Video Game Icons Tournament Round 1 Part 2

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That's hbs .me slash. leadership dr. Wiley says

we will not take over the world unless we are

listening to geek cast radio network Welcome

to GCR and wars. This is episode 16 This is our

video game character tournament round one part

two I am one of your hosts TF2 and Mike and joining

me is Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello Optimus solo.

Hello. I'm here and TV's mr. No Welcome to the

next level You got to use that throughout the

rest of tournament That's how we should end it,

your princess. Is there another? Yeah, Steve,

get on that. Bite me. No. I just want to say

something really quick before we start. Everybody

needs to listen to the podcast to hear our opinions

on these matchups before you vote. We don't just

want the popular vote. What? I'm just saying

because I don't want anybody knowing what the

answer is. I'm not giving any answers. I'm just

saying compared to episode 15 and now, in the

comments of episode 15, there was people worried

about the popular vote getting it. The whole

point of us doing these tournaments is ... We

record these podcasts, give you our opinions

on the matchups. So last episode, Mario, Luigi,

Yoshi, Toad, all that stuff. You listen to that.

Make up your mind who you agree with, who you

don't agree with, and then vote for whomever

you want to vote for. But don't just go and vote

to vote without listening to the podcast. Think

of it as watching the characters battle on Super

Smash Brothers. Right. But the point is not just

to go to the post and vote it's to listen to

the podcast then vote After that disclaimer Positive

have some reasoning and some scenarios for why

you think somebody would win instead of just

your favorite character But people are gonna

vote the way they're gonna vote hopefully we'll

have a Outcome that's not simply based on the

more popular characters, but we'll have to see

how it goes For those of you that are coming

in Like Neil said at the next level and weren't

with us for the first part of this Last episode

you can always obviously go back and listen to

episode 15 But last episode we covered the first

half of the tournament bracket which featured

eight different battles. There was obviously

a Nintendo theme to that half of the bracket.

We'll have to see what kind of themes we have

on today's half of the bracket, but we have the

matchups of Mario and Luigi, Toad and Yoshi,

and Zelda and Princess, Link and Little Mac from

Mike Tyson's Punch -Out, Mega Man and Beautiful

Joe, Donkey Kong and Fox McCloud, Bomberman and

Conker, and Kirby and Pikachu. So that was our

first half of the bracket. You were able to vote

on who you thought would win on all of those

different battles. We are not, however, going

to tell you who won those battles yet. We will

get the winners of that half of the bracket the

same time that we reveal the winners of the bracket

that we're talking about today. That'll all be

coming up next episode. So you have to wait until

episode 17 to hear all of the round one winners.

Mike, any disclaimers or other notes that we

need to get off our chest before we start the

second half of the bracket and anything they

need to know? I don't think so. Just listen,

then vote. I mean, that's kind of, you know,

it's the same thing when we do our top 100s.

We want people to listen to the podcast and then

discuss in the comments and stuff. And what would

be even better, I think, or what could... be

more fun for everybody is if you go to the actual

website post for episode 16 and have some debates

on there through the comment section, maybe before

anybody, before you cast your vote. Get in a

debate with someone, put your scenario out there,

let us reply. We can kind of hash it out even

more than we do on the podcast in the comments

and then you can vote after that too. So there's

multiple options for how you're going to go about

voting. Steve, anything else before we get to

battle number nine? No, I think that that pretty

much rounds it out there. Yeah, obviously the

biggest thing is have fun, listen, participate,

and it'll be more fun for everybody. Starting

off today, and you'll have to see what kind of

themes we get to here, but we're starting with

battle number nine on the right side of the bracket,

and that will give us Sly Cooper versus Crash

Bandicoot. So Sly Cooper versus Crash Bandicoot.

Mike, I hear you. What do you got to say about

this one? Well, first of all, I have to say,

Sly Cooper must be a current gen character because

I do not know him at all. He's actually on PlayStation.

Well, OK, too. But still, you know, PlayStation,

Xbox, it's all the same damn thing in the last

10 years. Sly Cooper has been around since 2002.

Crash has been around since 97 96. Yeah. Yes.

It's like Cooper was on the PlayStation 2 PlayStation

3 PlayStation Vita, etc He's a thief I'm just

filling in for Mike since you don't know or this

character Nate. You're filling in for Nate since

he couldn't be here He's a he's a raccoon thief

from a long line of master thieves kind of like

a medieval feudal type of Raccoon character,

I guess you could call him somewhat pirate somewhat

thief. So he's got they know that cunning secret

nature But also, you know Somewhat loyal and

brave I guess and in some respects strong, I

guess he's always carrying around that Like sickle

I guess is what I kind of attribute it to I don't

know if it's technically a sickle But that's

who sly is do you know who crash -manicude is

Mike obviously But you know, what's like yeah,

I know well with sly as your As you're describing

them like, hey, it's Mario in disguise. The whole

raccoon thing. Stuff about the plumber part.

Maybe if he's in his raccoon suit, yes, I'll

give you that much. Yeah, that's what I'm talking

about. I mean, Crash, who doesn't know Crash?

