Hello everyone, just giving you a bit of a heads up of something
new that I'm trying for. Remember 64 Another way to hear
from you, the listener and viewer of the show.
Voice cast dot app slash Remember 64 voice cast is a cool
new thing that I found from a couple other creators that have
been using them. This is a great way to send a
audio message to the show. It's something that you can
share about episodes, games, things you want us to cover, you
know, any of the games that we have upcoming or have, and you
have some thoughts about what you experienced playing the
game. I always ask guests and me and
Jiggy look back, always talk about it.
But what do you think? Sure, social media is a way to
do it, but this is a way to actually have your voice on the
show. It is completely free voice cast
dot app slash remember 64. Just make it, you know, anywhere
between 30 seconds to two minutes, something like that at
the most. It could be very brief.
No problem. You can just say hi.
You can just say bye, you know, whatever you want.
Voice cast dot app slash remember 64 leave us a message.
It's completely free. You can do it on your phone, You
can do it on a browser and you can find the link on social
media as well and at the description of this episode on
your podcast app of choice. All right, so on with the show
everyone. Remember 64 is part of the Super
Pod Podcast Network. Oh yeah, check us out Super Pod
Network on your podcast app of choice and Super podnetwork.com
where you can find all our shows, blog posts, videos and
more. Like Calgary company is looking
to hit it big with Nintendo. It's the only Canadian company
to develop games for Nintendo, and they're available at a store
shelf near you. Cody and Aaron just can't get
enough of Nintendo, so they're pretty pumped to be among the
first to try the brand new game. Cal.
How's our website coming? And this is where the new game
was born, an office in a downtown high.
Rise. These are our characters from
the Tetris FEAR game. It's the first time Nintendo has
hired a Canadian company to design one of these games.
It could mean millions for this small Calgary company.
It's a very big deal. Nintendo is the world's largest
video game manufacturer, so for a little start up company like
ourselves that's been able to line up the world's biggest
player is just a tremendous coup.
I don't. Know if you're going to win this
time. Welcome to Remember 64, where
this week we break blocks in a whole new way.
Hello, everyone, welcome to the show, and hi again for returning
listeners and viewers. And welcome if this is your
first time here on Remember 64, we play and discuss the good,
the bad, the ugly, and everything in between throughout
the Nintendo 64's library. My name, of course, is David
Ptrangelo, and I spin this game round, baby, right round.
When I drop blocks, things will go down, down.
That's right. I'm not going to sing that
because that would hurt everybody's ears even more than
my voice already does anyways. Jiggy, look back with me again.
How are you, Sir? Like, do we have to say that
every time? Like with you again?
Like, yeah, I'm here. I'm here all the time.
Hey, I'm always here. Hey, life happens man, life
happens as everybody knows life happens.
I was gone for like 6-7 months. Oh, that's true.
That's true. Oh yeah, remember when I wasn't
when we weren't doing this for a bit, Jiggy?
Yeah, there, there was a time there I forgot.
I felt like we've been doing this for like ever, like once a
week, every week since the beginning of time.
The beginning of our time, there's there's remember 64 time
and then there's the before time.
That's pretty much it, which is kind of like the pandemic
roughly when that anyways, how you doing Jiggy?
How's it going? How's things?
Oh, I'm doing great. I'll be honest, I had no idea
what I was doing with this game, but that's OK.
OK. All right.
We'll get into it. Before we get into exactly what
we're talking about, even though you probably saw it in the title
as already, but this time we are joined by a couple of guests.
This is very exciting. A a unofficial sister, brother,
cousin at the show. Flashback 64 is with us.
We have both Gooey and McKenna here.
Welcome to Remember 64. Hello.
Thank you. Yeah.
Thank you for having us. I'll ask you guys as well, how's
things, how you doing? Yeah, pretty good.
We are you know, to be honest, we're we're moving soon.
So we're kind of just like in a we have that sort of like at
least I do. I have sort of that pre moving
anxiety where like everything's fine, but you're I'm just like,
I'm the type of person that's like, what if everything goes
wrong and it's. Horrible.
That is kind of in limbo, you know, like it's sort of a weird
state to be in kind of thing. Yeah, I hear ya.
We're. We're packing stuff up, but I'm
leaving out the N64 and the CRT 'cause I'm like we got, we got
business to. Take care of you.
Got some? Tetris to play.
What a great game to play as you're packing up stuff.
It's perfect. You get some practice and yeah,
we are really. It is, yeah.
Yeah, it's it's a good little pick up and play kind of thing.
I think you can do that with a lot of the a lot of the the
styles of games here. But yeah, like I said, you may
have seen it or if you're watching, you have the little
title beside us right here. We are playing and talking about
Tetrasphere this week. Tetrasphere is a new 3D version
of Tetris ish. We will we'll get into all the
details of that, but before we do really quickly, let's talk a
little bit about flashback 64. If anyone has not heard or found
you guys out there, what's we're sort of covering similar things,
but you guys do it in a lot different way.
It's not, you know, we're just going through titles and titles,
but you guys do a lot of in between sort of types of
episodes and a lot of great guests and stuff.
Let's let's chat a little bit about that.
Yeah, Yeah. First of all, thank.
Thank you again for having us on and thank you for accepting us.
Because I, you know, when we started, I did the thing where I
was like, I googled like, OK, there's nothing called
flashback. Like I guess there's like Atari
Flashback 64 gotcha thing. But I was like, OK, we're not.
And then and then like right after we launched, I discovered
your podcast and it was like we're similarly named similar
topics. And I was like.
Oh no, I hope I'm not. Cramping this.
Guy's style. What have we done?
But you basically were like instantly really nice to us and
it's been really cool to know you.
So I just wanted to say thank you.
I'm glad I could publicly on the record.
Thank you. Happy to, happy to be able to
be, to be chatting and stuff. No, no need to, no need to thank
me. It's just just good times.
That's it. Just.
Oh no, we're gonna. He's Canadian.
I'm Canadian. I'll, I'm just, what can I say?
Well, those guys are getting serious now.
Yeah, Yeah, that's right. That's right.
We, yeah, yeah, in the last last couple months, we've turned the
page. Yeah.
But yeah, we cover similar things.
So yeah, we're, we cover the Nintendo 64 library as well.
We, we do a new like main episode once a month mainly
'cause, you know, we got, we have like day jobs and stuff and
so we don't want to overwhelm our stuff and we want to take
our time with the game. So we're like one a month.
But we do find, you know, there are times where we have more
time. And so in the intervening weeks,
we still, you know, podcast and stuff and we try to, you know,
touch upon other things from the time period.
We're, we're traveling chronologically through the
library. So we're like, what?
What else is going on in 1996? We're in 1997 right now.
So we talk about what, what, what are some things we've done?
Movies. Movies, shows, games on other
consoles. Yeah, and we also will take the
opportunity like like we've done episodes on older Mario games
and Kirby and stuff. We we're like, we're kind of
filling in, you know, some of the, the back story.
Of these that's I was just gonna the back story's the first word
that came to mind too. And you're about to say that
yeah. The back story the story it it
like that time of of gaming and media and stuff is is right in
the heart of a lot of people in our generation grew up in the
mid late 90s and early 2000s of it being like that's like
Seminole years of all that. So filling in those gaps and
that back story like you said is is fun.
I mean, like it's just cool to to be going that far back and
kind of comparing notes and things with, with what would
what's on the 64 and what's not. Like it's it's all related, I
find. Yeah, yeah, we're trying to do
that too, like play some of the, you know, PlayStation games or,
you know, we've covered Tomb Raider and yeah, we're trying to
hit on like, stuff like that too 'cause, you know, we, I think we
both grew up like, as like Nintendo kids, you know?
And so we're, we're, yeah, we're just trying to like, fill in the
blind spots and explore the wider culture and stuff.
Nice, nice. And do you guys have, I mean,
are you like me where your story of getting in an N64 as a kid or
when you're a little bit older is not very exciting?
Or do you guys have like a story?
How'd you guys get into it or, or, or was it, was it when you
were a kid? Was it later 'cause everyone's
got a a different way of getting their console regardless of
which one it is? For, for me, I got it.
