We've partnered with our merch provider, Shark Robot, to giveaway a PS5 and a $100 gift card to their store! gleam.io/9PPrM/second-wind-ps5-giveaway Enter at the link and the winner will be announced on January 24th. Entries close at Midnight MST on January 23rd.
Well, thats me forced into signing up for Xitter because of ps5 based poverty. i would have added the "join second wind on twitch points" but twitch won't let me use my e-mail to join, asking for the username instead but i can't see what my username is because I joined Twitch via my PS4...which broke (blue light of death style) recently, because of course it did. I'm not looking for solutions, mind, just wanted to moan a bit. So, yeah...a PS5...that would be nice.
The funniest part for me was discovering that Yahtzee and my dad had the same trajectory of "Love rock climbing, no time for that shit anymore now that I have kids."
The phrase is from a sorta life/interior... clean up/ de-cluttering woman who uses it to clients if certain items in their home are worth keeping- if it doesn't 'spark joy' it's not, more or less. I can't remember the name of the person/series. But yeah it's very well applied to a lot of things in life, thinking along those lines myself (not word for word) has indeed prevented me playing games I know I'll come away from having barely enjoyed it and simply wasted time on.
those 2-3 years I spent playing COD MW II (The original one) really paid off in the long run though, I'm always in top 3 of whatever shooter game I play. however, none of the ones that came after really hit that spark MW II had. and they just became less and less interesting. I tried so hard getting back into the "new" COD MW, and played for a while, but it did not spark joy, at all.
i'm surprised they're still making/remaking the damn things, the gameplay has nothing new to do and the narrative certainly ain't carrying this series anymore so why is it still releasing games?
Yeeeeah...Pizza Tower made me appreciate Metriod putting the "this planet will now self-destruct everyone get the fuck out" bit at the very END of the game.
Except for the Nintendo DS release "Metroid Prime: Hunters", which had it at the end of every level and gave me trauma for which I will not be able to play Pizza Tower
The timed sections are the best part of the game imo, really forces you to interact with the speed elements which are fantastic once you get to know your moveset. Plus it means you know most of the layout on your way out, rather than have that rush completely blind. Suppose the stress isn't for everyone though
Pizza Tower made Yahtzee feel as stressed as Peppino is, truly it is a piece of true art. If only Yahtzee had a constant threat of his house blowing up, then he would have been able to push through
Completely fair criticism of pizza tower, definitely not for everyone, but the escape sequences are my personal favorite part of that game aside from going for P ranks, tbh
The mention of Sanabi's twist reminds me of the episode of Bob's Burgers where Linda hosts a murder mystery night at the diner where she reveals that she's the murderer after telling tbe audience that she wasn't. "What? You explicitly told us at the beginning of the show you weren't the murderer!" "Thats right! It's a twist!" "No, that's a lie. A lie is not a twist."
Untrustworthy narrator is a fantastic trope to use but you can't shoe horn it in at the end you have to give clues of some sort. Hell even in Crackdown they kind of full that at the end but I had already figured out we're the bad guys as one time I landed in the middle of the city with two rival gangs side by side doing nothing everything was peaceful until I started shooting and all hell broke loose. That might not have been intended by the game developers but something along those lines is important if you want to use that trope.
I'm actually happy for Yahtzee, the fact he no longer feels forced by deadlines to play and finish damn near every game coming out whether it's obvious it's not going to make a good video or not is very heartening to hear. Pledging to the patreon when my boss gives me a raise.
It's nice that Yahtzee doesn't feel like he needs to do call of duty anymore. How long until the Ubisoft sandbox gets the axe? If any game type deserves to be ignored next, it's them.
@@BazallWorks you actually need a little bit of focus to play Ubisoft sandboxes; it's just that every game they make is like different patterns of Simon Says. If you want to do your taxes to a game, look no further than SquareEnix or anything made by Hideo Kojima.
I do actually love when Yahtzee does games not because he wants to, but because people demand it. I just find it fun to hear him start off with a defeated "alright! Fuck it! Fine! Here's the review of (game I didn't want to play but for some reason you want to hear me talk about)" before completely lambasting it for 8 minutes straight.
Jimminy cockthroat games are some of his more dull reviews imo as of late. Though I am very biased towards listening to reviews about indies since I only play indies at this point.
Pizza tower really does have so much of it's core DNA come from the late 90's cartoon network, specifically Courage the Cowardly Dog...... *Because that show was a stress inducing nightmare of eldritch horrors* everyone in my generation can unanimously agree that Courage the Cowardly Dog was a deeply fucked up show and that's why it's a goddamn master piece. Which is also why Pizza Tower is so good.
There's an artist on here who's been doing crossover art and animations of Pizza Tower and Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy. It's legitimately amazing how well the two art styles go together.
@@CreativityNull This is why gaming is the most justifable medium for sequels out of all of them. Game mechanics are iterative, and Pizza Tower had every right to expand on Wario Land 4's core gameplay after its one sequel sidelined it for wacky motion controls and then it was never touched again.
I‘d recognize it as a spiritual successor to Wario Land Shake It! down to the style being it minus fancy art style. Played that particular one so when I saw Pizza Tower and its trailer it was essentially „My Nostalia: The Game“.
@@sunlitsonata6853 Shake it had much of the same mechanics. The only motion control was being able to shake money out of things. It still had the "run long enough to sprint and break tougher blocks" thing that Wario Land 4 had. It even still had the escape sequence. The game did play a bit slower but that isn't the fault of the motion controls.
Anyone who liked Cocoon for the experience of navigating nested worlds should give Patrick's Parabox a try. There's unfortunately even less story but it pushes the mechanics much further.
Absolutely. It's an abstract puzzle game, so there's no plot to speak of, but it did manage to make me laugh out loud several times just due to how clever some of the interactions were.
