Game of the Year 2023 with Still Loading Podcast, Japanese Gaming Pamphlets

[00:00:00] Welcome to Tokyo Game Life, a Tokyo-based video game podcast focusing on Nintendo and

[00:00:14] gaming culture in Japan's capital, your host Mono here to bring you a slice of gaming

[00:00:18] life from Tokyo.

[00:00:19] This episode we are wrapping up 2023 by discussing Game of the Year.

[00:00:24] I'm joined by Josh from the Still. Somebody's favorite. Yes. So I'm my own favorite returning. No, Mona. Thank you so much. I am Josh, the host of the still loading podcast. Thank you for having me on again. Thanks for coming back on the podcast. Long time listeners might remember you were my guest on last year's game of the year episode.

[00:01:40] And both of us had, I would say, rather unconventional picks. So think of these as bonus categories for you, the listener. We each made up five Omake awards. Josh and I have completely different categories that we made up. Some are serious, some are not serious, but it's an opportunity to mention anything from this year that we want to talk about.

[00:03:01] And after the Omake awards, then we will get into our big boy game of the year discussion.

[00:03:06] So Josh, you played Abzu. I don't know if you know what Abzu is, but yes, that's the sim from that Austin

[00:04:22] Winfrey did the music for that.

[00:04:24] Oh, yeah.

[00:04:24] It's kind of underwater journey.

[00:04:25] It's not the same game developers, but it's kind of like that.

[00:05:23] but it also has hard chocolate and then in the middle is banana cream.

[00:05:26] Now it doesn't sound so amazing.

[00:05:29] It's just a banana cream chocolate ice cream sandwich, but I don't know what they put into it, but it was so good.

[00:05:32] I had it maybe two or three times and this is a very limited item.

[00:05:37] They only sold it for about a week or two.

[00:05:39] So to eat three times in a week, I think that's probably not recommended, but it

[00:05:43] was just that good.

[00:05:45] And listen to this, if you're not sure why is there the Pikmin ice cream sandwich is heads above everything else. So Josh, what is your next Omake award? My next Omake award, some of these are going to be appearing on my top 5 list just as a little hint. And my favorite hidden gem game is Sheepraider, which is a Looney Tunes puzzle platformer.

[00:07:02] And I'm going to save all the reasons why. I'll talk about why it's a long game. But I didn't want to start another long JRPG before I finished Octopath. So it's on the list. But no, I have not played a Fire Emblem game. Well, Yunaka, she's basically a typical thief character. That's just her class. And it's interesting because typically in Fire Emblem, you have a class and then you upgrade

[00:08:21] your class to something else. But ironically, Y very bright disposition, but she's also an assassin. So when she does her critical hit attack, she has something like very scary and serious to say. And she has a really fun design. She's kind of wearing this black cat suit and a cape. And she's got this wavy red hair and weird stars on her face. And at the

[00:09:43] main hub in between battles, everyone switches their see. I would assume so. And my next Omake award is number three for me. I picked the best Nintendo tweet and I'm going to give this award to the announcement of everybody want to switch the tweet that announced everybody want to switch. Josh, did you see this tweet?

[00:11:02] I don't know if I saw it. I mean, no the horse. His name is MC Horace. I got to give him some respect. His name is MC Horace. He's posing in the middle of the picture and then everyone around him is really

[00:12:24] happy and waving their arms. So this is just, it's useless. If they don't use that pun, they're just, there's done for that. So that's a great a pun. He will probably be on the YouTube thumbnail for this episode and also my promo tweet

[00:13:41] or my promo picture for the podcast art. He missed in 2023 as well. So I'm glad somebody else has. Real Mist is basically instead of the point and click nature of it, it's a fully 3D first person puzzle game. You're exploring, Wario and Waluigi. And at the time, Miyamoto has a famous quote from Nintendo Power where he says, or I guess Camelot is quoting Nintendo. They're saying, oh, Miyamoto said he didn't even want to think about them, or he didn't even want to see them.

