Tox  0:06  
This week on MXPB we dive deep into the world of Metroid dread. Plus, we take a look back at Mortal Kombat and roller coaster tycoon, don't go away MXPB starts now.

Hello and welcome to the Morning xp boost, where your hosts toxin glitch, and we're here to give you the experience points you need to get through your week and maybe level up along the way. Glitch, how are you doing today,

Glitch  0:46  
I'm great, I'm a little nervous about what you're going to ask next, how are you

Tox  0:52  
know I didn't have anything planned actually I was thinking, What's your favorite pizza topping.

Glitch  0:56  
Oh, sausage, yours.

Tox  0:58  
Um, so I'm gonna go controversial and say pineapple. Friday, the fans, the myriads of fans react to that.

Glitch  1:09  
I'll be sure to post that on Twitter. Right, I've

Tox  1:12  
got to get blown up. So this week we're going to talk mostly about Metroid dread Nintendo's new follow up to the 2d Metroid series, as well as a little bit of news, a little bit of history, and I think we're gonna have a good time. Should we do it,

Glitch  1:29  
jump right in. Right, so

Tox  1:31  
let's start with the history, why not. We've got a bunch of stuff. One thing that stood out to me was, Pokemon x&y in 2013 for the 3ds was released on October 12 Glitch Are you familiar with these titles at all.

Glitch  1:50  
I certainly I was actually the titles that got me back into playing Pokemon. What about you.

Tox  1:56  
Yeah, I have recently bought them for the 3ds that I also recently bought because I missed them the first time around, and I'm having a lot of fun. Revisiting the sort of older Pokemon titles, yeah.

Glitch  2:09  
Yeah, I think I picked up X and Y, I actually also recently just purchased a 3ds with x&y Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby and the last two were the Omega

Tox  2:25  
make mega solar Sun and Moon Ultra yes yeah.

Glitch  2:28  
Yes, I got I picked up those as well.

Tox  2:31  
I think we had this conversation before because I did the exact same thing.

Yeah. Sorry, we're just on the same wavelength that it is.

Glitch  2:45  
Well, what else came out. What else do we have for history.

Tox  2:49  
We got so much stuff uh one of my other favorites this week was the Mortal Kombat Trilogy released for PlayStation. This week, I played it on the Nintendo 64 in 1996, and it was the first Mortal Kombat game I ever played actually scratch that it was the second one, the first one I played I rented. When I was too young to rent that game and my mom didn't know what it was. And I remember playing it on the Super Nintendo and I was kind of like traumatized by all the blood and stuff, even just on the Super Nintendo. And I actually, I returned it as like, I don't want to. He only had the game for like three or four days right when you rented them but

Glitch  3:31  
yeah what game, what's his sub zero. Was that the one by chance that you rented or what which Mortal Kombat, You know,

Tox  3:37  
I would have to go and reverse engineer it, I have no idea what it was I just remember the blood and being like, I don't think I should, I don't know if I was afraid of it, or more so I was just recognizing that I was like, I'm too young to play this game right now I should stop.

Glitch  3:51  
Oh yeah, actually. So, I played, I think my first s&s Mortal Kombat title was sub zero, which was actually a lot of fun, it actually had like a little story mode and stuff and you play this sub zero and unlocked his different abilities and stuff. I remember that actually yeah it was a really good game actually and then that kind of like, pushed me into buying the Mortal Kombat Trilogy, did not have that like story mode and I was like, What is this even

Tox  4:21  
surprised.

Glitch  4:25  
We also had, yeah So in 2001 we had Zoo Tycoon come out. I know that's a real popular game with some of our listeners. Some of our hosts, and some of our hosts Yeah. And then in 2002 Roller Coaster Tycoon two came out. Another really fun one to build your own theme park.

Tox  4:47  
They played that one, and it was a lot of fun.

Glitch  4:51  
How many hours did you spend, I don't know. Probably.

Tox  4:56  
Probably only like 20 or 30 hours but like what I really liked, I was like, I got it because I was like oh build roller coasters but then I didn't realize how much of like theme park management that game actually was. And yeah, it was interesting when I had to put bathrooms all over the place, so that I could keep my guests happy.