Crash has been around for years and years and

years. I mean, I remember playing Crash in the

90s all the time. It was just a fun, fun game

series. He's the most I attribute or kind of

connect him most to he's almost like the Tasmanian

devil The bandicoot that spins like crazy and

knocks everything over Kind of in the same way

Taz would if he was going through his little

tornado action But crash isn't as dark as Taz

can get. Taz can get pretty dark sometimes with

his humor True. Crash is a very fun loving upbeat

jovial kind of character Yeah, I can see that

just looking at these two characters and kind

of what they bring to the table Neil What do

you what's kind of your first impression and

who do you see having advantage one way or the

other? Well to me this is kind of a mirror of

the of the Donkey Kong versus Fox McCloud fight

because you have the smart resourceful agile

character versus the big dummy So I'm going to

again give it to the agile character and say

that Sly Cooper takes it because I think Crash

will just come in, you know spinning bouncing

off things wrecking shit and slides just kind

of slip out of the shadows and take them out

Yeah, I think that's a I think that's definitely

a very good comparison to that Donkey Kong Fox

McCloud Battle and it's just gonna be interesting

to see how people vote based on you know, just

the brute force versus the cunningness I think

the one difference there it would probably be

you know the that fox more maybe was a little

bit reliant on his vehicle more so than you'll

get with sly so maybe that'll be enough to give

sly the edge where the cunning and the quickness

um will we'll be able to kind of surpass just

the spinny frenzy of crash what do you think

steve um i'm not entirely familiar with sly but

just from what I've researched of him and what

he looks like. I kind of have to agree with Neil

here. I think that in this instance, although

Crash is probably more recognized to some degree,

but kind of not really anymore. He's not really

relevant anymore, whereas Sly Cooper seems to

be more relevant now. I would prefer... for Sly

to win, plus he's getting his own movie and Crash

isn't. Probably more of a character that could

have a movie than Crash. Yeah, I'm kind of siding

with Neil on this one. Even though I kind of

was on Donkey Kong's side in the first one, it

was more so because I didn't think once you take

the vehicle away, Fox was as much of a threat,

where I think Sly is... Resourceful enough where

he doesn't rely on anything except for his own

kind of intelligence and cunningness So I think

he's gonna be able to outsmart crash trick crash

into I mean He could probably just get crashed

to spin off the edge of a cliff or something

But I don't know Mike, what do you think I? Gotta

go with crash. I gotta go with the crazy cuz

crazy works sometimes There always has to be

that one guy. That's right I would cast my official

vote for Sly. I think I'm in agreement with Steve

and with Neil on this one. So we'll let you be

the lone fighter for crash, and you'll have to

rally your troops and get them to vote so that

you can say you're right and we're wrong or whatever.

I'll just say this. Number of times the Tasmanian

devil beat Bugs Bunny, zero. There we go. That's

the best comparison, actually. That's even better

than Donkey Kong and Fox McCloud. That's very

close to Tas and Bugs. I like that. Yeah, Mike

the odds are stacked against you. Anyway, I'm

going to the next one to happen eventually Going

to the next battle on that side battle number

ten We have Spyro the dragon versus Rayman Now

Mike since you're old You should remember Rayman

a little, right? I remember Rayman, but Rayman

was not someone I paid attention to. I know of

the games, I know what the games look like, but

for me, it's Spyro all the way. He's almost like,

I remember Rayman, but Rayman doesn't remember

me. Yeah, pretty much. Rayman, of course, has

been around since about 95, I believe. Last we

haven't seen him this year at all, but I believe

he had a game last year as well So, I mean he's

been around for quite some time. I don't ever

remember playing a Rayman game But it's interesting

because we have our first opponent that has no

arms legs So, how do you really beat this guy?

I mean he has hands and feet and a head but they

move independently from his body so I Don't know

It's Spyro. He's a flame breathing dragon. He's

a fire breathing dragon. All's he got to do is

set the thing on fire. Bam, there you go. Yeah,

but with his with his body parts moving freely,

he can seem seemingly get out of the way of most

stuff. He does have a long range punch. At times,

he's been able to eject things from his gloves.

He can use his hair to glide and float. So he

has all that going for him. Does Spyro have offense

other than The typical dragon type of offense

It depends on which game you're playing if you're

playing the traditional game He the dragon offense

is his offense. I mean flight fire You know duck

roll and dash So, I mean The fire has to win

out. I mean, the only way that Rayman is not

going to beat Spyro against Spyro's fire is if

he has a fire hose and douses the fire. But is

Spyro mean enough to even try to take it to Rayman?

If Rayman was threatening his family or whatever,

yeah, or his land, yeah, sure. I mean, you're

right that he's, you know... He can do something,

spit fireballs. He can breathe ice in some games.

He's got the, you know, ramming into people with

his horns. I mean, he has a bunch of different

stuff. I mean, it's not just fire. It could be

water, ice, lightning, et cetera, that he's breathing

out on or kind of sending towards his opponent.

I don't know if he's as... kind of... Don't know

like Rayman It's kind of a dark horse. I think

like you kind of write him off it like kind of

like what you were talking about like right away

It's no spyro is more More popular is the more

known maybe character he's a dragon But I don't

know if you write off Rayman so quickly because

like you know with that free Moving body and

he can still do some long -range attacks and

some other things. I Think it's a closer fight

than than you think at first glance. What do

you think Steve? Well being that I've not played

a game of either I am familiar with them, but

I I've never played either one of their games

I I do have to say I recognize Spyro more and

I like his appearance more than Rayman and I

have to agree with you as well that I think Rayman

kind of doesn't get the credit that credits do

because if you look at Spyro He had games all

the way back from like 98 to 2005. Right. And

nothing more. He's kind of faded away. No, that's

not true. He's got Skylanders now. Still. And

how many years between? He's still relevant,

though. Not really, because if you look at it,

Rayman's been around since 95. He was on MS DOS.

