S4E08: Quest for Camelot -or- A Farcical Animated Ceremony

Unknown Speaker (0:00): I don't know where my Genesis could be. I haven't seen my Super Nintendo since 2003. That's alright.

Jaymo (0:28): Hold your ground until the last possible moment, because now it's time for the old switcheroo where we're talking gaming retro with Mike and J Mo.

Unknown Speaker (0:36): I'm Mike. And I'm

Jaymo (0:38): J Mo. Join us on our epic quest to research and review all 300 plus games in the Nintendo classics catalog. Today, we are journeying from the big screen to the much, much smaller screen as we dive deep into quest for Camelot on the Game Boy Color and playing at a theater near you. In an episode, we are calling a farcical animated ceremony. If you like what you hear, don't forget to like, subscribe, and, of course, play along.

Jaymo (1:03): Mikey, get my reference. Yeah? Not at the moment. Oh, think Steve, are you with me?

Unknown Speaker (1:07): No. I don't think I get it.

Jaymo (1:08): Dang it. Too obscure. A a farcical aquatic ceremony is no no means for a system of government.

Steve Guntli (1:17): I got you now. Okay. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (1:19): Yeah. Alright.

Unknown Speaker (1:20): It's a long walk.

Jaymo (1:21): Well, you know what, though? Steve, you're closer than Mike was. I'm so happy you're here, guys. This is a very special episode of the old Switcheroo. Quest for Camelot marks the first and only game in the current Nintendo classics catalog, we're getting another one later, to be based on a film.

Jaymo (1:36): So I could think of no better person to invite along on this crusade than my pod daddy, the man who inadvertently inspired the creation of the old Switcheroo, Cinemarkade, Steve Guntley. It's an honor to have you with us, Steve. How are you doing today?

Steve Guntli (1:48): Oh, please. Please. Steve Guntley is my father. Call me Bladebeak, by by all means. Look.

Steve Guntli (1:53): Look. That's the we're we're all friends here. No. I'm very excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Steve Guntli (1:58): I'm I'm I'm a little concerned that the the niche I've carved for myself means that people think of me and Quest for Camelot in the same breath, but that's the path I've chosen. So yeah.

Jaymo (2:09): I mean, underrated maybe. I don't know. We're we're gonna get into it. But Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (2:13): Yeah. Yeah.

Jaymo (2:14): Really hate this thing. So, Steve, your previous podcast, the Ultra 64 slash Wii Universe, is the only podcast I've ever platinumed. I've listened to every single episode. I did the Patreon. Like, I'm like a super fan.

Jaymo (2:27): Oh. Yeah. You and your friend Woody reviewed and ranked every single game ever released in North America, and it's the show that got me through the pandemic. Like, that

Unknown Speaker (2:36): was man.

Jaymo (2:37): Yeah. Which was, like, a really big deal. And then you and Justin and Jay Banyard, who are their friends, are embarking on what might be a crazier endeavor. Mhmm. Can you tell our audience about Cinemarkade?

Steve Guntli (2:48): Yeah. Absolutely. Cinemarkade is a show where we are watching a movie and then playing the video game based on that movie. And the the whole goal is to see how do these two contrast, how do they compare, is are they in any way related to each other, are they in any way commenting on each other? So and it it gives us a real opportunity to just talk about a very, very, very wide variety of movies, and that's kind of been and and of games in that for that matter.

Steve Guntli (3:15): But it's also kind of, you know, the the the game to the the movie game adaptation is kind of a vilified subgenre. Like, people just kind of immediately dismiss it. And so we're kinda looking for the gems. We're trying to, like, suss through the the overlooked subgenre here and see if there's anything worth playing.

Jaymo (3:33): And I appreciate you guys didn't go, like, straight to Chronicles of Riddick. You know what I mean? Because, like We

Steve Guntli (3:37): had to tease that one out. Yeah. We've still done we still haven't done Golden Eye, but, you know, obviously, I've I've talked a lot about Golden Eye on podcasts in the past, so I'm in no rush. But Golden Eye is definitely one of the big ones people wanna hear about.

Unknown Speaker (3:49): Yeah. We we get that request a lot too. Mike, do you have a favorite game based on

Mike (3:52): a movie? I mean, I don't know how loosely you want to take it.

Unknown Speaker (3:58): Like Yeah. Please.

Mike (4:00): Star Wars games that are basically in a universe that is established by a movie, but they're not they're not I would say they're not necessarily an adaptation of the movie, but then again, I also remember that further down the like, my top Star Wars game isn't, but then again, Star Wars trilogy arcade. Yeah. Very much is just here's parts of the movie, and that game's awesome.

Steve Guntli (4:20): Yeah. Yeah. There there's definitely a spectrum of Star Wars games in particular. Like, yeah, you could technically call all of them a a movie based game, but then there are a few that are just, like, specifically recreating moments from the movies. You know?

Steve Guntli (4:32): And some of them are pretty good. Yeah. I think we played, yeah, we played the Super Star Wars series for for that for those episodes, and those are those are still a blast. I love those games.

Jaymo (4:42): Yeah. But you didn't do the one where Darth Vader turns into a scorpion in the final battle. Right?

Steve Guntli (4:46): No. We did. We did. We found a ROM of that. Yeah.

Steve Guntli (4:48): I had to bring that one up because my cohost did not believe me that that existed. But, yeah, yeah, we had to play the the scorpion version of Darth Vader.

Mike (4:57): Do ever you mess around with games that were meant to be based off movies, but they couldn't secure things? Like, I'm thinking of Carmageddon was supposed to be Death Race 2,000, I believe.

Steve Guntli (5:08): Yeah. Yeah. We haven't delved too deep into that. There are a couple where, like so there's a Game Boy Advance game called Ice Nine, you know, which the readers might know as a Kurt Vonnegut reference, but it's actually a refer it's actually an adaptation of the 2003 Colin Farrell, Al Pacino spy thriller, The Recruit. Something happened in the mix there, but, like, they I think they lost the license, but we still wound up playing Ice nine, a Game Boy Advance first person shooter.

Steve Guntli (5:38): Very strange. And it yeah. It's it's loosely based on the forgotten spy thriller, The Recruit. So go figure. Yeah.

Steve Guntli (5:46): That that's been the weirdest one we've found so far.

Jaymo (5:48): Fascinating. Yeah. I just looked at it. It's like, that's hilarious, and it's just totally off my radar. Okay.

Jaymo (5:54): So so one more question here. Because this isn't releasing until May 6. So Mhmm. Is there an upcoming game you're excited to cover? And you can tell if you haven't told Justin and Jay Band, you could tell me because they won't know until it's too late.

Steve Guntli (6:06): They won't know. They won't know. I'm definitely gonna surprise them with the SpongeBob movie, so that's gonna be fun. Okay. Actually, tonight after this episode this recording, we're getting together to record an episode on Godzilla, which I'm very excited about because because, for all of my kind of weird Godzilla obsession, I've never seen the original movie in full, so now I finally have, and it's pretty fantastic.

Steve Guntli (6:31): So we've got that coming up. We've got Darkman, the Sam Raimi movie that's coming up pretty soon. Yeah. And then I've been wanting to pepper a couple of them, man. I think we're gonna be doing the Scooby Doo movies pretty soon.

Steve Guntli (6:41): Yeah. I wanna get Space Jam in there at some point. Yeah. There's the Space Jam will be a three part series, but yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (6:47): We'll we'll get

Unknown Speaker (6:48): You can cover Space Jam and the Scooby Doo stuff in one one shot with Multiversus.

Steve Guntli (6:52): Oh, that's true. That's true. Except it's is it completely delisted yet? Is it totally just dead? I know it's I know it's no longer being supported, but can you still access it?

Unknown Speaker (7:02): I

Unknown Speaker (7:02): don't probably not. I I I think it may be dead, although I thought it they brought it back briefly.

Unknown Speaker (7:10): And then it's gone again. Yeah. Game has had a hell of a time.

Unknown Speaker (7:13): Now I'll never be able to see Jake the dog punching, you know, Arya Stark. I I don't know. I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself.

Unknown Speaker (7:20): I mean, there's probably some pretty juicy fan fiction out there with it. No.

Unknown Speaker (7:23): There's definitely. There's definitely some of that. Yeah. I'm writing it currently.

Jaymo (7:27): Mike, stay on topic. Let's guy get into it, guys. Sir Arthur isn't gonna stone his own sword here. Are you guys ready to see the violence inherent in the system?

Steve Guntli (7:35): Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Always.

Jaymo (7:37): So let's get started with Quest for Camelot in theaters worldwide and on the Game Boy Color in 1998. As described on Nintendo classics, can you save Camelot in Arthur's kingdom? This action adventure game released for the Game Boy Color in 1998 has you take on the role of Kaylee, daughter of the slain sir Lionel, a knight of the round table. King Arthur has lost his magical sword Excalibur, and now Ser Ruber, the evil knight who killed your father, is out to claim Camelot as his own. As Kayleigh, it's up to you to recover Excalibur and save Camelot.

Jaymo (8:14): On your way, you'll journey through nine realms and over 60 areas, learning new techniques along the way. But will it be enough? So we're taking a page straight out of the Cinemarcade Playbook and discussing both the movie and the game today. Let's start with our first impressions of the theatrical poster. You have our heroes, Kaylee and Garrett, the Blind Hermit, both facing the customer, fearlessly staring into the Forbidden Forest while the two headed dragon, Devon and Cornwall, stand supportively behind them, and the golden walls of Camelot are seen in the distance.

Jaymo (8:44): Mike, we liking this poster?

Mike (8:46): It feels very generic in the sense like, there's there's not something that sort of grasps me. It's just say, hey. We just put the characters standing there.

Jaymo (8:56): Yeah. I could see it. It's it's kind of cookie cutter almost. You know? And I'm sorry to be such an English teacher, you guys, but the tagline bothers me.

Jaymo (9:07): It says, share the adventure, laughter, and song in a land where magic was born and where wizards and knights and dragons still live. Shouldn't it be in the land where magic was born? Because, otherwise, it's implying that there are many lands that birth magic. Am I overthinking this?