Glitch  5:16  
Oh yeah, are they, they would do that weird like cross legged hop thing, and they would get really mad. Faith. I'm glad that back then they didn't have like the hours counter like they have on the PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch now for how much how long you play games, because it would be probably an embarrassing number for roller coaster tycoon two. Then we also had Uncharted two among thieves a really nice follow up to Uncharted. Have you played that game series on SNL station exclusive.

Tox  5:51  
Yeah, this is one of those that I missed by not being a PlayStation owner but it's on my list, it's on my list for sure.

Glitch  5:58  
If you get a chance definitely it's Indiana Jones, essentially. Oh man, Uncharted fans are gonna hate that and actually there's a, there's a movie coming out starring. Who's the guy that plays Spider Man.

Tox  6:14  
Which Spider Man.

Glitch  6:16  
I know right.

Tox  6:18  
Tobey Maguire. Spider Man,

Glitch  6:21  
the current Spider Man.

Tox  6:23  
Tom Holland, Tom Holland so

Glitch  6:25  
Tom Holland is actually going to play the leading role in uncharted oh yeah I'm really excited to see it

Tox  6:32  
interesting to see how that turns out he's got kind of a baby face so he does have a picture of Uncharted as like a grizzly disheveled sort of guy who's seen stuff it's, is that wrong.

Glitch  6:45  
No, you're pretty much dead on it's he's voiced by Nolan North, who is a very, very talented voice actor and does like you think any big name voice. Voice to character in the video game world, majority of those were voiced by Nolan North, who is cool. Yeah, I'm the guy from Last of Us, the main character. That's Nolan North, And of course, sharted is also north and north,

Tox  7:14  
is it the same character throughout the series.

Glitch  7:17  
It is yeah, up until I think the most recent one, which is a thieves end. No spoilers there actually haven't played that one

Tox  7:25  
yet. The title sounds like a spoiler itself.

Glitch  7:29  
Yes, I think, something happens yeah yeah you know the

Tox  7:32  
end of something. All right, well, I think that does it for the history, what do you think,

Glitch  7:37  
I think so.

Tox  7:38  
Let's move on to the news. So I guess I'll start. Yeah,

Glitch  7:45  
it talks a new system come out like on the on the on the down low, the the new system come out. Yeah, I

Tox  7:52  
mean we talked about the Nintendo Switch Oh led and that was released I guess last week, along with Metroid dread, which is sort of its pseudo launch title of sorts and, you know, we talked about the Nintendo Switch OLED a lot in a previous episode, so definitely go check that out for all the details, but you know this is an incremental update, kind of similar to how they update their handhelds, Nintendo does this sort of historically, after a couple years or a year, year and a half a few years. The switch has been out, you know, since 2017 2018 So it's been a while. There's been one sort of refresh that improved sort of battery life, but otherwise no design changes. And this is a design change bigger screen OLED, higher quality, and, you know, some sleek little notches and bezels or removal of notches in bezels, and it looks really cool. Yeah, nice update,

Glitch  8:49  
be honest, I think, you know, the Nintendo Switch, I think is the, I think it's the best selling system of all time or is it still. It's close

Tox  8:58  
by 6 million units

Glitch  9:00  
sold. Yeah, I know it's really close and it was like just breaking every record in the book, I know last year for some reason. I mean, you know, there was there were points where you could not get your hands on a Nintendo Switch and this is a system now for five years at that point. I understand PlayStation five and Xbox, we have a chip shortage, there's a couple different issues contributing to not being able to get your hands on it, but it's a brand new system, not being able to get your hands on a system five years old. They were getting bought off the shelves. It's incredible for Nintendo So, am 100% talks behind them doing incremental updates on the system. They keep doing that this system is mean, I feel like they have 6,000% hit. What a system like this needs to, it feels like a niche market that did not exist before. I can take this thing with me everywhere. If they keep updating this every two or three years, I stand behind it. That's good. I'm

Tox  10:06  
glad I'm glad to hear that because I kind of agree. I mean, this is really an update for people who play in handheld mode, because the screen, obviously you can dock the switch and play on your TV and then the screen on the switch, doesn't mean anything, the audio on the switch at that point doesn't mean anything, even though that's also improved when you're playing handheld on the OLED model. And I think it's really cool that it came out, along with Metroid Dredd on the same day, and playing through Metro dread which we'll talk about in a second. It really I think showcases and highlights the strengths of this Nintendo Switch Oh led and that OLED screen, there are a lot of it's really colorful. There's a lot of high contrast areas with really dark backgrounds which is something that the OLED technology does really well, since every single pixel is individually illuminated, you can have that really dark darks and the really bright brights next to each other, and it just looks super shiny.

