Halloween Special 2024 | Game Junction Podcast

This Halloween, we're kicking things off with some playful banter on this age-old brotherly rivalry while recounting our recording mishaps. We then wander through the eerie hallways of gaming history, spotlighting the Wii U's Zombie U with its quirky gamepad antics, and remembering the strategic charm of From Software's Lost Kingdoms before the dark days of Demon's Souls. Our journey detours through the bug-ridden nightmare of Alien Colonial Marines, concluding with a tip of the hat to Resident Evil 7 Village.

Who says Halloween is only about scares? We dive into the world of horror and comedy, where games like Schoolgirl Zombie Hunter make us giggle more than scream. While not a masterpiece, this quirky Japanese shooter offers enough arcade fun to justify its shockingly high sealed-copy price. We also take a moment to criticize the Silent Hill HD Collection, a remastering so disappointing it almost makes the original's high price tag seem worth it. 

As we reminisce about the golden days of retro gaming, we're reminded of the clunky controls and pixelated graphics that were once groundbreaking. From the isolated, eerie vibes of Metroid Prime 2 to the technical constraints of Hey You, Pikachu!, and Pokemon Snap, our love for retro continues. We even toss in a discussion of horror films—everything from classics like The Shining to the whimsical mayhem of Tremors and Lake Placid. And just to keep things light, we ponder whether Scooby-Doo flicks deserve a spot in the horror genr

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Chapters

• 0:00 2024 Halloween Gaming Special
• 7:30 Horror Games and Visual Novels Discussion
• 15:11 Horror Games and Thriller Recommendations
• 25:14 Retro Gaming Nostalgia and Critique
• 33:46 Horror Movies and Halloween Discussions

Transcript

Brandon Hurles: 0:00

What's up everybody. Welcome back to episode the Halloween special 2024. How's it going, Mark?

Mark Trobough: 0:07

I just want to put it out there that I'm the real Mario Mario. This is actually Luigi Mario, but he decided to copy me. I officially got pimped.

Brandon Hurles: 0:16

You got pimped, you remember? You remember Pim, alright, oh yeah, he would always do that at the end you got pimped. No, so this is our second recording for this, because we had some issues with the first recording. So we're going to kind of zoom through the first stack that we got through I didn't have much left anyway from where we were at. But I'm going to start here. So we're going to showcase some games, talk about some memories and then just kind of roll from there and just see how this goes. And then just kind of roll from there and just see how this goes.

Brandon Hurles: 0:48

But I've got Zombie U for the Wii U. So this game is a really good game that takes full advantage of the gamepad. It's really a game that's essential for the gamepad. It's kind of built around that, although it did later get ported to PS4 and Xbox, which was kind of weird. It was kind of a weird port where it removes the gamepad that the game was built around. It was very clearly built for the gamepad. So if you have a Wii U in 2024, I definitely recommend checking this out. What are you doing over there, fake Mario?

Mark Trobough: 1:21

Just contemplating duplicate Mario. But what does the U stand for? That does it stand for university or U?

Brandon Hurles: 1:31

U got owned. That's what it stands for.

Mark Trobough: 1:35

That's trying to do a terrible joke for me, the one because it's not horror specific. I think I only got one proper horror game on here, but Halloween Adjacent, which is from software, is Lost Kingdom. I think we got one proper horror game on here, but Halloween adjacent, which is from software, is a lost kingdom, which I think is an absolute gem of a game, for once from software game. But it's just generally. It's got the aesthetic of a kingdom in decline. You got to go through. There's cities and monsters just kind of taking over everything.

Mark Trobough: 2:02

But it also has the benefit of being essentially like a card type game. So it's all. When you go into combat it's all instanced, but you each level you've got X amount of cards. You have to get to the whole level without essentially ran a cards and get rid of the enemy. So there's some level of strategy, but you essentially either a card you can use a few times or, like some of them, like a sword that swipes through others. You're actually summoning and uh spawning in a card monster that's gonna fight the enemies. And I think it. It definitely fits the aesthetic because if you ever played it from a software game like this game has elements because it came out before demon souls and you know, dark souls and that stuff there's. There's still elements of that in this game early on, because this came out like what? Early 2000s or something like that.

Brandon Hurles: 2:43

Yeah, I mean we're talking, I mean yeah yeah.

Mark Trobough: 2:46

So it's so I mean, it's back in the year when they were pumping out a lot of games. Really wish these games would actually get a proper remaster. Yeah, Early release.

Brandon Hurles: 2:54

I said in the previous recording, I replayed two again last year, uh, which was fun, and I think one is better than two, but two still good. I still think it's a good game. Uh, it's just not as good as one, um, but what an interesting. And when you look back at from software and where they're at now and how big they are, what an interesting. Like early time with from software where they were really experimenting. They didn't really have a, they didn't really have their foot on the gas pedal yet.

Mark Trobough: 3:23

They weren't that type of studio where they were like I don't think it was until what Demon's Souls, because even some of the early like Armored Core games I don't know if they were like out of the ballpark stuff, because their first game came out in what? 97? It was like their fourth game. Because they started with the, because I think we talked about it before it was Kingdom Fields and that went into some other game series tied in and stuff like that. Yeah, so Lost Kingdoms came out in 2002 and then the second game came out in 2003 for the GameCube.

Brandon Hurles: 3:52

Yeah, so they were already working on that game before the first one even came out.

Mark Trobough: 3:56

Yeah, I mean technically. I guess you'd consider Demon's Souls, because that really put them on the map in 2009.

Brandon Hurles: 4:01

Oh for sure, that's their trajectory. That's where they definitely jumped from there.

Mark Trobough: 4:08

Yeah, what you got next for Mario Approved.