Everything after MW2019 was like some sort of experiment in how quickly can your burn out people's interest in your new reboot universe. Sheapard sucks, Makarov sucks, they canonized the entire black ops timeline, and it all became seasonal and very confusing.
At least Cold War was alright. It's really how funny they leaned way more into nostalgiabait with MWII and III, only to kneecap the effort with how they wrote the new versions of the villains. And killing Soap again, despite the previous game establishing a really good relationship between him and Ghost. It's like they gave 12 year old me what I wanted out of the original MW2 but then decided to spite 12 year old me by flushing it down the toilet immediately.
@@Calvin_CoolageWhat depressed me about Call of duty' that is the OG games were based around various historical events in various settings . Even if you sticking to last 100 years there's has been no shortages of perfectly 'good' lesser known wars they could do. But we just get the greatest hits over and over again.
This channel and these videos feel so... comfy. Like it's a legitimate relief to me. Thanks to all involved for the paths you've taken with your actual lives that have led you to the place where I still get to hear Yahtzee chat about games.
Pizza Tower was my game of the year out of what I played, but I can't blame Yahtzee for feeling stressed out by it. The wild adrenaline rush of the time pressure or blitzing through levels that once slapsticked you silly is exactly what made me love it so much (among many other things).
I understand why Yahtzee didn't stick with Pizza Tower, the "run back to the beginning of the level before time runs out" mechanic it borrows from Wario Land 4 is, as it turns out, more polarizing than I realized. Some people don't like the anxiety that comes with it, while others tout it as being incredibly exhilarating. Yahtzee DOES have a point, though, regarding exploring every nook and cranny in a level, since there ARE things to discover during escape sequences of certain levels, and you're either supposed to know to go there or risk running out the timer by exploring and discovering it naturally. I still freaking love the game to death, though, it's easily my favorite game of 2023 as well as one of my favorite games of all time.
@@CreativityNull They used to be entertaining. And by "used to" I mean those from nearly 2 decades ago. Same goes for a lot of long running franchises, unfortunately
It's a blessing that we have a Second Wind where Yahtz can review a game like "Humanity" can justifiably use his dog sidekick. Wouldn't work if it was an imp. ...but maybe if the imp had floggy dog ears.
i'll miss the imps, they had a sort of comedic quality that can't be achieved in something as cute as a doggy. still, the new redesign isn't bad and we do have all the old episodes to remember them by.
I'm still a bit sad the imps never got to follow them to SW. They'll going to be stuck in the empty wasteland of the shared assets folder at the old place forever, never getting the chance to put on silly costumes or humorously die ever again. This is why you need to unionise.
I’m sure there is a joke somewhere in the fact that some people, like myself, only know of the existence of a Modern Warfare 2 remake because of Yahtzee telling the Modern Warfare 3 remake to bugger off.
Oh no, you misunderstand, dear viewer. It's not a Modern Warfare 2 remake, it's a sequel to Modern Warfare remake that isn't at all like Modern Warfare 2 except for the parts that are. And Modern Warfare 3 is literally just a reskin of 2 with a new story I really wish I was joking but I can't tell the two apart if you show me two pictures of the multiplayer side by side.
Oof the part about the "I don't have to play this anymore" drug. Got lucky and found that while begrudgingly playing Black ops2 years ago. Haven't touched a call of duty since and have no desire to do so, and have been happily skipping by reading about all the terrible call of duties that have come out since I walked away.
I will say that while I was also driven to anxiety by Pizza Tower, being able to kick nine kinds of shit out of the bosses was *very* cathartic at the end of it all.
Finding out about his rock climbing enthusiasm really makes me long for the game that finally makes him discuss his keen enthusiasm for BDSM. I think we could all stand to learn a thing or two
Would not have guessed lol But then again, rocks do not attempt to engage in socializing and conversation... makes sense then, when you think about it ^_^'
I don't think I've ever agreed with Yahtzee as much as I do in regards to Modern Warfare. I don't even feel like making fun of it anymore. Even that has gotten old
Pizza Tower was my Game of the Year and its anxiety inducing gameplay was one of the main reasons. To each their own. And the soundtrack was incredible.
I like Pizza Tower and I think the end of the level race back was actually a really good mechanic, but at the risk of saying "You're playing it wrong" as a game defense (Which I do try to avoid because that's on the game devs to design it so you DO play it correctly), the way I found that it works best is a style many may not like. Short answer is: You have to plan. Not only do you have to plan, you have to first explore the level and possibly play it a couple times so you can properly plan. Then you have to make your run following the plan. That's how I get S ranks anyways. I can see why some people would not like this mix. It kind of requires you to like the aspects of a twitchy fast paced platformer, a logic puzzle platformer, and an exploration platformer. If you don't like any of those, the whole combo can fall apart.
SANABI really does love its crazy, out-of-left-field twists that no one could have predicted, but I loved the game all the same. One of my favorites of 2023. Come for the grappling hook acrobatics. Stay for the soundtrack.
Yahtzee, the trick is to bring the child with you climbing once they get about 5 or so. It is very easy to belay a child of that size. They are so light thier weight does not even push the rope through the device. It makes bringing them back down fun. My daughter loves climbing with me. If she has trouble reaching a hold I can just hoist her up the wall. Once they learn how not to get squished in the bouldering area you can climb with them.
Eh, I do feel like his roasting works best on games we love enough to personally know, and to be in on the joke, but particularly savage critiques of games, developers and maybe even fandoms we love to hate are also cathartic.
@@jongrubbdesign he could make a review of "the last 5 call of duty" at once every 5 years to have enough jokes, maybe. It's not like people will notice if he mixes up some installments
Bruh no worries, there'll be a user out there doin' someone's god's work by creating a compilation vid for us that we can watch elsewhere from Escrapist monetization ^_^
@@andrewphilos I have avoided viewing material on The Escapist since The Incident, including old episodes of ZP. I don't feel right with any monetization going to a parent company that had nothing to do with making the media, and everything to do with disrupting it.
