anyway, so in between a bunch of games. Yeah. So that's that. Turned me on to the binding of Isaac which is a great classic broken, played it. But many people are upset at me for that, they're coming out with a budding Isaac's interesting because it's the one game but they've done a bunch of new additions, DLC type things to it.
There's a new version of it coming out to switch soon. That is kind of like the what would you call it? The penultimate body. But so I think I might get that for the switch when it drops, which is coming pretty soon. But so that's been fun another rogue-like, which is very similar to enter the like the same ideas like into the dungeon, their throne, That one's been fun to play on the Vita.
I mentioned into the guns so I have to bring that up as well, Xbox game. Pass added that, I don't know when, but I realized it was on there. Great on the switch, probably, it's best house. Yeah. So, I actually put it on, you know, I downloaded for the, the game pass on, on the PC and I was like, this game is a game that I, well, I play with a controller, so it's but, but yeah.
So I was like, this is a game that I need to have handheld on the switch. So I ended up buying the physical copy of the switch. No regrets. So, yeah, so that's another game. But it says, throw it back to the Vita real quick, though. Risk of rain is one that I got turned onto, which is hilarious.
Because I play risk of rain too, which is a big sensation, right? And it's funny that you're playing the lesser known original. Well, so that I also decided to go physical for that on the switch, because it was another game that, like, I was playing on the the Vita, but I end up getting risky rain too, which came with risky.
Very one, which is cool because like they're the same game, essentially but risk of rain to is a third person shooter. No. Yeah. Third person shooter. Yeah. With a lot of the same mechanics as the first one but I kind of like that 2d like a little more welcoming for you.
Yeah. Not to say that I'm not into the second one, I'm just enjoying the first one. Yeah there's that Superstars. Delta is a super fun dual stick shooter, space of shooter, on the it was also released to I believe the PS3 in the pal version of like Japan and Europe, but not in the US.
So I was actually hanging out with a homie, not too long ago last week, and he had just gotten a hold of superstar does delta for, I believe he was playing on PS4 VR. So, I got to play that game with VR, and that was kind of fun. Velocity, 2x is another video game, that's super fun.
It's another dual stick kind of, it's a, it's a bit of a mesh where it's like a dual stack, shooter spent other spacious thing, but then it will also transfer into like a side scrolling runner of sorts, so that one's been really cool. Love, trousers is another game. See dude, I like I said this month was all over the place.
Yeah I know I don't think I mentioned that. Yes that's been dope. I'm a fan of Celeste so it's interesting to play Super Meat Boy because that would have been kind of like that came out quite a bit before that, very big deal. I'm also, like, have a weird like affinity for the Need for Speed series.
So, for a casual, yeah, for a casual right man, loves his racers. So I did get a hold of me for the, the remake of Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, the remaster of me because weed hopper suit on the switch because I was like, it dropped went on sale and I was like, you know what, I need to be able to erase on my, on my switch end gun tonight.
I tease that that game since you're just because of the game pass. But I also wanted it on the switch. So so I've been playing that. That's been a lot of fun. It was your main and into the gungeon. Yeah, I really like the, I believe that she's the hunter and then the marine I like to go between those two mostly susceptible answers.
Yeah. If you would have said the pilot or the about you, Right? I suck and I'm a marine guy off fair fair. I mean he's I mean he's good. Yeah the only other game that I'll mention I only have put a couple hours into it but we last. Yeah, it but Immortals phoenix rising.
So, like takes the cake for game. I want to play but won't buy for some reason do it, but it's a sure it's great. So we mentioned Obisoft earlier. So it's a new IP by by Ubisoft originally titled Gods of Monsters but they were gonna get sued by the monster energy drink, much better than Amy right, phoenix immortal.
Rising just sounds like some pay like hated it. Yeah. What upon it under guns and monsters? I know that's a monster was type. Who did they talk to before they settled on the Phoenix? Is it a colon Immortals rising? Because it's, it's just a disgusting name. It just sounds like an Apple store game from like, I just hate it scratch that it's immortals, phoenix.
Rusher still stupid. Guys monsters would have been tighter. Screw you monster. Yeah. So like you know do you own the name monster like? Yeah that is kind of weird. But whatever. I will say this that I'm assuming that it's because they want to turn more people onto the franchise and listen to IP for them out of.
I want to say, Montreal Ubisoft. It could be, I know it. Stems from Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Yeah, the team of loved on so much historical research around mythology of Greek and they really, really loved all of that, right? They were allowed to kind of do more of a passion project so to speak.
So this is it. Yep. Which is cool for Ubisoft because, you know, stuff formula, you know, they get accused rightfully. So of a lot of things ranging from you know horrible workplace allegations all the way down to being kind of monkey republishers. It is cool to see him do more of a passion project.
Let it loose creatively and I will say I've only played about an hour of it. Yeah. They consistently put this thing on sale everywhere. Whether it's on, I guess would be epic that extra probably. Yeah. But so it's usually like I mentioned PlayStation. Yeah, for sure. So you can find it or 50% off on Epic game store.