[00:16:21] So Miyamoto shut it down, shut down the bottom of her skirt and these kind of high boots, these high black boots. And she has this really strange headpiece with horns and kind of these orbs around the horns. But she has a blonde blue eyed girl. So she's not that different from from peach. She's not hideous by any means.

[00:17:42] And it's just a really awesome thing that was randomly dropped out of nowhere.

[00:17:46] All Nintendo fandom is just me hard on this one. It is the iconic tears of the kingdom. Oh, I bought it's kind of a similar one to you. Best game I didn't finish. And I want to give it to Octopath Traveler 2, which for you, by Dr. Yeah. So yeah, it was funny when you mentioned Octopath Traveler earlier.

[00:20:23] I think a lot of people have this issue with Octopath Traveler, where they're enjoying the game. They realize it's very well made with a ton of creative ideas.

[00:21:26] It is a good game. I'll probably talk about it on the podcast eventually, but it is definitely the best game I did not finish.

[00:21:33] I need to get back into it. See, you were saying before, maybe I'll be convinced to get back into tears of the kingdom.

[00:21:39] No, man, I'm convinced now to get back into Octopath. I'm already 30 some odd hours into the year list? Number five for me and in all honesty I've played a lot of different games this year, man And I feel there's games that I play that were better than this But this one I still go back to and think about put in perspective other games that I played this year

[00:23:02] That did not make my top five. These will be my honorable mentions really enjoy about this. The premise of the game is you play as Ralph Wolf. If you remember in Looney Tunes, there was Ralph Wolf trying to steal sheep from Sam Sheepdog. And in the game, the premise of it is Ralph gets put onto a game show called Sheepdog and Wolf, hence the name of the game in other territories, not in North America. And you participate

[00:24:20] in this game show and each level is a sale of a pirate ship. So you have to literally launch the sheep off a catapult through the hole in the center of it, which is it was a little obtuse, I remember. But it's a really fun puzzle platformer where you each level is different.

[00:25:40] You have to figure out, use the gadgets the game gives you to figure out how to

[00:25:45] get the sheep away from Sam Sheepdog.

[00:26:46] to pretty much nothing but straight platformer. It's a little bit jarring, but overall, I think this game gets overlooked and I think it's really worth checking out.

[00:26:48] I don't know if it's going to click with everyone, but it's still kind of resonated with me even though the later levels are a little bit tougher.

[00:26:55] But I still think back on it fondly and I think that's why I put it as my number five where guarantee no other game of the year list has Shepraider anywhere on the list. So I'm glad we are really putting out some really original one of a kind list here. I'll share my number five game.

[00:28:22] Now, preface this.

[00:28:23] I do own a PS5.

[00:28:25] Even though this is a Nintendo podcast, which we talked about last year. And it is an excellent 2D platformer. And I think the perfect follow up to Forgotten Land that we both talked about last year, we both had it on our game of the year list last year. And you're in the air and press B, that does something different. He has so many different attacks for all his power-ups. And the new ones, the sand one and the mech ones, are really awesome. And we were kind of jumping ahead a bit to Super Mario Bros. Wonder. But Wonder, the big gimmick of that game is the quote unquote,

[00:31:00] Wonder Flower, where you touch it and then the stage changes

[00:31:04] into something totally different, something you wouldn't expect. I never did. The fact that Nintendo is still doing 2D games and kind of reinventing them. I know for a while, I mean, I feel you and I are old enough to remember in the late 90s and early 2000s. Having a 2D game was considered almost taboo. Why would you do a 2D game when you could have a 3D game? Even though I know this Kirby game is a remake of an older one, is that they aren't afraid

[00:32:23] to come back to 2D design. game. I wouldn't mind that at all. And I think this is an excellent game to remake because it is different from Forgotten Land and what it focuses on. For example, this game has a heavier focus on multiplayer. You can play as King Dedede. You can play as Meta Knight. Forgotten Land did have some multiplayer, but it's much more deep here. And this game also has easily the best mini game