Brandon Hurles: 4:12

So I happen to lead this one. We got Aliens Fireteam Bravo. So I was saying before the thing with this is I just like the Aliens franchise, so I thought I was going to stream it at some point and I got it for $8. But it's, it just doesn't. I just haven't had the urge to put it in, stream it. It just isn't my type of, it doesn't look like my type of game. I do need to actually try it before I kind of make judgment on it. But there's been others. So I posted the other day about Aliens vs Predators for the Atari Jaguar and I absolutely love that game. I love Predator, I love Aliens. I think they're both great franchises. So that's a good one that I definitely go back and play. I play that more on the Atari Jaguar than anything else on the console, but you brought up Alien Colonial Marines.

Mark Trobough: 5:03

Yeah, absolutely, because it's a horror game, because it's a broken, unfinished, buggy mess. Nothing scares you more than an unfinished game.

Brandon Hurles: 5:14

It's true, I mean, you're not wrong.

Mark Trobough: 5:16

But hey, let's see what Paul Allen has for an Aliens game. Terrible meme. What the heck You're wild man, man, I got rid of stuff in my head resident evil 7 village.

Brandon Hurles: 5:34

So this, this is the one that you I can't remember if you tagged me in or you posted, made a post or whatever.

Mark Trobough: 5:40

I get tagged doing it, it it's got the.

Brandon Hurles: 5:42

what's? Her name? Starts with a D. I can't remember her name, but it's got the witch, lady, dummy, mommy, dominatrix or something. Forget her name.

Mark Trobough: 5:53

I was gonna pull it for a second. Okay, I can't remember.

Brandon Hurles: 5:59

Mark really likes her. Okay, so it's Alishina Dimitrescu or whatever it is, I'm sure I completely butchered that name.

Mark Trobough: 6:11

I can't even really say it. I knew it started with a D. I just call it Dami. Mami starts with a D, so Alright, what you got next?

Mark Trobough: 6:22

Next one not horror, but I'd say Halloween somewhat, somewhat adjacent, which is the doom from 2016. Not only is it just a generally good game, but, like it's the theme of uh, you are the demon, you're not. I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with me in this banger of a soundtrack that I just love to listen to all the time. Like you want music listen to with a gym soundtrack, just put that on there and hype yourself up.

Brandon Hurles: 6:47

So Doom Eternal is even crazier. With the soundtrack it gets even wilder, which is another one. Just like you said, I actually just listened to that on Spotify. It's so good, Way better than it should be.

Mark Trobough: 7:02

It has no business going that hard and it does, but it makes the game and what's? What's more halloween than just shooting demons with a shotgun in the face, like, come on, yeah, no, you're not wrong, everybody's, everybody's having a good time there what's more halloween than evil dead?

Brandon Hurles: 7:16

well, you got to say about this one mark it's your favorite game no, because I've not played it, but the movies are pretty good.

Brandon Hurles: 7:23

Yeah, so I was disappointed with it. It's a Dead by Daylight clone. I'm just not a fan of the genre, the type of game that that is, where it's one player versus whatever five other players and it's a multiplayer-only game. It's not what I want from Evil Dead. It's not the type of game I like. I I played Friday the 13th Texas chainsaw massacre, obviously dead by daylight, played three of those games that are like that. I'm pretty sure it's almost positive. It's that type of game. I think it's this one that is. But yeah, just just not a fan of the games, uh, that type of gameplay.

Mark Trobough: 8:11

So yeah, but I think we determined that you're not the biggest fan. Uh, what is it? Uh, what's it? Army of army of evil, army of darkness? Oh yeah, which is one of the movies I really like.

Brandon Hurles: 8:24

I'm not a fan of it. It's just my least favorite Evil Dead movie, but I still like it a lot. I still would put it up there as like an 8 out of 10.

Mark Trobough: 8:33

It's a great movie. It comes off as that quasi-cheesy horror comedy-esque that I like.

Brandon Hurles: 8:39

Like Shaun of the Dead. Not a fan. It's that type of comedy horror where it's like army of darkness is meant to be super cheesy and over the top like it was.

Mark Trobough: 8:49

Oh, it's very obviously intentional.

Brandon Hurles: 8:51

Yeah, because I think it's better really brought that in like that comedy horror kind of funny. Um, what's funny is that evil dead 2 is a remake of Evil Dead 1 and it's the one that came out right after it. That's crazy.

Mark Trobough: 9:07

Now we want to redo it.

Brandon Hurles: 9:10

Legit. Look into the history. There's a documentary on it, but it's a straight up remake.

Mark Trobough: 9:15

Like what? Two years later, Something like that, the first one came out in like what 81, and then 83 for those movies, or something like that, something like that yep, somewhere like early to mid 80s. Very interesting, but good stuff. I've got another one that I think everybody should check out, because you can beat this game in realistically like 4 hours. But Schoolgirl Zombie Hunter from what's it? Axies? It's definitely the epitome of a Japanese zombie shooter, with it kind of feels, kind of arcadey to some degree but it's got the added.

Mark Trobough: 9:46

I think they're based out of California or something like that, but I don't know if that's just the publisher or something like that 100% looks and feels like a Japanese game with the added comedic element of Japanese school girls. This is terrible, but they are also have the ability to wear bikinis and other outrageous outfits the same time, because there's another game series it's like the onichan bar games are kind of the same way, with monster zombies and it's supposed to be like super serious in the story, but you can wear like banana looking bikini which leaves very little, very little to the imagination, type type outfits this is a very expensive game, which one no it, no it's not.

Brandon Hurles: 10:25

Yeah, it is, I'm looking it up, I'm looking.

Mark Trobough: 10:27

Squirrel Girl Zombie Hunter. I bought this game used for like $10 at GameStop, like not even a year ago.

Brandon Hurles: 10:37

Another listing $98. Another listing $81.

