Arco dev here! If you are playing Arco and feel like Ben and Jacob about the game being too hard but wanting to finish the story. There's an assist mode on settings that let's you modify some things to make the game easier without any repercussion. It even allows you to skip combats so you can enjoy the scenery and the story. Anyways, thanks for talking about our game, appreciate it a lot!
This is great timing. I just beat Arco a few days ago, and the game is very difficult in parts but still doable. I felt so rewarded by having finished the game and the big motivator was the story. It's up there for one of my favorite games I played this year.
Seems like it got lost in the sea of other smaller games this year. Haven't heard any podcast spend much time on it. I thought it was going to be a corporate cash grab. Maybe it needed better marketing.
2:20:18 My top ten Lego sets. Sorry, I didn’t know if they’d be interesting if I listed them in my question. (One is not from this year, but I built it this year. It’s just that good) 1. Mario and Yoshi 2. NES 3. Tuxedo Cat 4. Milky Way Galaxy 5. Millennium Falcon (starship collection) 6. Polaroid Camera 7. Kingfisher 8. Batman TAS Batmobile 9. Boarding the Tantive IV 10. Isabelle’s house visit
@@dbz5af I would love to get it, but I haven’t been able to justify the $400 CAD price tag. I might pick it up near the end of the year. But I also really want the Gotham City Skyline.
Thank you MinnMax for another great episode. I'm kind of surprised about the lack of Stalker 2 coverage these last couples of episodes. Beside the fact that the game have a lot of issues, I personally still like it very much and it's captivating. Talking about real development hell conditions and still getting a game to be released is something special. I would love to see you guys talking about the game and points of view.
Calcium Chaos! My friends from Lunch Money, has emerged from a Danish Games incubator, moved to sweden and now released their twin stick shooter Calcium Chaos on steam. Always great to see the spotlight hit smaller games. :)
Here's one I don't think many people know about: GUNCHO It's a super unique Spaghetti Western tactics game about using a six shooter to kill incoming enemies with similar elements to Into the Breach, with a simple but really well done cartoony style and roguelike elements. Perfect Steam Deck game, too.
This was a great year for 3D platformers. My favorites were Penny's Big Breakaway, Astro Bot, and Akimbot. I still need to check out Sonic x Generations too.
I would say that knowledge of "We put tons of effort into this rapid fire interview, other sites scraped it for info to draw attention to their sites, and what we get from it financially isn't enough for the breakfast our team had to plan the segment." Perfectly encapsulates the dystopian future that AI is bringing. Like, for now at least, someone has a job to watch that video and get the information and put it together into a click-bait article. Pretty soon a bot will just harvest headlines and spew out information and it might be accurate and most people will just make their job fact checking the AI stories. Just hammers home that direct investment rather than a consumer centric mindset of "Well I'm watching it aren't I?" is the only way to sustain indie (In this case, actually Indy) creative enterprises these days.
I recently played through Crypt Custodian and it was a real delight! It wasn't super challenging but was really good vibes. It feels like a great game to recommend someone that is new to metroidvanias; it's very palatable and the fast travel makes navigating the map really quick.
There's a quick way to type en and em dashes on Windows of you're OK with Alt codes: hold down the ALT key, then type 0150 or 0151 (I forget which one, but each of those does one of dashes) on the numpad.
Since I have no overlap with Janet's list, I thought I'd share my own top 5 albums with y'all lol (in no particular order) EDIT: Autocorrect thought it be funny to change Janet's name to "Jante" for some reason 😒 Hyperdrama by Justice No Name by Jack White Hit Me Hard and Soft by Billie Eilish Pasarela by colombian-venezuelan-spanish band Çantamarta Method Actor by Nilüfer Yanya
Good to hear some Bando Stone love from Janet! If you're reading this, what's your Kendrick album rating? For me it's probably: 1. TPAB 2. Mr Morale 3. GNX 4. GKMC 5. Damn 6. Section 80
1. TPAB 2. GNX (recency bias?? maybe!) 3. GKMC 4. Mr. Morale????? (I'm not sure bc i am still figuring out how I feel about that record) 5. Damn 6. Section 80
Ben, I appreciate this is a long-shot but a Sokpop MinnMax Spotlight would go hard! Anytime a Cream of the Steam game was good, there was a 90% chance it was a Sokpop joint. Stacklands is their most successful game and I'm certain JeffM (at least) would have a blast playing it.
I think dread delusion might qualify as a hidden gem, not sure if you folks covered it. Although for underappreciated I'd have to give slitterhead a shoutout. Some really cool ideas plus a surprisingly good/insane story.
