Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I guess what, Mango? What's that? Well? All right, So
Speaker 1: I was looking at old video games and video games
Speaker 1: systems this week, as we've talked about. I know, both
Speaker 1: of our boys are obsessed with video games these days,
Speaker 1: and William is trying to find every game ever made
Speaker 1: on every system ever made. And they of course make
Speaker 1: these like little computers where you can go back and
Speaker 1: try these games from pretty much every system, so it
Speaker 1: is kind of fun to, uh, to get into it
Speaker 1: with him. But there's one that he's not familiar with.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if you know this, but before
Speaker 1: they were making graphic calculators, Texas Instruments used to make
Speaker 1: a computer for kids. It was actually called the t I.
Speaker 1: So weirdly, I actually know this because I had one.
Speaker 1: My dad was super into gadgets and early computers and
Speaker 1: and so I had one in my room when I
Speaker 1: was like four, which is which is crazy. But you know,
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing about the system is that, like the
Speaker 1: t I definitely had the place for cartridges, but it
Speaker 1: could also hook up to a cassette player and and
Speaker 1: it would play games through like tape cassettes essentially, so
Speaker 1: so like the cassettes would feed data into the computer,
Speaker 1: which is which is nuts. And I actually like thought
Speaker 1: about this like a few years ago, and and I
Speaker 1: had to look it up because it felt like a dream,
Speaker 1: like it didn't feel real. But but but the weird
Speaker 1: thing about my T I nine was I had none
Speaker 1: of the fun games. Like everything my parents bought for
Speaker 1: me was educational. So I think like the most fun
Speaker 1: game I had was Chess. It's a lot of bit
Speaker 1: of a relief because I thought I was going to
Speaker 1: tell you everything I knew here and you're gonna be like, sorry,
Speaker 1: I already knew that. But uh so there's a T
Speaker 1: I ninety nine game that's definitely not educational. It's called
Speaker 1: Garbage Belly, and it's why I brought the system up
Speaker 1: in the first place. I was reading about it in
Speaker 1: PC mag And this is what the back of the
Speaker 1: Garbage Belly box said. It says, help garbage Belly gobble
Speaker 1: up the ripe garbage in a field of garbage pails.
Speaker 1: But watch out if you make him eat raw garbage,
Speaker 1: he will die. Garbage Belly. I feel like I've never
Speaker 1: heard anyone say the word garbage so much to like
Speaker 1: sell a product. But isn't it weird that the character
Speaker 1: dies from raw garbage, like like he only feasts on
Speaker 1: the finest garbage, which is cooked garbage. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: he's got to die from something. Plus, you know, just
Speaker 1: because his name is garbage Belly, I don't think we
Speaker 1: can assume like that he wouldn't have discerning taste, like
Speaker 1: some garbage does have to taste better than other garbage.
Speaker 1: That is a good point. So what was was this game?