Glitch  11:00  
I'll be honest, you know, something was to happen to my switch which I would never wish that upon anybody, you know, I think, go ahead and grab the new OLED switch. I honestly I kind of hope it gets to the point where people are like, you know, do I get this new OLED switch or do I wait until the switch to cut or the, you know, the switch to or addition one whatever they're gonna call, call it Do I wait for that next year I don't I don't know. Boom.

Tox  11:28  
Switch plus max. Yeah,

Glitch  11:30  
I mean if they got, like, if they got on an every if they're doing incremental updates right, they could get on a schedule of every three years or something they're coming out with a slightly updated Nintendo Switch. I'd be all for that. I would probably update, I would just be like man. Alright, it's time.

Tox  11:49  
I've been I've bought so many games at this point, I'm all for keeping the switch line alive.

Glitch  11:55  
Right, exactly. The end Nintendo's President did say, with the Nintendo Switch, they want to redefine the lifecycle. The game console.

Tox  12:06  
Got a, they got a ways to go before, ps4 is still going strong right even though PS five is out and that's like seven years in. Yeah. Let's see. Then

Glitch  12:17  
we got any news.

Tox  12:19  
Well, I mean my other items kind of Nintendo II.

Unknown Speaker  12:22  
So, Quake,

Tox  12:25  
we've talked about quake before. Apparently, I missed this, but there is a remake of Quake, that was released on the switch, and includes all this extra stuff, you know, fans of the original, love it, it's a really good remaster. But recently they added mouse and keyboard support for the Nintendo Switch version. Oh yeah, I thought that was hilarious. I think it's kind of, it seems like it's in the style of this game right that that sort of defined the genre was really great game for its era 25 years ago, and is something that just celebrates the way that you can play the game and the game itself and so being able to play in that original mode, even though it's still awkward, why would you ever play a mouse and keyboard game on a switch, being able to do that I think just sort of celebrates the original in a really fun

Glitch  13:17  
way. And add to what quake is done. Also just made a free update available for you if you purchase the PlayStation four version of Quake. And now, upgrade to the enhanced PlayStation five version of Quake,

Tox  13:33  
I might do that,

Glitch  13:35  
those graphics. Got to be unbelievable. I'm also, did you know that the Nintendo Switch. While it is capable of mouse and keyboard support on it select games fortnight, is one of those titles. Really.

Tox  13:54  
Yeah, that now I feel like that would be some kind of, there might be exactly one person that plays fortnight on the switch with a mouse and keyboard that seems like a weird cross of of things.

Glitch  14:09  
Yep, you just got to get yourself that USB splitter, plug it into the dock and away we go.

Tox  14:16  
You've got the best fortnight gaming experience money can buy.

Glitch  14:22  
I'd be curious to see if anybody out there has a place that the Nintendo Switch with mouse and keyboard, you know they do does have, like, exclusive console only cups where you can get different skin packs and stuff. So I almost wonder if some of the pros would do something like that, especially if they are mouse and keyboard gamers. Anything to get that skin. Oh yeah.

Tox  14:51  
Well, does a lot of news but I really want to talk about Metroid dread. What do you say we, we move on to that now.

Glitch  14:58  
Let's jump right into our feature Metroid trend.

Tox  15:06  
All right, so I'll just sort of open it up here and say that Metroid dread hype is real. So, this is a game for the Nintendo Switch, it's the fifth game proper in the 2d Metroid series. We had Metroid on the NDS Metroid two for the Gameboy. Super Metroid was the third one. There were a couple of remakes of Metroid one and two, and then Metroid Fusion on the Gameboy Advance, and since then it's been a number of years, it's a new game in that storyline as appeared in between we had Metroid Prime, which was a 3d game introduced on the GameCube and sort of follows its own story arc, but now finally we have the conclusion to this five game series that started in 1986, and that is Metroid dread.

