Overview: This week we deliver some karate kicks to Cobra Kai season 4, discuss our workout routines (or lack thereof), and give our verdicts on games new and old, including Captain Toad Treasure Tracker for the Nintendo Switch and Dying Light 2.
Contact us at yondercast@gmail.com
Episode Agenda with Time Stamps:
Credits:
Overview: This week we deliver some karate kicks to Cobra Kai season 4, discuss our workout routines (or lack thereof), and give our verdicts on games new and old, including Captain Toad Treasure Tracker for the Nintendo Switch and Dying Light 2.
Contact us at yondercast@gmail.com
Episode Agenda with Time Stamps:
Credits:
[00:00:00] Ian: Okay. I thought we would try something different with the cold open and this was Patrick's idea. And I think it's a great idea, which is I still want to do the cold open, but I think that it should be, a listener question.
[00:00:11] Josh: I like that.
[00:00:12] Patrick: Oh boy.
[00:00:13] Ian: So here's a question for you. people ask you to say hi to someone for. Do you do it?
[00:00:20] Josh: No, I don't even have to think about that. The answer is unequivocally. No, I don't think that I've ever said hi to someone upon that request ever in my life.
[00:00:36] Patrick: I give it a shot. I, I will honestly try to remember. I'm really bad at remembering those small things, unless I like randomly came up and that connection happened. Like I'm talking to the person, then all of a sudden I'm like, oh shoot. I was supposed to tell you hi from so-and-so like that. That's usually how it comes up with me.
I don't like go out of my way to like text them or call them and be like, Hey, someone wanted to say hi to you. It always is like, oops, I forgot. I was supposed to say hi to you. Here you go.
[00:01:03] Ian: I think for me, when, when people ask to say hi, I probably do it five to 10% of the time. Like, you know, someone will say it and I'll be like, oh, you know, so-and-so said hi, but like, I'll probably do it about one in 20 times.
[00:01:18] Josh: honestly, still good.
[00:01:21] Ian: it's, I feel, I don't feel bad about it, but here's a better question.
Has anyone ever asked you to do something else? Like give them a hug for me
or, or his or something like that, or like pet your dog for me?
[00:01:35] Josh: See that I would
do.
[00:01:37] Ian: is this something other people do or is it just people in my life?
[00:01:42] Patrick: I think like give them my best. I don't know how you would actually do that. Like I think that's usually they're there the request that comes to mind when someone's like, Hey, say hi and give them, give him my best or do something like that. Like, I don't know what that is. Like if I were to have you Ian say give them my best, what would your best be that I should get.
Does that make
[00:02:06] Ian: Yeah, like your best punch in the neck.
[00:02:11] Patrick: The best hug, the best punch, the best, like lift above my head and twirl. I don't know. Like, I don't know what the best is at that
[00:02:20] Ian: That is true. Give him my best.
[00:02:23] Patrick: And I know it's like just a nice formality sort of thing. Like just probably the most appropriate thing to say, but I don't know about a hug. I would not, I don't like hugs in general,
[00:02:33] Josh: Yeah.
[00:02:34] Patrick: just like some like, oh, Hey, this person says hi, and, here
[00:02:40] Josh: Oh,
[00:02:40] Patrick: for you.
[00:02:42] Josh: That needs to not happen.
[00:02:44] Ian: I think it's the thing that my parents do. they'll say like, give your baby a kiss for me, or like, you know, you know, pet pet most before me, that's my dog. and I, I don't think I ever have, because it's like, how do you do it? Like if someone says, give, give so-and-so a hug for me, do you like give them your own hug?
And then like back up and then like go in for a second hug. And while you're hugging them whisper in their ear, like this, one's from Patrick,
[00:03:10] Patrick: If you ever have to hug someone for me, you better do that. And exactly that, that is my only request.
[00:03:16] Josh: see. Now I'm going to start
giving people weird requests,
[00:03:20] Patrick: I know, right?
[00:03:20] Josh: give Ian a moist handshake for me. I'm going to start giving very descriptive things that I want people to give other people.
[00:03:29] Ian: Well, I had a request from someone else which was to start the show a little bit sooner, so welcome to yonder cast everybody. My name is Ian lake and I'm joined this week as always by someone who speaks like an angel and stings like a bee Patrick Leitch.
[00:03:49] Patrick: Wow. Thank you. Hi,
[00:03:51] Ian: And I'm also joined by someone who pops like an ankle and sprains, like a knee Josh Baltzell
[00:03:59] Josh: that based on all of the pops and cracks that I did during our cold open with this on the fly, because you just described me to a T.
[00:04:07] Ian: Well, everybody, this week we are, we don't have any special guests or anything special to offer you. This is just going to be a regular old episode of yonder cast. That's probably underselling us. I probably
[00:04:20] Patrick: buckle
[00:04:21] Ian: I will likely cut that out. Buckle up this week's got nothing in it.
[00:04:28] Patrick: If you've been dying to hear silence for 45 minutes, turn it up.
[00:04:33] Ian: well I want to start with a conversation that Patrick, you and I started to have, and then we stopped ourselves and we were like, no, we are talking about this on the podcast. I'm going to let you kick it off.
[00:04:44] Patrick: I think it happened twice. I kept wanting to talk about it, but this
[00:04:47] Josh: wait, wait. You guys have conversations without me.
[00:04:51] Patrick: yeah.
[00:04:52] Josh: is this?
[00:04:54] Patrick: This is also why we had to pause it and wait for you to be. I don't know if you've actually watched the most recent episode of our recent season of Cobra, Kai, but it just, we started watching it. We've talked about it for awhile on this fourth. I think it's a four season.
[00:05:09] Ian: Fourth
season. Yep.
[00:05:11] Patrick: is it?
Yeah, that's all I got. It's
Josh, have you watched season, have you watched any of Cobra? Kai?
[00:05:19] Josh: I have not seen a single episode of Cobra, Kai. Yeah. So this is going to be fun. I'm excited to contribute. I'm excited to give opinions, be prepared for me to do a town hall.
[00:05:31] Patrick: Well, let's just say, if you could imagine the most like cliche karate kid reboot, that would be probably seasoned. And just like relentless with the same thing over and over. And the, probably a little bit of spoilers coming here. But, it was just, it felt like every episode was the same thing happening just over again.