Mark Trobough: 10:41

Another listing $117.

Brandon Hurles: 10:43

These are all sealed. Keep in mind, mine's all sealed.

Mark Trobough: 10:45

Keep in mind Mine's not sealed. Mine was sealed.

Brandon Hurles: 10:50

Yeah, not sealed for $50.

Mark Trobough: 10:54

To be fair, you can get it on Steam right now for like $40. Granted, it's got like a 66, so it's mixed reviews with like 450 reviews, but I 100 reviews 100% 100% would get, like that I get what's kind of boring on PC.

Mark Trobough: 11:12

It kind of plays like some people criticize it because it plays like Left 4 Dead 2. I'm like yeah, somewhat, but it's not a really long game and you know more than likely. If you're getting this game, you kind of know what you're already getting into it, unless you're like me and you just kind of play it mods dlc I'll make it's not, it's.

Mark Trobough: 11:31

It's not. It's not a five out of five or ten out of ten game like I probably would realistically probably give it like a five out of ten or a six out of ten, but it's still just because you give it a bad rain didn't mean I had a good four hours that I played with the game. I didn't have a good time with it. It's just kind of janky in some areas realistically. But it's not why you're playing this game. You're playing to have a fun time and laugh at it.

Brandon Hurles: 11:50

Pretty notorious for that, where they're kind of middle of the road to games. Either they love it, you hate it, or you know.

Mark Trobough: 11:56

Yeah, that's what it feels like.

Brandon Hurles: 11:57

Not putting out super polished games, but there's something wrong with that Like. Sometimes I like to play those type of games.

Mark Trobough: 12:03

I just want to play it. Not every game needs to be 10 out of 10. Sometimes you can. You can find enjoyment in a four out of 10 game and be like, yes, it's bad, but I still enjoyed the time that I had with it. I might never play it again, but the two hours I picked it up for it was, you know, somewhat entertaining and absurd like a 2 out of 10.

Brandon Hurles: 12:23

That is Silent Hill HD Collection. This is the worst remaster quote unquote of games ever. They took Fantastic Games 2 and 3 and made them an absolute jank-fest mess where some parts of the game run at like 5 frames per second. That's insanely bad. How do you release a?

Brandon Hurles: 12:46

game like that I have no idea how they went and took fantastic games that we even got a remake for for 2 now and they made them absolutely terrible. It's the worst way that you can play these games. Don't recommend it. You can get this for like $15, because it's worthless. It's a piece of crap.

Mark Trobough: 13:04

Well, it's worthless, why pay $15 for it?

Brandon Hurles: 13:06

Well, you know, silent Hill 2 is like a $100 game, silent Hill 3 is like a $150 game. You can get this for like $15 because nobody wants to play it.

Mark Trobough: 13:16

At that point I'd pay like $5 for it.

Brandon Hurles: 13:18

Yeah, I mean, the other games are very expensive, but this is not for good reason and it's just such a disappointment. I had to get it because I'm a Silent Hill fan. I didn't get it new back in the day but I didn't know why. People hated it at first and I put it in and I was like, oh, I get it right away because I played the other games when they came out. I was introduced to Silent Hill from Joey, who you know um, yeah, no mutual friend. So I was introduced to the game there in the series and just absolutely loved it from there.

Mark Trobough: 13:54

So yeah, I guess I got the only proper horror game and obviously a nintendo mario seal of approval doki doki literature club, which is the epitome of psychological horror visual novel that I feel like only got popular because of the absurd spin that the game definitely didn't portray outright. I don't know if any of the advertising or just looking at the actual game, like if you knew nothing about the game except the title of it, you have no idea what kind of mess you're about to be in for. Yeah, which I think is really what, what you know, made the game popular for a short span, like what, on 2018, 2019, something like that, yeah Sounds about right 2020, I think I can't remember exactly when it came out.

Mark Trobough: 14:37

Yeah, made by Serenity Forge, I mean, but it's like a lot of other. I think most people that play this game for the most part probably aren't fans when it was popular of traditional visual novels. That's a very unique genre of game to be fair, it's not for everybody. It feels like it's only mainly for the Japanese domestic market, because that's where it's really popular at.

Brandon Hurles: 14:59

I mean, it's got a crowd here for sure, but it's like a much more niche, like there's a niche of crowds of people, that'll.

Mark Trobough: 15:05

you know games that never came over here will actually like fan translate the games. That's the only way to play a lot, of, a lot of visual novels.

Brandon Hurles: 15:11

Have you ever played pretty girls rivers?

Mark Trobough: 15:15

I have not.

Brandon Hurles: 15:15

No, look that one up, you might like it. Pretty girls rivers. It was just recommended to me on PlayStation, so it's on sale for two bucks. So next I got it's all for games and wine. It is on Steam. It's not on Steam.

Mark Trobough: 15:31

No, it is on Steam. Mostly positive. It's at a 75 with a whole 20 reviews. I think they said it's like 75 on PlayStation $1.97 right now. It's like some kind of puzzle-looking is what it looks like with, uh, mature content in the game.

Brandon Hurles: 15:49

I think it's the type of game it is.

Mark Trobough: 15:51

It's like a casual uh puzzle type game. Well, yeah, casual, cute anime puzzle arcade 2d with some mature themes interesting.

Brandon Hurles: 16:00

So it's like those switch games that are like all puzzle or gambling games with girls on the front cover yeah, it looks like it's like a.

Mark Trobough: 16:09

I was trying to figure out like the actual girls positive reviews on PlayStation 4.19 out of5 yeah, because apparently you have to like eliminate blocks by like matching them up and something like that. I don't think a proper aim for it but, it's a puzzle game, like not a whole lot to it, like that's the core gameplay at that point.