Speaker 1: Any good? No? It's terrible game. I mean, you're lucky
Speaker 1: your parents brought you the the educational games only, But
Speaker 1: Garbage Belly is just the first of nine ridiculous video
Speaker 1: games that we're going to talk about today. So blow
Speaker 1: the dust off that old cartridge, enter the up down
Speaker 1: up down code, and let's hit start. Ya Hey there,
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend Man
Speaker 1: guesh Hot Ticketer and on the other side of the
Speaker 1: computer screen cleaning house in a ferocious game of pac Man,
Speaker 1: that's our friend and producer Lowell. He is actually guys,
Speaker 1: he's sharing a screen right now and I honestly, I
Speaker 1: wish our listeners could see this because he is tearing
Speaker 1: through those ghosts, just one after another. It's a total
Speaker 1: blood back. Yeah, it's really impressive. Um. It actually reminds
Speaker 1: me of that scene from Dirty Rock, just saying the
Speaker 1: word pac Man, like when someone tells Tracy Morgan but
Speaker 1: uh that the guy who created pac Men just passed away,
Speaker 1: and and he says to put out a bowl of
Speaker 1: cherries and some ghost meat in his honor. Pretty fitting
Speaker 1: tribute there, But unfortunately pac Man is way too mainstream
Speaker 1: for today's show because we are on the hunt for
Speaker 1: some deeper, weirder cuts, and to help us find them,
Speaker 1: we brought along our good pal Gabe. Gabe, thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us again. Hey, yeah, it's my pleasure. Thanks for
Speaker 1: invite me back. Guys, Yeah, of course. So I I
Speaker 1: am curious, like I haven't played games in forever, and
Speaker 1: I think Will is the same, although both our sons
Speaker 1: are obsessed. But Gabe, you play video games, right, Like,
Speaker 1: have you spent all your summer playing Animal Crossing like
Speaker 1: everyone else? No? I have not. I'm the one person
Speaker 1: who hasn't, I guess, but I did play a different
Speaker 1: kind of simulator game this summer. It's called untitled Goose Game. Maybe, guy,
Speaker 1: I have seen my son play it? Yes, actually, yes, right,
Speaker 1: it's awesome. It's it's basically a goose simulator and uh yeah.
Speaker 1: You play as a goose wandering around this little English
Speaker 1: village and all you can do is hawk flap, grab
Speaker 1: things with your beak, run, you know, typical goose stuff,
Speaker 1: and so the goal is really to just annoy the
Speaker 1: townspeople and cause as much mischievous possible. It's it's kind
Speaker 1: of amazing, and if you've ever wondered what it's like
Speaker 1: to be a goose, this is probably as close to
Speaker 1: the real thing as you're ever gonna get. I'm sold.
Speaker 1: I feel like this is a reason to play video
Speaker 1: games again. But what I really like about that is,
Speaker 1: like the concept kind of feels like a throwback to
Speaker 1: the early days of video games when there just weren't
Speaker 1: as many expectations and you could get away with making
Speaker 1: a game just about anything. So, like, you know, my
Speaker 1: first pick for today is actually a great example of that.
Speaker 1: It was released for the Tari back in and it's
Speaker 1: called Sneaking Peak and it was basically Hide and Seek
Speaker 1: the video game. So why didn't they just call it
Speaker 1: hide and seek? I know, and sneaking peek sounds like
Speaker 1: so dirty person, But I mean, branding is just one
Speaker 1: of the game's many problems. You know, it's a two
Speaker 1: player game. One player just has to look away from
Speaker 1: the screen while the other player hides. And then the
Speaker 1: player who's hiding doesn't do anything at all while the
Speaker 1: other person looks for them on the screen. They just
Speaker 1: like stay put and hope time runs out before the
Speaker 1: other person finds them. It's it's kind of crazy. Yeah. Wait,
Speaker 1: so this was a game that required one player to
Speaker 1: not look at the screen at all and another player
Speaker 1: to not touch the controller. I mean, are we even
Speaker 1: sure this qualifies as a video game? But you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like, um, I don't know if we'll
Speaker 1: remember this, but when we were like trying to brainstorm
Speaker 1: board games, we came up with this idea for Tag
Speaker 1: the board game. We're the only thing inside the like
Speaker 1: the boxes, a cone for base and maybe maybe like
Speaker 1: a pin that says it. You know, like, I feel
Speaker 1: like this is almost as bad. But you know the