And every season at this point was the same thing. Again, like it felt like they were using the same sort of storyline in a different setting, which was tough because we really liked the show. I thought it was a really good field feel, good show. Like we grew up watching karate kid and I will say I'm probably more of a bloodsport type person though.
Jean-Claude van Damme when it comes to like the karate movies. But I w at the very beginning, like season one, season two, I was like, all right, this is it's quirky. It's fun. It kind of plays into the whole like throwback montages type thing. But this one, it was just in your face, the entire season. it was so hard to watch.
Sometimes I like set down the remote after the episode and be like, oh my God, Do I want to play the next one? Like, usually you like kind of let the Netflix rollover and it just happens. Like there's a moment where you pick up the remote and be like, I might actually stop this from playing because I don't know if I could sit through another episode.
There's some good parts, but I dunno. What do you think in.
[00:06:53] Ian: Well, okay, so I'm going to say that we're going to talk freely about spoilers and this gives me an opportunity to tell our listeners about something that I work very hard on every episode. I just have this feeling that no one ever uses, but I, in our show notes, I put timestamps of all the different sections that we talk about.
So if we talk about this, I say, what, like minute and second it starts. And then the next thing we talk about, I say, when it starts and I put those in as chapter markers as well. So if you're using apple podcasts or Spotify, or like any, control, you should be able to scroll down click on the title of something and it will skip to that part of the show.
So we're going to get into spoilers of Cobra, Kai, season four, if you don't want to hear spoilers of Cobra, Kai, season four, scroll on down on your podcast app and click on whatever comes next and you will skip right past all the spoilers and not have anything ruined for you.
[00:07:50] Josh: I didn't know. You could do that.
[00:07:51] Ian: It's pretty nifty. I also. Have all of our episodes transcribed fully. So if anyone ever wants to read our episodes, instead of listening to them that is available, it should be easy to access on it's, it's different on every platform, but should be easy to access. And it's on our website. that was a tangent, but let's get back to Cobra.
Kai. feel exactly the same way Patrick. I think I might be done with Cobra and
[00:08:24] Josh: oh, no.
[00:08:25] Patrick: Yeah.
[00:08:25] Ian: It's really hard for me to say, because I was ringing the Cobra, Kai bell. When it first came out, Cobra, Kai came out on YouTube bread. Like you tubes, you know, premier streaming service or whatever.
And no one was subscribing to YouTube. Streaming service. And so no one watched Cobra, Kai, but I heard about it on a podcast actually. And it got me intrigued and I went and I paid like $5 for a month of YouTube and I watched it and I was like, this is really great. And people made fun of me for it. My wife made fun of me for it. I was like this, no, this is actually really good. This is like a, it's like a co karate kid reboot. It's got the same spirit. It's got some of the same actors, but it's not cheesy and bad. It's like, got that fun quirkiness. It's really good. I'm really enjoying it. And I was like, sure, sure. You go watch your karate show on YouTube. And then Netflix picked it up and it became like one of the biggest shows of the last few years. So anyway, it's hard for me to say I'm done with it because I loved it for the first couple of seasons. But like you said, Patrick, it is just,
it just feels like they are in this site. That will never end basically Cobra. Kai has beef with Miyagi dough, and then they try to get over their beef to rally together to beat some sort of greater threat. But then they get mad at each other again, or somebody does something and it drives a wedge in it.
And then they split up and then people switch sides and then it all happens over again, like that's the whole show for the last four seasons. And, and along the way, people would get hurt.
[00:10:10] Patrick: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Ian: Like it's a high school show about karate, but actually it's, it's kind of a dark show in a lot of ways. And I think that my reason why I'm no longer enjoying it is that I realized that we've now seen these.
These characters for I'm assuming like four years, right. Basically their whole high school career. And it's kind of depressing because their entire like high school career, their whole lives are basically consumed by this karate feud, which is essentially gangs. Like it's kind of, it's kind of a show about gangs and gang warfare basically. And the gang, like warfare is initiated by this longstanding feud between Johnny and, I wouldn't say Ralph macho, but that's the actor's name?
[00:10:59] Ian: Uh, Danny, Johnny Johnny and Daniel, Daniel LaRusso, and Johnny Lawrence, you know, and they basically like have problems with each other. And so they've passed that onto a new generation who like can't break the cycle. just realizing that it's like totally toxic. It is just show about incredibly toxic strife between adults that has completely ruined the high school experience of an entire generation of children.
It's like really depressing when you think about it.
[00:11:30] Josh: so it's realistic.
[00:11:32] Patrick: yeah, it, it almost feels like a social commentary at times. Like a bunch of adults can't get over themselves, have to go back to the glory days and beat some. aspect or some event or some enemy that they had, and couldn't overcome it through any other way than going back to the same high school or the same tournament and fighting over again and letting that cycle continue.
Like you talked about, it's just like, oh my gosh, it's so bad. It is so bad. There was a couple moments like their leaders. I think two moments in it that I thought like, okay, this could be good. Like, I think at the very end when Robbie and Johnny have an actual moment that like, there's an actual, like father son moment, that happens.
That was actually pretty wholesome and pretty good, but it was like two minutes of the entire episode and then got back to like something completely. Non-related like, I felt like they had that one moment that actually kinda like choked me up a little bit. Like, oh my gosh, this is actually a feel good moment in a show that just seems so chaotic.
And so like nonsensical at times that it feels like there's some sort of resolution happening, but it, like, it felt like it was there, then it was gone. It's like if they would just focus on those kinds of storylines, that would be really, really cool. But, and same thing with, I forget who the newer character is one that plays all the video games and then joins Cobra, Kai.
Like when, Robbie took them as kind of like a menu.
[00:12:56] Ian: I can't remember his name.
[00:12:58] Patrick: yeah, either. Can I, but like that moment, like when he kind of has a little bit of introspection where he's like, shoot, like, that was me. Like I was that kid that let anger and hatred get the most of it and then joined and kind of disregarded my mentor.