Steve Guntli (9:21): No. I think you're right. And that's that's just kind of a clumsy sentence to begin with. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Guntli (9:26): Magic was born there, and knights and dragons still live there. So if you wanna go visit there, they're still there. You can go.

Jaymo (9:33): Okay. I knew I knew you would appreciate that, Steve. You you had a whole thing about eating a metaphor and going, mhmm. It's absolutely a simile or something like that. Yeah.

Jaymo (9:42): I knew you would be on board with the grammar discussion.

Unknown Speaker (9:45): Oh, I'm down. I'm down.

Jaymo (9:46): How do we feel about the Game Boy box art, Steve? Would you describe it for our listeners here?

Steve Guntli (9:51): Oh, okay. Well, what we have here, I I what what we're seeing is the the sequence in the movie where Kayleigh is escaping from some newly mutated knights as Celine Dion sings pensively over the soundtrack, a very strange moment. This is way less bright and colorful and inviting than the poster. It looks more dark and sinister. We have this kind of, like, neon lit castle in the background, and she's, like, about to run her horse into a bunch of thorns.

Steve Guntli (10:20): You know? So it's a it's this is clearly, like, just a still lifted from the movie and slapped on a box, but it's a different vibe. It's a different energy than the poster.

Jaymo (10:29): I think it's better, though, Mike. Like, it's at least more memorable. Wouldn't you agree? Honestly, I

Mike (10:33): think it slightly suffers from both the villain and the background are the same sorts of dark blues

Unknown Speaker (10:40): Yeah.

Mike (10:41): To the point that the enemy chasing her didn't register for me for far longer than it should. Like, it's her running away, and I just kinda grouped the whole background as to one one thing.

Jaymo (10:54): Yeah. Well, so let's get into some behind the the scenes trivia here. Quest for Camelot was directed by Frederic Doucheo, who would go on to direct the talking animal family comedies, Racing Stripes and Underdog. And no, Steve. Don't worry.

Jaymo (11:08): Neither of them have video game adaptations.

Unknown Speaker (11:10): Oh, I checked. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (11:11): I I was,

Steve Guntli (11:13): I think there was a request for racing stripes. Somebody actually wrote in and asked, like, when are you gonna cover racing stripes? I'm like, never. Like, literally never.

Jaymo (11:20): Well, there's that weird Xbox racing, but that's that's you guys you guys don't do that. You don't do games loosely inspired by other situations.

Steve Guntli (11:28): Yeah. Not really. No.

Jaymo (11:30): The list would never end at that point. So Quest for Camelot had a strained journey to the big screen. According to Animation World Magazine, Quest for Camelot animators started work before the script was even finalized. But the film was delayed when large swaths of its production team had to be reassigned to, quote, unquote, save Space Jam when it was delayed for its holiday release.

Steve Guntli (11:50): And Mission Accomplished, by the way. They saved the hell out of that thing.

Jaymo (11:54): Yeah. It was a it was a huge hit. Huge. You were gonna cover it one day on your podcast.

Unknown Speaker (11:58): Sure am.

Jaymo (11:59): But so, Mike, if you had to guess the genre of the Space Jam, a new legacy video game, what would you guess? I am gonna guess JRPG. Close. Okay. You didn't take my bait.

Jaymo (12:10): I was hoping you'd guess basketball. It's actually a walk around beat them up. Yeah. Yeah. It's a choice.

Steve Guntli (12:17): It's a choice. They they made a lot of choices with that movie.

Jaymo (12:20): They did. They did. I'm excited to hear one day what you think about Steve, but not yet. Not yet. So the buzz around Quest for Camelot was, leading up to its release was anything but.

Jaymo (12:30): A hit piece from Hollywood rag, the record, was penned by Jeffrey Wells, claiming the movie to be animation's first water world style mega bomb with a budget rumored to have ballooned well past a 100,000,000. An anonymous film associate is quoted as saying, there are 20 people who have 20 different versions of the movie in their heads. From the top down, no one had any clarity of mind to say what this movie is. No one said anything. The article goes on to say that the film's trailer had such a tepid response at the nineteen ninety seven San Diego Comic Con that the producers were visually embarrassed.

Jaymo (13:02): Oh, man. I I don't know about you guys, but, like, I just appreciate hand drawn animation so much more. Are you guys with me?

Unknown Speaker (13:11): Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Mike (13:12): Yeah. And I I think maybe not with this. Like, I think Warner Brothers animation, you know, for all five that they did, I think, is a little bit underappreciated in there because I think they're the last one of these or at least two of them were, like, more hybrid animation because you have Space Jam at the start that has both live action and animation. And I think the last one was Looney Tunes back in action, which I think also doesn't get the credit it deserves either.

Unknown Speaker (13:41): Yeah.

Steve Guntli (13:41): Yeah. That that movie is really underappreciated. But Warner Brothers animation is interesting because it's kind of like the iron giant and then everything else is a very distant second. It's like iron giant is like, yeah, it's it's a clear runaway winner of the entire studio and then everything else is just kind of fighting for its scraps. And there's some stuff I like, but they my my association with Quest for Camelot, and this was my first time watching it for this show, the only thing I really knew about it was that it was just just this massive embarrassing bomb.

Steve Guntli (14:14): But looking on Wikipedia, they're showing that that movie only cost about 40,000,000. So I'm not sure if there was a discrepancy or if there's, like, they spent a a ridiculous amount on the back end or on marketing or anything. But, yeah, it it it looks like it it came close to breaking even, at least according to those rock solid figures. But but, yeah, that was the buzz around it. It's like, yeah.

Steve Guntli (14:36): This thing is a disaster.

Jaymo (14:37): And it's funny because it gave the it shook their confidence. It shook the WB executives' confidence so much in animated films that they're like, okay. Next movie, not a musical. We're not going Disney. Small cast of characters.

Jaymo (14:51): And so Iron Giant was a result of them pulling back. And, I mean, that movie's, like, literally perfect.

Unknown Speaker (14:56): It is. Yeah. It's incredible.

Jaymo (14:58): And he's in multiverses. So there you go, Mike.

Unknown Speaker (15:00): Oh, well, there you go. Alright. Alright. I gotta watch him punch a mogwai.

Unknown Speaker (15:06): Likewise. I pay for that.

Steve Guntli (15:08): I pay for that. Yeah. It'd be like a Bambi versus Godzilla situation, but, like yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (15:12): Oh, to scale would be incredible? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (15:14): To scale. Just to do it to scale.

Jaymo (15:16): Okay. So movie has pretty gnarly reputation. Is it as bad as history makes it see a scene? Steve, you saw it recently, first time.

Unknown Speaker (15:26): Yeah.

Jaymo (15:27): I saw it recently, first time. What was your takeaway?

Steve Guntli (15:29): I think this movie is aggressively fine. I think this movie is this is kind of like the epitome of, like, a three out of five star movie because it's like it it it doesn't do anything that really makes it stand apart, but it also doesn't do anything that embarrasses itself. I think it has really nice animation. I think a couple of the songs are pretty catchy, and I think Gary Old man is having the time of his life just like absolutely screaming into the microphone for an hour and a half. Like, he's having a great time.

Steve Guntli (16:01): But it's also very the the the the lead characters are generic, and there's too many, like, weird little guys. And, yeah, you you have to limit your weird little guys so that they stand apart. You know? If you have too many weird little guys, then they all kinda blend together. And this one has at least, like, four.

Jaymo (16:19): But, Mike, you did you recognize the voice of Bladebeak? Because it rhymes with urple.

Mike (16:22): I that wasn't even the direction I was gonna go with that reference in case you hadn't noticed, because I was gonna point out that it's one of two other ties to, I'm gonna say, better video games that I chose to draw since we do have Jaleel White.

Jaymo (16:36): Play Bladebeak, the living hatchet or chicken or cereal cheater chicken. There's this whole This sub

Steve Guntli (16:43): is like a real, like, old school baby boomer running joke. It's that that the this this chicken who's a little dweeb is he has a fat, mean wife who always smacks him because he's always trying to cheat on her.

Unknown Speaker (16:54): Would you describe him as henpecked?

Steve Guntli (16:56): He was he's decidedly henpecked. He's literally henpecked. It's a it's a it's an Andy Cap situation. It's it's like that era of humor. So that hasn't aged particularly well.

Jaymo (17:10): Yeah. I don't know if I would say she I thought she was kind of like juicy as a chick. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (17:15): You know? Well, yeah.

Unknown Speaker (17:18): This is

Unknown Speaker (17:19): a thick she's a thick chicken.

Unknown Speaker (17:20): She's a thick chick she's a thicken. Chicken.

Unknown Speaker (17:22): A thicken. Yeah.

Jaymo (17:23): Yeah. She's a thicken. So the character, like, of Ruger, I think you I I totally agree. And I think the animators had fun with him the most. Like, he's constantly, like, twitching, and, like, he's kinda very physically imposing.

Jaymo (17:40): I don't know that I was totally satisfied with when he leveled up for

Unknown Speaker (17:43): the final battle. Yeah.

Jaymo (17:45): Like so so the plot of this movie is that he's this evil knight who interrupts the opening song, which is all about democracy and trust and kindness. And he says, hey. How about me? Like, I want more land, and I deserve more. And it's like, wow.

Jaymo (18:00): What would it be to have a leader who talks like that? Like, that'd be crazy, wouldn't it, Steve?

Unknown Speaker (18:05): Right? Oh my god. Wouldn't that be?

Unknown Speaker (18:06): I can't even imagine.

Unknown Speaker (18:07): Yeah.

Jaymo (18:08): And so then he, like, gets this, like, evil potion when he's banished from the kingdom for killing Kaylee's dad, which I thought was pretty brutal. Like, the scene where she thinks dad's coming home and it's the funeral procession.

Unknown Speaker (18:21): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was well done. That that was well done, I thought.

Jaymo (18:24): Yeah. It kinda hit me right in the throat. And, Mike, you have this movie on DVD, but you have a lot on DVD. So it doesn't at all reflect that you enjoy movies if you own them. What's your take on the movie, Mike?