He's still here. Okay, he's on the Wii U and

then the 3ds and where's Spyro? so I mean They

both can somewhat fly and float around they both

can kind of shoot stuff at each other Maybe maybe

Spyro has a little bit stronger arsenal things

he can shoot at it, but Raymond has the easier

way of Dodging and avoiding getting hit. Well,

he could just throw his limbs in opposite directions

and roundhouse kick him from all different directions.

Like I said, I want to give it to Spyro, but

he's also friends with Crash Bandicoot, so that

would be like signing with the enemy there. So

I'm going to have to go with Ruby. What do you

think, Neil? How do you break this one down?

I'm just going to go with Spyro. I'm not really

familiar with either game series, so I don't

know. I think The Dragon. Having the flame breath

would have a better long -distance Arsenal than

just someone who can swing his arms around Yeah,

it's definitely hard to Go against dragons. All

right. Look look at it this way Spyro's but Spyro's

cocky and arrogant Which could get him into trouble

in the fight, right? But not in all of the games

No, not he comes across as a younger possibly

more image not immature like but i guess immature

i mean he comes across as a slightly younger

character than rayman does maybe i picture rayman

more as like that uh you know teenage slash young

adolescent type age where i picture rayman as

like an eight or nine year or spyro is like an

eight or nine year old character i don't know

why i do that but i i think that uh with spyro

all she's got to do is collect all of Rayman's

body parts, put them on a skewer, and barbecue

that shrimp up. Like I said, I think it's hard

to go against a dragon, and I think I ultimately

would vote that Spyro would win this matchup.

I just think it would be closer than the votes

probably are going to be. I think Rayman stands

more of a chance than most people would give

him. Just because maybe they're not as familiar

with Rayman. I mean, we could be wrong there.

I think it's an interesting matchup. I think

if you actually broke it down and put them against

each other, it wouldn't be something where the

same character wins 10 out of 10 times, where

you might get with some of the other things.

Like in what we talked about last episode, if

you put Zelda against the princess, I think Zelda

wins 10 out of 10 times. This one, I think it's

closer to like seven out of ten times or six

out of ten times that Spyro comes away with it

and Rayman sneaks a few wins in there somewhere.

I know you don't want us predicting too much,

but I'm gonna say this right now. It's gonna

be interesting if Crash and Spyro win the votes

and they have to face each other next round.

They'll pull one of those one things like the

WWE and they'll be like, I can't fight him, he's

my friend. It'll be dumb and dumber. Oh god.

All right, so that does it for battle 10 scene

Spyro against Rayman Let us know who you think

would win that matchup and now we're throwing

a twist into this tournament We might catch a

lot of flack from this. I'm not sure But we're

gonna Add just a slight twist on this side of

the bracket with starting with battle number

11 Some people might call this an unfair advantage,

but battle 11 sees toe jam and Earl fighting

ratchet and clank Now I'm not necessarily saying

that there's anything wrong with this matchup

or that this won't be a blowout necessarily But

you may have noticed that it's a two -person

team Against a two -person team and so far up

to this point in the tournament. It's all been

solo acts so Maybe some people having problems

with that. We'll see how you guys feel about

it, but we have ration and clank against to jam

and Earl Mike What do you think? I like it. I

think it's interesting. I mean, you know, it's

they always are together Yep. It - Well, we're

in games together. More so than just like Mario

and Luigi are in games, or like Donkey Kong and

Diddy Kong are in games. Like these are a connected

pair, it seems like. Yeah, they are. They're

at the hip. And it makes sense, because they

go hand in hand in each of their game series.

That being said, does Tojima and Hurl have any

snowballs chance in hell of beating Ratchet and

Clank? Uh, no. No. No. But they made an appearance

in the tournament, so we'll give them that money.

I mean, they would just send them away on their

magic elevators to Mars and, you know, dumping

them off. And besides that, Ratchet and Clank

are just so much cooler of characters in general.

For those of you that don't know who the heck

we're talking about, ToeJam and Earl came to

us way back in 1991. I guess you could... wikipedia

i'll do that since everybody hates when we when

we do that describes them as a three -legged

red alien and a fat orange alien so there you

go uh they were definitely an interesting uh

group i think it would be hilarious if they ended

up going against somebody else that we'll later

see on this half of the bracket just because

i always kind of equated them as the same types

of characters um but uh i don't know i i think

it's fun to have toga mineral in this tournament

But Neil, is this like a five second knockout

for? Yeah, because Toe Jam and Earl, I don't

even remember them having attacks. They were

just in this weird rogue -like game on the Genesis.

And it was like, what the heck? Maybe they could

fly or pile on something. They could drive a

ship. That was pretty much it. And they would

go through elevators. I kind of wish there was

a tag team division in this. We could throw the

ice climbers in there and a couple other teams.