[00:33:43] collection. Kirby games, of course, are very battle royale. And if you've never played Samurai Kirby, you're a samurai and you're dueling another Kirby character who is also a samurai. And it's side by side, so it's 2D plane. And it's sunset and it's a classic Samurai duel

[00:35:02] whoever puts their blade out first wins,

[00:35:04] but you have to wait for the exclamation mark

[00:35:06] to appear in the middle. at the top of the leaderboard, you get one chance per day. But you can still practice anytime since you want. This is just a really fun idea that is just hidden in this Kirby game. So yeah, Kirby's returned the Dream Land Deluxe. It came out in February. Again, that's a long time ago. I think a lot of people kind of forgot about it or maybe they weren't really interested because they thought, okay, Kirby has graduated to 3D.

[00:36:22] So we don't need to go back to 2D.

[00:36:24] But I would say if you enjoyed Forgotten Land

[00:36:26] and you're curious about, okay,

[00:36:27] what's the next Kirby game I should get? atmosphere. The game pulls off this perfect trick of being so unsettling and creepy because of the sounds and the emptiness and the eeriness of the world you're exploring. But you're in no danger. You literally cannot die and miss. It's just the only stop. The only thing

[00:37:41] that halts your forward momentum is the puzzles. And the thing they talk about is this game in terms of the way it tells its story is kind of a predecessor. I don't know if it's a direct inspiration, but you can see, you can see some influence at the very least on how the souls born games tell their stories where a lot of it's done through

[00:39:00] flavor text and through exploration and through reading items.

[00:39:04] This as opposed to finding the world of mist, you are tasked with, as you explore on the mist island and you

[00:40:20] find these two books in the library.

[00:40:23] There's a red book sound puzzles that I think are absolutely awful.

[00:41:41] And I think they're smart for how they wanted it to work, but there's still I have some

[00:41:45] issues with it.

[00:41:46] But yes, that's definitely an iconic game. So many puzzle games were inspired by MIST and it has a really distinct art style even today. I don't want to say it's steampunk. It's kind of a mix of fantasy and classical architecture and also sci-fi a little bit.

[00:43:03] It has a mix of everything.

[00:43:05] So it really stands to bump out. I'll give a shout out to this game real fast. Never awake used to be my number five game, which is a really cool indie 2D twin

[00:44:22] stick shooter. I'm sorry. Never awake. character other than his silliness. I do know who doesn't he kidnap Princess Peach and try to get her to marry him or something like that. Yes.

[00:45:40] He's got some problematic stuff going on with him, you know, kidnapping people.

[00:45:44] But he's just so selecting things from a menu. You need to time your button presses if you want to do better attacks.

[00:47:03] And this remake adds in AoE. So you have to kind of remember what it looked like in the first floor. And the game is filled with all these weird puzzles and mini games that are really just one offs. There's a minecart race. And this is only used for this one section. If you think about people sitting down and making this, they have to

[00:48:22] program the mechanics for this almost Mario Kart esque mini game.

[00:49:24] recognizing if the character can see Mario or not, and then this opening close mechanic. It just seems so unnecessary.

[00:49:26] I think they could have really phoned it in, whereas, okay, you're Mario and then you press

[00:49:30] the fireball attack and then you attack the Goomba and that's it.

[00:49:34] They could have made it really even more simple than it is.

[00:49:37] But they really went the extra mile in making it so creative.

[00:49:40] It's filled with so many original ideas that even. I really do. I haven't played it in a while and I did want to get

[00:51:00] the remake, but couldn't justify spending the island, you read journals, and then you can see what the world of Riven is actually, and you get a little bit more insight into how these linking books work and who these people are that seems to be linking to these worlds.

[00:52:21] And they practice this thing just called the art. It's a proper noun.