I fucking love Pizza Tower. My favorite game of 2023. But I totally get where he’s coming from with the stress of the time limit. I typically only completed 1 or 2 levels per day. Although when I say “completed”, I do mean running through enough times to get all the collectibles, the S-rank, and the special achievements. I came back for the P-ranks after beating the game, too. They were very hard.
He's right: I started taking 'never playing Modern Warfare games again' to cure my 'degenerative no longer enjoying games disease' and my life has really turned around.
It's not really a surprise Yahtzee didn't review Modern Warfare III, considering for the past six or seven years he's largely gone out of his way to avoid reviewing a new COD.
In an odd way, Pizza Tower being an anxiety inducing game helped me deal with my own anxiety issues last year, hell I even 100%'d the levels (still need the final boss lol) Also the running back through the stage isnt as rougelike as Yahtzee says, its clear with some indicators/arrows and blocked sections where you have to go, but it is confusing the first time.
I stopped playing CoD games when they listed "Mouse and Keyboard Support" as a bullet point feature on the box for Modern Warfare 2 back in 2009. I have not regretted the decision.
I know Yahtzee reviews whatever the hell he likes (and that's why we watch after all) but I would love to see his take on Stasis: Bone Totem. Sci-fi horror point-and-click adventure with excellent voice acting and terrific atmosphere. Think that deserves a spotlight and is definitely up his street.
Yeah, as the years go on I've become more and more convinced that 'Spec Ops: The Line' was the singular anomaly in the modern shooter genre. Unless you count the first CoD Modern Warfare, and that was only good with its story until they kept trying to replicate it with each successive installment.
I guess it depends what you mean by modern shooter. The STALKER games were/are quite good, the Metro series is fantastic, and there is always Metal Gear Solid. But as far a military modern shooters, yea Spec Ops the line is rather unique in the sense of a good story paired with modern military combat.
how is the plot of the first modern warfare good the game literally opens with "a nuclear superpower is in the state of unexplained civil war so go hijack a tanker flying a nato flag in the baltic sea" and then it continues getting stupider
@@richardvlasek2445 true, though the part where the main character gets killed horribly in a nuclear explosion was fairly new storytelling in games like that. At least it was at the time, before every FPS pulled the same thing.
@@andyt2979yeah it was new and novel but as you note, it kinda kicked off a trend where games that wanted to have “mature” stories but also remain pretty much just “tough mfer with a gun shoots the bad mans” became just depressing and turgid slogs that frankly, would have been better served with a story that embraced the power fantasy
Yahtzee's realization about Modern Warfare is how I felt after watching the new Star Wars trilogy. Realizing you don't like something anymore is so freeing, especially when suits are burning the IP into the ground.
i don't know if yahtzee's mic levels are correct and everyone else is just loud, but I always have to turn up the volume on my end by a lot to be able to hear his fking rambling, and i do love hearing it.
I love a game that makes a statement of intent like Pizza Tower and I fully understand why someone would bounce off that. It asks you to confront that anxiety and stress and it just doesn't vibe with some, like how timers from Majoras Mask to Dead Rising to Unsighted just DON'T agree with some people.....but it's damn cool they dare to do that.
Alright, I'm just gonna say it: I kinda miss the flat yellow backgrounds. It's funny that, out of all things, that's really the only thing I miss from ol' ZP. Maybe it's just a case of stockholm syndrome after being used to it for a whole decade
I feel pretty much the same way about Pizza Tower. Really fun game, but I can only play one or two levels at a time. I only get to play it at night after a long day of work, so its intense energy wears me out. I'll beat it eventually, but I can't see myself going back for higher ranks unfortunately.
I actually really enjoyed MW2019 multiplayer quite a bit but when the last season came out I just kind of decided I’m not interested in another call of duty until they move on from its style of gameplay, but since every new release hinges on warzone integration I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. I’m also not fond of how insane the customization has gotten. It feels like one of those free to play Korean shooters from the mid 2000s
You know, I love how, even though I might disagree, I can always understand and respect Yahtzee's viewpoints, and really enjoy his perspective on... Yahtzee: (Sanabi) doesn't build to an impactful climax for me. YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW, HOW DARE!!!??!!1
I'll be honest. I clicked because I saw Pizza Tower. I'm bad at finishing Metroidvanias, and being a Hitman fan has made me okay with replaying stages repeatedly. The fact that it tells you what you're missing but not where it is, as well as the fact that levels rarely take more than 20 minutes; it make me WANT to collect everything in the game. It proves multi-skill mastery, not just that you went pixel-hunting.
Im hoping with fully ramblomatic, we can go back to the '07 somewhat funny things of yahtzee dubbing ofer game scenes like the vampire interview or the dry cleaners
Every single time, across all these years, yahtzee has said the name of a video game and then described it as forgettable ive thought to myself "no it isnt, its called... Umm... " Then realized i had no idea
You could summarize Call of Duty in one phrase: "Kingslayer, One Shot One Kill, Longshot, UAV Unlocked, MP-40 Level 3 Unlocked, Weekly Challenge Complete, Odd-Ball Play Ball, Double Kill, Surgical..."
LOL! My Xbox 360 in my "vintage gaming stack" died a bit ago. I finally found one on Craigslist in good working order for cheap. It came with the original CoD: MW in it. I immediately took it out and tossed it.
God I love that new music. It is a real banger. I have to admit I fast forwarded through the ZP one with anxiety hoping I wouldn't have to hear any of it while still hearing the beginning of the review and hoped I would recognize the final punchline when it came so I could stop the video before the song played again. This one, by contrast, is so good that I'll literally dance to it at the end of the video all the way to the end of the song. Just one of many silver linings of Yahtzee being cut loose from the Escapist.