You know, I almost want to see, since we're talking

about tag teams, I almost want to see Ratchet

and Clank versus Sonic and Tails. Oh, God. See,

I don't think that's an easy enough one. I know

Sonic and Tails are with each other a lot, but

it's not like they're always together. They're

not attached to each other. True. Like we have

with Ratchet and Clank or Toe Jam and Earl. That's

what we ought to do next video game tournament

we do eventually. We ought to do tag team matches.

That would be awesome. That'd lead for a whole

nother level of, uh, strategicity. Uh -huh, absolutely.

Um, but yeah, you know, thank you for coming

to a Jammin' Earl. You can now leave the tournament.

This is a, I equate this to like the, I'm just

gonna keep throwing, uh... wrestling references

in here. I'm going to equate this to the Royal

Rumble when like the Bushwhacker guy like literally

like went down the aisle, went in the ring, got

tossed over the rope on the opposite side of

the ring, left the arena. It was like a three

second thing, but he made an appearance. There's

second. I mean, Toe Jam and Earl are second tier

characters, whereas Ratchet and Clank are more

primary than they are. And I just there's no

comparison. No. This should be the, if this isn't

the biggest blowout for a voting matchup, then

something's wrong with people. We'll have that

one person, we'll have that one guy that's like,

I'm going to vote for DOJ Mineral just because

I think it's funny. Ratchet and Clank flawless

victory. Well, thankfully none of those characters

are involved because that would not be fair.

We can still make the reference. No, I know.

I'm not saying you can't. And now we have sub

-zero at the tournament. Party over. Getting

into the 12th matchup, battle number 12. Now

you probably could say that it would have been

a better matchup if I would have paired one of

the contestants in the battle 12 to one of them

in a battle 11 and vice versa. But maybe we're

leading up to a better matchup next round. We'll

have to see. Battle 12, we'll see Banjo -Kazooie,

Banjo and Kazooie. Versus Jack and Daxter. So

again, we have a pair in a pair that were always

together Possibly just as much of a landslide.

I don't know Steve What do you think about Jack

and Daxter and did you ever do play any of the

banjo -kazooie games? Um, I Haven't played banjo

-kazooie. I've played the Jack and Daxter before

which wasn't too bad I Banjo -Kazooie is almost

like freaking Donkey Kong. Yeah a little bit.

It's it's almost like playing Donkey Kong and

Very similar Jack and Daxter is more like Ratchet

and Clank than than I knew any of the you know

anything else, so Banjo -Kazooie you got like

jumping climbing swimming rolling into enemies

you know like I said a lot of the same stuff

you would see and in Donkey Kong, they do have

some things where, you know, they could use feathers

to fly or, you know, certain movements. They

did have to have the intelligence to solve certain

puzzles, I guess, along the way. They could transform,

though. At one point, there was magic powers

that allowed them to turn into things like crocodiles,

bees, termites, etc. And that would give you

more variety of Some abilities so maybe that

could come into play but Jack and Daxter got

a lot going for him. I'm sorry Plus Jack and

Daxter actually had crossovers with Ratchet and

Clank Mm -hmm. Yep in their games Yeah, and they

are Pretty Pretty impressive looking fighters,

too. I always thought I like the Jack and Daxter

look I think they look cool not that that has

anything to do with anything. Mike, what do you

think about this one? I honestly think this,

if we were going to turn this into a comedy session,

Toe Jam and Earl versus Banjo and Kazooie would

have been funnier, but I think this is going

to be interesting because to see who wins these

rounds, to see if... Ratchet and Clank and Jack

and Daxter get to face each other because as

Steve said they did cross over in each other's

games. Jack and Daxter, I've played a couple

of the games. I like them. I think they're cool.

They're cool characters. The games are interesting.

All the weapons. Jack and Daxter to me is like

a... When did you say they started? Is it PS2?

So it's PS2 basically. Yeah, they are the PS2

era combination of Crash and Spyro, but they're

more competent. It's just funny, funny characters.

Well, they're dark and sarcasm. Yeah, that's

what I'm saying. And they would wipe the floor

with Banjo and Kazoo. I would think they'd be

pretty formidable people in this whole tournament.

Oh yeah, most definitely. Pretty big arsenal.

You know, I think even if we would have put Banjo

-Kazooie against Toe Jam and Earl, I still think

Toe Jam and Earl stands no chance. No, well,

no. Well, because you'd have a bird eating them.

Yeah. Did Jack and Daxter wipe the floor with

Banjo -Kazooie, Neil? Yeah. I mean, I'm not a

big fan of either game series, but I'm looking

at Daxter. And I just see this elf guy with this

big, what looks like a rifle over his shoulder.

I'm like, yeah. What's Banjo gonna do? He's like,

I'm Banjo and he's gonna go look for note blocks

and he doesn't stand a chance. I'd like to see

the the bird and I don't know what you consider

Daxter to be. Whatever little animal type. He's

almost like a weasel. Yeah, it would be interesting

if the two kind of sidekicks went after each

other. But yeah, Jack is gonna annihilate Banjo

Which brings us to our next matchup, which is

battle 13 and this is where we're getting to

want something that I was talking about earlier

I think it would have been interesting to see

Toe Jam and Earl against one of these two characters

And battle like you said episode battle 13 sees

us with earthworm Jim versus Bubsy I think Earthworm

and Jim and Toadjam have a lot in common. Go

ahead, Neil. One of them has a gun, period. And

come on, the other one's Bubsy. What could possibly

go wrong? I think you could fall on a cliff.