My dad might, whatever it was. I thought those two moments had a lot of potential in that last episode. But I dunno. I think I'm like you though. I think I'm just, I can't subject myself to that again. It's just too much,
[00:13:25] Ian: It's just a cycle of violence and it's hard to
watch and yeah, there's like these little , they always do these a little previews of like, maybe somebody's going to get out or maybe this is going to change permanently. And it never does because they want to keep it going for another season.
You know, that's what it feels like.
[00:13:41] Patrick: man, Robbie got like Jack though, like Robbie is like Jack, Jonathan Taylor, Thomas. Like he is like, E-bike was a scrawny little dude and like season three, then all of a sudden I'll know if he just like, started lifting weights every single day, but he
[00:13:55] Josh: many seasons are there?
[00:13:57] Patrick: four,
[00:13:58] Josh: Oh, that's too many.
[00:13:59] Patrick: yeah. And two and three, he was like kinda scrawny had kind of a funny haircut and all of a sudden he's like, sort of, dude,
[00:14:07] Ian: yeah. And apparently, he is Josh's inspiration because Josh has been getting ripped lately too.
[00:14:15] Josh: Oh,
[00:14:16] Ian: Josh?
[00:14:17] Josh: I wouldn't say ripped. Yeah, no, I, I feel like I've developed enough of a habit that I can actually announce that I have gone to the gym almost every day of the week for the past three and a half weeks.
[00:14:32] Patrick: that is awesome.
[00:14:34] Josh: I didn't want to jinx it. Cause you know how, when you're first trying to develop a habit, you, if you talk about it, then you're going to break the habit or you're going to do.
And so I, I didn't want to tell anyone and today, because it's like almost the one month marker from when I started, I'm like, okay. I feel like I can talk about it now. We're basically at habit zone now.
[00:14:56] Patrick: I feel like there was a moment because I was in your classroom after school and I almost said something and I always feel really bad about saying these things I've said it to Ian wants to, but like, I was like, have you been working out? and again, every time I say this, I always kind of feel bad, like to make it think like, oh, you needed to work out or something.
But I was like, Josh looks a little different. I think you just look like a little bit more, like, I want to say like leaner and meaner. Almost not like being in a bad way, but it looked like as if you had been working out.
[00:15:24] Josh: Oh, yeah, I really appreciate that. Yeah. It wasn't even really for like look stuff. yeah. I was telling Patrick about it in the hallway. I had a scare like a month ago. my apple watch made like a dinging noise and then it was like, your heart health is low. And I was like, oh, well, what could that possibly mean?
it's pretty obvious in hindsight, but like I opened up the app and it started like saying you've dropped from below average to low. And it was talking about how like, my heart, is getting weaker because of like quarantine. And there's been this like downward trend where I used to go out and do stuff.
[00:16:01] Josh: And now I don't, and it kind of scared me. I was like, I'm only 32. I feel like I'm too young to have my apple watch saying, Hey, your heart, you should pay attention. So, yeah, I I've been happy because. Just, it was either yesterday or the day before, I looked at that same app and it showed that now it's creating like a parabola where it's turning around and starting to go back up. So yeah, that, that's why I felt like now is the time to say like, Hey, by the way I gym sometimes.
[00:16:34] Patrick: that's more than
[00:16:34] Ian: That's. Yeah, that's huge. I'm proud of you, man.
[00:16:39] Josh: Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm pretty proud of myself right now.
[00:16:43] Patrick: you should be. That's hard. That's a hard thing to do almost every single day for three and a half weeks. Like you don't realize how hard that is until you've done it. And then like you almost like are like, yeah, yeah. That smile on your face. Feeling good. Keep that
[00:16:56] Josh: oh
yeah, yeah, no, it's amazing how many things interfere and you didn't realize that they would interfere like it's, it's crazy work always gets in the way. And then just general adulting, oh, dang, I have to do this thing. And it's just awful.
[00:17:12] Ian: Yeah, that's where I'm at. I've never been like a, you know, pinnacle of health or anything, but I feel like I, you know, for a long time exercised, , four times a week or something like that for, for the most part. And then I had a baby and it's just like, I just can't find any time to do it.
Maybe I can get out on a run. Once on the weekend or something, you know, but otherwise it's just like, there's just no opportunity. It's hard. And it's like, you just want to be more active. You don't feel as good when you're not.
[00:17:46] Josh: yeah.
[00:17:47] Ian: Well, I guess that's my update is that I'm not working out.
[00:17:53] Patrick: it's, it's difficult with the little one. I, it I've been through two of them now. And. finding the time to slip away unless you have like home equipment. we we've been lucky that we've had like a bike and a, like a weight set at our house. Like if I had to go to a gym or go on a run for a long period of time, that's really hard to do.
So I wouldn't take that personally.
[00:18:13] Ian: Oh, no, like it's, I totally understand that. It's just kind of, I mean, my, my daughter's only four months old and so it, it really hasn't been that long and, I'll get back into it. I've got some parental leave coming up soon in a few weeks. And I think that that will give me a little bit of allow me to step back and maybe resume some of my normal human activities.
I'm hoping. so
[00:18:37] Patrick: as opposed to your cyborg activities that are going on
right
[00:18:39] Ian: can
wait, what.
[00:18:41] Patrick: as opposed to your cyborg activities
you're
[00:18:44] Ian: that's exactly right. Sorry, you cut out for a second and I didn't. And then you, and then you came back and you sounded like a cyborg, and then you said cyborg and I was very confused.
Well, we're going to get into talking about games here in just this. But first I want to do something that we haven't done in a couple of episodes, which is take a break to thank our listeners, because a lot of people who have listened to our show have taken the time to go and give us a rating on apple podcasts, or even give us a review.
And that has been, incredibly touching and incredibly helpful, getting that feedback and hearing what people have to say, hearing what people want, hearing, what people enjoy, and also knowing that other people who might be looking at the show can see that and might be more enticed to give us a listen because more people have, endorsed our show.
And, I specifically want to call out one of our listeners who left us a rating, a very nice rating. This listener is league of legends gaming. That's their username. And they said, I've been listening to this podcast for a while. Now I'm still catching up on some more recent episodes and have loved it so far.