[00:52:24] It's capitalized and it kind of the cool things that a capture in my imagination as a kid is that there's this transit tram system that trap that helps you travel from island to island. And the original game, the tram system was these really cool 3D animated I can't even describe it. The whole most of the rocket almost a helicopter,

[00:53:40] I guess cockpit that's attached to wires and you go through it., but it's still going to be a 2D game. And they kept that art style for pretty much a decade, and I think a lot of people got kind of tired of it. But now with Wonder, they've moved on to a different art style. It's mostly focused on softer colors instead of the really bright saturated colors of the new Super Mario series. And there's a ton of new enemies.

[00:55:01] It just feels like a completely new world, which I guess it technically is.

[00:55:05] You're going to the exact same. There are some small changes. I think Mario's turn speed is different in wonder. And also he stops faster in wonder than he does in you. So he doesn't slide as long when you let go of the button, for

[00:56:23] example. But the jump height is the same. The the wonder mechanic is. It's not too dissimilar from the level. It's hard to predict what the wonder mechanic is going to be. But what's it happens, especially once you replay the level, you understand, oh, okay. I see what they were building up to for the wonder flower.

[00:57:40] I see that, okay, the twist on the gameplay, it makes sense.

[00:57:43] They were kind of preparing me for it before that change happens.

[00:58:43] So I felt like, oh, this game just blew by. And last bit of thing I wanted to mention is the awesome new implementation of the multiplayer,

[00:58:49] especially the online multiplayer.

[00:58:51] You can see other people play at the same time, but you really can't interact with them.

[00:58:55] You can't bump into them like you could in the new series.

[00:58:58] But instead, it focuses more on the co-op experience,

[00:59:01] almost like a Hideo Kijima-esque strand game,

[00:59:05] where you can place things in the people and you're messing around. But the online multiplayer, it's really smart how they did it because there was online multiplayer in Super Mario Maker 2 where you could have four people playing through the level. And when it worked, it was amazing.

[01:00:21] But when it didn't work, which was about half the time, the lag was just unplayable. this wonder, my third favorite game of the year and another excellent entry in the 2D Mario canon. I kind of like you can play easy mode. It's an interesting way to bring accessibility to the game while also rewards player with higher skills by giving them different and unique mechanics. And it gives accessibility to the lesser skilled players where they can still enjoy the fun kinetic Mario platforming, but still giving something to the experienced

[01:01:45] players as something in them. You're just using the badge in really creative ways. But there's some challenge ones as well, like an invisible badge where you can't see Mario.

[01:03:05] You can still see the dust kick up when you're running, but otherwise you can't see Mario

[01:03:08] at all. who are online. And it's really fun when you get to the flagpole together and you're popping off the emojis. It's just a really fun, heartwarming experience that I never thought I would have in a Mario game. So that's one reason why Super Mario Bros. Wonder is my third favorite game of the year. I mean, with all that, I can't imagine what you're going to say about your number two and one.

[01:04:20] I know I have a suspicion I know what your number one is. I think I have a suspicion.

[01:05:25] oriented. It's as opposed to the original, which is still as plenty of action, but they do a little bit more with stealth. They do a little bit more with that horror aspect versus this is just nothing,

[01:05:31] but just chaos. They really lean into the chaos because you can't really make a horror game in

[01:05:37] this flying city because Bioshock Infinite takes place in the flying city of Columbia, where you

[01:05:43] play as a character named Booker DeWitt and your I should say. So I think smartly, the game designers are like, well, we can't make this claustrophobic. You're literally in a flying city. You're out in the open air. So even though technically

[01:07:04] yes, if you jump off the edge, you die. So it's become much more polarized. We got rave reviews at the time. And then shortly after this rave reviews, it was easy for some this year for an episode, I still think it still has resonated with me even though I haven't touched it now for seven months. So yeah, Bioshock Infinite. That's my number two.

[01:09:40] Yeah, I think there's definitely a lot of controversy when it was released because as

[01:09:43] you said, it did get really rave reviews, but I was just blown away by Pikmin 4. You are kind of the one who kind of got me back into Pikmin. Because last year during our Game of the Year episode, you put Pikmin, the first game on your Game of the Year list. And...