I it's like I got it when I was like 6 or 7 and I like, I have
gaming memories before that, like I had an NES and then we
just, I was so young that it was like that, that wasn't enough,
you know, like, like Super Mario Brothers 1 was like the perfect
game. And then, but I don't remember
like exactly. It was probably a Christmas gift
or something like that. But I don't have that like, oh,
I, I waited all all night for Santa and I came down and I, you
know, screaming N64 kid. I just, you know, it just like
became part of my life. Yeah, it just happened.
And I think you're Mckenna's a little bit younger, so I feel
like it was kind of one. Where you grew.
Up we we got it. And before I started having
memories, so I remember having it, but I don't remember getting
it. And yeah, I didn't play a ton on
it as a kid. So I was like, you know, five
years old. Hard, hard to wrap your head
around Mario Kart. Yeah, hard to wrap your head
around some of the games because it's just.
Anything more complex than Mario Kart.
Like I think I was just running around in the game.
Yeah, I that that'd be, I think that was probably me with.
I mean, for me it would be probably the Superintendent with
that sort of thing. Like I got it.
I never, I have a story of how I got the Super Nintendo.
It was like a whole thing, but like, did I have more than a
couple games for the first couple years that I knew what I
was doing? Probably not.
That's you know, and that's fine.
And I still have it. It's in the other room beside me
and it still works. It's the original 1 from I think
I got it 94 or 93 so like. No, that's amazing.
Yeah, but it's still running. I have one working controller,
not the second one. Decided to not not work for some
reason. Or maybe it was the first.
No, I. Don't know.
It's OK. I'll find another.
I also have the Mini 1, so it's fine.
I'll survive. There you go.
Where's the Mini 64? That's what everyone wants to
know, right? That would, right?
Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice.
OK, so we're going to talk some what?
Yeah. I want to ask because I'm dying
to know, what are your favorite each of you?
What's your favorite N64 game there?
We go. Oh well, OK, the reason the way
we know each other the way well we're married first of all, I'll
say, but the the way we met was through.
We are also both contributors to the Zelda fan site
zeldadungeon.net. And we?
We we met through that and we're both massive Zelda fans.
So for starters, I don't know well what's what's.
Your answer I I'll say right now we still have a Zelda game we
haven't covered yet. You're still not just saying.
Oh, interesting. I had a feeling you were going
to say Zelda because I saw the post, the edge of the poster
behind you. Oh yeah.
Like, oh, I just see Gannon looking at me.
I'm like. Yeah, yeah.
Wow. You know, it's hard to choose
between Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.
I I. No, it ain't.
Hey, yeah, that's right. I definitely play Ocarina more
just cause Majora's mask give me gives me more anxiety playing.
Yeah, I like Majora's Mask it for it.
It fluctuates, obviously, but like Majora's Mask is like one
of my favorite games of all time.
But I do probably, I feel like Ocarina of Time is like a little
bit easier to just kind of like go back and like, yeah, you
don't have to like, like do time management and stuff like that.
But I do, I do think Majora's Mask is better, if that makes
sense. One's more like of a chill game
and one's more of like like an experience.
Like I I gotta be in the right mood to play it.
Yeah, that's fair. I think I said when we, when we
covered Majora's Mask, it was like I, I played that on the
Switch online when I had it at that time.
And because of all the time management and stuff, and
because life's just busy and all that kind of shit that comes
along with it. Like without the safe states, I
think it would have like torn some of my hair out 'cause it
was just like just like the time management part.
I just like, I can't, you know, and I I, I don't, I had very
little experience playing it before that.
I thought it was great. I loved it.
But you know, the the modern way of playing it, I think gave it a
little extra bump in my mind. But it's still a fantastic game.
So fair enough. Yeah.
I mean, hey, can't go wrong with two.
Very, very, very good Zelda games, of course.
Yeah, big yeah, big fan. Yeah, exactly.
OK, we're gonna touch Talk Tetrisphere in just a second.
I just wanna let everybody know that of course you can support
the show at patreon.com/remember 64 Show.
Jiggy's pointing and give me a thumbs up because I remembered
for as little as just just a buck a month, you can support
the show. You can get episodes early, you
can get pre show chats, you can get some posts that I put up
early as well. Be involved with polls, all this
kind of fun stuff that I'm going to throw up and yeah, I can.
I just keep sort of going through new ideas and trying to
add more and more things in there for everybody to to enjoy.
You can also join for free if you want to free.
There are posts that go up every once in a while as well and also
free polls and gives you a notification of when things are
posted as well. And if you want to join after
being free for as many months as you want to, I often throw up a
couple of like promotions that come up on Patreon as well,
which lets you pick a tear for 50% off for the first month that
you joined as well. So those types of things are all
part of the process as well. You can find us across all your
podcast platforms, of course, and on YouTube, Remember 64 as
well, Jiggy, what do people do on YouTube?
I don't really know what the cool kids do to sort of say
like, follow this, do that. What was that?
How's that work? Mr. YouTube himself over here.
The the cool kids like the videos, the cooler kids
subscribe to the videos, and the coolest kids to the notification
bell so they always get the updates.
And even cooler kids go harass Dave when he's streaming on the
Remember 60. 4 channel, yes, I have I have some plans to do
that a little bit more. I know it's it's very
inconsistent timing. So just try to get those
notifications like Jiggy said, I think that's a really good way
to do it. If you if you subscribe to the
page, it'll give you a heads up when I'm going live and then on
social media, pretty much Instagram and blue sky at this
point. And that's probably it right
now. And I'll just say like, hey, if
you're around in six hours, Hey, if you're around in 24 hours,
I'll be streaming and it's usually a little bit of time
playing a random game in my backlog or it's going to be an
upcoming episode and doing some of my quote UN quote homework.
So that's usually the plan here and there, but just keep an eye
out. Always fun to have more people
join and just sort of shoot the shit while I play some games.
OK, let's let's finally get to the game, everybody.
Let's get to it. I want to try and get to the
beginning of this so we can hear.
Tell me if you guys can hear this.
I want to listen to the opening of this game because this music
is bang. It's fire.
Oh yeah. It's a vibe.
It's the. Right, like.
Yeah, there it is. It's it lets you know.
This can be intense. This isn't your dad's Tetris.
That's what it's there on me or I don't know, I was going to say
grandfathers, but that makes us seem younger than we probably.
Are just when you thought it would slow down, no.
All right, yeah, that's the awesome music.
Tetrisphere has a pretty sick soundtrack, just so everybody
knows. And it goes non-stop.
It is constantly playing as you play this game.
Jiggy, I'm gonna start with you. One, had you played this game
before? And two, what'd you think about
it and what was the experience like this time?
Nope, never play this game. Never played this game growing
up. I saw it.
I would never be interested in this game growing up.
This is one of those that I would instantly look at and be
like no, not for me. Are are you a have you ever been
or are you a Tetris guy person? I was never a Tetris person.
I don't know why. I don't know why 'cause I
actually like, like Doctor Mario.
And what's the other one that like?
There's a billion games of it. The different versions that I've
played, like Doctor Robotnik's Mean Being Machine, is one of my
favorite games. Oh, puyo puyo.
Yes, thank you. Yeah, those, those I've never
played, it's weirdly enough. Yeah, like Doctor Robotnik's
mean being machine. I know.
I've mentioned that before. Yeah, you.
I don't know what. Yeah.
I don't really like Tetris is fine to me.
Doctor Robotnik's mean being machine, though, I can get
behind that. But yeah, playing this game, I I
had fun going in and kind of clicking through all the
different modes. Rescue puzzle, puzzle was really
interesting. Actually, I think I could get
behind the puzzle mode more than anything else, to be honest with
you. I liked I liked all the little
little robots. I thought that was cool.
Trippy backdrops it, it's a pretty simple game at its core,
but like, I will be honest, like I, I think I teased at the
beginning, I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing.
I did figure it out. Like Full disclosure, I did
figure it out, but it did take me a minute because you have
that's a. Shame.
I really, I was really hoping you're going to be like, guys, I
still have no idea what I'm doing.
No, I did figure it out, but it it definitely was more
complicated. Like it took me a while of trial
and error of going through realizing, oh, hey, those purple
circular blocks I can break by sliding.