You definitely have a lot of interesting characters

on this side of the bracket so far. Yeah, I mean,

Earthworm and Jim... Back in 94 is when we first

saw him Obviously he Has a suit that he wears

And he has that gives him the arms and the legs

because otherwise he is a worm so that wouldn't

be very Intimidating I guess but you know with

that suit on and the ability to have that gun

that has a pretty potent kick there to it you

definitely have stuff going against you but Can

Bubsy, as a fly cat, somehow get Earthworm out

of the suit? Well, he is Rob Paulson. So, I mean,

that would probably be his only chance is if

you could somehow get him out of the suit so

that he's forced to just, you know, slither around

like a worm. I guess slither is more of a word

for snake, but I don't know what you would call.

He would just inch along. There you go, inch

along. That was a good pun for once. Shut the

hell up. I don't know how Bubsy would actually

try to go about getting Earthworm Jim out of

the suit, because I think that's got to be his

only shot. What do you think, Mike? Neil already

said it. Earthworm Jim has a gun. Bubsy would

just get his head blown off. Bubsy does have

nine lives. Nine bullets. And he can throw some

massive yarn balls, hair balls, at him. Or whatever

Bubsy did. I don't really remember the Bubsy

game super clearly. Bubsy's been around since

93. I didn't play a lot of his games. I mean,

I know what the character is, etc. I mean, he

did have the ability to buy items. So he also

had some suits and some different things. You

could get a Nerf gun, smart bombs that would

clear the screen. Slingshots, so I mean he does

have some some ways to At least put up a tiny

bit of a fight. I think I don't know Steve Well

earthworm Jim had his own animated series and

bubsies got canned after the pilot Very true.

We're going on that. Yeah, I Mean bubsy did have

some good voice actors, but again No, again,

I think Earthworm Jim is going to take it just

because he's more of a badass. He's got the suit.

He's got the gun. You know, if nothing else,

he would throw Bubsy off a cliff. I mean, I don't

really think that there's much to go on here

besides he's going to take it. All right. Any

other thoughts on Earthworm Jim and Bubsy? Mike?

Nothing? Alright before I announce it we'll get

to Mike in a second. I think he has something

to say but We're getting down here because we

only have three more battles to announce That

means we only have six more competitors that

we've yet to reveal in this tournament So this

is the point where I'm assuming people that are

listening are thinking of their favorite characters

and wondering Are we were really gonna leave

them off of the tournament? Are they gonna show

up? Are they not gonna show up? Because we only

have six more people that will appear. You probably

somewhat noticed the theme so far on this side

of the bracket whereas we had the Nintendo on

the left side. So far we've had a collection

of PlayStation and some Genesis and some stuff

like that over here. Let's see we got six more

characters so going into battle 14. 15 minutes

could save you on 15 percent or more from Geico's

car insurance. Battle 14 we'll see Gex. fighting

sonic the hedgehog um... mike go ahead and start

this one it's geico gecko oh my god not quite

what what is this i don't even know who this

character is i've never seen this thing before

you've never seen that no nope he yeah he had

a lot of uh... almost james bondish type looks

and gaming cover he is a gecko so you had that

obviously I can see that thank you his dad worked

for NASA so that was good you know he's got some

smarts does he actually have his own damn game

or is he just a mascot for companies no no he

had his own game uh... he was around uh... back

in uh... ninety four he debuted on the three

d that's why i don't know him because i didn't

have a three -year -old well he was also on playstation

and immediately the next year he was on playstation

and then sega saturn and uh... some computer

uh... platforms as well there uh... i mean he

he is a fighter He's gone through different worlds.

He's not necessarily like some of the other characters

we've talked about where they just kind of roam

around a map and do things, maybe fly something

or whatever. I mean, he does have the ability

to do some things to put up a fight, but he is

going against probably one of the most iconic

video game characters of all time in Sonic the

Hedgehog, so I don't know how much of his...

If people are voting based on popularity, Sonic's

gonna immediately take this. Neil, are you familiar

with Gex at all? Um, a little bit. Do you think

he has any type of offense that he can put against

the supersonic speed of Sonic the Hedgehog? Not

really. I mean, Sonic's basically immortal as

long as he has rings. Even if you hurt him, he

just gets another set of rings and he'll be okay.

Whereas, I don't know, Gex is kind of, he's more

of a platforming character. I'm looking at the

game right here, doesn't seem to be much of an

offensive character. Plus, you know, Sonic's

got blast processing. I'm sorry, that's not a

thing. I mean, unless he has the ability to turn

himself into a wall of spikes that just happens

to be in Sonic's way, I don't see him doing much.

Great point. Yeah, Sonic is pretty indestructible.

You gotta hit him a couple times, get all his

rings, and then hit him again. And Gex is more

about the charisma and the wisecracking and kind

of the image, so to speak. Not to say he doesn't

have some offense and some sneakiness and some

good blood in him as far as strength and intelligence

and whatnot, but I'm gonna do something that

Mike usually does. I'm gonna project a... Since

it would be a finals matchup, I don't think it's

going to influence much, but it would sure be

interesting to see Sonic somehow matched up against

Mega Man in the finals. For some reason, I think

that would be an interesting matchup. Steve,

what do you think? Is this one Sonic all the

way? Yeah. For one, Gex has not that much longevity

in his gaming, and it's pretty much all side

-scroller, and looks pretty lame by comparison

to Sonic. And I mean, Sonic comes out with a

new game. He's like the damn Mario of Sega. He's

everywhere. I mean, it's sick the amount of times

he comes up, but there's a reason. Oh, I agree.