[01:11:00] Was it my number one?

[01:11:00] I think it was number two.

[01:11:02] So listeners, yes, after this episode, if you didn't listen to that one,

[01:11:05] you can go back and listen to our 2022 Game of the Year,

[01:11:08] where we do talk into Pikmin, but now I am deep deep into Pikmin. It is my number two game of the year because I think it is the ultimate Pikmin experience. It takes everything good about one, two, and three. All these games, they focus kind of on different aspects. Pikmin one really focuses on time management and doing puzzles and exploration. Pikmin two is really focused on the caves,

[01:12:24] these kind of smaller linear experiences where you 15 hours to 100%. And that's doing the DLC, that's doing the challenge mode. But Pikmin 4 at 35 hours is basically as long as a JRPG. It just has so much content in the game. It's really absurd about how much they packed into it. And you roll credits after World or Level 4, but there's still

[01:13:42] two more big levels after that. And you might not be able to do anything just yet until you have the proper Pikmin for it. But once you do, then you can effectively optimize that map by tearing down specific walls.

[01:15:00] And it's a sense of satisfaction of,

[01:15:03] okay, I did something this way once before,

[01:15:06] but now I have a way to do it 10 times more efficiently. You want to accomplish as much as you can within one day. So even if you kind of quote, quote, quote fail a day or don't do everything you want in it in a day, I think players naturally, they're still trying to think about why they want to accomplish in one day. And so those Don Dorty aspects are in the game. And especially in the Don Dorty challenges where a leafling

[01:16:21] will put you in this other stage and they say,

[01:16:25] you have seven minutes to see all the little Pikmin carry it. It's a lot of fun. And yeah, the game also adds Ochi, which is a super Pikmin.

[01:17:41] He's a really fun addition and really helpful for newcomers.

[01:17:44] I think a big reason why Pikmin hasn't taken're going back really old school, just those three Pikmin. You have the 30 ship parts and you have 15 days this time around to collect it. So you might think, Oh no, is it much harder than Pikmin one? Not really because it's much more compact, I would say. But you're still doing puzzles

[01:19:01] and you're going through these levels in a completely new way. And I just had a great time with it. It's just an amazing game. If you're never played Pikmin before, this is the game to get. I can't believe Pikmin 4 is my number two game of the year. When they announced the game, I was like, okay, another Pikmin game. But now I'm all in on Pikmin. I'm right or die with Pikmin. I can't wait for Pikmin 5 or whatever else they have in the series. So I'm really glad that I got into the series

[01:20:23] this year. Pikmin 4, but it's been doing pretty well. I'm happy you're a fan of it because I do eventually want to do a Pikmin 2 episode, and it looks now I have a guest for that. So I'll have, whenever I get around to actually beating

[01:21:42] it for myself,. You have to explore

[01:23:01] through this world and basically you have's not even that long of game. It's an eight to 10 hour experience. I can't recommend this game enough, man. I, I think the storyline is great. It's told really well, it looks like an illustration come to life.

[01:24:23] Those soundtracks fantastic.

[01:24:26] The gameplay just, I can't take a whole lot of time explaining it because I spent many many episodes talking about the game both before and after launch, but it is none other than the legend of Zelda tears of the Wild, it really hit everything I wanted out of it, not just a Zelda game, but a game in general. So it really felt like they interviewed me before, they started production, and then they just made that game. The secrets of Breath of the Wild, some things people were a little bit weary about. They said, oh, we're using the same map, the same Hyrule.

[01:27:00] You think, well, part of the appeal of the first game was that the world was so different and so interesting.

[01:27:06] And to reuse it again, that kind that Nintendo. They named it after a toy they made in the 1960s called the Ultra Hand. So for them to call back to that, that's something only Nintendo could do. They have that long of a history.

[01:28:20] So Ultra Hand, where if you never played the game, you basically take any object

[01:28:25] and you can put it together.