Brandon Hurles: 16:28

So the next one is all four in one. This is the entire fear series, um, so I've got all the games here, including the standalone dlc, which is fear files. This is standalone dlc. Um, we also DLC. We also got 3, 1, or no 2, and then 1. So FEAR stands for First Encounter, assault, recon. If you have not played these games, I cannot recommend them enough. They're not really horror games, they're more of a Doom meets Left 4 Dead aesthetic. They was basically military games where you're taking out zombies. Zombies took over the world. So you're, you're military, um, you're taking out the zombies and you follow the story from there. You got three games plus the standalone DLC that you can get on steam with the game or you can get it like this this this is expensive the standalone DLC disc where you actually play. It's actually, weirdly enough. My favorite of all three games the standalone DLC. It's got the DLC from Extraction Point and Percy's Mandate.

Mark Trobough: 17:38

Yeah, because I did want to bring it up, because right now on Steam this should be relevant for a short time when this actually comes live on Halloween. But but on steam, fear, fear 2, project origins, fear 2, the reborn dlc, fear 3, fear extraction point and fear perseus mandate are all, until november 4th, 90 off.

Mark Trobough: 17:58

So you get all those for five dollars and 49 cents usd do that when, when I would normally all that would be like normally $55, which is still not bad, but like it's like $6 after tax or something like that 40 bucks, and I got a deal on this for this alone and it was a deal, cause it's like a $70 game.

Brandon Hurles: 18:18

Yeah, cause, I'll just bring it up. I was like well, if you're if you're willing to do digital on Steam, like the benefit, you can get some older games for dirt cheap.

Mark Trobough: 18:28

I mean, it is Steam whether you like it or not, but that's hard to say no if you're a huge fan of the series, even just to be able to play the games. And I guess, kind of in the same vein it's not I don't know how you call it horror-esque elements to some degree, but essentially it's the compilation of really most Metroid games, the whole Metroidvania genre. It's not horror, but there's with some of these games, especially the Metroids, just because I played them more, the isolation and the feeling you get at times. It can feel like that Just because I brought it up. Well, pretty much the whole collection, I've got you know steal a sealed copy of Dread because I bought it physical and digital. I think at this point I want to leave it sealed. Why do I want to open it? It's for value. I bought it digital, like that's the problem.

Brandon Hurles: 19:17

Play it on another Switch, your Switch Lite it's always possibility.

Mark Trobough: 19:22

But I've also uh, something about the, the original two metroid prime games. But to me, especially metroid prime 2 had the most feeling of a what do you want to call it? The horror elements or something like that, the way it kind of starts up, you're very obviously stuck on the planet. There's this you know, the whole dark world and stuff like that. You have hop back and forth and that definitely, at least when I was a kid, felt me with some levels of dread at some areas.

Brandon Hurles: 19:44

The music plays into that too.

Mark Trobough: 19:46

Yeah, where it kind of is trying to Very atmospheric.

Brandon Hurles: 19:49

For what?

Mark Trobough: 19:49

it is A very atmospheric game.

Brandon Hurles: 19:51

It's one you've got to play the music on man. You have to.

Mark Trobough: 19:54

I'd say Corruption, probably the least of this, to be fair Way less horror.

Brandon Hurles: 20:00

It's probably the least horror of the one through three.

Mark Trobough: 20:02

It's like probably the least horror of the one through three. Or, if you want to get really controversial, for some people Other M is an actual horror game. I'll say this I hated the gameplay of this game, but I actually love the story of the game. That's where I'm at with that game specifically. I know I will absolutely get hate for that. I think the game got too much hate. The gameplay is not bad. It just don't Me me side scroller or first person, pick one and move forward with it. But I actually like the story of the game and the story is technically canon, whether you like it or not.

Brandon Hurles: 20:32

so I'm out yeah, so that's all I got as far as yeah I mean I had a.

Mark Trobough: 20:41

yeah, that's. I mean I had a few other that but but they're not physical, they were on Steam. So I played the first episode of the Walking Dead, which I know a lot of people are big fans of it, and I should go back and finish it, but it was a fairly decent game if you're into those telltale games, story-driven choice games for the most part. Technically, I don't know why Steam says this. Steam says Steins gate is a horror game has those elements, but it's not like it's got the psychological.

Mark Trobough: 21:11

My problem with me is I've only played it for like an hour so I haven't got that far into it. Yeah, I've seen the anime for it but I'm not finished the whole game. Uh, they the steam kind of also said the metro game, metro games, which have horror elements to them, especially the first two, not the third one just because you're essentially underground, stark, it's claustrophobic, limited ammo and you know certain levels of enemies and if you ever played those games you actually want the good ending. It's extremely difficult because you need to. Essentially the game has like a counter of like how many enemies as like a counter of like how many enemies I think human enemies you can actually, you know, kill before you can't get the good end anymore, which adds a level of struggle to this game.

Mark Trobough: 21:49

If you actually want it, obviously you just run and gun. You'll just get the bad ending, but you can get through the game at the very least. But obviously it's a mechanic and all those you know. I've got Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, which are, you know multiplayer, which are, you know, multiplayer, zombie shooters really all there is to it Technically. I have the Dead Island game Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide, but I've not actually played them, they're just in my game.

Brandon Hurles: 22:16

Two is so bad.

Mark Trobough: 22:18

I don't have it. Another one that I think technically we talked about. It kind of fits more that the Dengaropa Trigger, happy Havoc, have that game not played. It Should probably actually get around to playing that game.

Brandon Hurles: 22:29

It's definitely got the horror elements, because it's like it's what birthed Doki. Doki Legend Club. Yeah, I would believe that because I remember a lot of people.

Mark Trobough: 22:38

I believe I believe I have. I don't know if it's this game specifically. I have one for the PS Vita. Yeah, I believe I have. I don't know if it's this game specifically.