I did not do any training, though, because that's that's me
as a kid. If I can't get into this game
and play it within like, you know, 20 minutes, I'm not.
I'm not gonna do. It.
That's so, yeah. I try to embody my me as a kid,
you know, that's I always want to play RPGs.
Like this is just a side tangent.
I always want to play RPGs, but I get overwhelmed with how many
dialogue boxes pop up, like explaining everything about the
game to you. And it's very rare that I can
find an RPG that doesn't do that.
Yeah, it just, it's a turn off to me.
I'm just like, Oh my gosh, I just want to play the game.
You know what? Does a good job of that is Sea
of Stars is pretty good. It's not a like, yeah, it's not
an insanely deep game, but like for an RPG that's, you know,
trying to kind of emulate what it was in like the mid 90s or so
for the for the two DRP, it's got a great story.
It's a good game, But like, it doesn't, you don't, it doesn't
take 3 hours to get going. Like you're off to the races
pretty quickly and it doesn't overwhelm me, kind of.
Or at least that's what it was like for me anyways, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was I talking about?
Tetrisphere. I don't know, it was great.
Tetris. Tetris fun.
It was fun Tetris. I had to look up though.
I was like, is this actually like Tetris?
Like it like, you know what I mean?
Like the brand Tetris? Or was this like somebody made a
game and then called it Tetris? Fear, But it is.
This is a real deal, yeah. It is a real deal.
Yeah, I got I I pulled up a a couple notes about it too, about
how they kind of kind of got here and what they did, but I'll
get to that in a second. All right, Gooey McKenna, when
we were sort of chatting about a game to to cover.
I like, you know, I, I think I'd, I'd said to you when we're
sort of getting things going, I was like, I kind of like, you
know, the guests kind of bring what they wanna, what they wanna
play. I'm happy to play stuff,
especially jiggy noses, especially if it's a game that
I've never played before. I'm even more willing to be
like, hell yeah, let's do it. And then you said Tetrosphere.
So for both of you, what why? Why this game?
I mean like Tetris is like, to me, Tetris is like almost like
this perfect puzzle game that is like ageless, but.
It is, yeah. You know, I think I feel like
that's maybe not and it's not crazy to say, but like, like,
why this game? Why?
Why specifically this game? The, the, like, the actual
reason was like, I was looking at, you know, like all the games
you covered and, and you know, I wanted, I also wanted to just
'cause I, I have the same sort of thing with our show is like
getting people who want to talk about like the games that aren't
Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark Ocarina of Time, you know, So I
was like, OK, maybe maybe I wanna help Dave out and like,
maybe pick a pick one that's like not the most immediate 1.
So I was looking at our, at our games we've covered and like
what, what are our favorites and like weighed that versus like,
well, how popular is it? So I was like, this was like
the, the, our favorite game that we've covered.
That's not like one of the, you know, Yeah, like the.
The typical choice sort of thing.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So, but we do like that being said, like we've we've covered
like 30 something games and this is probably in like our top ten.
But like I said, we haven't played like even some of the
classics. So, but I mean, yeah, we, we
both like, love this game, but we hadn't played it until we
covered it on the show. Yeah.
Oh, it was the first time you played it?
That was I, I, I said this so on on our show, I told told the
story, I, I witnessed it once. I have a very vague memory of my
band. I, I, I have some regrets about
this. My band.
I used to be played music. I don't really do that so much
anymore, but my band was on tour and it was one of those
situations where we're we're played, we played at some
college and we're we got a place to stay with some someone who
ran the show. And it was like with at their
apartment and there was like random people hanging out there
and it was kind of weird. And they were playing both
Robotron 64 and. That's been brought up so much
recently on this. Show.
Yeah, that's crazy. So funny that's we've been
playing that actually too. We're prepping for that, but
they were also playing this and the there's a connection, I
guess. They both have like these really
trippy vibes and these guys were smoking.
Like they were partying. They were out of their minds.
And I have regrets about it because we were like, we were
kind of like, we came here to like sleep.
Like we were like a lame band, you know, We were like, I kind
of want to go to bed, you know, and these guys are like partying
to. Hardy with their palace, like
what the hell? So I didn't, I didn't play it.
I was just like, screw this game, this stupid game or
whatever. But then, yeah, we picked it up
for the show and we loved it. What?
Yeah. What was your we, we were just
refreshing. But you know what was?
Your yeah, I just played it for like an hour right before it's,
it's, it's Tetris on a sphere. It's it's like it's super vibey.
It's it's one of the more unique games we've played up to this
point up. We're about a year, a little
over a year into the Nintendo 64's life.
So it's kind of it, it's definitely a stand out.
It it's, it sets itself apart even though it's it's drawing
from another game. Like it's.
Like Tetris's weird cousin, yes. Yeah, that's true.
Definitely to what you said like Tetris, the like we we both love
Tetris as well and it's like it is this perfect game and this
game. Obviously I don't, I don't know
if I would say it holds a candle to Tetris at all, but I feel
like it's distinct enough, you know what I mean, that it's like
I I almost don't need to compare them, but I guess I can because
it gives me, you know, we were talking about like playing it
like right now when we're like moving and stuff, it is a really
good like de stressor kind of game for me.
Like I, I get a similar tetrisy feeling where it's like at, at
some points you kind of like just get into the zone like the
tetrazone or in this case the tetrasphere and you kind of.
Just like the the zone can be a sphere, it doesn't have to be,
you know, it can be whatever shape it wants really like.
Exactly. Yeah, I so I, I, I don't know
that this was a game that I would have like said like, Nah,
I'm not interested kind of thing, but I just wasn't playing
games like this at that time. You know, like I'm pretty sure I
got my 64 for my birthday in 97. So it was around spring of 97
was probably when I got it. So that's like just before this
game came out. And I just got the typical
stuff, which, you know, most, most people do.
And I usually grew up with the typical, I grew up with the
typical games that you would think of for the 64.
But the older I get or the more sophisticated, I like to say I
get different types of puzzle games or different types of
iterations of other series or franchises or something.
I love that stuff. And that's what this is, right?
I, I had a great time. I played this way more than I
thought I was going to. I like, and, and you just said
like there's a zone that you get into and I don't think it's the
music. I don't, I, I mean, I like it.
I don't think it's the music. I don't think it's the trippy
backgrounds, you know, I don't maybe it's contributing.
It's like a subconscious thing. It it probably helps.
Yeah. It's kind of like, I don't know
if you guys have have anyone's played bulatro in the last year.
Only a select few people have not I think at this point.
But that has a similar like funky music and backgrounds and
like why you're just like kind of playing cards in a way.
But I think it adds to the experience and this is kind of
has that vibe as well. I, I, it was great.
I played this almost exclusively on my Steam Deck.
So it was just the opportunity I had during the last couple weeks
of it. So I was actually playing this a
lot on the train back and forth to work and that 45 minutes on
the train just flew right by. It was great.
So I did that for like multiple days, like over like to and from
I'm like, all right, I'm playing Tetris.
All right, I'm playing Tetris. Like that was just what I did.
And I and I one of the one of the things that kept me going
and like this isn't really, you know, the game itself didn't
necessarily do this, but I'm not really like an achievement
hunter person or trophy hunter guy.
I've never really been like that person, but I have and I've
talked about this before. I signed up for retro
achievements, which is basically a community that gets together
and creates achievements for retro games and you, you know,
you attach it to your ROMs and like your, your retro arch and
things like that. And that's what that plays out.
This plays off of on your steam deck.
So there's a whole bunch of achievements attached to this
being like, oh, you don't, you know, quote, UN quote die at all
when you do 10 levels in a row of, of stage 1 of stage 2 or
stage. So I, it kind of kept me going
more and more and like I wanted to finish those 10 stages in a
run as opposed to, oh, I'm just gonna play one and put it down.
Like I was like focused and like, I gotta, I'm gonna get
this shit done. So like, it was fun.
It was a cool way to experience a game that I never played
before. I personally don't know if it's
Tetris. I think the shapes are just
Tetris. Some of them, some of them are
like I, I don't know, they're, they had to make it work for
this game. So they're like, we got to
create some new shapes here. Yeah, like it's I, I get it.