Speaker 1: worst part of the game was there there weren't that
Speaker 1: many hiding spots in the game. The games set in
Speaker 1: the house, but you can only go to three rooms
Speaker 1: plus the yard, so finding the hider isn't that much
Speaker 1: of a challenge, and you'd actually be better off just
Speaker 1: going outside and playing a real game of Hide and
Speaker 1: go seek. Okay, so Sneak and Peek sounds like a
Speaker 1: pretty weak substitute for the real thing, but my first
Speaker 1: pick for today offers a gaming experience you'd be hard
Speaker 1: pressed to find in real life, and in fact, I
Speaker 1: do not recommend trying. The game's infamous now. It's called
Speaker 1: Takeshi's Challenge, and it was only released in Japan back
Speaker 1: in nine six. The title refers to a real life
Speaker 1: comedian and actor named Takeshi Kitano, and he was a
Speaker 1: pretty big star in Japan at the time from what
Speaker 1: I understand. Yeah, he's actually um he was a director too,
Speaker 1: and he directed uh this movie Sono Teene and Fireworks,
Speaker 1: the really beautiful but like violent films. Oh awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: according to legend, the video game company behind Space Invaders,
Speaker 1: they wanted to meet with Takeshi, and so he agreed,
Speaker 1: and they got together in a bar to see if
Speaker 1: he'd be willing to make a game with them, and
Speaker 1: Takeshi wasn't all that interested. He didn't even like video games,
Speaker 1: but the company was picking up the tab that night,
Speaker 1: so he's stuck around, and over the course of a
Speaker 1: few hours, Takeshi drank a ton of rice wine and
Speaker 1: he gave the designers his stream of consciousness ideas for
Speaker 1: a video game, and then with notes in hand, the
Speaker 1: designers set to work creating what would become one of
Speaker 1: the most bizarre adventure games ever made. That's going to
Speaker 1: have to be pretty strange to top a Goose simulator,
Speaker 1: because that sounded sounding pretty random. If he asked me, well,
Speaker 1: trust me, this was way weirder. The main character was
Speaker 1: an ordinary businessman, and while the game didn't spell it
Speaker 1: out for you, the ultimate goal is to make it
Speaker 1: to a distant island where a cave of treasure awaits you,
Speaker 1: and the only way to get there is basically to
Speaker 1: have the most extreme midlife crisis possible. To get this,
Speaker 1: you have to quit your job, divorce your wife, get drunk,
Speaker 1: fight the yakuza, sing karaoke, learned to hang glide, travel
Speaker 1: to the South Pacific, and of course blow up some
Speaker 1: alien space ships. It sounds about right, Yeah, and uh,
Speaker 1: because this was all jumped up by a guy who
Speaker 1: dislike video games. The tasks themselves were not designed to
Speaker 1: be enjoyable. So, for instance, to beat the karaoke section,
Speaker 1: you have to actually sing into the consoles built in microphone,
Speaker 1: and then your performance it has to be judged as
Speaker 1: good by the computer. And here's the thing, there's no
Speaker 1: criteria for the performance. So if the game says you're
Speaker 1: singing is lousy, then you just have to do it
Speaker 1: again until you get it right. If that wasn't and
Speaker 1: if that wasn't infuriating enough. Once you actually beat the challenge,
Speaker 1: the reward is a treasure map, but it's written an
Speaker 1: invisible ink, so the player has to sit there without
Speaker 1: touching the controller for an entire hour while you wait
Speaker 1: for the map to appear, and if you touch a
Speaker 1: button any sooner than that, you're thrown right back to
Speaker 1: the karaoke challenge. It's sadistic. It sounds like such a
Speaker 1: like big practical joke. That's exactly what it is, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: some people think that, you know, the whole thing was
Speaker 1: just Takeshi kind of thumbing his nose at people who
Speaker 1: play video games, and and the game's ending actually lends
Speaker 1: some credence to that, you know, spoilers, But if you
Speaker 1: managed to stick with it through all the frustration, the
Speaker 1: only reward is a little drawing of Takeshi's smiling face
Speaker 1: and a message that says, why are you taking this
Speaker 1: game so seriously? All right, Well, if you're in the
Speaker 1: market for something a little more relaxing and honestly a
Speaker 1: bit less soul crushing, I have a recommendation for you.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's a little puzzle game, and it's called Hattriss.