Brandon Hurles: 22:44

I have one for the PS Vita yeah, I can't remember which one it is. There's one through three and then trigger happy havoc, Um. So he's going to go grab those real quick. But yeah, the Danganronpa games are pretty fun. If you, I don't. I'm not a visual novel guy, necessarily, but the the Danganronpa games and dokey literature club really sucked me in. Uh, I think they're really fun that they can be accessible for anybody that doesn't like original novel games necessarily so so I have it, but I don't know where it is.

Mark Trobough: 23:11

But I had another one that I could at least immediately find, and it was uh, because these things are so damn small, it's like a disegia four or something like that. I don't think I have the fourth one for from nis or disia. Yeah, why I only have the fourth game of this. I've got no idea.

Brandon Hurles: 23:28

You need to get the case for that man. What are you doing?

Mark Trobough: 23:31

I don't have the cases for any of these games anymore. That's the problem. All my Vita games are stuck like this. I think all the cases got thrown out a while ago. Unfortunately, that's a bummer got thrown out a while ago unfortunately, that's about why I was actually like into collecting because I didn't have I think I was at a time I didn't have a lot of like physical space well, um, let's go ahead and dive into.

Brandon Hurles: 23:53

What is the first memory you think of when I say the horror game. What's the first thing that comes to mind when, when I say that, as far as a memory or something that you played, or that's kind of a tricky one.

Mark Trobough: 24:07

I was.

Brandon Hurles: 24:10

I was definitely trying to think what's the first thing you remember playing?

Mark Trobough: 24:13

horror game? Wise Probably. Oh, it's not. It's not the forest I was. I remember I played that game before, but it's not the first that comes to mind. But it was kind of like the, I think dead by daylight definitely comes to mind as far as game.

Mark Trobough: 24:27

It's one of the more recent ones I played. I played it back when it first came out for a few months, solid Probably. You know probably some of the other Aliens games, but horror as a genre, a period, it's just never been like a huge thing for me. So just I don't have a lot of experience playing a lot of games.

Brandon Hurles: 24:43

What about when you're talking about Resident Evil earlier, what was you told me? You played about three hours of the first one. What was?

Mark Trobough: 24:51

the memory behind that that I played within the last two years. How many have you played it recently? Extreme, well, not recently. I played it within the last two years. Okay, because I can't remember exactly whether it was. I think it was. I played it since 2021. I played it since then. Oh, okay, gotcha, I just can't remember exactly when, but I just didn't feel scary. It just felt like a clunk fest. I played the original version when they re-released it for PS4 or something like that.

Brandon Hurles: 25:21

It felt like it played like the original game, but it was like, wow, this game has aged terribly and a lot of parts of the game were super frustrating controls which had to be, oh yeah, that way, because the dual shock one wasn't out yet, so, yeah, but I mean obviously they were only working with the d-pad at the time but the game design was so bad.

Mark Trobough: 25:40

Just getting around trying to figure out where you're going, I I got frustratedher with the game after, but it just didn't age well because the tank controls, I think I think I mean it probably played in, it, definitely played into it, but after a while because I was like trying to pull the guy, I'm like I don't know where I need to go at this point, like what am I doing?

Brandon Hurles: 25:55

say that because there's a comment. Yesterday, when I made a resident evil post that I actually saw it a couple of times in the comments. There was like 150 comments and at least three people said bring back the tank controls. So there are people that are saying the only reason it was scary is because it had tank controls. You had to maneuver in like a really strategic way. You know what I mean.

Mark Trobough: 26:21

I'm sure some of it has to be with the nostalgia. Maybe some people played it later but, like coming from modern gaming standards, it plays terribly Like the. I don't think it's aged well unless you grew up playing the game Like. It's the same issue with a lot of 64 games They've aged terribly. But the only way some of us actually still enjoy those games and go back and play them because you, you used to, you used to, you grew up playing those games. But if I tried to play a brand new game like that now, I'd be immediately frustrated with it and I wouldn't want to actually play the game.

Brandon Hurles: 26:48

It is different now, isn't it? Because we've got so many games, yeah, and they've kind of perfected the.

Mark Trobough: 26:55

They've perfected the 2D, but the 2.5 slash 3D early on was just not a good control scheme. They've had better part of what, three decades at this point to really perfect it out.

Brandon Hurles: 27:11

Yeah, it's interesting you say that because there's just so many games now that like you don't have to deal with that, because back then we also couldn't buy our own games. So it's like you played that or you didn't play anything new at all you just got good.

Mark Trobough: 27:26

You know tanky controls or bad controls, but because one of like five games you own, so you just got really good at the game, right I remember 64 and you didn't.

Brandon Hurles: 27:33

I only I only ever owned seven games for it. The rest were all rental. So we rented games for it a lot, so I get to play a lot of things, uh. But I mean that was only you know, every weekend or every other weekend, and like it would depend on my grades and things like that. So it's like I had owned seven games like hey you, pikachu, pokemon stadium, pokemon puzzle league, or three of the games plus pokemon stadium 2. So I was for the games gold pokemon in 3d.

Brandon Hurles: 28:04

Huh, it's pokemon in 3d, to blow your mind away can we talk about for a second how huge, hey you pikachu was supposed to be like. That was such. I was so excited about being able to talk to pikachu in a microphone on the 64. That was such a big deal. Microphone hangs on your controller and, oh my god, like that was in the big, the big box, that came in like good lord.

Mark Trobough: 28:31

Yeah, how exciting was that you say that somebody posted something on on reddit said hey you pikachu, the worst n64 game.

Brandon Hurles: 28:39

I mean it's right at least for youtube video listen to you like half of the time, so it got really frustrating, really really annoying.

Mark Trobough: 28:48

It was no way they were going to perfect this with the processing power they had on the 64.