You're you're, you're stacking and, and getting rid of things
and you know, that sort of verticality that that Tetris has
that necessary verticality. Like it's there, but I don't
know, Tetris to me just doesn't it?
It's you, you have to see things fall and I don't know it, it,
it's still Tetris. I, I get it, but it doesn't
quite feel like, like that's why when you guys are talking about
it and saying like, oh, this is like their weird cousin.
That's, that's what it feels like.
That's exactly what it feels like, 'cause it's the, the
personality of it is there. The ideas of it are there, but I
suck at like original Tetris. Like I'm just bad at it.
I like it. I think it's genius, but man,
you get me to like I don't know the double digit levels or
something and like the original one that's it.
I'm screwed. I'm I'm I'm losing for sure like
like I don't know what it is like I know what I need to do.
I know how to do it. I just can't execute in this
game. I can fucking execute and it was
fun because I think it was actually good it.
Is not as demanding, yeah. Maybe that's what it is, yeah.
There's a couple weird strategies like we we had a
similar thing when we first started playing where where like
especially there's like puzzle mode.
Yeah. So there's multiple modes as
well, yeah. Yeah, and they there's certain
puzzles that require you to do like very specific strategic
techniques that the game that are a bit more complicated.
Not not too much once you actually learn them, but unless
you do the training mode or like read the manual, it's a little.
Even the manual doesn't fully cover that stuff.
No, they do like a little explanation at the beginning of
some of the modes that tell you like, oh, do this and mostly
it's clear, but sometimes I was like, wait, what do you what do
you mean? Like?
I don't, I don't, that doesn't quite make sense to me, but I I
I think that part part of the game is interesting, though.
I like how there's it's not just here's a sphere, try and clear
the blocks and that's it. Like at least they're doing
they're trying to do something with it.
I appreciated that. So what was the the both of you
mentioned the puzzle mode? Is that the one where it's?
It's like it'll give you like a challenge.
So it'll it'll pop like 3-3 blocks up and you want to get
rid of them. And you have to figure out
within a certain amount of moves, it'll tell you like, oh,
you have two slides and a drop. You got to figure out how to get
rid of all three pieces within that those parameters.
I like that. It's very I.
Really like that in it. It's giving me a vibe of have
you ever played the game Echo Chrome?
No. No, it's like a very cool
perspective. Like you have to you'll get like
a scene with like a little guy walking right up up like a ramp
or something and you would like shift your perspective and then
you could make the ramp like connect to another block that's
like out of it's a very interesting concept.
Oh, I see. Go look up Echo Chrome.
I love that game, but the puzzle, like that puzzle mode,
like that's the same kind of feel I get.
I'm like, I just love being creative and like solving these
in a, you know, within parameters.
I like the normal yeah, like the normal single player mode.
I wasn't like huge on. I was like, OK, this is, I mean,
it's the base game, right? I could see that if you were
playing multiplayer and like going against each other or
something like that would be a lot more fun.
But I like like the hide and seek one is, is kind of like the
base mode where it's like you just have to the first person if
you did it in versus or if you're playing a single player,
you just have to clear enough space to get to the center of
it. And then like kind of the
little, I like that it, it's, it's pretty good.
I mean, that's that's fine. But it's it's kind of
interesting that even even that is like the base, you know, like
that's already different from Tetris in itself, which is kind
of cool. I don't know.
I found it anyway. Most of the modes too, other
than puzzle are like built around doing, it's just kind of
doing that getting to the center.
But they just come up with a different like there's the one
mode where they're like you have to find the picture, but it's
like really just get to the center.
But I I appreciate them trying to like do different things with
it, even if it's kind of similar.
Use the drills and get to the bottom the.
Drill thing, yeah, the one I played the most that I, like I
said it was playing, kept going and wanted to get 10 at a time,
or there was one where I had to do 30 stages in a row without
failing and I managed to do that.
Yeah. I can't play this game.
I don't know what the hell is wrong with me.
I can't play this game. Nothing's wrong with you, it's
a. Good game.
I think it's genuinely a good. Yeah, the one I kept coming back
to was the one that gave you a different one every time.
Or potentially it was two in a row that you'd get the same, but
like you'd do the rescue one and then you'd do the block one and
then you'd do the the the tower one.
OK, so like that, that's the one that kind of kept me because at
least like by that point I, I knew what all the stages were,
but at least I was doing something different technically
every few minutes. So at least it was a little bit
more interesting that way. Kind of refreshed it.
But you're right, it does kind of you are kind of doing the
same thing every time, like it's just slight change.
Finding out like everyone's favorite mode to play.
I think that's interesting. Like we've got puzzle mode you
mentioned, was that called hide and seek or?
Hide and seek is like the the basic one, the one if you're
anyone's watching the video, it's the one that we're that
we're seeing right now. That was the one, the thing that
I'm talking with, the mode that I played takes you through 10
stages in a row, or I got to the one where it was thirty in a
row. Hide and Seek was just one of
the several ones that it did. It actually it did pretty much
every mode that is in the game except for puzzle.
That's what it did. OK.
Yeah, cuz that's like completely different than what the rest of
it is, but yeah. I went through like the main
mode cuz it like would give you a little cutscenes.
So I wanted to see those. And then on we had on our show,
our pal J was on the show and he, he's into, well, he's in a
lot of different games, but he's like a fighting game sort of
guy. So he did, he focused a lot on
the versus mode and he was dropping a bunch of stuff he
learned about like like strategies you would do to
succeed, like playing against the computer or other players
and stuff. So I love like to this game's
credit, there is sort of like it can suit a couple different like
types of gamer. What?
What was your? What was your mode?
I I think it just depended on my, my mood or like with the
with like the main mode. I before when I was playing, I
had on, I had TV on the, you know, Star Trek on it and I
could just play it well, kind of half paying attention to each
one. It's a good zone out game.
Yeah, but that's good. The games, there's there's a
place for those types of games. I I agree absolutely.
Yeah, but if I wanna just like think, then the puzzle mode I
really like Plus Plus that helps you like learn how to play.
Yeah, I really. Yeah, for sure.
That's true. You know, it's funny it all all
three of you have mentioned the puzzle mode.
It's the those types of modes just don't work for me in
general, not just in this game specifically.
I just, I wanna be able to sort of create the, the combinations.
Like I find it very rewarding in this game where it's not even
just like 'cause one of the one of the sort of mechanics of it
is if you connect a bunch of blocks together and I think it's
20 is the minimum, maybe it's like 10 or 15.
I think it's 20. If you clear 20 blocks
regardless, like whatever shape you've connected, you get an
item that you can use like a, a bomb or a magnet or something
that clears even more space for you.
And then you can kind of go from there.
Regardless of how many I cleared.
I just, I love like, OK, here's here's like the the stage
starts. Here's 3 connected to each
other. Oh, I'm going to turn that 3
into 30, you know, and I just, I kind of, it's really satisfying.
And the game has a couple of like audio cues that kind of
tell you like these little like swish noises and things like
that, that are just like, Oh, you've cleared, you know, you've
gotten to the bottom or you've cleared a a significant spot or
something. And I'm just like, Oh, that's
it's just enough to be said. Like it's really good sound and
game design and like, I don't know, it just those little
things or why I just kept playing this fucking game, man,
Like, I don't know. And the puzzle one is, is very
interesting. Like I, I understand why for the
three of you and for any game, any puzzle game that has that,
that mode or that type of mode in it, why it works and why it's
fun. They just have never been ones
that I want to keep going back to 'cause I actually find those
to be the most stressful, which is maybe why I stay.
No, I, I kind of am with you there.
Like I, I really, I like puzzle games and I like the puzzle mode
and everything, but it's, it's similar to what I was saying,
like when we were talking about Majora's Mask where it's like, I
kind of got to be in the mood to do that to like, 'cause you kind
of do have to sit there and like, just look at it and think,
you know, And I'm, I think I get such a like dopamine rush out of
just like playing the normal mode that it's that sort of like
the comfort food for it, you know?
So I got to be in the right mindset to do that puzzle mode
'cause it does hurt your brain a little bit sometimes.
Yeah, I I have to think enough at work and at life.
I don't know if I need to. It reminds me of like mobile
games I would play. I would get like the like wood
blocks or whatever and like swipe through it.