Glitch  16:03  
That is something else that is quite a lineage that we have there. Um, so with this particular title you know I have not played it yet but I've seen the reviews I've, you know, I've watched the videos, and I've seen the hype, you know, Donald mustard, who is the creative for Epic Games in charge of I think just fortnight, but even he tweeted that he is having so much fun. So, rate the hype is real. And it's selling pretty well too. Right. It's, I think it's

Tox  16:39  
Metroid Prime might be the only other better selling Metroid game than this one in his first week and you know it's just been a week a little bit more, that this game has come out, or been out so it. It's been really fun to see it received so well, it totally deserves it it's it's really a celebration of the Metroid series.

Glitch  17:01  
I mean it looks really really good. So, for the listeners who are listening to this about Metro dread and haven't watched any reviews or anything talks tell us this game about. So,

Tox  17:13  
this picks up the story, the metroids are sort of an alien race that absorbed powers, and Sanders has basically spent her career hunting them down and destroying them because they've been doing bad stuff. There is a little bit of kinship between samisen demetriades and Super Metroid she was saved by a Metroid. Oh in between she has had many genetic alterations and so she has Metroid DNA in her she has the exe virus in her which is a feature of the fusion game, which this exe virus would go and sort of copy, you know, whatever, it came into counter with and made it super powerful and of course as same as you'd have to fight those exe virus versions in previous games. And that plays a role in this game as well. And so you've got that background, Metroid Rosaria Sammis herself sets it up, which is kind of an interesting little thing you know, Sammis is sort of a mysterious character you don't see her person very often, you know, at the end of the game sometimes you see her out of her suit, to some degree, but you don't really get much of a sense of her personality, other than she likes to kick butt and destroy stuff edge is really good at it. So it's kind of interesting to see dread recap the narrative like that in a first person perspective, it's just text, they're like log entries but she's like, Oh, then I went and I destroyed the metros, then I went and I destroyed the X virus and you're like, oh, maybe we're gonna see a little bit more of sadness herself in this game. Oh,

Glitch  18:54  
I've watched some of the reviews, and it looks like are there. I understand the game is a 2d side scrolling platformer. There's some like CGI cutscenes though in this in this title. So the

Tox  19:07  
gameplay is mostly 2d, but it's got that really polished to look right, it's incredibly detailed it's incredibly colorful. And in between, you know, certain areas you do have 3d cutscenes where bosses kind of roll in from the ceiling or from the background. There are even little set pieces within boss fights, where you do the melee counter which is sort of like a timed counter that you have to do it just the right time, and then it kicks off the sequence where you're mostly not controlling the movement, you still sometimes have control over the firing and the shooting, but that goes into sort of a 3d mode where the camera sort of swings all around, Sam s is jumping and flipping and sliding. So it's a really, it's largely 2d, action, but it's got really neat integration of 3d effects like that.

Glitch  20:02  
Probably a little bit about these time sequences so I saw somewhere that it looks like. CMS can counter attacks.

Tox  20:11  
So the melee counter I think was introduced in fusion and is back in Metroid dread, along with a ton of other abilities, that's one thing that Metroid dread does so well, it's got everything that you remember from the previous games, and more, and all the abilities are available to you. At the same time, obviously, a staple of the Metroid series is that you gain abilities as the game progresses and those abilities allow you to reach the next regions of the game. But unlike some other games like Super Metroid where you maybe had to choose between a super missile, and a regular missile or your ice beam, and your Wave Beam, you have all of your abilities available through different button combinations, sort of at the same time which just makes the action much that much more chaotic because you've got all these options, you're zipping you're flying you're jumping, you're double jumping triple, you just, everything is happening all at once. I totally forgot what your question was because I'm just so excited about the gameplay itself.

Glitch  21:17  
No, You nailed it. I actually, before we talk more about gameplay, I have a question, this might throw you for a little bit of a loop because I don't see anything about it and then bringing

Tox  21:25  
out 80

Glitch  21:28  
So, no I haven't played any of the Metroid games besides the ones that were, you know, if you go back to the, the one that was on the way that was 3d Okay, if, if I was to jump right in. What I understand what's going on. Is there any kind of tutorial or backstory that kind of tells that fills me in and lets me know what's going on.