It sparks some more interest for science that I didn't really know that I had. And the gaming section is really amazing to hear from the teachers at my school. Although I do wish that they talked about gaming more than they already do. It's still an amazing podcast and I will definitely recommend it to all my friends, keep up the great work.
So thank you, league of legends gaming, and we can tell you that we're going to just talk about games a lot more going forward. So hopefully you keep listening and feel happy.
[00:20:16] Patrick: I love those.
[00:20:17] Ian: And now the news with Josh Balt, sell
Josh, take it away.
So, uh, actually I thought that for some new stuff, we could revisit some things that we've actually talked about in the past. you guys remember Sean, our friend, the indie game developer, and his game thirsty heroes that he's coming out with. his Kickstarter has actually hit some really cool milestones and I thought that it would be really cool to update our listeners on how well the Kickstarter is doing. and let people know that, there's still some time if you want it to become one of the backers, for his Kickstarter.
so their original goal was $15,000. They actually just hit $25,937. not only did they surpass their goal, but they blew past that goal. And it's, it's really kind of awesome to see how much support they're getting at bit by bit studios. And what are the cool things that they're doing is that as they hit each of these different milestones, they're incorporating different things into their game because now they have the funds to actually do all of these neat little things that Sean was talking about, in terms of like the bells and whistles that you can usually put into a game.
[00:21:51] Josh: So just to give you guys an idea, their hope is that they can eventually hit the 30,000 mark, which means that they'd actually be able to incorporate hero, head gear into the game. and then when they hit the 35,000 mark, they're going to have this really cool artifact system. And that's actually what I'm most excited for, because I thought it sounded the coolest, basically as your explorers are exploring, there's going to be these different little hidden hotspots that are hidden throughout the environment.
And as you collect those, you can use those to get things like crafting materials, artifact sets, just all kinds of things that we look for in games where it's like that extra little bit of exploring. It's like the extra credit of video game. So they've got some milestones that are actually not that far away considering how much support they've been getting.
And, from this moment, I don't know, how much time will be left by the time that this is published. But from this moment on the 23rd, they've still got 14 days left in their Kickstarter. So no pressure on Ian to get this published and out for her listeners. But, yeah, no, it would be really cool if they could hit some of those milestones just because it would be really awesome.
[00:23:08] Ian: Yeah. I mean, when this episode is published, there should still be some time left on the campaign. I hope it doesn't take me that long to get this
[00:23:15] Josh: 14 days.
[00:23:16] Ian: Yeah, I was so excited about this. I, I, I was a proud backer on day one and, and I was really excited to see that, like it was taken off and I think that they met their goal within the first 15 hours or something like that, which is huge, super amazing.
And they have continued to keep going. And, you know, I know that there is usually with a lot of Kickstarter campaigns, there's kind of like a big push upfront. And then it kind of, there's like a lull in terms of growth. And then at the end, the last couple of days, there's another big push and you see usually a little bit of growth.
Some of the people who like favorited the project as something to come back to, you know, get notified that it's almost going to end and they come back and say like, oh yeah, I did want to back that. So, I, think that there are some good chances and I'm hoping that they do meet those couple stretch goals, because like you said, Josh, there's some exciting things.
Some legitimately cool. Features that they're planning on adding, not just, not just silly stuff, but actually game-changing stuff.
[00:24:15] Josh: Well, not only that, but it's also nice to see some positive reinforcement for people that are giving gamers. What they're looking for. I feel like so many games get pumped out that have the hundreds of micro-transactions and, they just end up feeling like fetch quests. But this game genuinely sounds like. was made by gamers for gamers. And so I'm glad to see that people recognize that and are actually backing.
[00:24:45] Patrick: I know. I remember, I think my wife listened to that episode fairly recently after it was published and then sent me a screenshot of the Kickstarter and it'd probably been open for a day or two. And it was like almost at its goals, like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. It just got me like that much more excited for all the cool things that are going to come out.
Cause I didn't even know about that artifact system. Like that's really cool. Like one, the collection aspect of appeals to me, like that's like totally right up my alley. If I need to collect all of these things and you become more powerful at the same time and it has perks, like, yeah, it just seems like something.
Could only help. It could only be more fun and of course would hopefully we get to that point so we can see what that would look like and how they can make that a reality. It's very cool. So
[00:25:30] Ian: I'm just excited to know that like the game is funded, it's coming out. We will get to enjoy it. I'm very excited for that.
[00:25:38] Josh: Yeah.
[00:25:38] Patrick: I know I signed up to maybe be a tester. I'm hoping that maybe it happens when it gets to that point. That'd be sweet. Like I've never done that before, and I think that'd be such a fun thing to do, or if he ever contacts us for the effort sounds, Ooh,
[00:25:52] Ian: I know. I know we can hope we can hope.
[00:25:57] Patrick: well, we should definitely have him back at some point just to chat about it. Like what that whole process looks like. And I don't know, that's just, it would be an interesting insight to see
the backend of.
[00:26:07] Ian: do a part two.
[00:26:09] Josh: so one other thing that I was going to bring up really quickly, just because last episode, we talked about the steam deck. one thing that was on my mind with regard to the steam deck was, and I think that one of you actually brought it up. we were a little bit nervous about what games you're going to be able to play.
And like making sure that it's actually worth your while. some news just dropped that, steam deck or steam is making it so that you can actually see which games are going to be playable. So they now have a website that's up and running, where if you log in, you can actually see, which games will actually be compatible with the steam deck.
cause a lot of people had that fear. They were like, am I going to spend a bunch of money on this? And then find out that only two games are playable or is it going to be worth it? Where all of my games are playable.
[00:26:57] Ian: Oh, have you looked at the list?
[00:27:00] Josh: did, I looked at my own and I feel like it would be worth it for me. I'm not going to buy one for several years because I'm poor. But, but when I do get one, it will be worth it. Yeah.
[00:27:18] Ian: Yeah, I would be interested to see, I don't like have a huge steam library or anything, but just to like go through, you know, some games that look interesting and see what's available, what's going to be available in the steam deck. I'm excited and you know, that net, like once that. New games that come out are going to have like an incentive to, you know, make it compatible, you know, maybe do a little bit of extra work to like, you know, create a version that's slightly graphically, you know, decreased or something.