He's more fun to play. And I know there was probably

a lot of people at that point that were wondering

why Sonic hadn't been mentioned yet and getting

worried that we weren't going to put him in here.

So there you go. There's Sonic. If you're thinking

about your favorite, you know, PlayStation, Xbox,

Sega Genesis characters, and waiting to see if

they'll show up or not. Master Chief. No Master

Chief. But you might be disappointed because

we're gonna go even a bigger twist I think now.

I mean we've had our two -person teams. Now we're

gonna go somewhere where you might have thought

we weren't. Possibly going to go in this tournament

as we get to battle number 15 We have one more

kind of world or genre that we haven't really

talked about yet That's the world of classic

gaming and battle 15 we will see Probably doesn't

get any more classic than this pac -man versus

Frogger Pac -man versus Frogger Mike. What are

your thoughts? Now, before you say anything,

Frogger's been dodging cars, crocodiles, and

all kinds of stuff for years. But Pac -Man just

eats everything in sight. Well, they both showed

up about the same time. What was that, Steve?

I said they both showed up about the same time.

That's true. Pac -Man 1980 and Frogger in 81.

I don't know if Frogger has much of an offense

there. He's more of a character that's gonna

avoid things and not get hit by things. I don't,

you know, him getting to the goal isn't much

for offense, I guess not. But if he could trick

Pac -Man into following him to try to eat, you

know, if he convinced Pac -Man to try to come

eat him, maybe he could jump around enough to

trick Pac -Man into jumping into a crocodile's

mouth? Was it crocodiles or alligators in that

game? I don't even know. It was alligators. Okay.

Maybe he could trick him into jumping in the

alligator at the wrong point where he's mastered

where to jump and when to jump, but I think that's

his only chance, Neil. Does Frogger have anything

else besides trying to trick Pac -Man into jumping

in the wrong thing? I don't know. Pac -Man's

not that stupid. I mean, Pac -Man had his own

cartoon. He seemed pretty intelligent. Frogger

also had a cartoon, but he's got no offense.

He's a frog. I mean, he's always like... Ten

seconds away from being a grease spot on the

road Variety of different animals on this side

of the bracket. Yeah, I mean It's like saying

okay. You got a football player and a baseball

player who's gonna fight who's gonna win Well,

it's gonna be the football player. Yeah, and

yeah, you know Pac -man Pac -man is afraid of

ghosts, but he at least has some offense against

the ghosts You can't attack so especially if

he gets his little power pellet there, whatever

you call it. Yeah so Mike I think if we have

like a Losers bracket somewhere no seriously

I think if we have a losers bracket somewhere

and Frogger ends up in the losers bracket along

with peach and whoever else Peace will just kiss

him and they'll go live happily ever after He

would just, she would just beat him with her

parasol and that'd be the end of Frogger. Oh

my. And I know some people might be looking at

some of these matchups that we've been going

over today and the end last episode and thinking,

these aren't even close, like what are you guys

doing? But just keep in mind that these will

all lead to future matchups and we'll get more

intriguing as we get going through. The first

round of any tournament usually has some blowouts

in it. Steve, any thoughts on Pac -Man and Frogger?

Well, Pac -Man would just eat him. That's the

main thing. What if we had pac -man and Kirby

going against each other? That's kind of what

I was thinking Who can eat first? You frog legs

And then he'd get an even bigger mouth All right,

and our final battle of the first round is the

last two competitors to join our tournament here

So we've had a 30 to 30 character so far. We

got these final two battle 16 Sticking with the

classics. We got Q Burt's versus Dig Dug Now

at least as has a has it has the Whatever you

call it shovel pickaxe digging apparatus Q Burt's

obviously Q Burt. I don't know Mike. Where do

you go with this one? At first I thought that

was um, dig dug and Frogger would be epic Yeah,

that would be an epic losers tournament. And

I first saw the image before I zoomed in on it

and I thought it was a turbo from Wreck -It Ralph.

I really did. Oh my god. Just because of the

graphics. Shut up. It's gotta be Qbert's. I don't

know if Dig Dug has offense enough to fight Qbert.

He's got a digger. What? He's got a shovel. He

does. He's got a shovel, but Qbert can just jump

on his head. No. Qbert, if you jump on the wrong

panel, you fall off into the abyss. Dig Dug would

just dig a hole around him. I know what's going

to happen here. You know what happens when Qbert

jumps on an enemy's head? Qbert dies. Plus, the

one thing that has been mentioned here is that

Dig Dug has the air pump. And what does Qbert

have? He has a big schnaz. All you have to do

is plug that air hose into the schnaz and pump

him up and he would just explode. And that would

be the end of Qbert. I mean, easily, Qbert is

the more known, probably more popular character.