Brandon Hurles: 28:52

We thought they were going to.

Mark Trobough: 28:55

You didn't know any better. It's the same thing with the controls.

Brandon Hurles: 28:57

Pokemon Snap was another one of the games I had. I'm obsessed with Pokemon at that time, yeah.

Mark Trobough: 29:03

No, but I'll say like back to like you to be fair, like you didn't really know better. I mean a game made but like this, controls terrible. But for the most part you didn't really know better, because you may not have had a game that had somewhat better, but just the general controls just weren't all that good because there was no like standardized layout.

Brandon Hurles: 29:18

It's funny that you say that the first game I think of thinking at the time was terrible when I was playing it is Scorpion King on the GameCube. It wasn't until then that I knew a game was like bad and it just wasn't a good game.

Mark Trobough: 29:32

Before that, I just thought I wasn't good at the game. No before then. It's just like any kind of movie game is bad by default.

Brandon Hurles: 29:39

Well see I didn't know that when we're talking NES, super Nintendo, game Boy Boy I didn't know a game was bad until the GameCube legitimately didn't. So did you know a game was bad on the SNES when you were playing it?

Mark Trobough: 29:52

because I didn't, I just thought I was bad, no, but by that point, like 2D, games have kind of been perfected, to be fair those two consoles both perfected NES and Super Nintendo, both perfected you're only dealing with two axes. You're only really dealing with two axes with a lot of those platforms. When do you get to the 3D? Then you try to figure out what's going on.

Brandon Hurles: 30:11

You got Star Fox and Doom and Wolfenstein with 3D on Super Nintendo.

Mark Trobough: 30:16

Those were a handful, they didn't look really well, to be fair. The Star Fox on the SNES Looks terrible.

Brandon Hurles: 30:25

It's just polygons really you know what.

Mark Trobough: 30:30

Star Fox didn't Peek until the 64 Because it just didn't have the. It didn't have the processing power to display what you really need to display for, like a whole 3D environment on the, on the SNES.

Brandon Hurles: 30:46

It just didn't have the power. It's not Star Fox 2, the beta cartridge, bro.

Mark Trobough: 30:50

I can play that on my mini SNES though. Yeah, but it's not the beta.

Brandon Hurles: 30:54

It's the redone game, essentially.

Mark Trobough: 30:58

It's still very obviously an incomplete game.

Brandon Hurles: 31:00

But no, go check out Vintex 64. Grab this cart there. But they got some really cool super nintendo virtual boy 64 cartridges, some really cool stuff um, so I'm going to be checking that out in the video soon, so it's kind of a plug for an upcoming video. But oh, that's where you got your Ultra 64? Vintex 64? V-i-n-t-e-x 64.com.

Mark Trobough: 31:31

Yeah, because they got the Ultra 64. Yeah, $1 to $128, I assume, is just how big the storage capacity is on it.

Brandon Hurles: 31:41

Maybe. Yeah, I'm not sure they've got While you're looking at that, give me a sec oh, they got Starcraft 64, so I got a few other things.

Brandon Hurles: 32:09

There's. There's quite a bit here so I'm doing a full video on it, but I'll just showcase just a couple of things. Got super mario brothers, all-star, powerfest 94 cart um the rev d burn-in test cartridge, so see if there's any burning on your TV. But the coolest stuff for me being the weirdo I am got virtual boy I-frame replacement here, so this is what holds the actual foam to it. But the coolest part is they sent out these virtual boy, flash boy plus cartridges. So I've got a bunch of stickers here for them. There's two of them that you load the games on. Here's the stickers, so they let me pick what I want to put on it. Here's the carts let's go.

Brandon Hurles: 32:55

You load up the roms onto these carts and then play them on your physical console virtual boy, obviously right behind me, and all the vids here recently.

Mark Trobough: 33:05

But big fan.

Brandon Hurles: 33:07

And I also got Virtual Boy multiplayer cable, which never actually officially came out, so cool stuff.

Mark Trobough: 33:18

Yeah, but I mean.

Brandon Hurles: 33:19

A next question, Mark.

Mark Trobough: 33:22

A next question, I guess. What do you think is just Halloween in general? Like just growing up sucks outside of the actual trick-or-treating itself still to this day as an adult.

Brandon Hurles: 33:35

It's my favorite holiday.

Mark Trobough: 33:38

I can't. Unfortunately I can't say the same, but what's your favorite holiday Mark? I don't have one any. Any holiday that gets me out of work.

Brandon Hurles: 33:46

Halloween get you out of work.

Mark Trobough: 33:48

Halloween gets you out of work? No, it doesn't. It should, yeah, it should, but it doesn't.

Brandon Hurles: 33:53

No, I know, Doesn't that suck? Christmas gets you out, but Halloween doesn't the best holiday when you get free candy until you die.

Mark Trobough: 34:00

Hey, just remember, tomorrow is November 1st, so so I'll be ready for some Mariah Carey what?

Brandon Hurles: 34:09

you're wild, oh man she's getting isn't she right now as we speak? Exactly yeah, exactly, yeah. So what is? What would you say is probably because I know you're not big in the horror in general. But what would you say is probably because I know you're not big into horror in general. But what would you say are some of the best? Like give me three good horror movies you've seen that you actually like and can say that you're a fan of. He's got to look. He's got to look at what horror movies he's done.

Mark Trobough: 34:42

I just don't know, that's the problem. I haven't seen a whole lot. I just don't know, like that's the problem. I haven't seen a whole lot. Oh, that's the benefit of this being pre-recorded. I can do that you can't say that normally if I could say it now. I don't know if you want to call it well, it's not horror, but when I think of Halloween, I think of, obviously, the Halloween Town movies as just a general disney channel yeah, but it's a disney, uh, I mean, obviously it got to your state like a lot of your standard movies.