Speaker 1: And I know what you're thinking. You're like, this is
Speaker 1: just Tetris but with hats. But no, my friends, this
Speaker 1: is Tetris with hats and the severed heads of Frankenstein
Speaker 1: and Abraham Lincoln himself. So what was this game? Also
Speaker 1: designed by a drunk Japanese comedian? Now this this is
Speaker 1: actually from the creator of the original Tetris. So this
Speaker 1: was back in Yeah, this is true. He went back
Speaker 1: to the drawing board and perfected his original idea by
Speaker 1: swapping different shaped blocks for different kinds of hats, so
Speaker 1: the hats would descend the screen two at a time,
Speaker 1: and the goal was to place them on one of
Speaker 1: six heads lined up at the bottom, So stack five
Speaker 1: of the same hat on top of one head and
Speaker 1: they would disappear, just like those lines in Tetris. So
Speaker 1: I guess that kind of makes sense. Like how does
Speaker 1: the head of a b Lincoln fit into this stuff? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the part I'm not quite so sure about. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I guess they wanted some recognizable heads to stack hats on,
Speaker 1: and of course Lincoln fit the bill. We always think
Speaker 1: of him with a hat on. But you know, the
Speaker 1: better you do, the more new heads you unlock. And
Speaker 1: so in addition to Lincoln and Frankenstein, there's also of
Speaker 1: course Charlie Chaplin and Dracula, the usual crew. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: like that they picked notable hat wears like Lincoln and Chaplin,
Speaker 1: but they're just throwing a couple of monsters. Makes sense.
Speaker 1: There's there's one thing Jacula is known for you, It's
Speaker 1: it's iconic. I mean, the whole concept is a little
Speaker 1: effusing to me. But what type of hats are we
Speaker 1: talking about, like baseball caps, berets, Like what what is
Speaker 1: in the mix? Well, there there's Lincoln stove pipe, and
Speaker 1: of course Chaplain's famous bowler, which which which makes sense.
Speaker 1: But but you're right, there is a baseball cap along
Speaker 1: with a cowboy hat. Let's see what else, the top
Speaker 1: hat and one of those pointy cone hats that like
Speaker 1: wizards wear, and so it's a pretty good mix. But
Speaker 1: the game never actually explains where this endless stream of
Speaker 1: hats is coming from, or of course the severed heads
Speaker 1: for that matter, which I guess is why you've got
Speaker 1: to have a sequel to this. But speaking of sequels,
Speaker 1: my next pick is kind of a spiritual sequel to
Speaker 1: that game Gabe talked about forever ago about David and Goliath.
Speaker 1: It was we talked about in our Philistines episode, and
Speaker 1: I've kind of been obsessed with it ever since. It
Speaker 1: was Bible Adventures, right game, that's yeah, So I was,
Speaker 1: you know, fascinated by it. So I looked into other
Speaker 1: Biblical games and a few years after that came out,
Speaker 1: the same developers released another Bible based game called Super
Speaker 1: three D Noah's Ark. This one was actually for the
Speaker 1: Super Nintendo and it was built using the same game
Speaker 1: engine as the first person shooter game Wolfenstein three D.