I'm assuming a lot of kids these days, sound

like the old grandpa on the lawn, don't know

who Dig Dug is maybe. If there was ever the right

matchup for a complete upset, I think Dig Dug

has a chance. I know people love Qbert, but Dig

Dug has more of an offense, I think. Qbert, even

though... Go ahead. Dig Dug, look at his gaming

resume. I mean, his game has been ported again

and again on multiple different platforms, and

Qbert's kind of fallen off the... kinda fallin'

off the abyss. I mean, I haven't seen a Qbert,

I haven't even seen the arcade game re -release

on a modern console. Not that I'm aware of. And

Qbert's almost more like Frogger, where his strength

is just being able to jump on the right thing

to avoid things. Yeah. Like, maybe he'll jump

on one of his little rainbow discs and move to

a different part of the level, but that's not

beating Dig Dug. Yeah, that might work with Coily,

but that's not gonna work with Dig Dug. It might

work with Frogger, but he's going against somebody

that actually has a weapon. Steve? I'm going

Dig Dug. Dig Dug for the upset? Yeah. I think

there's gonna be a lot of upsets on this side

of the board. I mean, I love Cuber Don't get

me wrong. I love playing Cuber. I love Cuber

from back in the day That was fun stuff, but

I don't see how he beats Dig Dug Mike you seem

to be voting for Cuber, but how does he how does

he beat Dig Dug? I don't know. I guess he can't

sadly. I mean, I guess you can get him to jump

off the wrong thing But that's the same thing

that Frogger was hoping for when we voted against

Frogger You guys gotta get the the chubby checker

singing the dig -dug theme. Oh god Yes All right

Yeah, that is a thing you'll have to send it

to Steve Neil, okay Before we go over who you

think are the most intriguing matchups, and who

is going to be the biggest blowout, and who are

some of the people that you like on this side

of the bracket to kind of make it far, just a

quick review of what we had on this side of the

bracket. We started with Battle 9, which was

Sly Cooper versus Crash Bandicoot. Battle 10

sees Spyro the Dragon versus Rayman. Battle 11

and the pairing combinations here, we had Rasha

and Clank versus Toejam and Earl. Battle 12,

Jack and Daxter versus Banjo -Kazooie. Battle

13, Earthworm Jim versus Bubsy. Battle 14 Gex

versus Sonic battle 15 Pac -Man versus Frogger

and battle 16 Qbert versus Dig Dug Mike, what

is the biggest blowout of this round? We're gonna

have two big blowouts battles 11 and 12 no contest

Yeah, Ratchet and Clank, Jack and Daxter I think

depending on who likes I think The popularity

thing is gonna come into effect with battle 10

depending on who likes Rayman and who likes Spyro

I wish crash would pull out, you know an upset

not that much of an upset but a close race with

with Sly Cooper sadly, I don't think it's gonna

happen I think there will also I mean, I think

there's a potential blowout there with Sonic

against well, yeah, but I mean like Frogger right,

but I mean some some people might Look at Sonic

versus Gex and they might you know go either

way, but I'm saying like overall like I I would

assume like 20 or 30 to 1 or 2 for for Jack and

Daxter and and Ratchet and Clank versus Toe Jam

and Earl and Banjo Kazooie. Ratchet and Clank

should be the bigger blowout just because of

Toe Jam and Earl. Well, yeah, but I'm saying

like those two battles should be like double

digits to single digits. It really should. Steve,

are there any one matchup or two matches in here

that you could see being pretty darn close? 50

-50 or an intriguing matchup that you're not

quite sure how the people will vote? I'm going

to go with, I mean there's quite a few that I

think could be kind of neck and neck. Sly and

Crash I think could go either way. Spyro and

Rayman I think could go either way. Those, I

mean, I think those are pretty much the closest

ones in this round. A lot of them are either

highly more action packed characters going against

some slums. Yeah, to put it nicely. I think it'll

be somewhat telling to see how people vote in

that Cuber dig dug matchup. To me, that's an

intriguing one that should be close, not because

it's a close matchup where like I think you're

right. I think Sly Cooper and Crash Bandicoot

and then the battle with Spyro and versus Raymond

are the actual closest battles. But battle 16

could be close because of the fact that one is

way more popular and the other should really

probably win. So it might make for an even voting

between that not because it's a should be a close

matchup But because for two different reasons

depending on how people vote Neil what's the

what's the most interesting matchup you saw here?

Now You might be sorry I muted myself. That's

right. What's the most interesting match you

see here? I want to see Q bird versus dig dug

because I really think that Dig Dug has the upset

here. I think a lot more people are aware of

Dig Dug today than Qbert. Qbert is really kind

of, he's only come back because of Wreck -It

Ralph, and still he doesn't really have a new

game. I think there was one or two, I'm gonna

use figure quotes, sequels to Qbert, but they

really weren't like really known. And Dig Dug

has... He's really held his I mean he's not like

he's not like Mario or Sonic, but he's really

held his own About the decades as being like

a C list of Video game character, so I think

he's got it I'm definitely intrigued to see how

that one plays out. Mike, we saw a couple different

things here. Number one with the classic characters

like Pac -Man and Dig Dug and Q -Bird. We also

saw the parians like Ratchet and Clank and Jack

and Daxter. Anyone standing out on this side

of the bracket as an early favorite? Do Ratchet

and Clank and Jack and Daxter have like an edge

because of the duo aspect to it? Do you see someone

like Sonic being able to blow through this just

based on his speed and abilities or someone like

Pac -Man that can just eat everybody up? Like,

who's your early favorite on this side of the

bracket? It's gonna be Spyro and Sonic I think

that the dragon fire is gonna be helping Spyro

big -time in his favor and I mean Sonic he's

a Speedster, you know, and once you have Urkel

voicing you there's no going back Come on, did

I do that? Come on. You did. I'm now voting against

him. Oh, stop it. Just kidding. Stop it. No,

but seriously, like Sonic, like Steve said it

would be interesting, I think Steve said it would

be interesting to see if it ended up being Sonic

and Mega Man. Nope, that was me. That was me,

but that's okay. Anyway, whatever. Steve, is

it fair to have these parians of Ratchet and

Clank and Jag and Daxter, etc. in the tournament?