I get the same, the same feeling, you know, I like those
type of games though. Those are the games that I would
just play. Like if I had this on a Steam
Deck I feel like I would actually like this game more
than actually sitting down and playing it on 64.
It is. Just having a handheld option
would be cool. Yeah, it is.
It's, it's a very, like I said, like I think pretty much all
four of us have kind of said, is that it?
You can pick up and play this Like you don't have to go and
sit here and play this for several hours.
It doesn't need to be that kind of game.
I don't think Tetris really is anyways, or at least not
anymore. Maybe at the time 'cause it was
so, you know, revolutionary and whatever.
But like, when I was playing it, I, I was stuck on the train for
45 minutes. So yeah, I'm going to play it
for as long as I possibly can and then run to the door so I
don't miss my stop. But, you know, like I, I, I, it
was great for that. It was great to say like, hey,
I'm just going to play something that is, you know, McKenna, you
mentioned sort of, you know, watching Star Trek at the same
time, in a way, I was kind of on the train mindless, you know,
like I was just sort of sitting there going, I'm just going to
do this thing and I'm just going to get this right over with.
I just want to get home, you know, And then it just it flew
by because I was having a good time with it.
And I think if if Jiggy you mentioned, you know, mobile
games, for example, is like, you know, could be sort of like a
little bit of a dirty word in some ways, but I think this
would work really well as that, you know, maybe not.
I don't know if touchscreen would work or whatever, but
like. It needs a Gameboy port.
That's what it needs that. Would be cool.
It's almost like it was made for it.
Yeah, Yeah. Actually that would.
It would work, Yeah. Or could they?
Oh, it's almost like the original was made for it, right?
Yeah. Yeah, hey, imagine if it came to
NSO like that. Would be pretty sick.
That would be cool. Do verses against your pals.
Yeah, we would go crazy on that. Oh my God, I would think it was
so good until they played someone else.
Like that's the problem with that and you're like, Oh no,
that's my issue with something like this.
I'm good at this game. I'm actually good compared to
the original. Nope, I suck.
No, that's usually how it works. I have.
Gotten some friends recently to play it like we've had, we've
had friends visit, like friend Ramona visited and then our
friends Rand and Cal visited and and most recently I I like to
both times our friends came, I was like, here, here, let's play
this together. We're going on a podcast about
it. Like I want to play play some
more verses with people and Cal specifically.
We played a couple rounds and I was like, cool, yeah, that that
was cool. And then whatever, we had lunch
or something and he was like, yeah, so can we put Tetrasphere?
But can we play some more Tetrasphere?
And I'm like, yeah, let's do it, man.
That's awesome. Yeah, that's great.
So. This is like the games somebody
walks in your house. You're like Tetrisphere.
Yeah, yeah, I think. Really, I do want to kind of
convince anyone who comes over, yeah, to try it at least.
I think it would. I think it's kind of cool
because what's interesting is if you say like, hey, let's play
Tetris together, it's like, you know, it, it's it's not this,
but it's almost like saying, well, let's play solitaire
together. Like what do you mean?
Like that's not solitaire's like literally a solitaire
experience. That's part of what that game
is. You're playing cards solo
Tetris. I think the the average person
would be like, well, that's just, you know, a solo game on
your handheld Game Boy, whatever it is that you had your
experience with this has more, it's deeper than that.
It's got more, it's got more to it.
You know, they're trying to do more.
And I think, I think largely they exceed they they succeed.
You know, I, I had a yeah, yeah, I just, I had, I had a good time
with it. In in terms of it, we were
talking about it being Tetris. Like some of the even some of
the follow-ups to tech Tetris that even Alexi Pagenov, like
designed himself are are quite like wild departures.
You know, like they even the Tetris series itself, even
Tetris 2 was kind of a wild. I was, I was just gonna say I
was just looking that up 'cause I have that for Game Boy.
That was like the, that's the Tetris that I had because that
was just the, the time that I got my Game Boy was when that
came out. I didn't know the difference.
To me it was like, oh, that's Tetris at the time when I was
younger, right? So I have the cartridge here
somewhere. It is different because it's
almost like there aren't there like other other weird blocks
that you have to clear or something.
There's like an added. Yeah, there's.
Weird shapes, Yeah. It's not your typical.
They added new shapes. It's very weird.
But even even Ajanov himself attempted a 3D Tetris.
And if anyone has Tetris forever, you can go in there and
experience a lot of these old Tetris games.
But yeah, well, Weltris, I think that was yeah, that was the the
first attempt at a 3D Tetris. And I would say that this this
game I think gets it's like, I think maybe the best attempt at
making a 3D Tetris like game. And Weltras is an interesting
game, but I don't think it's like.
I think it's a little. It's harder to wrap your head
around. Yeah.
'Cause like Tetris is is just like.
You can play it immediately like there, there's you're not doing
like a ton of mental gymnastics to figure it out.
Yeah, that's the charm of Tetris for.
Yourself speak for you. Oh yeah, I just go as fast as
possible. Just go.
Just hope my brain can figure it out as it goes.
Right and left. What the heck?
Yeah. Oh, so that that's another thing
too, like, you know, talking about sort of how this this
could be like the most successful sort of spin off
almost of Tetris is, you know, they do different things.
You can shift the the blocks around and the shapes around.
And the the only thing is, unless I miss something and I
didn't look at the manual, I just sort of just played it and
stuff. You can't flip any of them,
right? Like they're in fixed positions.
Yeah. So that's.
That's why there's gotta be L this way or or a line this way,
a line this way. It's like, oh, OK.
Yeah, exactly. You know, there's, there's a
handful of shapes. I don't, I don't, I think these
are all the basic ones. I don't think that there's any
like added funky ones or whatever.
I think these ones are. All there's like the there's
like the Randomizer 1. I got a little frustrated with
that one sometimes. I would always just wait, like
wild card. Yeah, yeah.
It would just like cycle through all the different shapes.
No, but you know what that is? That's the one that gives you
whatever shape you want. So you just click on whatever.
Shape, yeah, but you gotta wait. No, you don't.
I thought you did too. You don't have to.
Wait, what? Whoa, whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know.
Yeah, you don't have to wait. It's just a little circle,
right? Like the reticle instead of it
being the instead of the reticle being the shape of the actual
block itself, it's just a circle and then it cycles in the bottom
left corner. You can, unless I was just being
lucky every single time I did it.
What? But I think what could screw you
up is that it doesn't like do the highlight thing where you're
like, Oh, it's safe to drop here.
And so you can only go off of the, the audio queue, which is
not ideal. Or just like you can maybe tell
that there's a group, but that's, that I've, I've, when
watching my friends like play it for the first time, like that
was a thing that I, I could tell like, OK, this isn't like the,
they could have done a little bit more to like make it, make
it clear how this works to people, like maybe highlight the
blocks or you know, whatever. Yeah, I thought it was the exact
same thing, Jiggy. When I was playing the first
couple times it was like, oh, I have to like this is like a all
of a sudden I'm doing like a timing based like skill thing
here. This is weird.
But no, it basically is like like a wild card.
You can kind of just put it on whatever shape you want.
Now I want to go back because I swear I just sat there and
waited for the shape I needed and then.
Which isn't, which isn't as fun, especially because there you are
kind of on a timer with every. Yeah, I wanna go fast.
Gotta go fast, yeah? Gotta go fast, must go faster.
It's like, yeah. When it does start to get close
to the screen, it's like. Oh my gosh, it's.
Panic mode. Yeah, it's like.
No, Stop going closer. No, I got this.
I swear I got this. Yeah.
Oh man. So that's The thing is there's,
there's no like actual, I mean there is technically a clock.
There's like a stopwatch almost in the bottom corner, bottom
right corner, and you know. It looks like one of those those
chocolate oranges, like little, no, no, no, no, not the oranges.
I I think they were Disney. They had like little candies
inside. They're not kinder Joy's,
they're not the eggs, but they're like little chocolate
balls. It looks exactly like that and
they would split open. Like this and they'd have like a
little like a. Little like Damon and Pumbaa.
Yeah, so it does look like a bugger.
Yeah, that's what it looked like.
So that sort of counts down, but there's no actual numbers.