Speaker 1: He said, first person shooting, Like was this actually a
Speaker 1: shooting game? Like? This is Noah running around through the
Speaker 1: arc like gunning down animals or something. Yeah, pretty much,
Speaker 1: except obviously they didn't have guns back then, so instead,
Speaker 1: Noah's got this trusty slingshot and uh an endless supply
Speaker 1: of fruit, and the game storyline is that the animals
Speaker 1: are sick and tired of being cooped up in a
Speaker 1: crowded boat. I guess it kind of feels like quarantine
Speaker 1: and uh, and eventually all the animals go rogue, so
Speaker 1: Noah has to protect his family by launching fruit at
Speaker 1: the animals until they all get full enough to slip
Speaker 1: into a food coma. So, I mean, I think it's
Speaker 1: safe to say the designers took a few liberties there,
Speaker 1: or I mean, I don't know, Maybe it was just
Speaker 1: my translation, but I don't remember an animal ram page
Speaker 1: and a shooting spree being part of the original story
Speaker 1: it again, game you just think that part. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: some punch. But when I looked it up, it feels
Speaker 1: like the Bible doesn't say anything about what actually went
Speaker 1: down onto arc, Like it covers what happened before, and
Speaker 1: it covers what happens after the arcs boyage. But you know,
Speaker 1: maybe this is exactly what happened. Yeah, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you just you never know. But I feel like we
Speaker 1: need to take a quick break so we can all
Speaker 1: look this up. This game just seems too weird to
Speaker 1: be true. But we do have four more weird games
Speaker 1: to talk about, so we'll be right back. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about some of
Speaker 1: the strangest video games you've probably never played before. I
Speaker 1: think it is your turn, next game, So what's your
Speaker 1: second pick? Okay, So if you thought Noah's Ark was
Speaker 1: a strange idea for a game, then brace yourself for
Speaker 1: Wars Rex Ronan, Experimental Surgeon off to a great start, right.
Speaker 1: So this was a Supernintendo game as well, and weirdly enough,
Speaker 1: it was designed as an educational game, or you know,
Speaker 1: at least in theory. The game was meant to teach
Speaker 1: kids about the real world danger of smoking, and to
Speaker 1: help deliver this message, the developers came up with a
Speaker 1: pretty out there storyline. So here's the pitch. A wealthy
Speaker 1: tobacco salesman is dying and it's up to you, Rex Ronan,
Speaker 1: to save his life through the miracle of experimental surgery.
Speaker 1: So by shrinking yourself to microscopic size, you're able to
Speaker 1: enter the salesman's body and blast away his sickness with
Speaker 1: a high powered blazer, Like I love the detail here.
Speaker 1: So you basically shrink yourself down and then you what
Speaker 1: do you do? You like, clean out the guy's lungs
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, and not just his lungs either, Like
Speaker 1: another level has you blasting fatty deposits in his heart,
Speaker 1: And there's even a part you have to enter the
Speaker 1: guy's brain to quote remove the nicotine addiction. Sounds works, right,
Speaker 1: that's exciting. The weirdest s part, you know, which is
Speaker 1: saying something, uh, is that the game has a side
Speaker 1: story where the tobacco company finds out about your plan,
Speaker 1: and then in order to keep the salesman from talking
Speaker 1: bad about the company, they send a bunch of tiny
Speaker 1: evil robots into his body to kind of finish him off.
Speaker 1: So so, not only are you fighting disease, you've also
Speaker 1: got hords of tiny robots to contact with. I feel
Speaker 1: like that's, uh, that's what experimental surgery is, right, Like
Speaker 1: it's what they teach in bed school. It's so good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that does sound pretty well, but but I feel like
Speaker 1: it does kind of work, Like I don't think I
Speaker 1: feel like smoking after that. But all right, well, from
Speaker 1: the exhilarating world of experimental surgery, let's go to my
Speaker 1: next game. This is the equally riveting Sensible Train Spotting.
Speaker 1: That's actually the name Sensible Train Spotting, and it was
Speaker 1: released for Amiga computers in nine and it delivered exactly
Speaker 1: what it promised, a detailed simulation of what it's like
Speaker 1: to be a man with a thermos sitting on a
Speaker 1: bench and marking down the engine numbers of trains that
Speaker 1: pass him by. Doesn't it sound exciting? Wait? Is that
Speaker 1: that's what train spotting is? Like? I've heard the term before,
Speaker 1: but I honestly never knew what it meant. I'm actually
Speaker 1: more interested in the fact that there were Amiga computers.