Mike (18:36): I think my issue with this and I think this is something that gets talked about with the movie was there was sort of a pressure to Disneyfy what they were going for because, you know, this coming out '98 at the time, this would have gotten underway. This is well into the Disney Renaissance.

Unknown Speaker (18:52): Mhmm.

Mike (18:53): And there's so much in here that feels like they're chasing that idea of, oh, yeah. Disney is hitting it out of the park. We should just figure out as many things that they've done and try to do those. And that ranges from there's bits that, at least to me, there's parallels that I'm drawing to way well before Disney Renaissance is Sword in the Stone by Disney. There's stuff there's bits of, oh, we gotta go find stuff in the forest kind of stuff that gives me these vibes of that.

Mike (19:24): But when you then get more to specifically Disney Renaissance stuff, like, hey. What if we take a very funny comedian and put him as the animated side character to be sort of comic relief? And they just went, well, what if we did that but did two comedians and then apparently didn't let them ad lib much or at least didn't use much of their ad libs? And so you've got Eric Idol and and Don Rickles in here, and it's just like like, there's stuff in there that works, but it's like this also feels like an advantage that wasn't fully taken. And you get, you know, a lot of, oh, we need these side side characters, but they spread spread out.

Mike (20:07): So it's like, I could see Bladebeak working better if there was more because I think the bits that were there can be amusing, but it's just like this amount of screen time he has, like, this feels like a weird level. Like, he's not really a character you get used to. He's just like, oh, yeah. Right. That's happening in here as well.

Mike (20:25): Even the Griffin has a personality that I wish I had a bit more. It is very much there's too many of them, and none of them get much focus. And then there's the way that they do the songs kind of also feels a bit more like they're chasing Disney, and for me, they don't quite stick it. I did find it interesting to look look up what those songwriters have done.

Unknown Speaker (20:47): Mhmm.

Mike (20:47): And one of them had was a co writer for Saint Elmo's Fire, Man in Motion.

Unknown Speaker (20:54): Yeah. The other Yeah.

Mike (20:56): Wrote the theme for Arthur.

Steve Guntli (20:59): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Carol Bayer Sager, who is making Monty Python references, she gets a shout out in Meaning of Life, yeah, in a in a in a bit in that movie. But yeah.

Steve Guntli (21:11): And then yeah. So there there's some good songwriting here.

Mike (21:15): It's in the philosophy discussion about Bert Bakarak?

Unknown Speaker (21:19): Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Guntli (21:20): When they're when they're having a conversation, you know, they're going to the restaurant in the dungeon with the conversation. Yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (21:25): Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Guntli (21:25): What a weird sketch. But yeah. No. I I agree with you. I think, like, the music the this is very much chasing, like, the Disney princess thing.

Steve Guntli (21:35): It comes out the same year as Mulan, so Disney's already pretty established in what they're doing. I just thought it was interesting. I was looking at the Warner Brothers animation run up to this point. They kind of got their start with Batman Mask of the Phantasm, which was like basically just a TV movie that was so good it got elevated to theatrical release. Then we get Space Jam, is a huge hit, and then it's just like back to back to back flops.

Steve Guntli (22:01): It's Cats Don't Dance, Quest for Camelot, Iron Giant, which did lose a lot of money, Osmosis Jones, Looney Tunes back in action. They don't get another hit until Happy Feet in 2006, and by that point they've kind of abandoned the the the Warner Brothers, like, house style. So there are a lot fewer of these than I even realized.

Mike (22:21): And Cast Cast Out Dance being a flop. That that isn't their failing. That's society's.

Jaymo (22:26): Yeah. That movie's, like, perfect.

Steve Guntli (22:28): It because that that movie kinda rules, but it's also extremely, like, aggressively old timey, and it's, like, it's, like, for for musical theater nerds. And they didn't know how to market that movie, and they had no idea how to sell it. But it's pretty good. Yeah.

Jaymo (22:42): I mean, the the cats don't dance, if I can drag out my cats don't dance soapbox, is that, like, when Zootopia came out, everyone's like, oh my god. Zootopia, it's like they're animals, but it's like a metaphor for discrimination. Was like, yeah. Cats don't dance did that decades ago, and none of y'all cared justice for cats.

Steve Guntli (22:58): They also kinda made it about, like, the Hollywood blacklist in a way. And, you know, and and and you get actual choreography from Gene Kelly. The last thing he ever did in his life is choreograph cats to own dance. So

Jaymo (23:09): Yeah. I I will say, though, to me, you know, this movie's plugging along, and, like, there's there's some bits where it's like a big crowd shot and, like, the frame rate of animation drops real low because they just you know, throwing money at it left and right, but, you know, clearly, just this isn't Disney level of animation. It's not Disney level songs. No. And I think going into this movie with rock bottom expectations, I think it really worked in its favor.

Mike (23:38): Although I I will say the one song, If I Didn't Have You and and, granted, I'm almost not sure.

Unknown Speaker (23:44): I I don't I don't

Mike (23:45): know if it's the song. I just or just the comedy in the song was the one. I'm like, okay. This is this one's almost working really well.

Steve Guntli (23:53): Yeah. It was the only, like, fun song. You know? It's it's the only, like, friend like me or, you know, like yeah. It's it's the only one that I I think everything, like and and I think they have a problem with matching the singer's voices to the actors' voices.

Steve Guntli (24:10): Like, Carrie Alois' character starts singing, it is somebody at a significantly higher register. It's a it's a country singer named Brian White, and he he they just sound nothing alike. Jessalyn Gelsig, who plays Kaylee, like, she's not doing her own singing. That's Andrea Corr from the chorus. She sounds way different.

Steve Guntli (24:29): So there's no real attempt at, like, matching timbers on that, and that that gets a little distracting.

Unknown Speaker (24:36): Isn't also the was it I think the king was

Unknown Speaker (24:39): oh god.

Mike (24:41): Brosnan. Pierce Brosnan, but then the singing is I can't remember if it was his singing or if it was a song that wasn't being sung by anyone on screen that was, the guy from Journey.

Steve Guntli (24:54): He Steve Perry did the radio edits of of all of these songs, which I I do recall, like, I I kind of forgot that these songs were, like, associated with this movie, but the song Looking Through Your Eyes became, like, a pretty decent, like, hit for Leanne Rhymes back in the day. And my Oh, yeah. Whatever reason, Leanne Rhymes was big in my household, and so I had to hear that song a lot. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (25:19): It's big in my household too. My mom was crazy about her.

Steve Guntli (25:21): Yeah. It was my brother, weirdly, was really into her. Yeah.

Jaymo (25:24): Yeah. And and, you know, you mentioned Mike Pierce Brosnan as King Arthur. And, like Mhmm. I I I think one of the things that really keeps this movie from ever taking off is that there's a lot of characters that are just very one note, very, you know, kind of uninteresting. Unfortunately, Kaylee, I would kinda put in that category.

Jaymo (25:40): She's never really conflicted. She never really acts selfishly. She never really has a crisis of conscience at all. She's always just kind of the paragon of good, which is fine. You can have that character.

Jaymo (25:50): And Arthur is very much the same way. In a sense, it never really takes off because it can't agree with itself. Okay. So but you get to back to Devin and Cornwall, though. I think when when they show up, I'm like, okay.

Jaymo (26:01): This movie's finally breathing a little, and it gets a little more fun. And I was surprised at how entertained I was by Don Rickles and Eric Idol's character just because I had heard it was really annoying. But, like, they do this weird running motif where, like, I guess this is Devin, Eric Idol's dragon head, kinda wants to hook up with the other head and see what that would be like.

Steve Guntli (26:24): That's like a joke. Multiple incest jokes in there. They they straight up say that they are the way they are because the cousins copulated. Like, yeah, they they there's multiple incest jokes there.

Unknown Speaker (26:36): Yeah. It's like, what are you? He's like, well, put it simply, we're the reason cousins shouldn't marry. And it's like, oh my god. Like, I almost spit my white claw.

Unknown Speaker (26:43): Like

Steve Guntli (26:43): Yeah. I was maybe that is the one line where they let Eric Idol improvise, and they just kind of left that in because it's a different time.

Jaymo (26:50): Do you guys get the reference to the name Devon and Cornwall? Do you understand the reference?

Steve Guntli (26:54): Yeah. It's the two different, like, towns in in The UK. Right?

Jaymo (26:58): Yeah. The two westernmost counties, they're separated by a river, and they have this long standing rivalry over a bunch silly things. One of which is the proper way to top a scone. Is it scone jelly sweet cream, or is it scone sweet cream jelly? And I and I wanna settle this once for all the old switcheroo because I think jelly on top cream is is is blasphemous.

Jaymo (27:19): I would never do it that way.

Steve Guntli (27:21): Yeah. It's weird. It's weird. I don't know why. I yeah.

Unknown Speaker (27:24): Yeah. I think I have to go with you on that.

Unknown Speaker (27:26): Mike's looking at it. Mike? Well, you you wouldn't you wouldn't put both of these on a scone.

Unknown Speaker (27:30): I yeah. I wouldn't put either of those on a scone. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (27:32): I wouldn't either, but yeah.

Jaymo (27:33): What county does that make you?

Unknown Speaker (27:36): I'm I'm Sussex.

Unknown Speaker (27:39): There we go.

Steve Guntli (27:40): I just I just eat a I just raw dog a scone and then just chug a black coffee. That's that's it. That's the Sussex way.

Unknown Speaker (27:47): We either lost we lost the Sussex audience or we just gained the mic. It depends on how accurate he just was.

Unknown Speaker (27:53): They're like, oh, he got us. Yeah. Now you lost him. Now you lost him.

Unknown Speaker (27:57): Sorry about that. That's fine. You're an actor. You couldn't hold it in the whole time.

Mike (28:00): You just deep fry it. That'll get Scotland on board.

Unknown Speaker (28:03): There we go. Beautiful.

Jaymo (28:05): So, yeah, I I just agree. Movie kinda mid. There's there's things that I liked about it that I think will kinda come up as we discuss the game.