There's like some audio cues and stuff to tell you and then like
you just said, the anxiety of the camera zooming in the closer
it get. It's like it's such a kick in
the pants too, because it's like you can see less.
So I'm like, well, I'm getting less done now.
No, stop getting. So as the timer starts going
down and down, if you don't do enough combinations, the timer
hits a certain point where you just need to get something done.
Otherwise it's you know, you're game over or you lose like one
of your three hearts if three lives, which is also something
that's different. Yeah, yeah, I can see it.
Like I feel like with all the ways it's not like Tetris, I
feel like I can understand the logic behind it because when I
when it, I feel like when I look at Weltris, I'm like, OK, they
tried to like they tried to keep it too close and it and it
that's what doesn't work. And I can see why they're like,
OK, we can't. The main problem is you can't
really see like the stack of blocks, you know, So they had to
make it less reliant on like, like filling up the blocks, you
know, like, so I, I can see why it's like almost reverse Tetris
where you're like digging your way down, you know.
So I think the lives I get, I get what they're going for
there. Yeah, it's, it's a little bit
more like forgiving in a way, you know, especially early on,
like when you're trying to figure it out, you're like, oh,
I screwed something up or, you know, I'm just trying to get my,
get my bearings here and stuff. But like those later stages that
I was playing when I was going for like those longer runs and
stuff, you gotta like, you gotta clip some, some stacks together,
like, and you can't just do like 3, the camera starts zooming in
on you. I was, I'm and I'm just
screaming to myself on the train, like stop, stop, stop.
Or maybe I did it out loud. I had my headphones on.
I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised some
guys on the train yelling about Tetrasphere.
Yeah, he's like, like there's like a guy behind me.
He's like no, no, no, to the left.
To the left, No. Shift that one.
Someone who understands what's going on because automatically
knows. Like he's just the the the one
die hard Tetrasphere guy just happens to be on the train at
the exact same time, Yeah. 'Cause I'm, I'm always, whenever
I'm playing this, our, our, our roommate will come out sometimes
and see me playing and he's, he'll say like, I've been like
seeing you play this game for like a year now.
And I have no idea, like what's going on.
Which is how I felt when the when I, when I saw those stoners
in Oklahoma or whatever, I was like, I, I can't even, I think
you have to be on something to understand this game.
You, you don't. You didn't know it till now, but
you are now one of those stoners, that's what.
Well, I do know, unfortunately. I have to come.
You have become it's. It's embarrassing, yeah.
You know what though, It's, it's, it's fun to get to, to get
sunk into a game that's that's a little bit different as well.
I think like there's something to that where it's not like this
giant RPG that eats up a bunch of your hours and stuff.
Like I just, you know, I already said it a couple times.
I'm just, I'm surprised that I was playing it so much as I, you
know, constantly for a couple weeks and.
Yeah, yeah, it really, it really there's there's something about
certain puzzle games or, you know, just even sometimes just
basic single player games that are newer and stuff where it
just. Oh yeah, no, this just got to me
at the right time, you know, it just sort of hit at the right
time. It's got like just the perfect
amount of difficulty for me personally, like things like
that that you can't predict, and this I think this was one of
them. So if I played this a year from
now, would it be the same? I I don't think it would be that
be drastically different, but I think I there's something about
just this like exact time right now.
It was a good like semi semi mindless thing that I could just
sort of escape into which was nice.
It's very arcady, very once you learn the mechanics you get in,
you could play a couple rounds, put it down, come back to it.
I still like, I just I can imagine in my head how great
this would be. Like handheld.
Yeah, yeah. It just, it just would, it would
make it so much better for me. And it's really simple.
The controls work with something like that too, like with that
aspect where, yeah, you need A&B and you need, I mean, I, I use
the D pad on the on the Steam Deck.
I'm not sure if can you use the joystick.
I don't even know. If you can, I don't.
I don't think so. OK, I didn't try after I I
figured out you couldn't use the joystick in the menu.
I'm like, oh I can't use that, but I never tried in the middle
of gameplay. Yeah, no, you you can't.
Which it it doesn't. I feel like it makes sense that
it's the D pad and honestly, I'm happy to have an N64 game that
really uses it. You know, we we get it every so
often. But yeah, I think it speaks to
the era like just in general like this.
They're still like arcade style games like that are that are on
the console and I I don't know, I actually appreciate those
style games. Like I feel like, and 64 wasn't
like the console for arcade gaming.
I would say but it, or at least that, but it at least had that
style of games though, So I really appreciate that.
Yeah, for sure. My my experience with the D pad
is always going back to the wrestling games because they
always required though. Yeah.
So that's anytime I have to use that as like the primary, it's
just like now I just want to play No Mercy again.
Like, that's that's where I keep going.
I had to. I wrote down.
I found this. I was sort of looking up, you
know, like, why did they decide to go this way with Tetris?
Yeah, Like, this is one of the first things I thought of.
Right. And we've talked about it a
little bit. But one of the interesting
things I found was there was like this, I guess, I guess you
would call it a blog post, A blog post from what's the name
here, Christopher. Oh, shit.
I lost it. I'm organized Christopher Bretz,
who was the graphic artist on the game.
Oh yes, he's on. He's on Blue Sky.
Oh, is he? He's good.
There we go, I follow on blue. I gotta find him then.
So yeah. So this.
Yeah, yeah. So in this in this, he says that
the original development of this began in 95 and the whole thing
was this was not going to be Tetris.
And he related to it at all until Nintendo came in and said,
well, Tetris basically saved us in a lot of ways.
Or like that's why Game Boy was so successful.
The whole history of all that is, is pretty well known.
And then they switched it over to this, that this is this is
sort of they made all the shapes more Tetris like, whereas before
it was going to be sort of moving blocks around on a sphere
like that was the idea was a similar type of thing.
Yeah. And it was called it's for some
reason it's a weird for it's hard for me to say fear, but
PHEAR so like just take away the.
Fear. Fear yeah so and it was supposed
to be some like some yeah like so tubular man like so cool it
sounds like such a 90s type name to.
Come in fear. With a PHPHPH fear.
Yeah, like they always said, fat with aph.
Yeah, I'm not. I'm not fat, I'm pH fat yeah
the. And it was supposed to be a
title for the Atari Jaguar. That's what it was originally
developed before. Yeah on the initial thing.
So yeah, which I have 0 experience with, but that's not
something that, you know, flew off the shelves, so to speak.
So this one in a completely different direction or sorry,
different console and stuff. And what he said in this post
was that he was mostly in charge of menus and the UI and sort of
having sort of the layout that we see in it where like the
lives are there and where the blocks are on the left side and
those types of things and designing the the colors and
sort of the depth of the shapes and all that kind of stuff.
And the main thing that he had to do was make everything
lighter and quote UN quote more accessible.
So for whatever reason, what they had before was something a
little bit like darker and maybe a little less easy to understand
possibly, but early in development.
So, and where's the last thing I said here?
I I saw here. Oh, and then what happened was
this game was shown to the public at conventions and stuff
like that alongside one of probably one of the best games
in the console was side to side with Starfucks 64 and 96 and 97.
So if this was something that wasn't on your radar at the
time, it's kind of understandable.
Overshadowed. Yeah, it's kind of.
I saw a couple like old shots. I don't know if they were at E3
or if they were at one of the Japanese shows at the time, but
it was like this big Star Fox logo and then some kid playing
Tetris underneath it. And it's like.
Well, you know, well, I, I had like back in the day, I remember
seeing this game places and I and I would be like, Nah, yeah,
I, I was not interested in it at all.
But I do like that there's little googly eyed robots.
That's cool. There's little I support googly
eyed robots. Yeah, yeah.
That was a Nintendo note I bet, right?
Like make the robots cuter. Yeah, So what one of the other
things, my eyes, one of the other things this guy said, the
Brett's guy said was that that part of the lighter aspect of it
is to create. Not not mascots.
I don't think that's the word that he used, but find a way to
make these like small cutscenes to give it more personality and
that's one of the things it created.
So there's like these little, there's what like 6 different
little sphere dudes? Yeah.
Different designs and I don't know, is there like a story
there? I don't know what's going on,
but. They're playing hide and.