Speaker 1: But I guess you can tackle gives questions. Yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: tackle that one first, and we'll talk about my Tandy
Speaker 1: from back in the early nineties. But yeah, so train
Speaker 1: spotting is a real hobby for some people. So what
Speaker 1: you do is you go to the different stations and
Speaker 1: you write down the numbers on the trains as they
Speaker 1: pass by, and so people would create lists of all
Speaker 1: different engines that operated in a city, and then you
Speaker 1: try to see them all in person. It was big
Speaker 1: in the UK during the mid twentieth century, and some
Speaker 1: devoted fans have carried on the tradition ever since then.
Speaker 1: I mean it reminds me like of those families used
Speaker 1: to drive out to airports to see planes take off,
Speaker 1: like back in the glamorous era of like air flight
Speaker 1: or air travel. Yeah, and you know, train spotting is
Speaker 1: is still a thing, but sometimes you just can't make
Speaker 1: it down to the rail yard, you know, So for
Speaker 1: days like that, there's this game Sensible Train Spotting all
Speaker 1: of the fun of watching trains and marking off numbers
Speaker 1: from the comfort of your own living room. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's more surprising to me, really, like
Speaker 1: that this is an activity people actually enjoy or that
Speaker 1: someone made a video game about it, Like both are
Speaker 1: kind of baffling, to be honest. Yeah, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not an action packed hobby and that's true of the
Speaker 1: game too, But there's still some challenge to it, Like,
Speaker 1: for example, the longer you play, the faster the trains
Speaker 1: move and the more there are on the screen, So
Speaker 1: it does make it tougher to cross off all the
Speaker 1: numbers on your list before the time runs out, and
Speaker 1: so weirdly, the game is actually hyper aware of the
Speaker 1: fact that train spotting is super dull, and so if
Speaker 1: you run out of time before you clear a train
Speaker 1: spotting card, a message pops up that says time's up.
Speaker 1: Sad man, go back one card, which you know, of
Speaker 1: course is pretty depressing, but somehow less depressing than the
Speaker 1: message you get for winning that one just says, well done,
Speaker 1: my sad friend, onto the next card. I love that
Speaker 1: it knows what a sad man you are. Either way,
Speaker 1: that's really it's really what you want for a game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of like Takeshi's Challenge. Really like it
Speaker 1: mocks you just for wanting to play. Well, it is
Speaker 1: funny because the last game on my list also mocks
Speaker 1: you for just playing it. And this one was released
Speaker 1: for the sake of Dreamcast. It's about raising a digital
Speaker 1: pet and it's called Seamen. Okay, and and what kind
Speaker 1: of pet are you raising? So in this game Seaman,
Speaker 1: you're you're basically the caretaker of a bizarre fish human hybrid.
Speaker 1: He basically looks like this bass with a human face
Speaker 1: slapped on the front, and the object of the game
Speaker 1: is to raise this creature through like all of its
Speaker 1: upsetting developmental faces, and until he eventually grows legs and
Speaker 1: leaves the water to start a life of his own.