Mark Trobough: 35:12

You've got, uh, I guess, if you want to call it scream, I didn't care for it, but you've got like the shining and it, which are extremely popular movies, I think actually one of the rare good horror movies. To be fair, I don't have anything to say on those movies no, they're good.

Brandon Hurles: 35:28

I mean everything you mentioned, good stuff yeah, I guess would you.

Mark Trobough: 35:34

Would you consider checks as chainsaw massacre horror movie? Yeah, 100 here's based on a true story.

Brandon Hurles: 35:43

They did say that for the first movie in the beginning of it, but it's not really. It's based on real events from several different serial killers.

Mark Trobough: 35:54

Yeah, it kind of mashed together. I know this movie kind of just came out but I didn't hear anything good about it. A Quiet Place Day One. I definitely remember seeing that and like this looks like a terrible movie. Yeah, it doesn't look good to me, I'm just not interested, honestly, movies I did watch and like but they kind of come off as cheesy, would you consider, like the Lake Placid movies. Yeah, I think I consider those horror movies Pretty much.

Brandon Hurles: 36:16

They're always on SyFy Channel running on there.

Mark Trobough: 36:19

That's why I've never watched them.

Brandon Hurles: 36:20

So many times on SyFy Channel Like I'm good for the rest of my life. I can't even tell you how many times my dad was watching his movies Tremors 2?.

Mark Trobough: 36:30

Oh, the first one especially. Yeah, I would say that it is. It's definitely an iconic movie, for sure, mainly because it's the one with Kevin Bacon in it.

Brandon Hurles: 36:39

Yeah, he did come back for one of the newish ones.

Mark Trobough: 36:44

I do remember them saying because I had a guy that I worked with that was super into it but hated the fact that they removed the most iconic portion of the it books out of the movie. I think you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, the completely messed up ritual. I don't know why is this? Even in this book it's messed up.

Brandon Hurles: 37:07

Stephen King was doing a lot of cocaine, smoking a lot of cigarettes at that point in time.

Mark Trobough: 37:12

I guess technically, langoliers is one of the movies of Stephen King's books that I've watched.

Brandon Hurles: 37:17

Have you watched Cujo? I don't think. I have. Oh wow, you haven't watched, cujo.

Mark Trobough: 37:23

No, I haven't.

Brandon Hurles: 37:24

Dog.

Mark Trobough: 37:26

Yeah, no, I haven't. There's a lot of Stephen King that I haven't watched, but I mean, you know, shot of the Dead, I think is a really good movie. I'm off of you, I don't know. Would you consider like an underworld?

Brandon Hurles: 37:39

horror-esque. It's got the horror elements, obviously the vampires and werewolves and stuff, but those are like straight up action movies.

Mark Trobough: 37:47

Yeah, I'd say that. But you know the Halloween, esque type things, but I was just never like the biggest. Um, that was the biggest horror. And then I think I've watched I can't remember what it's called, but it was a really bad horror movie that I watched in theaters, like in 2017 or something like that. That helps. But a lot of these horror movies deal with like oh, we're gonna mix the catholic religion and make it a horror movie and it just you know the whole, uh, exorcism type stuff.

Mark Trobough: 38:12

So like a dime a dozen of those movies the last omen that came out.

Brandon Hurles: 38:17

Uh is actually a pretty good movie. Um, I, I was not. I went into it thinking it was gonna be pretty rough. Um, because I mean, omen really hasn't been good. Let's be real. There's been quite a few sequels. I went into it thinking it was going to be pretty rough. Omen really hasn't been good, let's be real. There's been quite a few sequels, but it hasn't really been good since that first movie. If you ask me, I've watched all of them, but I thought it was pretty good. I was surprised by it. It was good stuff. There's been a lot of Omen. You got Omen 2, omen 2, the Final Conflict, omen 4, the Awakening a remake in 2006,. A prequel called the First Omen, which is the one I'm talking about. It's called the First Omen Came out in April this year. It was really good.

Mark Trobough: 39:05

Yeah, I do have another thing. Would you consider any of the Scooby-Doo movies to fit the horror Halloween?

Brandon Hurles: 39:13

No, because you have some stuff that you've got. Like what? Some real sharp turns here.

Mark Trobough: 39:17

What some zombie island. Witch's ghost Zombie island was really good. That's the first Scooby-Doo movie I think that's probably one of the best Scooby-Doo movies out there. They came out in 98. I definitely remember watching that and it just being a really good Gonna solve that mystery, hey Scooby-Doo. It's Scooby-Doo coming after you. What's Scooby-Doo Since? What was it? Since 98,. There are 38 Scooby-Doo movies.

Brandon Hurles: 39:41

Yeah, I believe it. I mean there's been so many WWE movies, kiss movies, movies yeah, I believe it. I mean there's been so many wwe movies, kiss movies. There's all these crossover movies they do that are super wild and out of nowhere. They did them with, uh, the global trotters or what hold on, what's that basketball team?

Mark Trobough: 39:56

yes, the globe trotters, okay, yeah, uh, but oh, I had it, I lost it. Uh, no, would would you consider, like the best Halloween movie to be Ernest Scared Stupid.

Brandon Hurles: 40:08

I think you're just saying stupid stuff.

Mark Trobough: 40:11

It's an actual movie from 91.

Brandon Hurles: 40:12

It's really good. It's the pinnacle of the 90s, I mean.

Mark Trobough: 40:18

It definitely exudes, it just breathes 90s in general.

Brandon Hurles: 40:23

It's so good, but I think you're being stupid. Now I'm not being stupid. The best of the 90s in general, it's so good, but I think you're being stupid. Now I'm not being stupid. The best of the 90s, it's not the best horror movie.

Mark Trobough: 40:31

Okay, Now here's a better question. I'll ask you directly.