And I've also been able to find a bunch of deals for it for the physical copy of switch. So I actually bought a copy for the PC and my switch because it has cross saves man. Oh, very cool across days. So like I was like, it's like a people price of the game, but I got two versions of it.
No, you I have. So that's actually where I put the majority of the time into it. Like I said, I've only played butter an hour a lot better on the PC, that makes sense. Because graphic wise are a lot nicer, you know, that the that's kind of thing. But I will say the game is like a mesh between Zelda and Assassin's Creed and that hits like that hits, like some pretty cool areas for me.
So it's not it's super cheeky, which is fun. Because with a whole like mythological gods and everything like you know, there's a lot of humor in that so it's it's fun. Like the zoo's character is like he's such a clown like I don't know, I've been in, I only played about an hour of it but I I'm looking forward to eventually getting deeper into that game.
I also like how they didn't shy away from their origin material. Like as far as like, they people from the media were like, this looks like brother loud clone and they're like, dog, that's like one of the greatest games of all time. Sure. We can we can be inspired by a really cool game and there's definitely elements about the wild in there, but it's it's different enough already.
It does live it on its own, I would say, how about you man? What you been playing? What time we got left? I got two little prominently mentioned. First one being PlayStation Plus had their free monthly game. I want to doesn't really matter. It was for the final fantasy 7 remake.
No history with the Final Fantasy 7. Limited history of Final Fantasy. So sure, someday we might have to crack out the old Final Fantasy 10. Oh that's lots of stories, doggone. I don't want to hit on you too much but we can't crack it out because you vast it.
It might we'll find out, but yeah. No. So Final Fantasy 10. So it's The remake is gorgeous right off the bat. I said, yeah, the remake is gorgeous, it looks like, that's what I've heard. It looks like, it could like it belongs on the five. So when they revamp it for the five and the new Xbox, I can only imagine what should look like, but it's kind of funny, they change up your classic JRPG combat, you know, the traditional turn-based stuff in their own way, and that's not new to this.
They've been doing that. They've been moving their series towards that but it's like a cool The way they do it. You know, I'm definitely not the first or only person to mention all day but it's very cool. And I'll just say like what I can add in my own unique way is just so much like, so I don't have a history with Final Fantasy outside of 10, right?
But there's so much of 10 and whatever because we played 10 a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Played a ton of it. So like like the summons when you bring in the summons, some of the music, some of the noises like it's It took me a while to get into it because I'm not much for JRPG guy but and I don't really like to play it after work.
It's very much like a weekend interesting. So I don't play at a ton but it's it's really cool. It's very cinematic, it's very gorgeous and just like the noises. The combat is these things that are more familiar to me than I thought they would be is kind of a trip.
Sure. So that was, that was kind of funny. And then the second one is it just came out to mix reviews which are very appropriate which would be evil, genius to Alex and attest. This album bombard him with like YouTube links of my 30 strategy PC builder game that you need to be excited for next year and I love those lists and I, you know, so I've kind of lusted after evil genius too.
So I did that thing where you buy it regardless of its regardless of it's how it's welcomed. You know, regardless of its reviews, you're just kind of like, I decided I was gonna buy this year ago, so fucking we're just gonna buy it, but it is cool. It's like a base builder more.
So so think of like your classic bond villains and you are the villain making the evil lair. You take over like basically an abandoned casino and that's your front, okay? So it's like two part. You're trying to meet your own goals. You have like this evil layer that you're building up you're building rooms so it's like your classic sim management game where you're expanding your layer and you set up these hilarious booby traps like like I'm talking like the cheeky or I can't be you got like just giant boxing glove like on a spring that comes out of the wall and punches the people who are trying to infiltrate your base like a little freeze ray, that little cool, freeze them in place.
So you're trying to commit these crimes and like get this global scheme going and then you're defending your base and but some of these so it's gorgeous, right? It's very much like if you enjoyed Bond movies ever, you got laser doors and like steep. Very much trying to keep them out of your vault, okay?
You're trying to keep him out of like your like energy rooms because they'll cut out the energy to sabotage you and then attack you. So like there's cool elements to it and I know they send like super agents to you. I haven't gotten that far. The tutorials quite long.
But yeah, if you've ever played like a bot, or if you ever watched like a bond movie, especially like the Sean Connery, like campy sort of serious, but like very much 60s styled cartoony, like, okay, it shares as much with Austin Powers as it does with like bond. So like you pick from doing these?
Four evil, super villains each with their own motivations and I had to pick like the giant Soviet like evil dictator guy. Like that was pretty funny and so it's fun. The criticisms and criticisms of it are very fair though. So like you'll see it get rated anywhere from like an eight.
That matters to you, but The criticism of it are fair, it's not a perfect game but it is fun. And it's unique and I type of effort in the studio. So it's only a matter of time before you get trapped into a monthly obligation of learning, how to it'll be like a city builder or some sort of sir management game.
Because there's a comment, it's comment. I'll see what we'll see which season I picked, but it's coming. All right. All right, man, until next time. Crunchy outro music.
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