FF14 is absolutely the best story in any FF game. Anyone who says its not has either not played it, along with all of its expansions, or are lying about having played it.
Best game I played this year that didn't come out this year: Final Fantasy XI. I've been playing it off and on since 2004. I now play on a classic era private server, because modern retail XI is dumb and has been dumb for some 15 years. Classic XI is, for my money, one of the best MMO experiences around despite its age and it all comes down to the sense of community. FFXI is a game where, after level ~10 it is very hard to do anything solo. The game forces you to play with others and since there is no auto-group function you have actually make friends. Classic XI stands in direct opposition of the Single-Player MMO that most people seem to prefer, and that's why I've stuck with FFXI after all these years.
Not full screen! And many of them are scripted so when you loop you won’t get scared by them anymore. Some wouldn’t call them jumpscares but I do bc it’s a surprise appearance with a scary sound lol
For me it might be the strongest indie year possibly ever, and that to me is because AAA has been somewhat weak so it's been easier to sift through the churn.
Every year MinnMax airs their full Game of the Year debates on The MinnMax Show, creating a ranked list of their 20 favorite games that they call The Two Tens.
Rather than doing a top 10 like many outlets do MinnMax does Two top 10 lists, the "Two Tens" Top 10 and Bottom 10 in order to celebrate more games and give room to the many people that are part of MinnMax.
The two 10's is Minnmax take on the top 20 games of the year. The top 10 and bottom 10. Top 10 are the cream of the crop, the bottom 10 are really awesome titles that should be checked out but just missed out of the top 10.
So concerned about goty being popularity contest you don't even see yourself in the opposite problem. You dismiss popular games with your elitist gatekeeping.
Level up your game and get 10% off @TurtleBeach with code MINNMAX at turtlebeach.com/minnmax! #turtlebeachpod #ad
Arco dev here!
If you are playing Arco and feel like Ben and Jacob about the game being too hard but wanting to finish the story. There's an assist mode on settings that let's you modify some things to make the game easier without any repercussion. It even allows you to skip combats so you can enjoy the scenery and the story.
Anyways, thanks for talking about our game, appreciate it a lot!
Got the game on Switch and will play it over the holidays! Looks great!! Thanks
Shout out for responding to constructive criticism as a dev, that’s awesome. Your game is near the top of my wishlist, I plan to check it out soon.
This is great timing. I just beat Arco a few days ago, and the game is very difficult in parts but still doable. I felt so rewarded by having finished the game and the big motivator was the story. It's up there for one of my favorite games I played this year.
Good work. Hell of a game you made
How does Minnmax always get charity donors who are incredibly generous and also super personable?
First Haley de Boom, and now Jonah.
How did Ben not say "Grunn, dont walk" at the ending of the grunn discussion? Lol
My God… what have we done
"Sorry We're Closed" is a Silent Hill-like survival horror game with Suda51/Killer 7 style and characters. Found it from Steam promoting LGBTQ+ games
literally the game i came here to shill! ty utena
I genuinely really wanted to hear Yars Rising talked about on the podcast but given up on it happening, thanks for briefly getting to it Ben
Seems like it got lost in the sea of other smaller games this year. Haven't heard any podcast spend much time on it. I thought it was going to be a corporate cash grab. Maybe it needed better marketing.
It really deserved more love than it got. Also, one of the best soundtracks of the year.
Wow, this podcast did it's job. I just came back to it like "why'd I not finish this podcast?" and then remembered I stopped it to go play Grunn.
Jonah seems like a cool guy.
He did awesome on this! The few times that I've seen people from the community star in the show, they did great.
AGREED
Agree with you Jonah! FF7R deep dives have been exceptional
Thankful for you guys and everything you do! Love the charity efforts ❤
2:20:18
My top ten Lego sets. Sorry, I didn’t know if they’d be interesting if I listed them in my question. (One is not from this year, but I built it this year. It’s just that good)
1. Mario and Yoshi
2. NES
3. Tuxedo Cat
4. Milky Way Galaxy
5. Millennium Falcon (starship collection)
6. Polaroid Camera
7. Kingfisher
8. Batman TAS Batmobile
9. Boarding the Tantive IV
10. Isabelle’s house visit
I want that Mario and Yoshi so bad! Thanks for sharing btw
No zelda deku tree? Or did you not get to it? Just curious because that’s one I’ve been eyeing this year!
@@dbz5af I would love to get it, but I haven’t been able to justify the $400 CAD price tag. I might pick it up near the end of the year. But I also really want the Gotham City Skyline.