Tox  21:47  
Yeah, so, this story is not super complicated I mean there are some pieces to it, but that's because it's the fifth game right it's basically like one thing that happens in every game it's it's it's interesting because while there is a story arc, this, this story in the sense of, of narrative that you get really comes through the gameplay itself, there's not a lot of text. This game has text right Super Metroid Zero text, I think maybe at the beginning it was like hey, go to this planet, and at the end it Mission complete, and nothing in between. So these games are typically light on story you won't be lost. There is a recap in the beginning, and one thing it does really well, which I realized, is sort of, you know, a bit of a side bar but like in Super Metroid when I was playing through recently. I remember being so confused, just how the ability or the abilities, really worked and what you would use them for. And then later I realized that that information was actually in the manual, which of course if you play on the super, super nintendo the SNPs, you know, virtual console on the switch that you can play, you don't get the manual, and so it was until I was almost done with the game that I looked it up online and I was like, oh, that's what that. That's what that means. And Troy dread fixes that issue by showing you in game, as lots of games, modern games do this, these days, exactly what your abilities do in text and with little animations and you can always access that as soon as you get an ability, you can hit it in the pause menu, you can see the explanation again so you can refresh your memory on how thing was how everything

Glitch  23:29  
works. Right. That's pretty great. This, be honest, this sounds like a game that I'm probably going, and I haven't played a 2d platformer, since probably Mega Man, and maybe 98 is back with a minute, but this game looks so enticing that even somebody who doesn't typically play platformers, with a 2d platformer specifically. This looks like one that I am very interested in picking up, out, back in the day, talks, as you were called, you may or may not recall 2d platformers were incredibly frustrating and difficult you would you would play all the way to the last boss, get your butt whooped, you would end up having to go all the way back. Yeah, very beginning, play through, and I'm talking like wasn't even always the last, like, a lot of those games, it was like you would play levels and groups of three, you'd go all the way back to that very first level one, one of three, and you would have to play all the way through to that boss oxipay fix that.

Tox  24:38  
So this game is very hard and I find it hard and I think what I've seen other reviews and stuff, seem to validate that feeling. It is very hard but it's also very forgiving. If you die, so there are safe points throughout the game, you can't save whenever you want. And that's sort of classic of Metroid games, but to save points are nicely evenly distributed. And if you die, there are actually checkpoints that the game makes automatically, so that you're never more than one or two screens away from where you died, and you get a chance to retry that area, that gave you trouble and you know it's almost roguelike in that nature in the sense that, you know, in those games you can do something over and over again, they tend to be more random that this is the same thing. And, you know, it's sort of like a come full circle because Metroid, in sort of define this genre of like action platforming and, you know, trying these difficult bosses over and over and like you said it was more difficult. Back in the day, because the, you know, you would die and you'd have to replay a lot more. But now, Metro dread I think has really, really nailed it is sort of iterated on had time to iterate on all that, you know, it's sort of the Oji coming in and giving it's a modern take on the genre that it defined, and it's just, it's really rewarding you know you, you find a difficult boss and you fight that boss and you die like immediately you're like How the heck can I possibly beat this thing. And then after the 10th or 12th Try you've beat it without taking any damage, like, you learn, you get better and it just feels so good when you get past those points.

Glitch  26:21  
So, you're playing through the game, it game it out, correct me if I'm wrong, it looks like maybe takes place in space.

Tox  26:32  
Yeah, you're in a planet you're on a planet, and you're underground, which is another sort of staple of the Metroid series, you always like this huge big universe out there, and you get stuck, underground, and the planet, but yeah. And so, the scenery is, is really, you know, it's alien, it's industrial it's organic, it is all the different areas, this, they come alive and the backgrounds are just beautiful highly detailed animated, there's always kind of weird stuff going on like I remember I beat one boss, and I was like, Whew, that was hard, and then like a few screens later I'm like beneath the area where I beat the bus and I see sort of like the gnarly corpse of the boss, that kind of twitching and the background, and they're like these robots like prodding it like, Oh, shoot. Is that is that is that for me. I'm just saying pretend I didn't see that, but like, there's all kinds of cool details in this sort of alien world.