@@CreativityNull "I'm only allowing games that I reviewed this year in the Best of awards, so with that said, give me a moment." > Opening theme "Undertale is a good game." >Closing theme
"Street urchin with expensive haircut." Okay, you know what I want to see now? A game where you play as a street guy with bad hair, but you can pay money (in game money, not real money, no micro-transactions, please) at a barber shop to get an expensive haircut, but then over time, the haircut gets increasingly messier if you don't actually manage it, until eventually you have to go get another haircut, or just accept that messy hair is the more economical option. I have no reason to want this other than it's funny to me, but do I really need more of a reason than that?
We've partnered with our merch provider, Shark Robot, to giveaway a PS5 and a $100 gift card to their store! gleam.io/9PPrM/second-wind-ps5-giveaway Enter at the link and the winner will be announced on January 24th. Entries close at Midnight MST on January 23rd.
Well, thats me forced into signing up for Xitter because of ps5 based poverty.
i would have added the "join second wind on twitch points" but twitch won't let me use my e-mail to join, asking for the username instead but i can't see what my username is because I joined Twitch via my PS4...which broke (blue light of death style) recently, because of course it did.
I'm not looking for solutions, mind, just wanted to moan a bit. So, yeah...a PS5...that would be nice.
❤️👾🕹️🎮❤️
The most surprising part of this whole video was learning that Yahtzee is a rock climber.
I think he mentioned it a couple of times back on Let's Drown Out.
It was therapy for his Tendonitis
@@stewy497 Yup. Yahtzee mentioned that a couple of times in LDO that he is an avid indoor climber.
New here, huh.
The funniest part for me was discovering that Yahtzee and my dad had the same trajectory of "Love rock climbing, no time for that shit anymore now that I have kids."
Pizza Tower truly did inflict the sheer anxiety and mania accurate to being a 40 year old Italian man, the finest sim in existence.
I hated it on first sight, I find the art style repulsive.
I loved it on first sight, I find the art style beautiful.
I lovingly hated it on first sight, I find the art style beautifully repulsive.
I pooped in the sink
I'm not sure if I loved or hated it on first sight. I find the art style beautiful but at other times, repulsive.
Summarizing Call of Duty with "This does not spark joy" is probably the most succinct vocal takedown I have ever heard in my life. God fucking speed.
Mother fucking wordsmith GENIUS bruh, love this guy X'D
The phrase is from a sorta life/interior... clean up/ de-cluttering woman who uses it to clients if certain items in their home are worth keeping- if it doesn't 'spark joy' it's not, more or less. I can't remember the name of the person/series.
But yeah it's very well applied to a lot of things in life, thinking along those lines myself (not word for word) has indeed prevented me playing games I know I'll come away from having barely enjoyed it and simply wasted time on.
@@niallscottanimation Marie Condo is the woman behind it.
those 2-3 years I spent playing COD MW II (The original one) really paid off in the long run though, I'm always in top 3 of whatever shooter game I play.
however, none of the ones that came after really hit that spark MW II had.
and they just became less and less interesting.
I tried so hard getting back into the "new" COD MW, and played for a while, but it did not spark joy, at all.
i'm surprised they're still making/remaking the damn things, the gameplay has nothing new to do and the narrative certainly ain't carrying this series anymore so why is it still releasing games?
Yeeeeah...Pizza Tower made me appreciate Metriod putting the "this planet will now self-destruct everyone get the fuck out" bit at the very END of the game.
Granted, it's funny to compare it to Metroid since Pizza Tower's time limit section was ripped straight from Wario Land 4
also why I bounced off wario land 4, to be honest. I love pizza tower with my whole heart but I can’t really do more than a mission or two at a time
Except for the Nintendo DS release "Metroid Prime: Hunters", which had it at the end of every level and gave me trauma for which I will not be able to play Pizza Tower
How dare you remind me that this game exists.@@viliussmproductions
The timed sections are the best part of the game imo, really forces you to interact with the speed elements which are fantastic once you get to know your moveset. Plus it means you know most of the layout on your way out, rather than have that rush completely blind. Suppose the stress isn't for everyone though
Pizza Tower made Yahtzee feel as stressed as Peppino is, truly it is a piece of true art.
If only Yahtzee had a constant threat of his house blowing up, then he would have been able to push through
hi
@@jimmyjohnjoejr"it's the ping!"
2023 starting off with Pizza tower and hifi rush really understated how stacked the year was gonna be for video games.
Hifi Rush was the best game that came out this year though?
@@CErra310 tbh yes. Such an overhyped year but that game is great
Nope. That was literally the peak of the year.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was better imo
Stacked yes, but it peaked early tbh.
Completely fair criticism of pizza tower, definitely not for everyone, but the escape sequences are my personal favorite part of that game aside from going for P ranks, tbh
The fact that it induced panicked anxiety when Pizza Time started for Yahtzee tells me that it was successful at accomplishing what it set out to do.
3:21 really cool pose and facial expression, didn't even notice that this artstyle is now capable of capturing eyerolling in all of its potential.
The mention of Sanabi's twist reminds me of the episode of Bob's Burgers where Linda hosts a murder mystery night at the diner where she reveals that she's the murderer after telling tbe audience that she wasn't.
"What? You explicitly told us at the beginning of the show you weren't the murderer!"
"Thats right! It's a twist!"
"No, that's a lie. A lie is not a twist."
Untrustworthy narrator is a fantastic trope to use but you can't shoe horn it in at the end you have to give clues of some sort. Hell even in Crackdown they kind of full that at the end but I had already figured out we're the bad guys as one time I landed in the middle of the city with two rival gangs side by side doing nothing everything was peaceful until I started shooting and all hell broke loose. That might not have been intended by the game developers but something along those lines is important if you want to use that trope.