Thank you MinnMax for another great episode. I'm kind of surprised about the lack of Stalker 2 coverage these last couples of episodes. Beside the fact that the game have a lot of issues, I personally still like it very much and it's captivating. Talking about real development hell conditions and still getting a game to be released is something special. I would love to see you guys talking about the game and points of view.
Leo said in the discord he’s been playing the game but it hasn’t been connecting much with him, guessing we’ll hear about it next time he’s on
Calcium Chaos! My friends from Lunch Money, has emerged from a Danish Games incubator, moved to sweden and now released their twin stick shooter Calcium Chaos on steam.
Always great to see the spotlight hit smaller games. :)
Nothing more satisfying than teaching someone a life changing shortcut. I use to open paint everytime to save screenshot before I knew
I'm surprised Janet's favourite albums from this year are so mainstream when her game taste seems so varied.
I can’t be indie everywhere. 🤷🏽♀️
Crypt Custodian is a 10/10 game.
Jonah was such nice fresh addition to the episode
Here's one I don't think many people know about: GUNCHO
It's a super unique Spaghetti Western tactics game about using a six shooter to kill incoming enemies with similar elements to Into the Breach, with a simple but really well done cartoony style and roguelike elements. Perfect Steam Deck game, too.
Does it take place in the town of Gunch? Are there giant rubber band balls?
This was a great year for 3D platformers. My favorites were Penny's Big Breakaway, Astro Bot, and Akimbot. I still need to check out Sonic x Generations too.
The Shadow half of Sonic x Shadow Generations is so good. The 3D levels are as good at being 3D Sonic as Sonic Mania was at being 2D Sonic
I really want to shout out Hauntii, it’s a twin stick shooter with the capture mechanic of Mario Odyssey, and an absolutely gorgeous hand drawn style!
This is one of my fave games of the year, beautiful game
I like that game a lot! Need to go back and finish it
It's on Game Pass, so thank you for shouting it out! I'll give it a try tomorrow.
I would say that knowledge of "We put tons of effort into this rapid fire interview, other sites scraped it for info to draw attention to their sites, and what we get from it financially isn't enough for the breakfast our team had to plan the segment." Perfectly encapsulates the dystopian future that AI is bringing. Like, for now at least, someone has a job to watch that video and get the information and put it together into a click-bait article. Pretty soon a bot will just harvest headlines and spew out information and it might be accurate and most people will just make their job fact checking the AI stories.
Just hammers home that direct investment rather than a consumer centric mindset of "Well I'm watching it aren't I?" is the only way to sustain indie (In this case, actually Indy) creative enterprises these days.
I recently played through Crypt Custodian and it was a real delight! It wasn't super challenging but was really good vibes. It feels like a great game to recommend someone that is new to metroidvanias; it's very palatable and the fast travel makes navigating the map really quick.
Stoked if Jeff Minter is the least good of those doco games, only one I've played yet and loved it!
The Madden discussion was very funny for me bc I've got thanksgiving football going muted on the side while this plays lol
Is Drova mentioned at any time? Huge under-rated gem for this year.
Janet making fun of Ben's obsession with the Gold Master series aka Jeff "Minster" is a good bit.
Ugh. Time for my Steam wishlist to blow up even more now. THANKS.
There's a quick way to type en and em dashes on Windows of you're OK with Alt codes: hold down the ALT key, then type 0150 or 0151 (I forget which one, but each of those does one of dashes) on the numpad.
Été, completely fell under the radar. It's lovely.
I go to MinnMax for the optimism and passion for games. I go to Fire Escape Podcast for perma-pissy-zone-athon.
Love both.
hey guys, as someone who has downtime during the holidays i love that you guys pre record and
Since I have no overlap with Janet's list, I thought I'd share my own top 5 albums with y'all lol (in no particular order)
EDIT: Autocorrect thought it be funny to change Janet's name to "Jante" for some reason 😒
Hyperdrama by Justice
No Name by Jack White
Hit Me Hard and Soft by Billie Eilish
Pasarela by colombian-venezuelan-spanish band Çantamarta
Method Actor by Nilüfer Yanya
Hit Me Hard and Soft was a contender for me. Just didn't beat out the others! Might need to check out your list
Good to hear some Bando Stone love from Janet! If you're reading this, what's your Kendrick album rating? For me it's probably:
1. TPAB
2. Mr Morale
3. GNX
4. GKMC
5. Damn
6. Section 80
Your 4 and 6 should be your 1 and 2 respectively.