Steve Guntli (28:13): Yeah. It it is just kind of a very standard, like, hero's journey kind of movie. It didn't surprise me at any point, but I also, like, I wasn't mad about anything I was seeing. It's just, yeah, it's just a very it's very room temperature movie.

Jaymo (28:27): Right. Which is I I think you I think you might have said it before on your podcast, but that's almost like the worst kind is that it doesn't really take a chance. And so, like, something can be interesting because it's bad or something could be interesting because it's great. But if it's just safe, it's it's kind of the most boring kind of film.

Unknown Speaker (28:44): Yeah.

Jaymo (28:45): The the one thing I think the movie just objectively does badly is the audio mixing. You mentioned the songs, and I don't know if you guys caught this, but, like, the sound effects are way louder than the singing, or sometimes the singing was behind was it was this my TV setup, or was it badly mixed?

Steve Guntli (29:00): I I didn't have too much problem with the DVD I got, but that that is a big pet peeve of mine when it's like a dialogue so quiet, you can't really hear anything, and then it's like feel like giant explosions, and it blows out your speakers. That drives me crazy.

Jaymo (29:15): Any other thoughts on the movie before we segue into the game?

Mike (29:18): I I will say I do appreciate the Warner Brothers cartoon references that show up in here, which actually both of these are if I didn't have you, I think, has both a Wile E. Coyote, like, background for a fall.

Unknown Speaker (29:33): Oh, yeah.

Mike (29:34): And Red Hot Riding Hood is in this.

Unknown Speaker (29:37): What's Red Hot? Mike? Get this delisted again. What is Red Hot Riding Hood?

Mike (29:41): You know the classic thing of, like, a wolf or any anime character, but often straight up a literal wolf that does the whole, like, eyes bulge out and all that kind of stuff? Sure.

Unknown Speaker (29:50): Like the mask. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (29:51): Yeah.

Mike (29:51): Yeah. All of the I think you basically saw that back to Red Hot Riding Hood, which was a nineteen forties cartoon. And as a character, like, she showed up in a bunch of other stuff. There there's several with her from the forties.

Steve Guntli (30:06): Are they all Tex Avery?

Unknown Speaker (30:07): I don't know if I don't know if they all are.

Steve Guntli (30:09): Yeah. He's got that signature style. Like, he was he was the big, like, goo goo eyes animator and, like, the heart beating out of your chest and, like, the basically, he yeah. Just anything you could do to indicate a character is horny without just straight up saying he's horny. That was that was Dex Avery.

Mike (30:25): I think Red Hot Riding Hood is the one that starts with, like, a normal telling of Little Red Riding Hood, and then they're like, no. No. We we've done this everyone's heard this, and then they switch it up to a whole different it's like a sort of it's like a modernized contemporary version where now she's like this dancer, and the wolf is just I mean, a wolf, but it's also working metaphorically. It's it's a nice bit to see in there.

Jaymo (30:49): I think those a lot of the references, though, are a bit cringier. There's like, oh, I'm the dragon king, and he's, like, on the Simba rock or whatever. The pride rock, I guess, is what it's called. And

Unknown Speaker (30:58): Yeah.

Jaymo (30:58): Bladebeak has this whole thing where he's, like, Clint Eastwood and do you feel clucky, punk?

Unknown Speaker (31:03): And I was like, this is cringey. That was cringey.

Mike (31:05): Mike liked it. I I like the idea that it only makes sense from the standpoint of knowing those movies either in movie or out because they don't necessarily fit unless so there is an element where, like, this implies that that character and nobody else is aware of these movies.

Jaymo (31:25): Yeah. Yeah. There's some fourth wall breaking.

Unknown Speaker (31:27): Yeah. Because it's a taxi driver, I guess, referenced in there too. And it's like which is you know? And I guess I'll I'll give him credit because that is very clearly not for the child audience.

Steve Guntli (31:36): I did like that they got a snippet of the Superman theme when when when the the dragons are flying around. I appreciate that.

Jaymo (31:42): Yeah. And there there are moments that strangely hit for me. It's like Devin and Cornwall finally able to fly because they both are scared for Kaylee. Like, that's good writing. Like, that's that's nice.

Jaymo (31:53): And when they, like, get to breathe fire at the Griffin or whatever, was like, how am I, like, fuck yaying Devin and Cornwall from Christopher Campbell? Like, that's exciting. And even the way they defeat Ruger, I was kinda satisfied with. I was like, oh, that's what he taught her. And, you know, I've I've read a lot about how he's one of the few characters, Garrett, the blind hermit, you know, and he's he's a character with a disability, and it's central to his plot.

Jaymo (32:15): And the part where he doesn't want to go back to society because they don't treat him as even a human. I was like, oh, this is low key gut wrenching. So this movie has some ideas. I think it deserved better than it got. And it doesn't remove the disabilities for a happy ending.

Jaymo (32:30): Exactly.

Unknown Speaker (32:31): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that.

Jaymo (32:33): And even Devin and Cornwall get split up, like, for a second, which I guess implies it was some kind of curse or something.

Steve Guntli (32:38): I was wondering about the logic of that too. Yeah. The magic was, like, reverting everyone back to their original forms. And when he did that, Devin and Cornwall are suddenly two different dragons, but then they hug each other tight enough that they turn back into one dragon with two heads.

Jaymo (32:52): And I love that moment. Like, yeah, it's very on the nose. But I was like, well, they had a whole song where they fantasize about chopping each other's heads off. And it's like, okay. They do wanna be together.

Jaymo (33:00): They see each other's value now.

Steve Guntli (33:02): It is very quickie kind of visual storytelling kind of wrapping up. Yeah. But, you know,

Unknown Speaker (33:06): it works. I'm a cheap date, Steve. It hit for me. It's like,

Unknown Speaker (33:10): the boys. If you're if you're if you're if you're dissecting this thing with a microscope, then, you know, you're probably watching it wrong anyway.

Jaymo (33:16): Thank you. Yeah. 100%. Anything else to say about the movie before we segue to the

Mike (33:20): Game Boy Color game? Two things. Number one, I find it amusing. This mentions one Pokemon. I don't think it does it on purpose, but I'm gonna count it.

Unknown Speaker (33:27): Which one? Dragonair.

Jaymo (33:29): Oh, thank you for flying Dragonair. Wow.

Unknown Speaker (33:32): Oh my god.

Unknown Speaker (33:32): That is a that is a pun worthy of this movie. Good job.

Mike (33:36): Thank you. And then I would just say, Ruber as a it is one of those situations that movies do where you sort of have, like, a did nobody, like, background check this dude?

Unknown Speaker (33:46): Right.

Mike (33:46): And part of that is, like, just even, like, visually, he it for in my mind, he exists somewhere on a spectrum of specific villain looks that also includes both Riffraff from Rocky Horror and the one of the villains from the Chipmunks the great Chipmunk Adventure. I I feel like I could put these on a spectrum with Ruger in the middle of moderate changes to them.

Jaymo (34:13): So the how does this because Stevie and Mike, actually, you guys both know a lot about, like, the way movies are made. So the oh, I see what you're talking about. The great chipmunk adventure villain. Yeah.

Mike (34:23): Yeah. But so Yeah. The one where the chipmunks smuggled smuggled diamonds internationally.

Unknown Speaker (34:28): Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Mike (34:29): And then seduced snakes. It's, you know, kids movies.

Unknown Speaker (34:33): Absolutely.

Jaymo (34:34): But so Mulan came out, like, a couple of weeks after quest for Camelot and totally, like, took all of its, like, momentum out of its, like, VHS sales or whatever because, you know, you would have seen Mulan before Quest for Camelot was available for home rental. And so now you kinda well, what are you gonna rent? At Blockbuster, you're gonna grab Mulan. It's the much better film. But Rubert visually looks so similar to Sean Yu.

Unknown Speaker (34:58): Or is that his name, Sean Yu? I think it is.

Steve Guntli (35:00): Yeah. Yeah. My my fiance actually was commenting on that while we were watching the movie. She's like, well, this guy looks a lot like the Mulan villain.

Mike (35:06): Yeah. But like There's a weird amount of Mulan esque things where I'm like, I can't hold this against you because you came out at the same time. It's like

Unknown Speaker (35:12): Yeah. This came first.

Steve Guntli (35:14): Yeah. It was being developed at the same time. Yeah.

Mike (35:16): Yeah. So you can't be like, okay. You ripped this off to be like, you know, there's the reflections bit and there's, you know, the daughter that's gonna take up the sword of moon. That's not supposed to be how things work. It's like, there's a lot where it's like, okay.

Mike (35:28): I can't blame either of you for stealing from the other, probably.

Steve Guntli (35:32): It's it's possible that Mulan was production even before Quest for Camelot just knowing the cycle of animation back in the day. Like, Quest for Camelot was supposed to come out in 1995, and then it it kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed. So I don't know exactly when they started, but, like, typically, a Disney production of of the scale of Mulan would take, like, four years to make. So it there's probably some overlap, and there was definitely, you know, a a little bit of rivalry between all these animation studios because everybody was just kind of, like, trying to to to snipe at Disney's crown. And it wasn't until I I think with with, when DreamWorks kind of entered the race, that's when they started very specifically making movies that were gonna be counterparts.

Steve Guntli (36:16): That's where we get the ants versus the bug's life kind of thing. You know? That's that you know? And that's just kind of driven by the rivalry between Eisner and Katzenberg. You know?

Steve Guntli (36:25): So, like, yeah, it it so I I do think this was kind of more parallel thinking, but these are also two hulking, balding villains with long hair and just kind of like a manic crazy energy.

Mike (36:38): Brutish side characters.

Steve Guntli (36:40): And brutish side characters and, like, bird side characters too. Yeah. Yeah. They both have, like, killer birds.

Jaymo (36:45): Well, so speaking of sharing DNA, I think we're ready to move on to the Game Boy Color game.

Unknown Speaker (36:50): Let's do it.

Jaymo (36:51): So we start, Steve. Well, first, we share our experience with the game and how far we got. So, Mike, I wanna start with you because you had seen Quest for Camelot back in the day. So you have a longer history with the movie than Steve or I do.