So it's functional. I don't know. I bet that we'll see increased compatibility in the future too. That's cool.
[00:27:53] Patrick: How many different platforms are there going to be at some point, like, you know how you, when you see a game releases and you just looks at what platforms and consoles it's on, and it's like a list of 15 different things. You're like, oh my gosh, Xbox 360 Xbox X X-Box S PlayStation three, PlayStation four, PlayStation five.
And it just lists all of these things. And I'll just say, steam deck.
[00:28:17] Ian: Well, Josh, I know that this is your new segment, but since we're talking about Kickstarter, I had something else to throw into the
[00:28:25] Josh: Ooh.
[00:28:26] Ian: tabletop game side, because I keep, I keep appraised of what's going on, on Kickstarter in the, the board game industry is I think the industry that has most taken to Kickstarter.
In fact, I heard somewhere that like, of all of the like categories, board games are like the biggest single category on Kickstarter. It's basically at the center of the tabletop game industry at this point, like most new games that come out, go through a Kickstarter campaign, even some bigger companies basically use Kickstarter has like a glorified pre-order system kind of.
and so, but I don't back a lot of things like I'm a pretty hesitant, careful backer, but I did back a tabletop game called hand to hand wombat.
[00:29:16] Patrick: Pet team is just
so good.
[00:29:19] Ian: I only back games that I'm like, I have to have this game. Like, I know I'm going to want to have this game.
It's a slam dunk for me. So this is a hidden roles, dexterity party game.
[00:29:32] Patrick: Hm.
[00:29:33] Ian: And it's by the creators of, exploding kittens, which I'm actually not a huge fan of. I, it's not my favorite game in the world, but, they have a whole studio now and they, they make a bunch of games and I think they've made some, better games since coming out with exploding kittens.
And this one looks really fun. Here's the premise. you know, those baby toys that are like a bunch of plastic circles that decrease in size and you like stack them on top of each other over, there's like a, the base with like a rod and, you know, you have a bunch of colorful doughnuts of decreasing size and you're supposed to like stack.
[00:30:07] Josh: Oh, okay. Yeah.
[00:30:09] Ian: Okay. So this game essentially comes with several of those and you put those out on the table between everybody, and then you give everyone a secret roll card. And a bunch of people are like, they're trying to essentially you like put all the pieces, scattered them around the table. A bunch of people are trying to build the towers, but there's like one or two traders who are trying to destroy the towers. And then everyone closes their eyes and builds the towers for like a minute or something. You set a timer and everyone closes their eyes and like tries to reach around and like build these things. But then some people are going to try to sneakily, take things off or knock them over or whatnot. And then after a minute, the timer goes off and you all open your eyes and then you accuse people like you try and figure out who the, you know, the trader was and then you vote somebody out and then you do it.
I'm pretty sure is how it works. And so it just sounds like a super fun, super chaotic, hidden roll game. Even for people who like don't want to do social deduction in hidden role stuff. And it, I think it would be a game that would be just as fun to watch
[00:31:20] Patrick: Oh,
[00:31:21] Ian: as to play. Because if you watched, you would know exactly who the traders are and it would just be hilarious to see them like trying to be sneaky with their eyes closed.
[00:31:30] Josh: oh, man. I need to figure out how to get us a YouTube video, like a YouTube platform thing set up, because that would be a great first board game. That would be hilarious.
[00:31:41] Ian: It would be, it would be. And I backed it because again, I knew that I wanted to have it, but also they do have some pretty fun, stretch goals that they've got going on. And a lot of them have been unlocked and I hope more of them get unlocked, as we go along. So I think the cards are going to be fuzzy now
[00:31:59] Patrick: Mm.
[00:32:01] Ian: in the, in the
[00:32:01] Josh: that.
[00:32:02] Ian: box.
[00:32:03] Patrick: I mean, that's the wombat part, right? Like that you got to have some little homage to the wombat sorta thing, little
fuzz.
[00:32:12] Josh: Did you know that wombats are the only creature that can poop squares?
[00:32:17] Patrick: Wow. So they should have made them not rings, but squares that you set on things
[00:32:23] Josh: Just trying to keep the science alive.
[00:32:26] Ian: Well, Patrick, they are squares that you set on top of each other. They are not rings.
They are pink squares.
[00:32:34] Josh: I bet you that's. Why.
[00:32:36] Patrick: do. They put pink, like penguins,
[00:32:38] Josh: Wait penguins poo pink.
[00:32:40] Patrick: from all like the fish they,
[00:32:43] Ian: What are we saying? Penguin, poo pink.
[00:32:47] Patrick: oh, that's
[00:32:48] Josh: Oh my gosh.
[00:32:49] Ian: Somebody, Somebody, can use that as their username now.
[00:32:58] Josh: Pooping our next. Thank you. It's going to be thank you to penguin, poo pink,
[00:33:05] Ian: Well, Josh, is there anything else that you want to keep us updated on?
dough. I was just intrigued to hear about what this hand-to-hand wombat was. So I'm excited.
[00:33:13] Patrick: That name alone is so good.
[00:33:18] Josh: Oh yeah.
[00:33:18] Ian: good name. Really good.
[00:33:20] Patrick: I can't wait to play that with you guys.
[00:33:22] Ian: Okay. Well that was the news with Josh bolt sell. Thank you,
[00:33:30] Josh: Did it do.
[00:33:31] Patrick: Yeah. I feel like I need a drum roll really, really, really loud in my house, but I know that wouldn't be good
[00:33:37] Ian: Oh, in post. I'm definitely going to put in some, some news news, anchor music, we got it all picked out and everything it's going to happen.
[00:33:45] Patrick: I'm Ron burgundy.
[00:33:54] Ian: I think wood pooping.
[00:33:58] Patrick: That's the vocal warmup,
[00:34:00] Ian: Okay. You can, can everybody tell that we are recording later than we normally do? I can. let's talk about the games that we've been playing. Uh, I'll start. I have been playing more Pokemon, of course. And I, it looks like maybe someone else is going to bring that up. So I'll, I'll save any thoughts I have on that.