Glitch  27:30  
It's really fun and that, that sounds like something that might be added new to this game, like I said, I haven't played 2d platformers in a while. It's really cool that that they feature, things that you've done in previous areas, interacting with the new areas that you're going into that's, that's very unique and I think that's really interesting that they, they did that. Oh, yeah. Are there different, Their senior underground. Do the environments kind of change, are there different areas to visit and things to see. Yeah, it

Tox  28:00  
used to although it's underground, it doesn't really feel like you're confined there are this sort of like cave like areas, there's sort of a forest like area, there is a, like, kind of really hot area really cold areas. They're all, they all have sort of a cohesive theme, but they all also have their own unique details. It really makes for for a fun time traveling between all the different areas. And that's another thing real quick that I think this game improves on, you know, Metroid style games are sort of notorious for backtracking right you revisit areas over and over again. This game definitely allows you to do that. Although, in order to progress sort of through the story in the sort of linear intended way. It does not let you get too far off track, which I really, really appreciate. I can't tell you how many times when I was playing Super Metroid, that I went from wherever I was all the way back to the beginning, desperately looking for that one thing that I missed, only to find that what I needed was gray head started game, you know will sort of naturally close off areas, so that you're never, you know, if you're looking for the next thing to progress the story. Your search area is a lot smaller and you can sort of focus on the interesting puzzles in that small area rather than hoofing it back and forth looking for something that doesn't exist.

Glitch  29:33  
So actually that, that's really great that you brought that up because that, that was kind of leads to my next question that I had for you. So, the last two years, I would say we have seen a massive, massive increase in popularity of games, and of 2d games. No, Ori, visit Shovel Knight area all these really great titles that are 2d and yeah and I think like you said, I think we're seeing a massive resurgence in popularity of this particular genre, and know that with games like Korea you kind of have to travel, you'll travel down you'll travel over, you have to travel back. Are there. So you're saying that areas kind of block off is there fast travel involved that you have to fast travel back to certain places, or is the game more linear in that you're just playing through and not having to backtrack solely for essential things, maybe that you miss something. It's a good point,

Tox  30:32  
and I wanted to also say that Ori and hollow Knight, are two really popular 2d platforming games, they're in the style of Metroid what they call this Metroidvania Metroid and Castlevania is sort of together combined define this genre of action, exploring platforming games and Ori just released a collection of the first two games, which I got in the mail yesterday, so I'm playing that next. But yeah so travel between regions and among the regions is also sort of improved. There is, there is sort of fast, so there's no, you can't just like arbitrarily teleport to a waypoint, like you could say Breath of the Wild, you could teleport to any of the shrines at any point in time. But in the regions, there are multiple ways to get to other regions, including trains elevators elevators are sort of a classic in duty metric older Metroid games, and also teleporting. So, you know, the whole game, and the whole series is like this, you get abilities, you learn things about how to use your abilities and that unlocks the next region, and that unlocks, you know, after you play through sort of an entire section of the region. When you get to the end, there's a way to usually get back quickly, because you have a new ability that opens up new pathways that are sort of shortcuts back to where you started, and there will be things like a travel point where you can hop in and teleport back and forth to the, to the next region or to a previous region. Now,

Glitch  32:11  
the 2d platformer is growing in popularity, or the Metroidvania style games, as we, as you call them. There has been like a inclusion of like a new feature where like, I guess it's like stores that you can purchase things from like, yes, maybe there's like Central hubs in games like I think Korea or no steam dig, I think uses stores or anything like that, in. In metro Dredd is all

Tox  32:43  
platforming action shooting action it, I think, you know, like you said a lot of games have sort of cosmetics or upgrades that you can buy in stores. This does not have that you find everything that you need if you want more missiles, you have to solve a puzzle to go and find those missiles, and that's, that's a classic Metroid Metroid trope and they don't deviate from that and I think it makes it really, it makes it a really faithful, follow up for this series.

Glitch  33:18  
Pretty nice. I definitely like what they've done, but you're telling me it's, and all the reviews that I've looked at this, this game looks really incredible. It's so is

Tox  33:28  
and there's a couple new features I wanted to touch on. So, Super Metroid was the first game to introduce a map feature, which is sort of essential for a game where you're wandering around a maze. And so it's no surprise that Metroid dread takes that map from the other Metroid games, and improves upon it, you can sort of see you can obviously see where you've been, but you can also not just see, you know, a square that says whether you've been there or not, which is sort of the fidelity of Super Metroid maps, you can see what the layout of the room actually is. So when you enter a room, you get hit that pause menu check your map and you get a little bit of information about how you might attack this room particularly important if you're being pursued by one of these MMI, or me robots that are a new element to Metroid dread. I think sort of similar to Metroid Fusion, you had to avoid a really powerful enemy throughout the game. These robots are something you have to kind of sneak around, and I gotta tell you, it is like, I might be more sensitive than most people. But I measured my heart rate after playing through the last of these areas last night, where you're sneaking around a robot and trying not to just trying not to get destroyed by it 98 beats per minute for me where my normal resting heart rate is in the 50s. It's definitely intense and adrenaline fueled.