Mike (37:07): I hadn't seen it back in the day. I saw it, like, three years ago.

Unknown Speaker (37:10): Three years ago.

Unknown Speaker (37:11): But still but The day. Familiar. Yeah. Day when first the

Unknown Speaker (37:16): three years ago. '23. The day.

Unknown Speaker (37:17): That's when they say back in the day. That's the day they mean. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (37:20): Yeah. But

Jaymo (37:21): you had never tried the game, I assume, before preparing for the show. Right, Mike?

Unknown Speaker (37:26): Correct.

Jaymo (37:27): And but you, I saw on Twitch, we're making decent progress, and I think you have a magical stick up your butt about what happened. How far did you get?

Unknown Speaker (37:36): I got to what I guess is the second boss. I think that the the the plan is the second boss. Right? Am I or am I forgetting one? No.

Mike (37:45): I think I think that's right. And I in short, save the details, Ryder. That is where I hit the point of I was officially so fed up with this game that I was done. Okay.

Jaymo (37:56): That's the wall you hit.

Steve Guntli (37:57): I I hit I hit mine a little sooner than that. I think I hit mine shortly after getting the horse that will throw you off every couple of feet and force you to dig around and look for hay and feed him so he'll carry you for a little while longer. That was the point where I'm like, okay. Wait. And I I don't have a map.

Steve Guntli (38:14): I don't know where I'm going. So I think I'm done. I think I'm done.

Unknown Speaker (38:17): Yeah. You said a magic word, which is part of why I'm annoyed with this game.

Unknown Speaker (38:21): Yeah. Yeah.

Jaymo (38:22): Yeah. Well, it it's funny because, like, you know, I'm not trying to defend this game. I mean, I am you know what? We start with the joy pros. Okay?

Jaymo (38:30): I am gonna defend this game. There is a quest if you go to the top part of the map. They say get this really big piece of hay or turnip as they're called, but Butch pointed out in our chat. It's totally hay.

Unknown Speaker (38:39): Yeah. It's hay.

Jaymo (38:40): And that's that's what keeps the horse from stopping. If you give him the big thing of hay, he will go indefinitely. But I only know that because I spent a lot of time with this game.

Unknown Speaker (38:50): Yeah.

Jaymo (38:51): I I've tried to beat every game we cover and using moderate use of the rewind feature. Not too egregious, but six and a half hours later, I, Nintendo, did beat Quest for Camelot. Nintendo. I'm in computer.

Unknown Speaker (39:06): You did it. Okay. Nicely done.

Unknown Speaker (39:08): And I don't know if I'm proud, but I did it. I beat this entire game.

Unknown Speaker (39:13): That's awesome.

Jaymo (39:14): So, Steve, is there anything that you liked about it? Because it's I think it's pretty rough on first impression, but it does have its defenders online. Anything you enjoyed?

Steve Guntli (39:25): It it was I I it was kind of drawing me in in spite of myself just because I am always gonna respond to a Zelda style game structure. Like, right, I I love a top down overworld map. I love the element of exploration and finding a big item that you can use to, like, advance to the next section. Like, that structure always works for me. And I found some of the controls and some of the execution of this a little clunky.

Steve Guntli (39:52): But once I got a sword and once I got, like, a you know, some some more items that I could play around with, it started to click a little bit. I like that your sword gets stronger the more guys you kill, so I like you have a little of a leveling up system. But, yeah, I I I think yeah. I I was drawing me in enough that I played it more than I thought I would. I I did reach a point where I'm just like, I think I might have to move on, but, I I enjoyed the bits that I was playing.

Unknown Speaker (40:20): Gotta move on with your life at some point. You

Unknown Speaker (40:22): can't be in

Unknown Speaker (40:22): all of Quest for Camelot

Unknown Speaker (40:23): unless you're in It's been a crazy week. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (40:26): Oh, no. I mean, yes. I mean, for those who aren't familiar, Steve does, theater, and it's opening week of a brand new show. And so I really appreciate. I mean, I was like, I keep thinking about you.

Jaymo (40:36): I was like, man, he's probably coming home from a long performance. It's late at night, and he's got quest for Camelot on his Switch for us. So I was like, oh, Steve.

Unknown Speaker (40:45): It was a good time. You know, it was a good time. I'm happy too.

Jaymo (40:47): But okay. But so to to be in this game's corner for a little bit, because it's really easy to point out what's bad about this game. We're gonna get to that. I think Mike's gonna have a lot to say about that. But there are these things where it's like, okay.

Jaymo (40:58): I was a big fan of Link's Awakening, and there are some things that this did that that didn't do. Like like you said, the overworld map. Like, in this game, you get a compass, and then for the rest of the game, at any time, you can see a map of the dungeon you're in, including enemy locations and item locations. And I was like, okay. This is kind of removing a bit of the Zelda where the hell do I go now frustration.

Unknown Speaker (41:22): Right.

Unknown Speaker (41:22): I would like to correct that to you got a compass.

Unknown Speaker (41:26): Mike didn't get far enough to get the compass. Did you miss it? I missed it.

Mike (41:30): It it's totally missable, and no nothing told me about it. Brutal. Okay. And that is actually, like, one of my frustrating things. That should not be a missable item.

Mike (41:42): Yeah. Or it should be that there's multiple options to get it. Right. Like, other things people really clearly told me about. Like, I got the shield and, like, and stuff like that because somebody was like, yeah.

Mike (41:55): Here's some stuff to do. I was like, okay. I can deal with that. Like, that compass should have been like someone hands it to you.

Jaymo (42:02): It went a long way towards making the game not infuriating.

Mike (42:06): Yeah. I would I would imagine so. Honestly, part part of my giving up on this was when I needed to find the horse, and I wasn't sure. And I at the end of my first session, I it was like, okay. I'm gonna go find a horse.

Mike (42:17): That's gonna be annoying. And you're like, oh, just use the compass. I'm like, I don't have a compass. Like, check your item. Like, get no.

Mike (42:22): I don't have compass. He's like, the walk through, and the walk through is like, just use the compass. I'm like, I swear to god.

Unknown Speaker (42:29): And, Steve, the backs the reason I'm laughing so much is that Mike and I were in scouts together, and I couldn't No. No. No. And and no. And Mike was Mike was great.

Jaymo (42:37): Like, his family is the reason I got into it, and I had some of my best memories in scouting. But I was terrible with the compass. I could not get that thing to freaking work, and Mike was great with the compass. So I love that now, like, what, thirty years later, Mike? And, like, who's good with the compass now, Lund?

Mike (42:51): I'm sure I'd be good with it if I had it. Like, that shouldn't have been an item that you had to know to do the right thing at at the right time. Like, there should have been a thing being like, hey. You should go get a compass over there. Make me figure out how to do it.

Mike (43:08): But, like, tell me that that's a thing in this game because it was not it was not brought up.

Jaymo (43:13): It does attempt some gameplay variety. I don't know how well it exceeds or succeeds at it. But, like, at one point, you know, you are later in the game and you're up on this icy mountain and you have to get assemble a sled. And so now it is a vehicle mission where you have to dodge obstacles as you're following the giant ogre's footprints, and that's very reminiscent of the scene in the movie when they're sliding on Devon and Cornwell's belly, and it's like this big sliding sequence action scene. So that was kind of fun.

Jaymo (43:41): There's a riddles section. Merlin gives you, like, a series of riddles to solve, and they're pretty they're pretty bare bones. You know? It's like it's a kid's game.

Steve Guntli (43:49): And I I have to take this opportunity to shout out. This is a terrible font to have to read on a Game Boy Color. This thing, I I really struggled to make sense of what this game was saying because they're they're using this kind of, like, medieval y scrolling script, and it's it's very hard to look at on this very small pixelated screen.

Mike (44:11): It it's a very good example. Like, a display font is supposed to be a font that you use for, like, titles or something.

Unknown Speaker (44:17): Mhmm.

Mike (44:18): I shouldn't have to read a full screen of this text because the game needs to tell me everything that happened in the movie because it is only going to show me three still images. And it's like, this should be a different font for this if you're expecting me to read that much.

Steve Guntli (44:34): Yeah. It's it's also worth mentioning that, you know, yeah, they they show those stills from the movie, but this game bears almost no resemblance to the events of the movie, like like, basically at all. And maybe it gets to that point, Jeremy. I don't know if it if it builds on that, but, like, it it the the stuff that I played was, like, nonexistent in the film at all. I was I was I was waiting for the moment where I'm feeding a bunch of turnips to a horse, and it just never happened.

Unknown Speaker (45:00): Yeah.

Jaymo (45:02): Yeah. I also played the game first and then and then watched the movie afterwards. And I was like, oh, there's a lot here that you could have used for your game, and you made kind of a generic Zelda clone.

Unknown Speaker (45:16): Yeah.

Jaymo (45:16): And and and that that feels weird. I think so. Kinda segueing into the joy cons, I guess, is that I think this game's biggest egregious failure is not really using its IP very well. Yeah. So, like like you guys said, they have these still images of the film recreated on the Game Boy Color, which is kind of impressive.

Jaymo (45:35): They're not animated. But for a second, like, oh, I remember that shot in the movie. But then they have, like, Garrett, the character of Garrett in the movie. We just talked about he's kind of empowering. He has this kind of fun song.

Jaymo (45:47): It's like the world's only power ballad for introverts

Unknown Speaker (45:50): Yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (45:51): Called I Stand Alone, where, like, how much he loves just people leaving him the hell alone.

Unknown Speaker (45:55): I related.

Jaymo (45:55): Yeah. A 100%. We can all relate to it. And then in the game, he's just you meet him one time. He's in a fully furnished house, which is like, did you not even get the script for the film?

Steve Guntli (46:07): Yeah. He lived in a mystical forest, which, like, looks more fun. You know? He had plants throwing him around.

Jaymo (46:12): But he just is is is just for a fetch quest, and he tells you, oh, get my magical stick, which I guess is supposed to be his walking stick since he's blind. Right?