But I also, picked up a game. That's been on my wishlist for a little while it went on a little bit of a sale on the Nintendo III shop. And I was like, what the heck? I'll pick it up. And it's called captain toad, treasure tracker. Have either of you
guys
[00:34:37] Patrick: amazing.
[00:34:39] Josh: I have not, but Chris, my husband has, and it was really fun to watch.
[00:34:44] Ian: It's a really cool little game. I have to say. It is also really unique. So it's captain toad, which is towed from the Mario franchise. So if you've ever played Mario kart or super Mario, anything like the little, the little guys with like the mushroom. Hat's the little short guys, that's towed. And so this is captain toad who has a headlamp, I guess that's what makes him a captain. And he is going around collecting coins and collecting, crowns or stars, or it depends on the level. He's collecting things. It's a Mario game, but the premise is that it's like, a dire Rameh game. So basically the whole entire level is this very small, like kind of cube and you can fully rotate the entire thing and like, look at the entire thing.
in 360 degrees. And so you use one joystick to rotate the level and one joystick to walk your little toad guy around the level. And he walks pretty slowly, but it's a very small kind of compact level. and it's one of these games where the controls are super simple. It's just move. And then there's one command button that, allows you to like pick stuff up.
[00:36:01] Ian: And then I think another button turns your headlamp on and off. but within those constraints, it's a great example of how constraints can sometimes breed creativity because within those constraints, they've created all of these super creative levels where like things move around and, you know, you like unlock something and like a piece of the level falls away and it exposes new things and, you know, all sorts of just cool little things.
So it's a puzzle game at its core, but it's also just a very charming little, game package. I thought. So I, I recommend it, but the only thing that's holding me back from like really, really recommending it is that, let me ask you a question, I'm going to ask the two of you a question. game is actually a we you game.
So it's one of those good games that came out on the, we, you, which was a platform that no one owned. And so no one
[00:36:51] Josh: Oh, wow.
[00:36:52] Ian: So Nintendo very smartly rereleased it on the switch and like any kind of bonus content DLC stuff is included with the, you know, current package that you would get. So at it's, it's, it's a really like, kind of small compact game.
It almost has a mobile game field because of just like how small the levels are, but it's really good. what would you pay for a, we, you re release that came out of.
2014 and has been re-released. What do you feel like that's worth to you for like a little cute little.
[00:37:27] Josh: Between 30 to 45.
[00:37:29] Patrick: Hm. I, it
[00:37:30] Josh: I feel like I know the price though.
[00:37:32] Patrick: I feel like it would depend a little bit on how long and how many puzzles and how interactive, like when you started describing it. And I immediately thought of a game called Moss. I can't remember if me and you and I had talked about this before, but it's a VR game that sounds very similar.
You can actually move your head around the entire map and see everything on it. So like it's a puzzle game. You're like a little mouse going through an entire environment. So like it, that was really unique and give a really interesting experience. Cause it was in VR. So I could see that being a little bit more expensive, but if this was like short and the levels, weren't very big, I'd say like 20 bucks is what I feel like I would pay for that.
Like, especially, I don't know. I was a little maybe swayed by the set. It felt maybe like a mobile game, which would actually be kind of cool if it was like AR you can like move your phone around and actually see like different aspects of. Set set up levels, whatever it is, but
[00:38:28] Ian: Well, it just has like a kind of a mobily game feel just with how, how, like, you know, condensed all of the levels are, you know, so I'm with you, Patrick. I feel like if this game was like $20 and maybe sometimes it went on sale for 15 or something like that, I'd say, go out and buy it. Like, it's a great game.
You're getting good value. It's super, it's super friendly and charming. But even all of these years later, Nintendo's doing the thing where some places are still selling it for $60. Most places are selling it for around 40. Sometimes it goes on sale for like 32 to $35. I bought it around like 30 to 50 or something like that.
And,
[00:39:11] Patrick: Hmm.
[00:39:12] Ian: I've really enjoyed it and I don't feel bad about the purchase, but I'm kinda like, I don't know if it deserves even $30, especially considering how old it is. And I just, it also frustrates me how Nintendo seems to be resistant or refusing to like discount their games that are really old so that more people can play them and more people can have access to them.
It just feels a little money grabby, but that's just
[00:39:41] Josh: Yeah,
[00:39:41] Patrick: I think that's, I feel like that's a common thing. A lot of reboots, a lot of remakes, a lot of money, grabby type things just to hit on the stall. Joe are not necessarily dropping price on somethings, just cause it's the same game released later. I know they have to pay the people who made it or updated it or changed the platform.
But it definitely seems sometimes like it's a little steep 60 bucks, man. Maybe not so much.
[00:40:06] Ian: Yeah, but if you feel like it's, you know, if that game sounds like your kind of game, you know, and you feel like 30 to $40 is a good price point for you. I do think it's really excellent. Josh, last week you mentioned a game that was coming out and it looks like you've been playing it and I want to hear it.
[00:40:24] Josh: Yeah, I I've invested a little bit of time into dying light. And I just to preface, I am a huge fan of zombie games. I it's, it's actually funny and students make fun of me all the time. I am obsessed with zombie movies. I'm obsessed with zombie games. I'm obsessed with zombie, everything. I mean, I have a version of D and D that is entirely zombie apocalypse and it is the game that I know best in terms of role-playing games.
so I was super excited for dying light too. I think it's a good game, but there've been a lot of people that say best what I feel it's kind of boring. Like I was reading through all of the reviews ahead of time and all of the reviews were saying like, good game, kind of boring. and. That's kind of where I'm falling right now is like, I I've invested, gosh, I not a ton of time.
[00:41:22] Josh: I want to say like five to 10 hours somewhere in there. so not a significant amount of time, but enough that I expected more to happen. and I'm definitely someone that I'm not a completionist I'm not going to try and do a bunch of missions, but I'm just going to free roam and like, see what the game has to offer.
I like when I come across a heavy duty boss that just obliterates me and I'm like, wow, that exists. I've just been running around. Haven't really found anything like that. There are some like really big zombies that are abominations and they'll definitely mess you up. I've traveled around at night time, but I feel like they made nighttime a little bit more calm.
everything feels more relaxed and the game is more about survival. And avoiding humans because like, I it's very realistic and that humans are like the most dangerous thing that you come across. but I don't know. I wasn't really looking for that. And as zombie game, I will say that there are some perks that I absolutely loved.