I'm actually happy for Yahtzee, the fact he no longer feels forced by deadlines to play and finish damn near every game coming out whether it's obvious it's not going to make a good video or not is very heartening to hear.
Pledging to the patreon when my boss gives me a raise.
It's nice that Yahtzee doesn't feel like he needs to do call of duty anymore.
How long until the Ubisoft sandbox gets the axe? If any game type deserves to be ignored next, it's them.
I feel like he'll still want to do them because they're the sort of games you can do your taxes to
@@BazallWorks you actually need a little bit of focus to play Ubisoft sandboxes; it's just that every game they make is like different patterns of Simon Says.
If you want to do your taxes to a game, look no further than SquareEnix or anything made by Hideo Kojima.
@@thefailtrain2202nah square has some solid games and hideo is a good dev too imo i like his games tbh😊
I do actually love when Yahtzee does games not because he wants to, but because people demand it.
I just find it fun to hear him start off with a defeated "alright! Fuck it! Fine! Here's the review of (game I didn't want to play but for some reason you want to hear me talk about)" before completely lambasting it for 8 minutes straight.
Jimminy cockthroat games are some of his more dull reviews imo as of late.
Though I am very biased towards listening to reviews about indies since I only play indies at this point.
Pizza tower really does have so much of it's core DNA come from the late 90's cartoon network, specifically Courage the Cowardly Dog...... *Because that show was a stress inducing nightmare of eldritch horrors* everyone in my generation can unanimously agree that Courage the Cowardly Dog was a deeply fucked up show and that's why it's a goddamn master piece. Which is also why Pizza Tower is so good.
That and a lot of it is Wario Land 4 mechanics with lots of new graphics (not a bad thing. I loved Wario Land 4 as a kid)
There's an artist on here who's been doing crossover art and animations of Pizza Tower and Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy. It's legitimately amazing how well the two art styles go together.
@@CreativityNull This is why gaming is the most justifable medium for sequels out of all of them. Game mechanics are iterative, and Pizza Tower had every right to expand on Wario Land 4's core gameplay after its one sequel sidelined it for wacky motion controls and then it was never touched again.
I‘d recognize it as a spiritual successor to Wario Land Shake It! down to the style being it minus fancy art style. Played that particular one so when I saw Pizza Tower and its trailer it was essentially „My Nostalia: The Game“.
@@sunlitsonata6853 Shake it had much of the same mechanics. The only motion control was being able to shake money out of things. It still had the "run long enough to sprint and break tougher blocks" thing that Wario Land 4 had. It even still had the escape sequence. The game did play a bit slower but that isn't the fault of the motion controls.
Anyone who liked Cocoon for the experience of navigating nested worlds should give Patrick's Parabox a try. There's unfortunately even less story but it pushes the mechanics much further.
Absolutely. It's an abstract puzzle game, so there's no plot to speak of, but it did manage to make me laugh out loud several times just due to how clever some of the interactions were.
Both brilliant games.
Recursed is another great one. Also light on story, but goddamn is it incredible.
Edit: typo
"Recurred"? you mean Recursed? (Trying to find it on Steam)
@@gargaj Yeah I think they probably meant Recursed. Also an excellent puzzle game.
Everything after MW2019 was like some sort of experiment in how quickly can your burn out people's interest in your new reboot universe.
Sheapard sucks, Makarov sucks, they canonized the entire black ops timeline, and it all became seasonal and very confusing.
At least Cold War was alright. It's really how funny they leaned way more into nostalgiabait with MWII and III, only to kneecap the effort with how they wrote the new versions of the villains. And killing Soap again, despite the previous game establishing a really good relationship between him and Ghost. It's like they gave 12 year old me what I wanted out of the original MW2 but then decided to spite 12 year old me by flushing it down the toilet immediately.
@@Calvin_CoolageWhat depressed me about Call of duty' that is the OG games were based around various historical events in various settings . Even if you sticking to last 100 years there's has been no shortages of perfectly 'good' lesser known wars they could do. But we just get the greatest hits over and over again.
Oh how I’ve missed the swearing
That's one of the things I'm glad changed after they went independent. Censoring Yatzhee is crime.
FLIP
Ikr?!
This channel and these videos feel so... comfy. Like it's a legitimate relief to me.
Thanks to all involved for the paths you've taken with your actual lives that have led you to the place where I still get to hear Yahtzee chat about games.
Pizza Tower was my game of the year out of what I played, but I can't blame Yahtzee for feeling stressed out by it. The wild adrenaline rush of the time pressure or blitzing through levels that once slapsticked you silly is exactly what made me love it so much (among many other things).
Better to nail a niche than become an everything bland game like Ubisoft sandboxes.
I understand why Yahtzee didn't stick with Pizza Tower, the "run back to the beginning of the level before time runs out" mechanic it borrows from Wario Land 4 is, as it turns out, more polarizing than I realized. Some people don't like the anxiety that comes with it, while others tout it as being incredibly exhilarating. Yahtzee DOES have a point, though, regarding exploring every nook and cranny in a level, since there ARE things to discover during escape sequences of certain levels, and you're either supposed to know to go there or risk running out the timer by exploring and discovering it naturally. I still freaking love the game to death, though, it's easily my favorite game of 2023 as well as one of my favorite games of all time.
Yeah as soon as Yahtzee mentioned the "run backward through the level" and hub world mechanics, I took it as a semi-review of Wario Land 4/Shake It.
@@ShadowEl Yahtzee probably never played either of those games, he probably wouldn't like them that much anyway, but who's to say...
@@Rubberman202 Yahtzee's haterection for Nintendo sure is odd.
@@ShadowEl Eh, I try not to let it get to me too much.