Steve Guntli (46:22): Yeah. There there were a lot of fetch quests that I was encountering, and some of them were pretty annoying. Some of them were, like, go around and kill every enemy, which is fine because that helps you level up your sword. But some of them are, oh, I I can't forward you this sword until you find all my chickens. But, also, I'm not gonna tell you how many chickens I have.

Steve Guntli (46:40): Just wander around and then keep coming back and checking in until I tell you you're good. Like so, yeah, there a lot of fetch quests.

Mike (46:47): In its defense, it did say it did say five chickens.

Unknown Speaker (46:49): Oh, did it? I must have missed it. Yeah. Because that font, I can't read the font. I thought he said s chickens, and I'm like, I don't know what that means.

Jaymo (46:56): It's so funny, though, because, like, that would have been the moment to tie in the whole blade beak thing and the chicken cheating on the chicken wife and whatever. And, like, that would have been kinda fun, but they don't really do that. You know? The Forbidden Forest in the movie is kind of a very video game y sort of environment. You have them crossing bridges made out of dragon bones.

Jaymo (47:13): The rocks are carnivorous. There's the plants are reaching out, and it's like, no. You're gonna fight the same generic knights and a bunch of mice and snakes and shut the fuck up at Zelda. Sorry. Like, I keep swearing in this episode.

Jaymo (47:24): But it's just like everything in the movie that I thought would have been cool for a game didn't make it into the game. And, like, what a miss. Right?

Steve Guntli (47:32): Well and this is this is developed by Titus, which is a a company I had that I was fortunate to encounter quite a bit during Ultra sixty four days.

Unknown Speaker (47:41): Yeah.

Steve Guntli (47:41): They are the studio responsible for such classics as virtual chess, Blues Brothers 2,000, Warrior Princess, and, of course, the infamous Superman 64, often called the worst game ever made. So, Titus, I think, they they have a history of repurposing old games with a new IP. You know, they they work fast, they work cheap, and they are not really afraid to be derivative. So I'm almost wondering if this was a very, very lightly reworked other game. I think they had a kind of a Zelda style clone or an original IP they're trying to launch, and the character maybe looked enough like Kaylee that they're like, yeah.

Steve Guntli (48:20): Let's let's slap some, still photos from this in here and change some of the character names, and we're good to go.

Mike (48:25): And they also did, Hercules, the Legendary Journeys for the n 64.

Unknown Speaker (48:30): Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah.

Jaymo (48:33): I want fast, cheap, and not afraid to be derivative of my headstone. Like, that is, like, that is that is the brand.

Unknown Speaker (48:38): That's a good way to live. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (48:40): Right? You. Thank you. Yeah.

Mike (48:42): You talk about, like, the disappointment that they didn't really know how to use their their IP. I'm more annoyed they also didn't didn't know how to correctly steal

Unknown Speaker (48:48): from

Mike (48:49): another IP. Like, if you're going to basically rip off a game, like, you should at least have the good elements of that game you're ripping off. Like, was too much of this that I'm like, Zelda wouldn't have done this nonsense.

Steve Guntli (49:01): No. It's much more streamlined. They would they wouldn't make you, like, find six Goo Gaws in order to proceed to the next world. You know? Yeah.

Mike (49:09): Also would have done a a little bit of a better job of, like a lot of this had me being like, yeah, Zelda does this better, is things like Zelda will train you on what you're gonna need to do to some extent of, like, here's a thing. You're gonna need to use this thing and kinda give an indication for it. And then you get to that point like, oh, now this is where I use that thing, and this did not feel like it did that so much.

Jaymo (49:31): Yeah. I I think we talked before, Mike, on our Zelda episodes about how, like, the items are kind of the star of the show in those games. And it's just like in this one, it's like, oh, you got a grappling hook, but you're only gonna use it three times, and there's gonna be a giant arrow on the ground to tell you exactly where you can grapple. And it's like, that's not a fun mechanic. There's, like, a little leaf that you jump with, which is super Zelda.

Jaymo (49:53): But, of course, though, the jumps, Kayleigh does this huge jump and overshoots the target. So you can't go to the edge and then jump. You have to jump from somewhere in the middle. It's just a huge mess. But I think the worst one, the most difficult to use item, which is required to pass is Garrett's magic stick.

Unknown Speaker (50:10): Oh, I was gonna say say the worst or we'll continue on this and then come back to what I think the worst item is.

Jaymo (50:16): That's the compass you didn't get. Different one. Continue with the stick. I just think the stick is awful because you're supposed to wedge it in the mouth of these plants, but I could never figure out where I'm supposed to be standing and what when to when to like, can I get delisted? When to shove that stick in the giant plant's mouth.

Jaymo (50:33): Like, I never I never figured it out.

Mike (50:35): And the the knockback, when you hit an enemy, would also mean, like, if I could get the stick in, then I'd hit it, like, once and then bounce back, hit a tentacle, and be taking damage. I'm like, this is so incredibly obnoxious for when I'm ostensibly doing things correctly. And, actually, it was that battle. I was able to figure out how to use the stick, but I had, for a while, I think, discounted it because the hit boxes on this are atrocious, especially compared to your range. Yeah.

Mike (51:07): And it feels directional, which is even more obnoxious. And so I'd end up in this situation where I'm like, I can get the stick or where it'd be like, okay. Nope. I'm too far away, and I just swing the stick. And then I tap the button once to move closer, and now I've ran into it.

Mike (51:22): And I'm like, where is the range that I'm the correct distance from junk? And I had the same problem with the sword of Yeah. Either I'm too far away or I have ran into it, and it didn't feel like there was a in between on that that I could control with the controller. And that made this super frustrating.

Steve Guntli (51:45): I I found myself being super frustrated by the grappling hook, which is one of the great joys of video games. It's a good grappling hook mechanic, and this game has one of the worst I've ever seen. It's just it it seems to be extremely context sensitive. And as near as I can tell, you can only use it one time to access one area. Maybe you get to use it again, but, like, basically, if you equip it and try and use it anywhere other than that exact spot where you need to use it, the game just, like, pauses for a second and and you just interrupts the flow.

Steve Guntli (52:18): So it's it's a real missed opportunity. Like, I shouldn't it just shouldn't even have been in there.

Unknown Speaker (52:24): Well, I like the Zelda grapple shot is so fun.

Unknown Speaker (52:26): It's one of the best.

Unknown Speaker (52:27): Yeah. Yeah. So, like, don't don't get me all excited for a good grappling hook. Okay? Just call it a ladder.

Jaymo (52:33): That's what it

Unknown Speaker (52:33): is. Exactly.

Mike (52:34): I think I even would have given this game a lot more credit because, like, when I got the shovel and I could just dig up hearts, I was like, oh, the okay. This game has turned a corner. And then I moved on, and I can't use the shovel anymore. Right. Yeah.

Mike (52:49): Why did you give me this? Make me think this game was finally gonna do something in my favor and then just take it away.

Jaymo (52:55): But also, did you guys get the sense that this game was, like, unfinished almost? Because, like, first of all, we've talked about the cut scenes that use the footage from the movie, but, like, there's no music during those. It's this awkward scroll of text followed by, like, three images that kind of line up with what you just read. Yeah. And, like, I was starting this game.

Jaymo (53:14): I was, like, is my sound on? Is my switch broken? That's like and it goes for a while. And then, like, you have to use the horse to get past the wind, but the wind is represented by, like, a giant green rectangle with, like, parentheses all over it. It's just like Right.

Jaymo (53:29): Yeah.

Mike (53:30): I was cool with that. Okay. The worst item, though, to come back to that, And it's the worst item because this shouldn't be a freaking item, and it was great when I was streaming this to watch. When I finally got, like, a third item and actually had to switch items and Butch We've had on To Talk Zelda saw that the save function is an item you equip and then use and unequip. And that is the stupidest thing ever.

Steve Guntli (53:57): Especially because I accidentally equipped it early on, and you can't unequip it until you get another item to to replace it with. So I was stuck. Like, I would accidentally press a button and just like, oh, do you wanna save your game? Do you wanna save your game? I'm like, no.

Unknown Speaker (54:10): Stop it.

Mike (54:10): I can't fathom why anybody ever thought that was a thing that you should do, especially because they understood you could have, like, interactions within the item menu because that is how you check how your swords power powered up because I was heavily utilizing that when I decided to just grind the sword level up a chunk. Yeah. Actually, at the grappling hook area where I'm because I'd go inside. I was like, okay. This is difficult.

Mike (54:37): I'm just gonna level up my sword a couple levels and then deal with this.

Jaymo (54:41): But but I was talking about, like, how it feels, like, unfinished. And, like, there's a later in the game, you have to do an escort quest with Devin and Cornwall, but the sprite has literally no animation. It's sliding around the ground like a Roomba. And it's like Oh, no. And that's like and that's like one of the most fun characters in the movie, you don't animate him.

Mike (54:58): Which is weird because the the dog that's kind of in little mini escort quest moved more.

Unknown Speaker (55:04): Yeah. 100%.

Steve Guntli (55:05): Yeah. The horse the horse actually has, like, full animation on a Game Boy Color. It's, like, a big ass sprite for a horse. I'm like, oh, yeah. It kinda looks good.

Unknown Speaker (55:13): Yeah.

Jaymo (55:13): But then, like, Blade Beak, there's, like, Blade Beak missions where you have to have him, like, chop down walls for you, but there's no sound of the walls breaking down. There's no animation for it. It just disappears. And I was just like, was this game rushed to be released alongside the movie or something? It just really and the music the music almost never changes.

Jaymo (55:35): Not even in the final boss against Ruger. You don't get special boss music, which is just, like, so so important for setting tone and tension and having your gameplay feel like it has a bit more of a a journey to it is having music reflect what's happening on the screen. I should not be hearing the same boo boo boo boo boo when I'm fighting Ruger. And it's amusing because so much of the movie is, like, you know, not present in this game. But if you didn't watch the movie, I don't know how you'd beat it because you have to you have to bait Ruger into attacking the stone.

Jaymo (56:09): He's invincible. And it's like, that's that's the climax of the movie. So at the very last second, you did something right. Quest for Camelot. You are hard to love.