Seek don't really make sense. And the one thing that that that
I thought was pretty good was that this sounded like a
surprising number to me, but maybe it's just because of this
game was never really on my radar growing up, but it sold
430,000 copies. That's a lot.
That's that's quite a bit for just like when you said, you
know, puzzle, puzzle Tetris game that was probably overshadowed
by a lot of massive titles in 1997.
When you say that though, I, I was thinking like we're, we're
moving chronologically and one thing that comes up a lot was
just at the time, like there weren't a lot of games coming
out for the N64 N 64 does not have games.
So like there probably was not a ton else coming out.
Like we we paired this with what game do we paired it with?
Dark Rift, which was this really generic kind of cruddy fighting
game. There was not much else like
there were some big games around it, but I could see like like
this. I I never, I didn't do this, but
this would be the perfect like this is one of those like rental
games to me where it's like you could pick this up and and bust
through it in a weekend or something.
But I'm I'm I'm surprised it sold that much though.
But. Yeah.
So when I. Look at Starfox, the Mario Kart.
Yeah. So it's it's between March and
let's say September, which is the sort of, you know, it came
out in August of that year. March has Doom 64 has Hexen,
which you know, if you've played, if you played Hexen on
the PC before that, maybe that was something on your radar.
Star Fox, Dark Rift, Tetrisphere, Goldeneye and then
Clay Fighter. So like I could see it being
lost in the shuffle, but over 400,000 is not nothing.
So, you know, until that period of time, you're right, there
really was, you know, Mario Kart and Super Mario and.
Yeah. Pilot wings and wave race.
But like everyone would have had those.
So what else do you add to your list a year later?
You know, like that's that's kind of it, right?
Because it's basically almost exactly a year after it came
out, at least in North America. So what else you gonna play?
You know, like it's gotta be something.
I feel like probably. Our.
Our age. My guess is like our age people,
it's like I, I don't know about you guys, but it would, it would
be like, I get like a game on my birthday maybe and a game for
Chris, you know, like I didn't have a ton of N64 games.
So I like obviously this might not be the first choice.
But yeah, maybe if you're like someone like a little bit older
with more like income and you're and you're more active and
buying new games like I, I could see this.
It would be an easy pick up I think.
Yeah, yeah. Like I was, you know, it was 97
was Goldeneye, Star Fox and Diddy Kong.
Like that's, that's what 97 was to me.
What else do you need I? Mean yeah.
And that that's exactly to the point, right?
Like what else do you need? I think like it's that's pretty
much what the console needed and was.
So yeah, I, I, I, I think this is, I think, you know, this,
whoever brought it up before bringing this to NSO would be
awesome. I think this is a that's a
really good place for it for a lot of reasons.
And, you know, it's always nice to have something that was like,
it's still, again, regardless of of whatever sales we're we're
talking about here, I feel like it's still probably a relative
unknown, a game like this. So having more, having more
people being able to play it is great.
That's, that's what it should be.
I think expose it to more people and do something a little bit
different. It's not just Tetris, you know?
That's not, that's not all you're getting here.
Fear. It's fear.
Fear the blocks.
Fear the Fear the Tetris. And it's though it would be
good, it would be good for it, 'cause people, you could just
try it, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, just give it a shot.
Give it a shot and maybe you'll be like me and two hours later,
like oh shit, I gotta go to bed. I don't know.
My heart tells me we're going to get this before we ever get
Diddy Kong Racing, SO or Donkey Kong 64.
Jesus, like I don't know. I don't get it.
I gave up on NSO personally a while ago so.
I was, well, I was happy the Banjo Tooie came to it, but I
remember being so salty about Iggy's Wrecking Ball coming
before Banjo Tooie. I was like, are you kidding me?
Priorities, people. Priorities.
What? Do you do in Nintendo?
Oh, the last thing I wanted to sort of mention about this is it
took me way too long to realize that like those little sphere
guys are like different characters you can select.
In the menus. I had no idea.
I was like, I'm just going to play, I'm just going to go and
it is it, Is it just for verses 'cause I just hit play and just
went. I don't even know.
No, I I think the different modes like the you can play is
different. You have like you can change
your character or something and they have like different stats,
but it doesn't really. Yeah.
Didn't matter. There are different stats
there's I think there's also there's at least N unlockable
character. No, I remember right.
Never did that, yeah. News to me.
Oh, I go, I go immediately go Tetrosphere cheats.
See what I what they got. So there's a secret character.
It's yeah, when I, when I saw it, I, I saw it after the fact,
like I saw it after I sort of put it down the other day and I
went, oh, there's different speed and like power and like
power of what? Like what are you powering?
I don't. I don't really get the.
Fear. Like how hard they have the fear
they slam them blocks harder. I guess like you can move to it
once like what are you, I don't know what are you doing that
that there's power there must have maybe there's more
advantage to it in in versus and I have no idea.
But yeah, GUI, McKenna, anything you want to add that we might
have missed on the actual, on the game itself, or just.
Play the game I wanted to. I do want to shout out the game
was developed in Calgary, so shout out Calgary H2O
Entertainment. They did two other games for N64
we haven't covered yet, but one was the New Tetris I believe the
other Tetris. Game and then yeah, yeah.
And then Aiden Chronicles, that's quite a different game,
yeah. Oh, OK, I've heard of that, but
I've never played that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know of it.
Just know of it. So shout out to them.
And you mentioned the soundtrack.
Neil Vos I believe is the composer and I read that like he
was inspired by like like Prodigy and stuff like that.
He even named one of the songs it's in reference like.
Prodigy. It's exactly what it sounds
like. So sick and honestly, Oh yeah, I
have very strong feelings about it now because we, we like will
sometimes drive around and like we don't just drive around, but
when we're driving around we'll listen to soundtracks of games
we're covering just to like just listen to them.
And we were doing, we were doing that on around the time it was
February last year when and we're on a trip where we, we got
engaged. And so now I sort of, and, and
we listened to this all. It wasn't the only thing we
listened to, but we listened to it quite a few times.
And so now I associate it with. That part of our life, and
that's awesome. Tetris brings people together.
Gather everybody that's. The most wanna yeah have a rave
about it I guess. But now I love you.
Let's have a rave. Let's get in the Tetrasphere
together. That's what I said.
Is the Is the ring a sphere like with different colors on it?
I wish I'd planned it out. That yeah, if only right you
could you could do it again. It'd be fun.
Just. You oh, I go into the game.
I hack the game and instead of the robot in the middle, it's
the ring. It's.
The Ring. Wow, that would be extra.
But but is it? Is it a puzzle level?
Does she does she have to get through multiple puzzles or?
It's the last level too. You have to earn it.
Earn it. No, she just gives up.
She's like, I'm not, I'm done. Did you really have to make me
do this at 10:00 PM? Like, come on.
Really. No, no, no, you gotta, you gotta
do it. You gotta do it.
I'm, I'm just sitting there like intently watching like.
Come on, come on. Like don't.
Don't. You no, you needed to slide.
I'm like back seating. Game over.
It's like, well, I tried, I guess maybe, maybe the next
Tetris game. Yeah, maybe Weltris.
Welt, yeah, maybe when you get to.
Weltris, yeah. Hetris.
Yeah. Or Tetris 2.
Bastris Tetris 2, yeah. Tetris 2.
I have nothing else really about the game.
Mckenney, do you have any any final thoughts?
I guess one thing I was thinking is like in, in comparison to
Tetris, One thing I I really like about this one is I feel
like I have more agency in in my success.
Like there are strategies in Tetris.
You can, you can line things up, but a lot of times you just get
the blocks you're given and sometimes you get unlucky.
Whereas here I feel like I'm, I can really manipulate.
I can move stuff around and drop stuff and.
There's usually somewhere nearby to place the block.
I feel like if I fail it's my fault.
Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, because 'cause I
guess like the the scenario that you're in is kind of presented
to you in a much different way. Like you're maybe you don't you,
you can't see everything 'cause everything's stacked obviously
in like a 3D plane. But you're right, the agency's a
good way to put it. I think that's that's true,
which is kind of like why I was saying a lot earlier, like I
like that I had control over setting off 30 blocks at once.
Like it felt, it felt good. And maybe that agency, like you
said, is exactly the better word for it because it's.