Glitch  35:00  
So you would say the MMI robots may put the dread in Metro dread.

Tox  35:06  
You know, I thought the name was kind of cheesy and I was like, and it's all about fear, and I think one of the opening scenes, the, you know, the, the narrator which is essentially your ship's computer says, accept your helplessness. You cannot beat the challenges that are in front of you yet, and the VAT and the robots, the tension in the robots, and just the sheer power of the bosses when you first encounter them. I feel dread, I'm at the end of the game, and I'm in the lab in the last area and I'm like, afraid to do more of like kinda stressing about it, it, it lives up to its name, I think for me.

Glitch  35:50  
So, big question. What has been your favorite part of playing Metroid dread so far. No,

Tox  35:59  
I think you've that my favorite part this is easy actually,

Glitch  36:04  
is

Tox  36:07  
basically the boss fights, because, kind of like I was saying, they're very difficult, at least, you know, if you come in fresh, the first time. It's very difficult, and you have to figure out the tricks how to dodge, and how to counter each of the attacks, the, you know, in between game overs, you get a little, a little screen with a few tips on it. One of the tips is every attack can be avoided or dodged, right. So you may think that like all there's just no way to dodge that hit or that that projectile, but there is and the more you play it, you figure out and you can kind of figure out that if you're like me you have to do it piecemeal because you only, you have to survive long enough to figure out what's going on right so you just survive. That's the first thing, figure out how to dodge everything, and then you figure out how to hit the boss. And, you know, the bus will go through often to three or four forums. So you sort of like hit it enough times and then you think, oh good I beat it and then it's like, nope, new form, much harder. And then you have to figure that out and then you'll die and then you have to go through the first part, to get to the second part so you can just die, and try to figure out how to do it and so on and so forth, and by the end of that bossfight. Kind of like I said earlier, you have mastered it right you're flying around the screen, you're hitting it at all the right times you're taking almost zero damage. You feel like one of these pros speed runners, after they do their run, because you just get so much better at the game through these boss fights.

Glitch  37:38  
Right, so this is my last question I believe here for your talks. Okay, it sounds like, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna throw this one back at you again, back in the day. These side scrollers were basically three buttons you had a button for jump button for shoot and a button for. Now whenever the special ability was usually it was like a slide or something if it was Mega Man, or roll if it was Sonic. This particular title it sounds like there's a lot of controls involved more than just your standard three button tooties. Oh yeah, in your opinion, the best way to play this. Are you playing it in handheld Are you playing a doc with a pro controller, be it while you're doing

Tox  38:21  
whatever is comfortable I find the pro controller to be a little bit more of a better fit for my hands, you definitely cannot, I don't, it probably doesn't even support this, but you definitely cannot play this game with a single Joi con held horizontally, because you need all the trigger button, all the triggers and bumper buttons, you need every button, except for maybe the D pad you don't really need the D pad but like everything else, yeah, yeah, you need all the buttons so I go pro controller or at the very least, you know, the mounted to Joi cons and their controller casing for sure.

Glitch  38:58  
Now while they're not a sponsor. Hi. I definitely prefer the, are you familiar with the Horry split Pad Pro troller yeah I've seen this Yeah, okay, um, you can typically pick those up on sale, I think, I think I picked mine up for like 40 bucks for somebody who has like larger, larger hands. They do an incredible job they have mappable buttons. So, you know, if you're gonna play Metroid in handheld or any gaming handheld, I would recommend picking those up there actually, they're about the same size, believe it or not, to put them together as the pro controller, but nice in my opinion works really well. The buttons are a little bit larger so. Yeah, it sounds like this is more of a docked or kick standard kind of game using the pro controller.

Tox  39:50  
You know it goes, whatever you want and that's sort of the beauty of this switch it definitely works handheld. But for those really sweaty boss fights, you might want to dock that thing, or throw on the kickstand and get yourself really solid on your controller so that you can press all the buttons that you intend to press, yeah.