Steve Guntli (56:20): I mean, it it it very I mean, you you mentioned, like, was this rush to meet the release date, and that this was the era in particular where so many of these movie adaptations were bad, and that was because they were being given, like, a very short it takes a lot longer to develop a video game than it does to make a movie. Right. And, usually, they had less time than they need to really, like, put some thought into it. So that was definitely the case. It should be mentioned too, there was supposed to be a Nintendo 64 version of this game as well.

Steve Guntli (56:48): Titus announced that there were print ads that had them both, but, like, after the movie flopped, I think they canceled the unfinished three d version and just released this game and called it a day. So there is probably some ROM out there that's, like, worth thousands of dollars, but, yeah, probably not worth playing based on the other Titus games that I've experienced.

Unknown Speaker (57:08): You still have PTSD from those things.

Unknown Speaker (57:10): I still do. Post Titus stress disorder. Yeah. It's a real problem. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (57:13): Yeah. Yeah. It's a problem.

Jaymo (57:15): Anything else to complain about with quest for Camelot before we get on to our rankings?

Mike (57:19): I think just a fundamentally, this is one of the most frustrating side scrollers we've played, and I say that specifically because I feel like it is a side scroller that added a third dimension badly. Okay. And so, like, the first fight against Ruger or actually actually kind of before before that, I was noticing the thing that, like, if I was approaching enemies from above or below on the screen, it felt like I was getting hit more often. And if I was approaching left or right, it seemed to work better. Okay.

Mike (57:52): And so the first boss battle, I was getting really frustrated with. You're basically in a long rectang or tall rectangle, I guess, with Rubert initially below you. And I was just getting wrecked trying to approach Rubert from above where I'm like, how am I like, I am just mashing attack and getting hit. I don't know how I'm supposed to do this. Then I'm like, wait.

Mike (58:17): The regular enemies seem to act like I was supposed to approach from a side instead. And so I did that to him, and it worked. And it was like, this isn't satisfying. This wasn't like, oh, I figured something out with the tools I've been given. This is like, oh, I don't think you programmed this well, and I've just noticed the pattern.

Mike (58:37): And I'm adapting to how this doesn't work well because the the way these hit boxes are asymmetric or something like that. Because I was like, this isn't actually satisfying to figure it out. I'm just annoyed you made me deal with this.

Unknown Speaker (58:51): Yeah.

Mike (58:51): And that was actually sort of how I the only way I made progress with the plant was going, oh, yeah. Right now, flatten this down and just go left and right. And that was when I got the closest to getting through that was when I stopped thinking about this as having full motion, which is not how this should work.

Jaymo (59:10): Well, so I wanna ask Steve because you you have endured some truly terrible side scrollers on your show. Yeah. Wayne's World, I think, is probably near the bottom.

Steve Guntli (59:19): Wayne's World is pretty infamous. Yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (59:21): Mike Mike, if you had to guess the genre of the Wayne's World game, what would you guess? I have seen it.

Mike (59:27): I I I watched speedrun of it.

Jaymo (59:29): Okay. It's a side scrolling shooter Yeah. Which is weird because he doesn't own a gun. Let alone many

Unknown Speaker (59:34): guns then Let alone many the guns. Entire shooting.

Unknown Speaker (59:37): Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Jaymo (59:38): Oh, I love you, boys. I do. I could just put that out there and just spiked it. But, Steve, I so, you know, there's a kind of a fun sequence in the movie where they're interacting with this big stone ogre, and he's so big that they mistake him for the environment. And I was like Yeah.

Jaymo (59:54): That could have been a cool level. Like, if I'm going around, but it's actually his arms and his head and whatever, what genre would this game should have been? Because I don't think top down Zelda was really it.

Steve Guntli (1:00:06): I mean, if you have infinite money, you know, to make, whatever game you want in this kind of scenario, I would make it kind of a god of war style, like, cinematic action game. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (1:00:16): I mean, you

Steve Guntli (1:00:16): mentioned, like yeah. You mentioned that right there. That'd be a great way to do it. If you're not gonna do that, then go back a little bit and do we recently covered the the Disney's Hercules, which had an 1997 game came out right before this since kind of a 2.5 d, like, platformer that has really nice looking, like, 32 bit sprites and then some screen, like, some some, three d effects going on in the background. Nice little synthesis of kind of, like, the old to the new, and it's a fun, solid little platformer.

Steve Guntli (1:00:46): You could have just gone less ambitious and just done that. I think that would have been perfect.

Jaymo (1:00:51): My vision here's here's my it's not a million dollar idea because it's the quest for Camelot IP. Let's call this a $10,000 idea.

Unknown Speaker (1:00:57): Sure.

Jaymo (1:00:57): That's a brawler, like, kinda Ninja Turtles. But hear me out, You got Kaylee as player one, Garrett as player two, and player three and four is Devon and Cornwall.

Steve Guntli (1:01:07): Oh, so you go, like, to, like, like, the old Dungeons and Dragons, like, arcade beat them up games like that or or like a gauntlet legends or something like that. Yeah. You can just you can have a fun, like, multiplayer hack and slash here.

Jaymo (1:01:19): But did you guys ever play heroes of the storm where one of the the two headed ogre character was a co op experience where one player moved and one player handled the spells? That could be fun as a Devon and Core Wall mechanic. Like, players three and four have to you know? And if they can if they can sync up their buttons, they do extra damage. Am I alone now?

Unknown Speaker (1:01:36): Just me?

Steve Guntli (1:01:37): I I didn't play that game, but I did play the Starsky and Hutch game where one player drives and the other player shoots. So you know?

Unknown Speaker (1:01:43): Is that not a thing in every game?

Steve Guntli (1:01:45): That's kind of a brilliant idea. I can't believe they wasted it on a, like, mediocre Starsky and Hutch video.

Mike (1:01:50): Or the Mulan game where one person holds and the other person punches.

Unknown Speaker (1:01:54): There you go.

Unknown Speaker (1:01:55): Yeah. What? I don't get it. That's okay.

Unknown Speaker (1:01:59): There there there's a line from Mulan of you will hold him and I'll punch.

Jaymo (1:02:02): Oh, yes. Yes. Now I get it. Okay. Wow.

Jaymo (1:02:04): Now deep cut. You know what? We gotta wrap this up here. Guys, we've covered the Joy Pros, the Joy Cons, and every bit in between. So it's time to declare today's game as a Nintendo or a Nintendon't.

Jaymo (1:02:16): Steve, where did you land?

Steve Guntli (1:02:18): Interestingly, I I thought I I have to go with a Nintendon't. Okay. Because there there's something about this game that sort of typifies a lot of, like, the worst criticisms of this NES class or the the Switch classics collection, which is kind of a distinct lack of curation. Yeah. It doesn't really make sense that this game is now being, like, made free and available on this special service.

Steve Guntli (1:02:43): This is a forgotten game based on a forgotten movie. This is not some, like, kind of cult classic that needs to be unearthed. It feels like it was just cheap, and they were able to afford it and drop it out onto the the the system. So this is and a lot of I think this is one, like, nerds like myself saw this pop up on there and, like, what the a quest for Camelot. What the fuck?

Steve Guntli (1:03:04): Like, what what You they they just now, like, put out Donkey Kong, which is, the best game on the Game Boy, and, like, they only just now put that out. But Quest for Camelot was there from, like, day one. Well, then it was pretty early. It was. So peep it's like, was anybody clamoring for this?

Steve Guntli (1:03:19): Like, I I never hear anybody having any nostalgia for this movie or this game or any like, it's just kind of been memory hold. So to have this kind of, like, drop on there was really it just felt like, okay, you're good. You're just kind of rubbing our noses in it now. Like, you're just there's nobody at the at the at the wheel here. So I I think in this in that way, this game is interesting because it does sort of personify that criticism.

Steve Guntli (1:03:44): In itself, it's not the worst thing I've ever played. It's not a disaster. It's just wildly mediocre. Kind of in that in that way, it's I think it's worthy of the movie even if it has very little story to do with it.

Unknown Speaker (1:04:01): What if it was what if the devs were actually, like, savants, and it was like, we've heard this movie is not gonna be very good. Don't make the game too good. We need to be right there with the film.

Steve Guntli (1:04:10): Yeah. Go go home at four today, guys. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.

Unknown Speaker (1:04:14): It's very yeah. Yeah. Take a take Friday.

Jaymo (1:04:17): And then Nintendo, they're, like, sleeping under their desks using, like, curtains as blankets. Like, some of the Right. How those games were made are truly horrific.

Unknown Speaker (1:04:24): I have to find just the right place to put this hidden cave.

Jaymo (1:04:27): Oh, gosh. Mike, we we got you gotta be with Steve. Right?

Mike (1:04:32): Yeah. So first of all, I'm I'm gonna say my rank ranking of the movie

Unknown Speaker (1:04:36): Okay. Let's do the movie.

Mike (1:04:38): Yeah. Is I actually would give that, I think, a weak Nintendo. It has just enough to be sort of interesting to check out. I think it should have either gone it either shouldn't have tried to be a Disney movie and just allowed itself to be darker, or it should have stolen from Disney better and really committed to that because I feel like it didn't fully. And I'm like, you're heading in a direction that could have gone better.

Mike (1:05:05): As to the game, like, there's just so many things that feel like fundamental failings on how I feel like games should play in order to be enjoyable that for me, it's a it's a Super Nintendo. It's just there's save shouldn't be an item. I don't even like, there's it this feels like what happens when you let AI design a game now, and it knows that there's things, but it doesn't know why they should work

Jaymo (1:05:30): or how. Like, I heard you can save in games. So here's the item that does that. And it's like, woah, AI.

Steve Guntli (1:05:35): Yeah. Not not a, yeah, not a I we appreciate that they included the feature to save at a Game Boy game. I don't wanna be writing down a password. You know? So

Jaymo (1:05:44): And Mike Wood. He does that for the show. Yeah. And, Steve, did you also land on Nintendo for the movie?