It's ok Yahtz, no one should play last year's Call of Duty.
You wrote that sentence wrong. You need to take out "last year's"
@@CreativityNull They used to be entertaining. And by "used to" I mean those from nearly 2 decades ago. Same goes for a lot of long running franchises, unfortunately
I think hearing him realise that this was the one that was bad even by CoD standards would have been fun, however
That sentence can be repeated for many years to come too, good job 👍
@@cyansuy3062 MW II and to a degree MWIII was quite good, the originals anyway.......kinda depressing they are 15-20 years old at this point.......
It's a blessing that we have a Second Wind where Yahtz can review a game like "Humanity" can justifiably use his dog sidekick. Wouldn't work if it was an imp.
...but maybe if the imp had floggy dog ears.
There was indeed a "dog" variant of the imp that showed up from time to time
i'll miss the imps, they had a sort of comedic quality that can't be achieved in something as cute as a doggy. still, the new redesign isn't bad and we do have all the old episodes to remember them by.
I'm still a bit sad the imps never got to follow them to SW. They'll going to be stuck in the empty wasteland of the shared assets folder at the old place forever, never getting the chance to put on silly costumes or humorously die ever again. This is why you need to unionise.
@@masonlilly1889and thier name was "Chips"
The whole dog guardian spirit thing is a Japanese culture trope.
Every year this video does a good job of population my Steam library with some fun games.
I’m sure there is a joke somewhere in the fact that some people, like myself, only know of the existence of a Modern Warfare 2 remake because of Yahtzee telling the Modern Warfare 3 remake to bugger off.
Oh no, you misunderstand, dear viewer. It's not a Modern Warfare 2 remake, it's a sequel to Modern Warfare remake that isn't at all like Modern Warfare 2 except for the parts that are. And Modern Warfare 3 is literally just a reskin of 2 with a new story I really wish I was joking but I can't tell the two apart if you show me two pictures of the multiplayer side by side.
@@BottomOfTheDumpsterFire not to be confused with the literal modern warfare 2 campaign remake that was released a couple years ago of course
Please don't tell me Yahtzee lost ownership of the imps, they were such a memorable way of his visuals
He did. That and the solid yellow background are still owned by the escapist. Not that they'll do anything with it, but 🤷♂️
@@alexkaplan6581 I heard they're still in talks, so maybe in a few years they'll get them back.
Heck even the basic character models, which is why everyone wears glasses now despite their actual eyesight
I hadn't even noticed the glasses, everyone suddenly became a Minion! 🤣
Oof the part about the "I don't have to play this anymore" drug. Got lucky and found that while begrudgingly playing Black ops2 years ago. Haven't touched a call of duty since and have no desire to do so, and have been happily skipping by reading about all the terrible call of duties that have come out since I walked away.
I will say that while I was also driven to anxiety by Pizza Tower, being able to kick nine kinds of shit out of the bosses was *very* cathartic at the end of it all.
Yahtzee acknowledgeding Jusant's climbing mechanic's, as an unexpected fellow climber, was all the praise I needed for that game.
Finding out about his rock climbing enthusiasm really makes me long for the game that finally makes him discuss his keen enthusiasm for BDSM. I think we could all stand to learn a thing or two
Yahtzee is a fellow rock-climber? He continues to be a man of culture
Would not have guessed lol
But then again, rocks do not attempt to engage in socializing and conversation... makes sense then, when you think about it ^_^'
You must not have been watching him for long. On his old channel, he talks about it a bit :)
I just wonder where the heck he does it. He lives in the east bay which is about as famous for its rock climbing spots as the city of Atlantis
Honestly been watching since forever and I missed it too (and have watched-re-watched so many times)
Maybe it's my addled brain age lol X'D@@alan62036
There are indoor rock climbing businesses.
I guess I didn't realize Yahtzee didn't review MW3 remake, although that can be attributed to the interchangeability of the franchise
He kinda didn't review MW1 remake either, or rather he did but only partially.
Reboot not remake.
I don't think I've ever agreed with Yahtzee as much as I do in regards to Modern Warfare.
I don't even feel like making fun of it anymore. Even that has gotten old
Pizza Tower was my Game of the Year and its anxiety inducing gameplay was one of the main reasons. To each their own. And the soundtrack was incredible.
100% agreed. My GOTY too and I love the adrenalin rush of the Pizza Time sections
I'm team 'ow my anxiety' but it's nice we can agree that it's great
I like Pizza Tower and I think the end of the level race back was actually a really good mechanic, but at the risk of saying "You're playing it wrong" as a game defense (Which I do try to avoid because that's on the game devs to design it so you DO play it correctly), the way I found that it works best is a style many may not like.
Short answer is: You have to plan. Not only do you have to plan, you have to first explore the level and possibly play it a couple times so you can properly plan. Then you have to make your run following the plan. That's how I get S ranks anyways.
I can see why some people would not like this mix. It kind of requires you to like the aspects of a twitchy fast paced platformer, a logic puzzle platformer, and an exploration platformer. If you don't like any of those, the whole combo can fall apart.
SANABI really does love its crazy, out-of-left-field twists that no one could have predicted, but I loved the game all the same. One of my favorites of 2023. Come for the grappling hook acrobatics. Stay for the soundtrack.
agreed, looking back the story could have been executed better but it was still entertaining all the same
@@jimmyjohnjoejr As whacky as it got in several places, the game still finished strong. That grand finale made me feel something.
You can legit feel the joy Yahtzee feels in not having to do endless copies of Modern Warfare (or Assassin’s Creed) any more, it’s quite refreshing
Very happy to not be part of the CoD crowd. Nice to hear someone else say it
Yahtzee, the trick is to bring the child with you climbing once they get about 5 or so. It is very easy to belay a child of that size. They are so light thier weight does not even push the rope through the device. It makes bringing them back down fun. My daughter loves climbing with me. If she has trouble reaching a hold I can just hoist her up the wall.