1. TPAB
2. GNX (recency bias?? maybe!)
3. GKMC
4. Mr. Morale????? (I'm not sure bc i am still figuring out how I feel about that record)
5. Damn
6. Section 80
@@Gameonysus Good list! Mr Morale is hard to figure out, I'm looking at my list now and wondering how I ended up putting it at 2.
Ben, I appreciate this is a long-shot but a Sokpop MinnMax Spotlight would go hard!
Anytime a Cream of the Steam game was good, there was a 90% chance it was a Sokpop joint. Stacklands is their most successful game and I'm certain JeffM (at least) would have a blast playing it.
I think dread delusion might qualify as a hidden gem, not sure if you folks covered it. Although for underappreciated I'd have to give slitterhead a shoutout. Some really cool ideas plus a surprisingly good/insane story.
Arco is so good. Glad to see the game getting some more eyes on it!
JUDERO is Scottish folklore stopmotion stuff from the very interesting Jack King-Spooner
100% with Jonah. The Game Awards should be 0% fan vote.
I know, I did the beta for the PS2 for FFXI Online. I still have the free copy they gave me.
I only started it the other day, but I’ve been enjoying Dungeons of Hinterberg and haven’t seen a lot of talk about it this year
FF14 is absolutely the best story in any FF game. Anyone who says its not has either not played it, along with all of its expansions, or are lying about having played it.
Best game I played this year that didn't come out this year: Final Fantasy XI. I've been playing it off and on since 2004. I now play on a classic era private server, because modern retail XI is dumb and has been dumb for some 15 years. Classic XI is, for my money, one of the best MMO experiences around despite its age and it all comes down to the sense of community. FFXI is a game where, after level ~10 it is very hard to do anything solo. The game forces you to play with others and since there is no auto-group function you have actually make friends. Classic XI stands in direct opposition of the Single-Player MMO that most people seem to prefer, and that's why I've stuck with FFXI after all these years.
Extremely good Game Awards takes all round this episode
In regards to best Final Fantasy names, there's a character in 12 called Balzac. So there's that.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
So may great indie games this year. Played a ton of Rogue: Genesia and Dungeon Clawler has just launched, which is so much fun too.
GRUNN sounds amazing, are these big full screen jumpscares? I'm scaredy cat but game sounds up my alley.
They're very quick and not particularly "scary," just unexpected.
Not full screen! And many of them are scripted so when you loop you won’t get scared by them anymore. Some wouldn’t call them jumpscares but I do bc it’s a surprise appearance with a scary sound lol
36:56 Me with KarmaZoo 😭
For me it might be the strongest indie year possibly ever, and that to me is because AAA has been somewhat weak so it's been easier to sift through the churn.
I’m new here. Hello to Jacob and those eyebrows 💘
Check out Pacific Drive. My personal underrated gem of the year
Grunn is giving me strong Katamari vibes, I wanna play it!
What do you all mean by the two tens or 210s?
Every year MinnMax airs their full Game of the Year debates on The MinnMax Show, creating a ranked list of their 20 favorite games that they call The Two Tens.
@jacoblabelle thanks!!
Rather than doing a top 10 like many outlets do MinnMax does Two top 10 lists, the "Two Tens" Top 10 and Bottom 10 in order to celebrate more games and give room to the many people that are part of MinnMax.
It's also a pun on "two Ns" because it's MinnMax "with two Ns!"
What is two 10s?
The two 10's is Minnmax take on the top 20 games of the year. The top 10 and bottom 10. Top 10 are the cream of the crop, the bottom 10 are really awesome titles that should be checked out but just missed out of the top 10.
@ oh! That’s an interesting way of doing it. Thanks! 🫡
It's a pun on "two Ns" because they have two Ns in Minnmax.
@@arckinenso7615 ah! I also have a follow-up question.. where does MinnMax the name come from?
@@spectre-8 They are based in Minnesota, and min-maxing is a video game concept. I think that's honestly all the thought he put into it lol.
Can you all do a Rapid Fire with the Sock Pop studio as a whole?
Windows key + print screen = screenshot
Try Espanso for you em dash needs!
Wow! So many games that pique my interest...if only days were 36 hour long lol
Why no stalker videos?
Algo
Jacob “Beard & Eyebrows” Geller
What’s up with this Ben guy and always losing his hair?
Must be the holiday stress. Always happens around Thanksgiving.
...Janet needs to listen to more music. GNX is barely a top five Kendrick Lamar album, nevermind a top 5 album released this year.
So concerned about goty being popularity contest you don't even see yourself in the opposite problem. You dismiss popular games with your elitist gatekeeping.
Like Jacob said, the fact they made so much money is the award for being popular
@godribbon yeah just disregard all evaluation of artistic work with that. What a mess