Speaker 1: But the game does not make this easy. For one thing,
Speaker 1: the only way you can interact with Seaman is by
Speaker 1: giving him voice commands, and because the voice detection was
Speaker 1: pretty spotty, it was hard to get him to do
Speaker 1: what you want. The other downside to the game is
Speaker 1: that Semen is kind of a jerk. Like you're supposed
Speaker 1: to form a bond with him by talking to him
Speaker 1: more and more, but most of the time he just
Speaker 1: insults you, so you're never really rooting for him to
Speaker 1: make it to adulthood. Wow. So, so what we have
Speaker 1: here is basically a bad parents simulator where you neglectfully
Speaker 1: look after a fish monster. Does that sound about right?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's basically my experience of parenting like familiar,
Speaker 1: except I forgot to mention that Leonard Nimoy also chimes
Speaker 1: in sometimes to give advice and cheer you on. That's
Speaker 1: the best part. I feel like, actually this is getting better. Okay,
Speaker 1: So we've talked about a lot of weird games today,
Speaker 1: most most of which probably don't qualify as good games,
Speaker 1: but the last one I want to talk about fits
Speaker 1: perfectly and both categories. It is a decidedly weird game,
Speaker 1: but it's also a good one. It's called Katamari Demashi,
Speaker 1: which roughly means soul clump in Japanese. Uh. This game
Speaker 1: came out in two thousand four on the PlayStation two,
Speaker 1: and it's one of the most joyously wacky games I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. The backstory is that the magnificent King of
Speaker 1: all Cosmos goes on a bender one night, drunk on
Speaker 1: the beauty of creation, and during his revelry, he accidentally
Speaker 1: destroys every star in the night sky. As you do, yeah,
Speaker 1: uh huh and uh. That's where the player comes in. So,
Speaker 1: as the son of the King, the Prince of all Cosmos,
Speaker 1: it's your job to roll a big sticky ball called
Speaker 1: a katamari all over the world until enough stuff sticks
Speaker 1: to it that your dad can then launch the whole
Speaker 1: thing into space and turn it into a brand new star. So,
Speaker 1: you know, one by one, you're gradually rebuilding all the
Speaker 1: constellations using giant balls a junk, which, you know, it
Speaker 1: kind of sounds like a sweet concept. I I vaguely
Speaker 1: remember this game being sort of a phenomena, right, but
Speaker 1: what kind of stuff are you rolling up? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean anything you can really like. Each level gives you
Speaker 1: a certain size that you have to, you know, grow
Speaker 1: your catamari too before the time runs out. So you
Speaker 1: start small. You're making a ten centimeter ball with little
Speaker 1: stuff like eracers and paper clips. But the more stuff
Speaker 1: you roll over, the larger the ball grows, so gradually
Speaker 1: you're able to pick up bigger and bigger stuff, you know, books, bowls, furniture,
Speaker 1: house pets, motorcycles, city busses, like you name it. Uh.
Speaker 1: In the later stages, you roll a katamari so big
Speaker 1: that it starts ripping up buildings and bridges, and then
Speaker 1: eventually natural phenomenon to like you're literally ripping clouds and
Speaker 1: rainbows out of the sky. Yeah, nothing goes to waste.
Speaker 1: I do like that you repair damage stars by pretty
Speaker 1: much wrecking the earth and then chucking it all into space.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, that's uh, that's about it. And the and
Speaker 1: the best part though, is it's gotten a amazing soundtrack.
Speaker 1: So the whole time you're rolling up the world, there's
Speaker 1: this super upbeat Japanese pop music playing, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: just what you want for that kind of mass destruction.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Katamari was actually it was published
Speaker 1: by Namco, which is the same developer behind pac Man,
Speaker 1: you know, another game where you play as a big
Speaker 1: circle and gobble up everything in sight. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess they really know their brand. As strange as that
Speaker 1: all sounds, I I I do think Will should take
Speaker 1: home today's trophy one because sensible train spotting is a
Speaker 1: game I would never force on anyone, but I would
Speaker 1: love to have that like framed on my wall. And
Speaker 1: and too because he used the word Amiga computers, which
Speaker 1: which I haven't heard forever. Yeah, I can agree with that.
Speaker 1: I mean, really, all of Will's picks were about like
Speaker 1: mundane things like train spotting and stacking hats and garbage eating.
Speaker 1: Garbage eating very boring. They went all in on boring.
Speaker 1: I can't forget that. Well, it really paid off for well.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys, it is an honor and thanks as
Speaker 1: always to our listeners for tuning in. That wraps it
Speaker 1: up for today's part time Genius from Mango, Gabe Lowell
Speaker 1: and myself. Thanks so much for listening. Please stay safe
Speaker 1: and we'll be back soon with another episode. Kay part
Speaker 1: time Genius is a production of I heart Radio. For
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