Once they learn how not to get squished in the bouldering area you can climb with them.
The most surprising part of this whole video is that people were unironically asking him to review a Call of Duty game.
Eh, I do feel like his roasting works best on games we love enough to personally know, and to be in on the joke, but particularly savage critiques of games, developers and maybe even fandoms we love to hate are also cathartic.
@@jongrubbdesign he could make a review of "the last 5 call of duty" at once every 5 years to have enough jokes, maybe. It's not like people will notice if he mixes up some installments
This was the mpst positive roundup I've seen him do, this is remarkable.
I love that the time bar decided to rename Jusant to ‘Inside the Mind of a Dying Seagull’ complete with capitals on all the big words
Oh man, the low-key glee with which Yahtzee realizes he doesn't have to play Call of Duty again, lol!
I'm gonna miss the compilations of the year's ZP/FR episodes (for 2023, at least). Always fun to have on in the background.
Through those compilations I’ve watched almost every episode of ZP just by playing them in the background
Maybe in 2025 we could get a FR compilation here in Second Wind!
The Escapist made one for ZP, but... in solidarity to the Second Wind team, I ain't touchin' that shit. XD
Bruh no worries, there'll be a user out there doin' someone's god's work by creating a compilation vid for us that we can watch elsewhere from Escrapist monetization ^_^
@@andrewphilos I have avoided viewing material on The Escapist since The Incident, including old episodes of ZP. I don't feel right with any monetization going to a parent company that had nothing to do with making the media, and everything to do with disrupting it.
I fucking love Pizza Tower. My favorite game of 2023. But I totally get where he’s coming from with the stress of the time limit. I typically only completed 1 or 2 levels per day. Although when I say “completed”, I do mean running through enough times to get all the collectibles, the S-rank, and the special achievements.
I came back for the P-ranks after beating the game, too. They were very hard.
"Congress votes to bomb Disneyland"
My approval of Congressional decision-making has just increased 1000%
The best part of this video was the sign that said "Behave, peasants". 10/10
Wait, Yatzee has kids? Did I hear that right in the rock climbing metaphor?
Two of them iirc. He played "Bluey: The Video Game" a bit and talked about how much he liked the show when he watches it with them.
That description of Cocoon reminds me of Patrick’s Parabox; a puzzle game I really should get back to at some point.
I noticed how salt CoD players often ask "what changed? What went wrong??"
Silly, nothing changed for a decade, thats the problem
Anyone else surprised that last gag didn't turn into "But doctor, I AM Modern Warfare 3"?
He's right: I started taking 'never playing Modern Warfare games again' to cure my 'degenerative no longer enjoying games disease' and my life has really turned around.
Glad to know Yahtzee gave Pizza Tower a shot, if anything.
It's not really a surprise Yahtzee didn't review Modern Warfare III, considering for the past six or seven years he's largely gone out of his way to avoid reviewing a new COD.
In an odd way, Pizza Tower being an anxiety inducing game helped me deal with my own anxiety issues last year, hell I even 100%'d the levels (still need the final boss lol)
Also the running back through the stage isnt as rougelike as Yahtzee says, its clear with some indicators/arrows and blocked sections where you have to go, but it is confusing the first time.
I'm just glad Sanabi is getting the attention it deserves.
I stopped playing CoD games when they listed "Mouse and Keyboard Support" as a bullet point feature on the box for Modern Warfare 2 back in 2009. I have not regretted the decision.
well that's just unfair, a lot of the games before 2019 were 8/10s at least
Yahtzee’s take on Pizza Tower was my exact experience too.
I know Yahtzee reviews whatever the hell he likes (and that's why we watch after all) but I would love to see his take on Stasis: Bone Totem.
Sci-fi horror point-and-click adventure with excellent voice acting and terrific atmosphere.
Think that deserves a spotlight and is definitely up his street.
Yeah, as the years go on I've become more and more convinced that 'Spec Ops: The Line' was the singular anomaly in the modern shooter genre. Unless you count the first CoD Modern Warfare, and that was only good with its story until they kept trying to replicate it with each successive installment.
I guess it depends what you mean by modern shooter. The STALKER games were/are quite good, the Metro series is fantastic, and there is always Metal Gear Solid. But as far a military modern shooters, yea Spec Ops the line is rather unique in the sense of a good story paired with modern military combat.
how is the plot of the first modern warfare good
the game literally opens with "a nuclear superpower is in the state of unexplained civil war so go hijack a tanker flying a nato flag in the baltic sea" and then it continues getting stupider
He calls the genre "spunk-gargle wee wee" for a reason, after all
@@richardvlasek2445 true, though the part where the main character gets killed horribly in a nuclear explosion was fairly new storytelling in games like that.
At least it was at the time, before every FPS pulled the same thing.
@@andyt2979yeah it was new and novel but as you note, it kinda kicked off a trend where games that wanted to have “mature” stories but also remain pretty much just “tough mfer with a gun shoots the bad mans” became just depressing and turgid slogs that frankly, would have been better served with a story that embraced the power fantasy
One can only wonder what choice words and metaphors Yahtzee could bring forth if he played The Day Before.
Yahtzee's realization about Modern Warfare is how I felt after watching the new Star Wars trilogy. Realizing you don't like something anymore is so freeing, especially when suits are burning the IP into the ground.
"I thought I'd learn to play bass" ATTACKED
to be fair even the call of duty fanboys didn't like mw3 this year so skipping it was probably the right call
Unfortunately the fanboys are outnunbered by the casuals who keep buying it to have something to play for a year.
i don't know if yahtzee's mic levels are correct and everyone else is just loud, but I always have to turn up the volume on my end by a lot to be able to hear his fking rambling, and i do love hearing it.