[01:29:24] It's insane how developers can release, you know games that are broken beyond belief

[01:29:31] Ultra hand the most crazy game mechanic I've ever seen in an open world game where you can just take anything from the world and stick it To another thing in the world. It's amazing how it works

[01:29:34] And it's just so fun to use and it can be a little clunky at times

[01:29:38] When you're first using it it takes some practice

[01:29:40] I can't lie the game is using every button on the controller and some of the buttons are doing different things

[01:30:42] to create a thing to your arrows. You can put some food on your arrows and shoot it

[01:30:44] and that would distract enemies.

[01:30:46] And then you could also put bat wings or key swings

[01:30:49] on your arrow to make it shoot faster and farther.

[01:30:53] You can do combing arrows if you attach eyes to the arrow.

[01:30:57] There's just so many fun things you can slap together.

[01:31:00] There's so many things you can experiment with.

[01:31:02] No matter what you put, even if it's just weird

[01:31:05] or it doesn't do a whole lot,

[01:31:06] it will at least give you a little bit of a damage buff. a waypoint up there, you're not getting back up there until you climb all the way back to the sky. So that risk of like, if I mess up, I'm going to fall and plummet to the depths of the earth, is really intense. And then the depths, the real depths, the underground level, is just, I can't believe they put that into the game. It's the entire map just in the game again, on the bottom. And again, atmospheric, creepy, there's all these weird fun side quests that you can encounter. And it's just really an epic piece of not just gaining, but I think adventure fiction. This is just an incredible adventure, not in terms of just a huge macro scale, because it's a huge 150 hour game. If you play for 15 or 30 minutes, you can have your own little mini adventure either

[01:33:43] through a small quest or just something that you encounter in the world.

[01:34:43] are kind of a zone eye equipment depots because that's where the zone eye were more more prominent. And if you go to other areas that are zone eye heavy,

[01:34:48] the caves have a lot of zone eye architecture in them. This is not something they had to do.

[01:34:53] They could just make generic caves all over the place. But the fact that they thought about the

[01:34:57] lore of the game and they build the caves kind of around this is really smart and it really shows

[01:35:04] how Nintendo is telling the story in the game. even intended. They knew what they were doing. They knew by giving you this rule set, players are going to be creating things they could never have imagined. And they're like, yes, bring it on. Test the limits of what we can do of the physics that we are giving you in this game. And some things break, some things don deep, it's just that huge. Just think of all the places in the world where you can plant your feet. I think no other game compares. I'm sure there's some games that are maybe the square footage is technically bigger than tears of the kingdom. But I think the scope is really unparalleled and how it tells its story and just all the things you can do. The ending is just what a way to end a game.

[01:37:44] I won't spoil it here, but they go out gotten around to playing a whole lot this year. I will play Baltimore's Gate 3 eventually. So don't worry listeners. So let's do another countdown just real fast. Our five games of the year. So Josh from five to one. What are your games of the year? All right. So my games of the year from five to one number five. She prayed her number

[01:39:01] four missed number three. Riven number two. It's basically Fantasy Sports meets Final Fantasy, and trust me, you don't need to know Fantasy Sports to enjoy this episode. Just a lot of fun, a lot of Final Fantasy love, and if you're looking for something a little more recent than that, I did an episode called Rocking Chairs, Halo 2,

[01:40:20] and Land Party Memories, and that was a very personal

[01:40:23] episode of mine where I talked about this loose idea

[01:40:26] of gaming in a social space. making the same mistakes. So if you want to take advice from two idiots who have been living here far too long, check out the Tokyo Fresh blog again, only on the Tokyo Beat Network. It's sad to say I have a bit of a cold, so this segment and the next one might sound a little

[01:41:41] off, but the show must go on. This episode's feature is about Japanese gaming pamphlets.

[01:42:44] One thing about them is that they can be oddly specific or focus on audiences you wouldn't think of when it comes to traditional game marketing.

[01:42:47] As with a lot of Japanese print media, the layouts are really outstanding.