I think so. I think... You think someone can

beat a pair like that? I think so. I think if

done right, I think that they could. That's why

I wasn't too afraid of including them. Again,

they are iconic. If you think of Nintendo, obviously

you have your Marios and your Zeldos and your

Donkey Kongs, et cetera. But for some of these

others... systems. You know, Ratchet and Clank,

Jack and Daxter, those types of characters are

some of the most iconic, so I don't think we

can not include them in this. So that's why they're

here. Mike, any other thoughts on this side of

the bracket? Or just kind of how you're seeing

this now that you can see all 32 combatants?

I almost wish we mixed it up a little bit more

and didn't have the left side of the bracket

be so Nintendo based versus each other. Because

I think it would have been made this here's what

you got though with by doing that if you're a

Nintendo fanboy You get an entire side of the

board and you're forced to vote your own characters

against each other Instead of if they were all

mixed just voting straight Nintendo all the way

through the whole tournament So that's one reason

plus I just think it's cool to see the Nintendo

characters face off against each other and the

Sega You know slash Xbox face against each other

not that there's a lot of Xbox characters, but

PlayStation etc Yeah, but I understand what you're

saying, and I think a lot of people would probably

agree with you on that Steve now that you can

see all 32 participants any thoughts overall

um I I have my lucky suspicions that I think

I know who's going to win I'm to that fact. I'm

actually building my own fake Version of the

the tournament lineup and I'm going to leave

it that way with little black boxes over it Just

in anticipation that I'm right He's gonna make

the all the arts Prior and see how many he can

actually get right. We should see we should have

done a pool We should have had people predict

from here on out and then see see who's actually

right Well, I am pretty good at judging the future.

I did that during the last wars You definitely

have a lot more humanoid characters on the left

side of the bracket with a Nintendo and a lot

more animal characters with the other half Not

that that makes any difference whatsoever, but

Neil now that you can see all 32 people any favorites

early on from either side? God I keep on to say

Samus, but she's not in this We need to address

that why why was samus not cuz i know people

are gonna be pissed once they hear this episode

like oh my god how could you forget samus I just

think that's a different level of character that's...

That would be along the same levels of including

Master Chief and the Doom guy and Duke Nukem.

Yeah, I think it just makes it too much of an

easy win for that character. If there was anybody

that I could just look at and say, this person's

gonna steamroll through the whole thing and then

nobody has a shot at beating them, I was more

apt not to include them. Now, I know some people

have said that about Kirby. You know, some people

think just by having Mario in here, he's gonna

just go through it just based on popularity,

but I think all the characters that are... have

weaknesses and have somebody somewhere in the

tournament that if they're matched up against

them could be beaten. I could be wrong, but I

feel like everybody has somebody that could beat

them. Just maybe they don't have to face them.

Maybe they somehow find a path that doesn't end

up going against them, but that would take somebody

else from somewhere in the tournament taking

that person out for them, kind of, you know.

Otherwise they would match up in the finals,

so. Sure, that's the reason why I didn't include

Samus and and there's other characters as well

I know a lot of people you know would probably

like a more mature version of a tournament that

we could do later on with characters from you

know Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat and You

know Master Chief and that type of stuff and

that would be a fun tournament to do in the future

But I think including any of those types of characters

with the likes of Spyro and Sly Cooper and you

know Donkey Kong is not quite fair. Yeah, no.

Oh my god, can you imagine if we did another

32 where the first 16 are Street Fighter, the

second 16 are Mortal Kombat? We'd almost have

to expand to our bigger tournament, our 64 -man

tournament. That would be a long process, but

it would be fun. So how are people going to vote

and do all that type of stuff, Mike, or? Basically

go stay in tune with what's going on with this

tournament go to geek castor .com Look for the

wars g -sharon wars episode 16 post listen to

the podcast and then vote Comment as well on

the post You can always gonna be given their

predictions and projections now that they can

see everybody they're gonna be out Everyone's

gonna be trying to play the crystal ballgame,

which will be fun to see what people think Yep,

exactly. So just head on over to geek castor

.com uh... click on the episode sixteen post

and bob's your uncle there you go then tune in

for episode seventeen when we will go over all

of round two this was the only round that will

split half and half since there are so many battles

going on from here on out we'll do each round

fully within an episode so next round next episode

will be all of round two and we'll give the results

of round one How could I forget that and tune

in for episode 17 to see who wins every matchup

of this first round? Thank you for listening

to GCR and wars you can get a hold of us in the

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So until next time tune in and check out GCRN

wars tournament on episode 16 where we cover

the other half of Round 1's fight. Until next

time, unleash the geek in you. is not to judge

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