“Hackney young adult plot” *puts up a picture of Eragon*
So you have chosen, death
I agree completely with the pizza tower segment, i can play it for at most two levels before needing to lie down
I love a game that makes a statement of intent like Pizza Tower and I fully understand why someone would bounce off that. It asks you to confront that anxiety and stress and it just doesn't vibe with some, like how timers from Majoras Mask to Dead Rising to Unsighted just DON'T agree with some people.....but it's damn cool they dare to do that.
Alright, I'm just gonna say it: I kinda miss the flat yellow backgrounds. It's funny that, out of all things, that's really the only thing I miss from ol' ZP. Maybe it's just a case of stockholm syndrome after being used to it for a whole decade
I feel pretty much the same way about Pizza Tower. Really fun game, but I can only play one or two levels at a time. I only get to play it at night after a long day of work, so its intense energy wears me out. I'll beat it eventually, but I can't see myself going back for higher ranks unfortunately.
Woohoo, the grand return of Glados on Xanax is finally here
Huh? I must have missed that part?
@@drdca8263the ai voice he uses to read the game titles sounds like Glados on Xanax.
@@Mr_Muda_Himself thanks!
I actually really enjoyed MW2019 multiplayer quite a bit but when the last season came out I just kind of decided I’m not interested in another call of duty until they move on from its style of gameplay, but since every new release hinges on warzone integration I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.
I’m also not fond of how insane the customization has gotten. It feels like one of those free to play Korean shooters from the mid 2000s
You know, I love how, even though I might disagree, I can always understand and respect Yahtzee's viewpoints, and really enjoy his perspective on...
Yahtzee: (Sanabi) doesn't build to an impactful climax for me.
YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW, HOW DARE!!!??!!1
When you put it on 1.25 speed he sounds like old days
5:30 - But doctor! I'M 400 milligrams of Never-Playing-Modern-Warfare-Games-Again!
"Didn't play it, never will."
You're not missing much tbh
I'll be honest. I clicked because I saw Pizza Tower.
I'm bad at finishing Metroidvanias, and being a Hitman fan has made me okay with replaying stages repeatedly. The fact that it tells you what you're missing but not where it is, as well as the fact that levels rarely take more than 20 minutes; it make me WANT to collect everything in the game.
It proves multi-skill mastery, not just that you went pixel-hunting.
I remember you saying years ago, in a lets drown out, that you'd tried climbing, glad you kept up 😊
I’m so obsessed with the new intro music
The Avoid Playing Soulslikes prescription's been working out great for me
Im hoping with fully ramblomatic, we can go back to the '07 somewhat funny things of yahtzee dubbing ofer game scenes like the vampire interview or the dry cleaners
I was fully expecting the voice to say “Modern Warfare Eye Eye Eye” 😂😂
That AMIGA was mirrored and i demand recompense for that dear sir!
No pikmin 4?!?!?! Im shocked. That was a high profile release of a series that tried to reinvent itself and had a unique gameplay concept.
The beginning of this new theme song reminds me of the Suzanne Vega track "Blood Makes Noise". Suzanne Vega rules!
I lold at 04:15 when the smoke was coming out of the magazine instead of the barrel
Im so happy i can still see reviews from you
I can't believe there was time when Yahtzee praised Modern Warfare. How far CoD has fallen.
Every single time, across all these years, yahtzee has said the name of a video game and then described it as forgettable ive thought to myself "no it isnt, its called... Umm... " Then realized i had no idea
You could summarize Call of Duty in one phrase: "Kingslayer, One Shot One Kill, Longshot, UAV Unlocked, MP-40 Level 3 Unlocked, Weekly Challenge Complete, Odd-Ball Play Ball, Double Kill, Surgical..."
Great vid. Stay for the "Rub Tummy."
Kinda sad though, none of the Yakuza games from this year got a mention
LOL! My Xbox 360 in my "vintage gaming stack" died a bit ago. I finally found one on Craigslist in good working order for cheap. It came with the original CoD: MW in it. I immediately took it out and tossed it.
Jesus Christ that last line. I love it.
if I had nickel for every game that was set in the head of a dying seagull I would only have one nickel, but it would be nice to have one more
"A video game adaptation of being john malkovich" terrifies me to the core.
nice to hear yahtzee weigh in on these games
God I love that new music. It is a real banger.
I have to admit I fast forwarded through the ZP one with anxiety hoping I wouldn't have to hear any of it while still hearing the beginning of the review and hoped I would recognize the final punchline when it came so I could stop the video before the song played again. This one, by contrast, is so good that I'll literally dance to it at the end of the video all the way to the end of the song. Just one of many silver linings of Yahtzee being cut loose from the Escapist.
Pizza Tower and Cow and Chicken is such an obvious comparison that i feel thick for not thinking it before
And know that I see that mini review of pizza tower I can rest in peace
Rest in pizza
I remember the mini review he did on Homestuck back in 2015 "it's good" then continued on with the awards
@@CreativityNull "I'm only allowing games that I reviewed this year in the Best of awards, so with that said, give me a moment."
> Opening theme
"Undertale is a good game."
>Closing theme
@@alberthwang2900 exactly, it was great
"Street urchin with expensive haircut."
Okay, you know what I want to see now? A game where you play as a street guy with bad hair, but you can pay money (in game money, not real money, no micro-transactions, please) at a barber shop to get an expensive haircut, but then over time, the haircut gets increasingly messier if you don't actually manage it, until eventually you have to go get another haircut, or just accept that messy hair is the more economical option.
I have no reason to want this other than it's funny to me, but do I really need more of a reason than that?
Pity the 'Never play modern warfare again' wouldn't work on me, I got the 'Never play a COD game' implant.