Steve Guntli (1:05:51): Yeah. I think the movie is, a tentative Nintendo. I think it's it's a pretty run of the mill animated adventure, but it's following the hero's journey structure, so it's pretty crisp and entertaining. It's, like, eighty four minutes long, like, plus or with credits, so, like, it's not gonna take up too much of your time. And there's some really nice looking animation in this.

Steve Guntli (1:06:12): I think it's clear that they did spend some money on this thing. Even if it didn't, make any money, it's clear that they spent some of it. So it's it's nice. It's colorful. It's got a couple of songs that are pretty, memorable, but, yeah, it's it's it's not gonna blow your skirt up, but I had a decent enough time.

Jaymo (1:06:29): I'm I'm a huge fan of a tight 90. That's always that's always a big selling point as I become an older man here.

Unknown Speaker (1:06:36): That's a sweet spot.

Jaymo (1:06:38): And so I agree, you guys. Christopher came out with the film. Nintendo, you could do worse. You know, don't don't, like, go out of your way. Just Yeah.

Steve Guntli (1:06:46): It's it's $6.99 to rent on Amazon right now. I wouldn't pay $6.99 for it, but I got it from the library. So

Jaymo (1:06:52): There you go. There you go. So I I also agree with Mike. This is a Super Nintendo. It's one of the shoddiest games I've ever played.

Jaymo (1:07:00): There was some some level of simple pleasure playing a game that felt so boring. It was almost meditative. But, like, the better way to, like, ignore a game is to just not play it at all. So it's just like so that's that's I don't think so. It's not it.

Jaymo (1:07:17): And for our and standings, I put it in almost the bottom 10. I said Quest for Camelot is a little better than Smash Tennis on the SNES and a little worse than Pilotwings on the SNES, which, like, Pilotwings technically was impressive, but it wasn't very fun to play. Yeah. This this game is neither technically impressive nor that fun to play. Mike, where did

Unknown Speaker (1:07:37): you put it? I have it at my bottom sixth. Oh. Which puts it every time I do one of these, it's gonna be controversial. Puts it just above Star Soldier and just below Super Mario Brothers, the Lost Levels.

Unknown Speaker (1:07:50): Oh, yeah.

Jaymo (1:07:51): No. No, Steve. No. Don't agree with him. Lost Levels is great.

Steve Guntli (1:07:56): Levels is yeah. I think I think you might have some Stockholm syndrome from that one. I think, just just because it's difficult doesn't mean it's great. Yeah. But what what are your respective number ones?

Jaymo (1:08:09): My number one is currently Mario Kart 64.

Unknown Speaker (1:08:12): Great.

Unknown Speaker (1:08:12): And, Mike, what's your number one?

Unknown Speaker (1:08:14): Pokemon Snap.

Steve Guntli (1:08:16): I'm on board. Pokemon Snap rips. I love that game. I play that's like a comfort game for me. You know?

Steve Guntli (1:08:21): Beat it in three hours and just, like, have a good time.

Jaymo (1:08:23): I still think Mike's number three is weird, Sonic Spinball. Like, better than Ocarina of Time.

Steve Guntli (1:08:29): Yeah. No. I wouldn't I wouldn't go that far. Sonic Spinball is, yeah. That's a game I was obsessed with the idea of when I was a kid, and I didn't get to play it until I was older.

Unknown Speaker (1:08:39): And I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah. It's Pinball.

Unknown Speaker (1:08:41): I like pinball. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (1:08:45): And I like Sonic. So there

Unknown Speaker (1:08:46): we go. And Sonic being voiced by the same as Blade Week. So it all comes together. Beautiful.

Unknown Speaker (1:08:51): There he is. Julia Julia White.

Jaymo (1:08:54): And speaking of all comes together, the Anne standing Mike and I's mathematically combined list, Quest for Camelot is our fourth worst game we've ever covered. Right below Flicky and right above Congo's Caper. Those are some butch games right there. No. Hold on.

Jaymo (1:09:10): Congo's Caper was Ryan. Yeah. Flicky was Butch. But yep. Pretty infamous bottom five.

Steve Guntli (1:09:17): What was so bad about Xevious? I don't think I ever played Xevious.

Jaymo (1:09:20): Oh, boy. Mean, you have Switch Online. Right?

Unknown Speaker (1:09:22): Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna should I boot that one up and try it Yeah.

Jaymo (1:09:25): You'll know within thirty seconds what's so bad about Zevius.

Unknown Speaker (1:09:28): Hell yeah. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (1:09:29): Do you like do you like video game music?

Unknown Speaker (1:09:31): I do. Do you like it if it's

Mike (1:09:33): just the same four notes that repeat?

Unknown Speaker (1:09:35): Those are my favorite ones.

Unknown Speaker (1:09:36): Alright. No.

Unknown Speaker (1:09:37): All four. And you're set.

Steve Guntli (1:09:39): Beep, boop, boop, and beep. All all four of my favorites.

Jaymo (1:09:43): Do that again over and over again. It's it's it's pretty rough presentation wise.

Unknown Speaker (1:09:49): Alright. Alright.

Jaymo (1:09:51): Well, guys, we're gonna call that game over for today. The final score is Quest for Camelot the film, a reluctant Nintendo. And Quest for Camelot the game, pretty resounding Nintendon. Reluctant Nintendo not to

Unknown Speaker (1:10:03): be confused with reluctant dragon.

Jaymo (1:10:05): There you go. There you go, Mike. Alright. Steve, it's honor to have you on the show here. Before you get the hell out of here, why don't you let our listeners know where they can find, your inspiring body of

Steve Guntli (1:10:15): Oh my god. Thank you so so much for having me. This was a blast. Yeah. I've got a bunch of podcasts out there.

Steve Guntli (1:10:21): Currently, I'm doing the aforementioned, Cinemarkade. I also have another show going on right now. It's called Puppet Masters Castle Freaks. That's for the horror heads out there. We are covering every movie in the, full moon features catalog.

Steve Guntli (1:10:35): So if you don't know what that is, then you are a normal person with a functioning brain.

Unknown Speaker (1:10:39): But Mike knows.

Steve Guntli (1:10:40): But if you do know what that is, then you're a cool person with a a special brain, and you should listen to that show because we're covering all of them. So this is everything from, like, the Puppet Master series. We're going back to the eighties, we're talking about movies like Reanimator and From Beyond and Troll, and then all the way up to the stuff that they're we just recorded an episode on a movie that they released two months ago, so they're still at it. So yeah, yeah, you can find that Puppet Masters Castle Freeze. We have some amazing interviews on there.

Steve Guntli (1:11:07): We've had, like, Barbara Crampton from Reanimator and a lot of the filmmakers and staff and cast and crew, so it's been really fun. And then Ultra 64 is still out there. You can find it. That segued into Wii Universe. So we covered every game on the N64 and every game on the Wii U, and then we had to stop.

Steve Guntli (1:11:27): But, yeah, we we did those two seasons. We had a lot of fun doing them, me and Woody Szczkowski. And, yeah, and then, yeah, I'm around. You can Google me. Writing stuff places.

Steve Guntli (1:11:39): I'm acting in things. I'm doing a lot of stuff.

Jaymo (1:11:43): Awesome. It sounds like Mike's going check out your Full Moon deep dive, right, Mike?

Mike (1:11:47): Yeah. Yeah, there's some solid stuff in that. Without getting too specific, I am very close right now to the hotel from Puppet Master.

Steve Guntli (1:11:58): Oh, and oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Steve Guntli (1:12:00): I I won't say I won't dox where you are, but, yeah, that's

Jaymo (1:12:04): And he has a Muppet poster on the wall, so we can figure this out.

Steve Guntli (1:12:07): One one quick random story from Charles Ban's autobiography. Charles Ban is the producer and the creator of of Full Moon Features. In his autobiography, he tells a story about how a man once came up to him holding a photo of that hotel and saying, like, I grew up here. I grew up here. And then Charles Band was like, well, no, that's impossible because that hotel doesn't exist.

Steve Guntli (1:12:28): It was superimposed onto, like, a matte painting. But then the guy just, like, left him the photo and disappeared. And he said, it's like, I I have no idea what that was. Was that, like, a ghost? Was that something?

Steve Guntli (1:12:39): Yeah. Yeah. He was he was trying to play it up as this kind of weird supernatural encounter, but there was somebody who swears that that hotel exists, and it does not.

Unknown Speaker (1:12:46): But Mike just said he lives near it. What what's going on?

Mike (1:12:49): It's a real building that they superimposed to look like it's Oceanside, kind of like in the same way of step by step uses Colossus and Magic Mountain, but replace the parking lot with an ocean so that now Six Flags Magic Mountain is beachside. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (1:13:06): Well, climate change.

Unknown Speaker (1:13:09): That's Yeah. Exactly.

Jaymo (1:13:10): Exactly. Happening eventually. Well, guys, that all sounds n e excellent. Everyone join us next time. We'll be running and gunning with Contra Hardcore on the Sega Genesis.

Jaymo (1:13:20): Also, don't forget to visit www.theoldswitcharue.com. There you can find links to our Spotify, Discord, YouTube, TikTok, and all the social medias you can shake a joystick at. Big thanks to Crystal Fields for our incredible intro song. And please, dear listener, don't forget to like and subscribe. Every click means a lot, and you mean a lot to us.

Jaymo (1:13:39): Until next time, this has been the old switcheroo where we've been talking gaming retro Mike and J Mo.

Unknown Speaker (1:13:44): I've been Mike.

Unknown Speaker (1:13:45): And I've been J Mo. Game on, everyone. In Santa Clarita? Yeah. Oh, dang.

Steve Guntli (1:14:03): Well, I mean, I saw I saw a documentary once where it turns out people eat each other in in Santa Clarita. So, you know, I don't know if that's

Jaymo (1:14:10): It's also it's totally accurate.

Unknown Speaker (1:14:11): That's probably what that was about.

Unknown Speaker (1:14:12): All out from the other documentary that covered when Santa Clarita was nuked.

Unknown Speaker (1:14:16): Yes.

Unknown Speaker (1:14:18): Man, we just don't got good luck over here.