[01:42:50] And even if you can't read Japanese, or if you know everything about the game, Clubby

[01:42:54] 3 won it's a lot of fun if you could appreciate some good graphic design.

[01:42:58] And the best thing?

[01:42:59] They're free.

[01:43:00] They aren't handed out after you buy something.

[01:43:02] You can just walk into a store, take them, and walk out.

[01:43:05] I typically do buy something though if I want to grab some of the flyers. so the newest one I picked up is the Winter 2023 Nintendo Magazine featuring Pikmin holding a Christmas ornament. I love the custom art they make for these. The Summer Mag had Link eating a watermelon and last year's Christmas catalog had Mario in a very fashionable scarf. Inside the magazines are ads, recommendations and even little mini features about specific games. Super Mario Bros. Wonder had

[01:44:22] six full pages dedicated to explaining the mechanics and power-ups yourself. It's so well put together and if I was a kid, I would love to have something like this to peruse over. Something that gained a lot of international attention was the pamphlet for Super Mario RPG which mimics the SNES game's original instruction manual. It's the same size and features the same layout as the cover, but this time with those glorious 3D models. I doubt the inside is the same unless it too was

[01:45:42] about 8 pages, but it does break down the basics of the gameplay and introduces the characters.

[01:46:44] are definitely a step up compared to most casual games, so Nintendo is trying to frame them in a way that's not intimidating. The pamphlet looks great. There are these huge single page photos

[01:46:49] of action scenes from the game and a fun lineup pick of all the Pikmin. If I was a kid and I was

[01:46:53] reading this for the first time, I'd be immediately hooked. But going back to the My First idea,

[01:46:58] another pamphlet I picked up was called My First Nintendo Switch, which is focused on introducing

[01:47:03] the Switch as a whole to people. These have a catalog of recommended games. However, the cover's pastel pinks show that this pamphlet is recommending cutie games. Obviously, the cutest game Pikmin 4 is prominently featured. But you've also got fashion dreamer, animal crossing, Disney illusion island, model debut nikola and so on. The final page shows off new pastel joy cons, so if you are really into that aesthetic,

[01:48:24] this guide is for you.

[01:48:25] Some of the more obscure charts here in Japan all the time. From what I gather it's like a minigame collection, but it has a very stark black and white art style. Again, notice itself, cover this on the podcast. Another somewhat ill and conventional one, Child Collection. Child Bing and magazine aimed at young girls owned by Shogakukan. It advertises a few games aimed at young girls including the Sumiko Gaurashi game, a

[01:49:41] fairly popular character in Japan.

[01:49:43] Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island, which looks promise to thoroughly explain when I do a feature on Yodobashi Camera in the future. Nintendo obviously gets a lot of coverage in here with a big Mario Splash page and a

[01:51:00] ton of Switch games laid out, again, not too dissimilar from those old Toys R Us catalogs,

[01:51:04] where there is a small picture of ones every now and then. That's it for the feature now for the news. What's the biggest news item these past few weeks? Obviously the announcement of Poke Park Kanto, a new Pokemon themed experience coming to Yomi

[01:52:20] Ode Land.

[01:52:21] Yomi Ode Land is a theme park that's technically in Tokyo, but you still need to take an hour

[01:52:25] train ride or so from the city to reach it. as if there weren't enough reasons to visit consci. Now I don't expect these to be really huge, they aren't going to be a super Nintendo world level attraction. Instead, it will probably be just some stuff they've built into the natural environment, along with some games you can play and some fun photo ops. But after experiencing Pokemon Wonder, I'm confident that they can nail the atmosphere

[01:53:40] of the game.

[01:53:42] No date but let's hope for 2024.

[01:53:44] The game awards, especially Neo. I always thought that they should make an

[01:55:02] open world Neo game and make it about 30% easier. This was a pretty shocking announcement. Nintendo rented out Tokyo Big Site, one of the biggest venues in Tokyo, and I have to imagine preparation

[01:56:22] for all the tournaments and exhibits were well underway. To cancel it, about 6 weeks