Brandon Hurles: 40:34

It's a good Halloween movie though.

Mark Trobough: 40:37

Do any kaiju movies fit the aesthetic of Halloween?

Brandon Hurles: 40:40

Yes, the first Godzilla movie and probably no more until the last Japanese Godzilla movie. And probably not no more until the last Japanese Godzilla movie. I mean honestly what minus zero. Raids again. The second movie kind of has that too, where it's kind of a direct sequel to it. But other than that, no, I mean like any of the mashup ones, godzilla vs versus mothra, godzilla versus space, godzilla a lot of them come up more it's like action.

Mark Trobough: 41:11

I never would actually really say that any. Kaiju, yeah, because it actually has some of the elements and it's why I liked minus one, because it brought a lot some of those elements. But I would never straight up say is a halloween movie. It's like its whole own other genre. But you know, if you're just considering stuff, that's like maybe not traditional horror but you know halloween adjacent with some of the, some of the themes to it. Yeah, because even the original I wouldn't even say it's a straight up horror movie. Uh, maybe more at the time, but it comes off as it has horror elements sort of like like thriller, yeah well, maybe not thriller, but uh, it's not like straight up, like it's not like Halloween or something like that.

Brandon Hurles: 41:47

I wouldn't, wouldn't put it in the same way, I wouldn't say, Halloween, but it definitely has more horror elements than any of the other movies. It was meant to be scary, right?

Mark Trobough: 41:54

Because, yeah, like you know, meant to be based sort of on like nuclear fallout and stuff like that, nuclear bombs and stuff which was an actual fear at the time time, which just heightens up probably the reception then and the reception now of the same movie.

Brandon Hurles: 42:10

I mean it's a direct reaction to that happening. So I mean it was uh, you know, it was very still fresh at the time when I came out and you know, very new still yeah, but I mean how to find a way to throw in some godzilla there? He's gonna say the same day we had to talk about at least once but I guess there's some other ones.

Mark Trobough: 42:30

I was pulling some stuff up because I remember watching these movies. I didn't care for them, but I know they were really popular. So you have the Corpse Bride and Coraline, which I think absolutely fit the aesthetic properties more like a kids level horror movie yeah, they very. Those movies remind me of beetlejuice a lot yeah, because I think it definitely fits it as well yeah, beetlejuice definitely fits as well, but yeah, quarter line and corpse bride definitely.

Brandon Hurles: 42:56

Halloween time movies for sure, and obviously before those. The nightmare before christmas is obviously, like the, the reason those exist.

Mark Trobough: 43:03

So because I it took me. I can't believe I completely forgot about this movie. I actually kind of liked it as a kid. You remember watching Monster House? Yeah, it's the epitome of a kid's horror movie.

Brandon Hurles: 43:13

Yeah it does, it really does. Scary house, haunted house, sort of deal. It was really good for the time.

Mark Trobough: 43:20

Then again you could just go through a bunch of Disney movies because you had like what haunted mansion, hocus, pocus, casper, uh, little vampire little vampire that's a good one to bring up. I brought that up would you consider like uh was it little nicky be a horror movie, halloween elements, sort of more of a comedy movie, obviously, but yeah, it's definitely, it just popped in my mind well, nicky got a video game.

Brandon Hurles: 43:42

Did you know that it?

Mark Trobough: 43:44

didn't with collar that does not surprise me. Yeah, were you in, because I guess they're technically ghost bumps movies. But you remember like the old ghost bumps, uh goosebumps, like tv series they had based on the books. Yeah, of course that feels like it just fits the aesthetic, probably as cheesy as those like kids movies were you had like haunted mask.

Brandon Hurles: 44:03

That was directly involved with ha. It was about dressing up.

Mark Trobough: 44:08

I think the one I definitely remember is the one where the kid that essentially turns into a dog.

Brandon Hurles: 44:15

You're talking about what was in the opening of the show, right?

Mark Trobough: 44:18

No, it was an actual episode where some kid turns into a dog, essentially Because he's the one that got the yellow eyes right.

Brandon Hurles: 44:33

I can't remember that's in the intro of the show, um super iconic dog that gets uh. Um, I had to pull it up.

Mark Trobough: 44:35

No, it's uh I think it's called episode like larry.

Brandon Hurles: 44:37

Larry boyd is the main, not the dog one yeah, it's uh protagonist of the 26 goosebumps book.

Mark Trobough: 44:45

Uh, my hairiest adventure. And the same thing with the tv adaptation but it's not a werewolf, it's a dog I mean it probably has elements of werewolf stuff, but he since he just turns into a dog and nobody really knows- that one specifically, but there were a lot of really good episodes.

Brandon Hurles: 44:58

So you know, I probably just don't remember some of them?

Mark Trobough: 45:03

I'm sure yeah, but I mean that's knight and honda castle.

Brandon Hurles: 45:07

It sounds familiar.

Mark Trobough: 45:08

I'll try to pull it up real quick.

Brandon Hurles: 45:10

There's a book for it. That's got like the front where it shows the gilligan or whatever it's called, that cuts the head off and then shows the uh like castle keeper.

Mark Trobough: 45:20

Um yeah, but I mean I don't. I don't know if even it's still big. I just remember goosebumps being like a big thing in general growing up. Yeah, it was, uh, it was like the the one big thing.

Brandon Hurles: 45:29

It was like you know, the ish yeah, for sure, now I'm with you on Goosebumps, but if you guys enjoyed this episode, let us know in the comments down below. Be sure to leave a like comment, subscribe you know, follow us wherever you you're at on social media. We definitely appreciate it. Normally, this podcast is live Fridays at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time, so this is a special extra bonus pre-recorded episode. We appreciate everybody checking us out and we'll see you all later. Why are you approved V for victory.