[00:42:24] Josh: Like they have a new UI system, they have a new skill system. and I, I just feel like they've really fallen into something unique that works well. Like the way that you level up your skills just makes sense. It is cool. If you're going to do a par core movement based system, that is how you do it. same with the idea of, you have immunity now where, the virus, what's it called?
The Karar virus or the Koran virus? I can't remember
[00:42:54] Patrick: dangerously close to something else.
[00:42:56] Ian: Yeah.
[00:42:57] Josh: close to coronavirus. well, the virus, reproduces and starts taking over your immune system, if you're in darkness, and ultraviolet light will actually prevent the virus from like taking over your body.
And so the game is basically like you running from ultraviolet, light checkpoints all over the place. And the more you level up, the more exercise you get, the higher your immunity is. And so like you get this immunity stimulus where it's like, oh, now I can survive for six minutes in the darkness. And then they send you into missions where it's like, you have to crawl through an air duct system.
That's completely pitch black. And like, you have to find all of these different supplies, like water filters and stuff, but you have to like do it in the amount of time. So every mission is kind of like a timed mission. It's it? The game has really great mechanics. Just, I feel like they focus so much time on making those mechanics awesome.
And then they were kind of like, here's the story.
[00:44:03] Patrick: Is there a story?
[00:44:04] Josh: There is a story. And honestly, the story is good. Like I'm intrigued, I'm going to keep playing it until the end. So it is worth it. And I do recommend that people get it, and play it if they're a fan of zombie games, because I am addicted to it. I keep going back to it. there's just things that I'm kind of like, ah, this was so close to being like an A-plus and so it's frustrating.
Cause it's like, you know, when somebody does like a really good job, you accidentally hold them to a higher standard. It's a good game. And so I'm holding it to a higher standard because it's a good game and it's enjoyable. Just there's frustrations.
[00:44:44] Patrick: yeah, I kind of want it to keep getting better and better and better as you keep going through it to have this like pinnacle at the very end and just kind of like, it seems like it almost like leveled off and it's just kind of
[00:44:53] Josh: Yeah. The developers should be proud though. They should be really proud of themselves because they made a game. People were making fun of the graphics. I think that the graphics are fine. I have enjoyed it. they're not like blow away. Beautiful. That looks like a real zombie kind of thing, but they function.
They're nice. I like it. I think it's a completely playable game in terms of graphics.
[00:45:19] Patrick: Yeah. I've seen some videos on it on Reddit and stuff, and they've all looked good. They looked fun. It looked like it was a very entertaining game. Just maybe
[00:45:27] Josh: Oh yeah.
[00:45:28] Patrick: to it.
[00:45:28] Ian: Well, that's a good, honest review, Josh. I appreciate your honesty because I know that you love zombie games and you weren't just like zombies are the best.
[00:45:37] Josh: Oh yeah. I'm super critical of zombie games. So I mean to, to all the listeners, me critiquing a zombie game like that and saying that it's a good game. That probably means that somebody that's not a fan of zombie games would be like, this is the best game ever.
[00:45:53] Ian: So Josh, what are maybe your like top two or three zombie games?
[00:45:59] Patrick: Oh, I like this.
[00:46:03] Josh: the first one is an RPG, because. It's called outbreak on dead. it was actually universally disliked.
[00:46:13] Ian: When you say RPG, video game or tabletop,
[00:46:16] Josh: role-playing yeah, so
tabletop.
[00:46:19] Ian: paper. Okay. Gotcha.
[00:46:20] Josh: Yeah, like Dungeons and dragons essentially, but with zombies and you play as yourself, it was actually really disliked by a lot of people.
it got terrible reviews, but I disagree with everyone. I think that the game does a spectacular job of making it so that you can either be completely role. rule-based where it's like you're calculating outbreak level infection level, you're keeping track of things that you wouldn't think to keep track of.
[00:46:50] Josh: Like, how many camping supplies do you have? How many rations do you have? Like, I think that they did a fantastic job of setting up like a real. Style game. but they also made it super approachable where there's a casual version and they highlight everything that's casual in green. So that if you just want to play a very simple story-driven game, there's like difficulty levels.
And you just don't see that very often. So I feel like that game is spectacular. I am so upset that everybody hates it. Like nobody ever wants to play it. And I'm over here. Like, I think it's a spectacular game.
[00:47:32] Ian: That's a really thoughtful touch to include that, easy mode or the, casual play
within the rule
set. Like that's a really nice thing to do.
[00:47:41] Josh: they call it like weekend, weekend warrior or something like that. cause it's like, oh, you only play on the weekends, but you still like to have fun. Yeah. And so they remove like the survival aspect. It's a lot more like, how are we going to kill the zombies?
[00:47:55] Ian: cool. Okay. So that's your favorite? Do you have a favorite video?
[00:48:00] Josh: Oh, that's tough. Okay. So you know how you brought up the, we, you, there was this game that I thought was really awesome and it's called a zombie. You, and it was actually kind of a crappy game. Cause there are some really good games, like, dead island. gosh, what's the other one where you can like use a chainsaw and a lawn mower and just anything that you can find as a weapon, there's going to be people in the comments saying like, how do you don't remember that game?
[00:48:31] Ian: the third part, the third person action one.
[00:48:33] Josh: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:48:35] Ian: okay.
[00:48:35] Josh: one of the most famous ones, but I can't remember it, but there's like so many zombie games like left for dead, blah, blah, blah. That are better than this game, zombie U, but I like zombie U for a very clever thing that they did that makes it feel a little bit more realistic. and that is that when you first start the game, you play as this character that is just randomly generated and you try to survive as long as possible.
The thing is you start running out of supplies. You have to run on all these missions and stuff. And if you get caught by zombies and killed, you start as a new character in a completely different location that's been randomly generated.
And so then you're running around again. You can accidentally bump into your last player as a zone.
[00:49:27] Patrick: Okay.