Yeah, I don't know. It's great.
It's a good way to put it, yeah. Even when you're setting up like
we were when we were playing versus, like you can be like,
oh, we only want like two types of blocks to show up.
Or you can say like, let's get all the blocks.
It's, it also just has a nice like, like sort of you can make
your own sort of difficulty curve to the game and stuff too.
Yeah, it's, it's a pretty accepting game in that way.
I think like even even single player like you can, you can
start out with the with the early levels and kind of stick
with that or just sort of mess around with different things.
I think it's got a pretty good difficulty curve as well.
Like I think later on, as with a lot of puzzle games and stuff,
things ramp up and you have to do better combinations and all
those types of things. But like, I didn't really feel
overwhelmed until I got much later.
And that's fine because that's what I'm signing up for the more
I played, right? And that's, that's so I think
that's, that's helpful. And like you just said, we kind
of like the difference between that and regular Tetris.
Like I feel anxiety right away when I play Tetris.
I don't have any. I don't have any in between.
I'm just like, I know I'm going to fuck this up.
Like what? How, how quick is it going to
happen, you know? That's pretty much it, quick.
Is it going to happen? I I swear, I don't know what it
is, man. I don't know.
I I feel like I'm OK at puzzle games until I play the classic
puzzle game and it just beats, beats me up.
I just, I don't know. I don't know what it is.
Yeah, I don't know, Jiggy. What?
Part of it might be. No, no, go ahead.
Sorry, Tetris, like the end game is like it.
It's trying to kill you the whole time and it and it will
eventually. Unless even even the best
players in the world who do the playing with the controller
upside down, they roll it like they're gonna die eventually in
the game is. There is there like one person
that like survived? UN quote beat.
Tetris like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was like a kid. It was like a yes. 13 year old
kid or something. And yeah, that was a control
back. That was a wild story.
Yeah, that's that was recently like that was like within the
last couple years. Oh yeah, even.
Even. That was around the time we were
covering this, I think. Oh, yeah, yeah, it was.
It was popping off then, yeah. That was pretty.
Cool. Yeah, but you?
Know, like, the only small group of people are gonna ever do
that. Yeah, here you get the
satisfaction of like, oh, I beat it.
Yeah, I was like, that's why I like Doctor Robotnik's mean
being machine, because I can fight back, you know?
Yeah, yeah, it's perfect. This is this is a a a game that,
you know, if there was renting sort of available right now,
This is great for that. I, I, I always look, I should
look up sort of what the actual cartridge goes for, but you
know. It's it wasn't too bad, I don't
think. Yeah.
I want to say it was like around 30.
Yeah, so pretty average. Yeah, it was a pretty, pretty
average price. Yeah, let's see if I look it up
just. Randomly so you can try try it
out on the you know using a different method that you know.
I don't know, definitely. Definitely, as all the legal
methods would make it very easy to play it on the go like I did.
So you do that, Yes, Yeah, definitely do that.
But if you like it, I would, you know, and you want to play it on
the N64. I think this is this is a cool
game to have in your collection. You can be be like how we get to
be like, oh, try this out like you, 'cause you know, most
people you get to show it to like probably haven't played it
And right, they'll get, they'll get something out of it.
I think so, yeah. Like if you yeah, OK.
So yeah, it goes for about, I'm seeing a range from 22 Canadian,
at least 22 to 55, depending on, you know, wherever that eBay
list is going at the moment. So yeah, that that's, and you're
right, it's sort of like, yeah, it's Tetris, but it's still a
unique title. So if you have it in your
collection, it's kind of a different, different thing to
have. It's not the typical games like
I have on the shelf behind me or anything like that.
Like there it's something different, which is fun.
I I really liked it. I think people should check it
out regardless of what method. I think it's worth it and I
think you'll get a lot out of it even just playing it solo.
I wish I had some experience playing it versus like against
someone. But hey, maybe one day I'll have
the cartridge and I'll be able to like, you know, actually play
it with someone and stuff Cuz it's it's good.
It's a solid time Jiggy. I assume you're are you gonna go
back in and try your your the the reticle thing that you
couldn't? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I am. I think I'm gonna go back and
play it a little bit more just to experience it a little bit
more and kind of dive in, get a good feel for it because I, I
could see myself playing this a lot more again.
I'm like, I do think I'm going to say it again.
I do think in handheld this is something that I would like
really play a lot. Like if this was on my Switch, I
would totally be playing this constantly.
Just pick it up and just pop in, play a few rounds, pop out.
Like I could really see that being a lot of fun.
Yeah, when, when you're playing like the the earlier stages it
you can definitely just like sit in bed and play it, you know,
like it would actually it would, it's very easy to get to, you
know, 15 minutes. You play it, you get a couple
things done and you feel accomplished.
You're like, OK, that was a good way to sort of end the day and,
and brush things off and and that's it.
And that's sometimes hard to find with, with some games at
least especially games nowadays. But like, this is one of those
games you can definitely do that with.
Maybe we could get a Tetris Forever DLC?
No? Can I throw this in there?
Maybe that's really cool the way it's going to happen.
Yeah, maybe that's that's like. The What do we have to talk to?
Yeah, we'll just, we'll just pick up the like I say on on one
of the other podcasts I do just you just pick up and, and
instead of talking to Mr. Hollywood, like we say, just
pick up and talk to Mr. Video Game.
They'll they'll make it happen. I got the line.
I got the the red landline right here.
Just like the Batman phone. It's ready to go.
We'll make it happen, OK? Tetris FEAR.
Check it out, everybody. Definitely a fun and different
puzzle game. Even if you're really bad at
Tetris, the originals like I am, you'll get something out of
this, so give it a shot. Flashback 64.
Where can everybody find it, guys?
We're on Blue Sky Flashback 64 and then yeah, we're in all the
all your podcast feeds and stuff and we, we put our shows up on
YouTube as well. Just flashback 64.
We also on YouTube, we have some archives of like streams.
We do, we stream like every Monday, typically with our
friends. We'll big feature of NSL.
We like is actually the ability to like change, like play online
and like pass the controller around.
So we'll stream, we stream like N64 games with our our friends
and we take turns and stuff and it's got a real like old school
pass the controller feel, but virtual.
So we stream on Twitch. I think I'm there though.
We're flashback 64 pod, right? Yeah.
So yeah. Gotcha.
Check that out. Yeah, nice.
Jiggy keeping busy. Oh yeah, I'm keeping busy.
We talked Majora's Mask at the beginning of this this episode
and I just dropped a Mysteries of Majora's Mask video on my
channel. So, yeah, and I've been playing
through Wind Waker every Friday, so I think this Friday's gonna
be the last Wind Waker stream. And then I'm done with Zelda for
a while. I'm just gonna.
I doubled up, now let's move on and.
And you've been sort of doing a couple of like couple
PlayStation games and stuff or like sort of, you know, dipping
your toe in in that. Pond Oh yeah, I recently bought
APS one I got like every single Crash Bandicoot game I just
sorted. I'm really excited.
I just ordered Symphony Symphony of the Night.
Oh man. Yeah, I'm looking forward to
playing through that one. I'm going to do some some stuff
on that and the original Resident Evil as well.
I'm kind of like, I don't know why I'm in this like horror game
kind of mood. I also just picked up on Steam,
Silent Hill 2, the remake. I'm just like, man, I'm just so
like in this mood. I want to play scary games.
And it's, you know, it's March. I don't know.
Let's let's do it. Scary games for scary times.
I feel like you. Know.
Oh yeah, there you go. Maybe those games are scary.
Well, maybe those games are less scary than reality right now, so
maybe that's what it is. Actually not a bad way to go
through it. Yeah, I should.
I should do that. It's Tetris.
Poop Tetris. Let's go kill some zombies or
something. Yeah.
As I mentioned off the top, you
can catch the show and support us on Patreon,
patreon.com/remember 64 show as well.
That is the same handle you can find on social media, mostly
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those fun dealios on your podcast app and on YouTube and
tell your friends about us and Flashback 64.
Why not get more 64 in your life, more gaming in your life.
Let's do it Until next time, everybody pick up a puzzle game,
play some Tetris and play some 64.
We will talk to you soon. Goodbye.