[00:49:29] Josh: And I love That Yeah. It like creates this environment where you like, see your past character. You're just kind of like, okay, that is cool. Ah, dead rising. That's it. Thank you for finding that. That was going to drive me. Absolutely insane. Yeah.
[00:49:48] Patrick: that's a really cool aspect to it. Like seeing your former self, trying to chomp you. That's your running away is terrifying.
[00:49:58] Josh: And that's, I kind of hope that, state of decay three is coming out and I loved state of decay too, man. I know way too many zombie games.
Apparently this is,
[00:50:06] Patrick: is, this is interesting.
state of decay three, when it comes out, I'm really hoping that they let you create your own character. And I hope that for once somebody makes a really awesome game with that same mechanic.
[00:50:18] Ian: that's cool. That's really cool.
[00:50:20] Josh: The news is just going to turn into me talking about zombie games,
[00:50:24] Ian: Yeah,
[00:50:25] Josh: this next zombie game coming out.
[00:50:28] Ian: we're going to have to do a whole nother section, the zombie corner with Josh bald cell or something.
[00:50:34] Josh: I might have to rethink my, my zombie hour. I'll have to rethink my rankings because there's just different things that I like about all zombie games. And I feel like I should be on a developer team telling them, no, no, don't do that. Do this. This is much better. So hit me up if you work for a company that makes all the games.
[00:50:56] Ian: you're a zombie game consultant.
[00:50:59] Josh: Yeah. That didn't remember the name of dead rising.
[00:51:04] Patrick: It's, it's not the name of the game. It's the features, man. That's what you're going to remember.
[00:51:08] Josh: Yeah.
[00:51:09] Ian: Well, Patrick you've been playing anything.
[00:51:11] Patrick: Actually, I'm in like a week hiatus of any games it's been the weirdest week. because I went way too hard on Pokemon. Like, I mean, hard, hard, and I, and I beat it, like the whole thing there's nothing left to do. And which took me a lot of time. And I, that's just kind of my all-in mentality. So all the side quests, full Pokedex, that sort of thing.
And there's, I still have some gripes about some, a couple things in that game. Like I won't get into the full-on extras, but when the, when the main character makes those weird faces with the open mouth, but I can't stand that face. Oh my gosh, it kills me. But the second thing is like time gated, Pokemon, like. I feel like there's no reason whatsoever to time gate or put a waiting period between the ability to catch a Pokemon. I understand like maybe logistics and that sort of stuff, but it's not a subscription subscription based game. There's no need to wait for something. Why not just give it to me? Like, it's not like I'm anyways, I'm, I'm gonna get on a little tangent here.
But, yeah, so I beat that and I was like, what do I do now? Like what, what's my next big thing. So I have two things that I've been debating back and forth. And the first one was horizon, forbid and west
and how I live deliberated. And I think I texted you guys with this moral dilemma. I wanted it so bad.
I loved the first one. I think you and Ian. We talked about this a ton one time, about how much we love that game. Gameplay, flawless graphics were awesome, but I don't have a PS five and I just don't want to buy it for the PS4. I think I, if I'm going to experience it, I need to experience it on the PS five.
Like I've seen some screenshots of it and some videos of it and it just looks incredible. And so I feel like I wouldn't do it justice unless I got it on the PS five. So I held off on that and I'm waiting for Elden ring. So I don't know how I did it, but I put off buying horizon forbid and west, and I've actually was downloading it before, we got on this podcast.
So
[00:53:16] Ian: Elton ring.
[00:53:16] Patrick: Yeah, I think tonight, I think it released it's either tonight at midnight or tomorrow at midnight. So I'm going to play that. So I'm off of the Pokemon and onto the Elden ring. So I'm pretty excited for that because I think it's my first real exploration into that style of game. So the next time you hear from me, I might have rage quit it or loved it.
I don't know where I'm going to be on that timeline, but, there's some really cool like character classes that I'm pretty excited for. Like, I was just looking at some of the names of them. Like, I think he'd be like a Vagrant or something like that. Like it, it just seems very cool. The types of styles you can be.
So, yeah, I don't really have anything to report it and I'm very excited to start eldering here in the next couple of days.
[00:53:55] Ian: Well, I can't wait to talk about it on the show. Thank you for actually making content for the show, Patrick, I'm over here playing like decade old. We, you games, you're like, oh yeah. I want to play the new releases that people actually want to hear about.
[00:54:12] Patrick: I have put hundreds of hours on Diablo to resurrect it. So don't you worry? I've I've done my time in the 20 year old game department.
[00:54:20] Josh: And Hey, you know, we could do nothing, but talk about Subnautica for every episode, for the next hundred years. And there would be people like me that would sit there and listen, and just be like, yeah. And then that fish, what about that fish?
[00:54:34] Ian: Is there a Subnautica podcast? I mean, that could be a niche spin on. I'm just saying
[00:54:41] Josh: That I don't think that there is one, but that is a niche that I do not want to fill. I don't need to be a part of that ecosystem.
[00:54:51] Ian: Oh,
but, but, Josh, that here's the podcast name under yonder.
[00:54:56] Patrick: Oh
[00:54:57] Josh: gosh. No,
[00:55:01] Patrick: it's
[00:55:02] Ian: it would be, it'd be a sister podcast.
[00:55:04] Patrick: I, it needs to be the video podcast though, because I remember in your old classroom, we, I was watching you play at one time and it was just I was in a trance just watching you play it, the music, the sound. And then you're trying to show us off, like the big beast from down below, like the big, like Leviathan monster or whatever.
It was like, it was like terrifying. It was, it felt like it was like pitch black swimming around and just waiting for it to happen. I feel like that'd be a good little video podcast
[00:55:30] Josh: Oh, yeah.
[00:55:31] Patrick: under yonder sub yonder. What was it
under
[00:55:36] Josh: Flower flounder cast.
[00:55:40] Ian: Well, this isn't flounder cast. This is Yondercast and I think that that's going to be it for this week's episode. So thank you all so much for listening to Yondercast. If you enjoyed what you heard, please rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts and submit your questions and discussion topics.
Using the form linked in the show notes. As always, you can contact us using the email yondercast@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you. Take care, everybody.
[00:56:06] Josh: Bye everybody.