[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Geeky Roomy Podcast. Joining me today, Mr. Keith Plingfield.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Hello, everybody.
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Mr. Lee Price.
[00:00:05] Speaker C: Hello.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: And Mr. Sam Edwards. Hiya. How the devil are we all?
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:00:09] Speaker D: Very well, thank you.
[00:00:11] Speaker C: Brand new day, nice and fresh.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: We're all feeling really good.
Coming up today, we will be talking about, as both franchises have returned to the cinema in recent times, Mortal Kombat versus Street Fighter.
And we'll be battling them off against each other, which is the franchise supreme.
And we'll also be discussing about the rise of board game and board game cafes in the region. And why are board games such a new popular thing to be doing?
Plus our regular one geek thing. But we shall be back after this.
Two fighting games from my youth and probably most of our audience's youth have returned to cinema screens recently, or about to return to cinema screen. So Mortal Kombat 2 was released in the UK on the 15th of May, and the new Street Fighter movie is coming to UK screens on the 16th of October 2026. Now, these were the two pantheons of the fighting genre back in the 90s and have had a cultural impact beyond their years.
So we thought we'd fight them off against each other. Which is the true victory?
Is it a flawless victory or is it a perfect.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Flawless?
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah, could be either or. So Lee is fighting on the corner of Street Fighter and Keith is fighting on the corner of Mortal Kombat. And Sam and I shall decide which is the greater of the two franchises. So to begin, Lee, pitch your case for Street Fighter franchise.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: Okay, so Street Fighter, I think the best place to start when it comes to Street Fighter is the fact that if it wasn't for Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat would not exist because none of the fighting game genre as we know it wouldn't exist. Street Fighter II is the definitive fighting game. It basically set the standards.
Before then it was stuff like international karate and who cares who remembers international karate, you know what I mean? So Street Fighter II comes along and it sort of. It introduced combos, it introduced, you know, that's just the whole 1v1 fighting game genre. Everything can be traced back to Street Fighter 2. And, you know, it's still such an iconic game. You've got basically the entirety of Street Fighter 2. Those characters are incredibly well known. You've got Ryu and Ken, you've got Chun Li, you've got Dul Sim, you've got Zangief, you've got E. Honda, you've got M. Bison, of course, who, as we all remember, was Played expertly by Raoul Julia in the movie. The one actor who played his part incredibly well.
But, you know, it's got all that and every single character has a brilliant theme to go with it. And of course, some of those remain, some of the most iconic. You've got Rio's theme, you've got Ken's theme. But most of all, Giles theme has kind of taken on a life of its own. There's a whole Giles theme goes with everything meme that exists online, where people just slapped Guiles theme onto every action scene possible.
And let's not forget that all that music was composed by a BAFTA Fellowship winner, Yoko Shimomura, who of course is one of the greatest video game composers. She's also worked on the likes of Kingdom Hearts, Mario and Luigi.
I don't know if she's done some stuff for Xenoblade, Parasite Eve, all sorts of different things like that.
And yeah, that's my initial case for Street Fighter 2. And I'll see what Keith has to say.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Keith, what's your opening statement against Mortal Kombat?
[00:04:18] Speaker B: As my learned colleague has stated, Street Fighter was the original version of the game of this type. But Mortal Kombat took what was basically a kids game and evolved it into a game for adults with its graphic violence and realistic fighters.
You know, this was a game that took that fighting game and just elevated to a level that has not been surpassed. You know, it took all of those core mechanics, but added much more to it. You know, the idea of fatalities, babalities, finish him. All of that kind of stuff. All of those kind of like little voice snippets that everybody can remember the names of the characters has become synonymous with the game. Everybody can rattle off most of the characters that are in Street Fighters, you know, but the ones in Mortal Kombat are much more evocative names like Johnny
[00:05:18] Speaker C: Cage, Sonya Blade, or we got Scorpion and we got Blue Scorpion and we got Black Scorpion. We've got.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: We've got the Scorpion and Sub Zero. I mean, two characters who are literally the Anton Deck of video games. You know, these are two characters that have become, you know, have evolved beyond the two dimensions of the screen. And also as well, the thing that Mortal Kombat brought was the realistic characters, you know, actual physical actors.
[00:05:47] Speaker C: If we're going to talk about realistic characters.
So yes, while they may have used scanned in actors for the fighters in the original Mortal Kombat, the fighting animations are God awful.
They are not at all remotely realistic animations in terms of how a fighter Would move. Which Street Fighter does do correctly with its impressive sprite work. And it's continued up until this day with like more 3D models and stuff where, you know, if you're throwing a punch from like a position, if you've got your sort of your guard up, if you watch any sort of martial artist, they've got their guard up and they'll throw a jab with this arm and they'll throw a hook with this arm and all this sort of stuff. In Mortal Kombat, they just sort of stand there stock still and then flap their arm out. And that's the jab, apparently, which in real life would knock your elbow out before you even hurt your opponent. And this has been my eternal problem with Mortal Kombat in its entire existence is that to this day they have not improved these animations. And every time I look at it, I want to vomit because it's just so bad.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: It is a point that I cannot dispute, but it's part of the charm of the game and also part of the limitations of the systems that these games originated on.
[00:07:07] Speaker C: Street Fighter 2 predates Mortal Kombat.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: Yeah, but you know, what they were trying to do was limited by what the arcade machines could do and the games machines at the time. So it was straightforward.
But it overcame those limitations by introducing the new elements of like being able to rip somebody's head off that had their spine with it as well. So you don't remember it for the janky fighting styles. You remember it for when you win and what you do to your opponent.
And also as well, it gives. It takes the whole idea of like, why is this even happening? You know, Street Fighter, they just wander around the world and fight in bath houses and in the street in all random places.
[00:07:45] Speaker C: Yes, it's a street Fighter. That's what they do. They fight in.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: It's so random. At least Mortal Kombat gives you a sense of like the world warriors tournament key. But we're fighting for the. The existence of planet Earth in itself. You know, it's our champions fighting for the fact that Earth.
[00:08:03] Speaker C: You say that Street Fighter is about taking down the dictator owned bison.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's fine. We're talking about, you know, a beyond our realm dictator.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Okay, okay, let's bring this round. Let's talk about it in other media. So we have Street Fighter 2 has both films and anime.
And Mortal Kombat has had films, films,
[00:08:23] Speaker B: TV shows, comics, games, card games.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: I think you could say the same about both.
[00:08:28] Speaker C: Yeah, you can say the same about Both.
[00:08:30] Speaker D: They're both.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: But the Mortal Kombat comics are.
[00:08:34] Speaker C: And I think like the main things that we remember from the two franchises movies is, as you've mentioned off camera, Ryan, was it Christopher Lambert's terrible accent and Raoul Julia's phenomenal performance as M. Bison.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: I mean, that is an Oscar winning speech. The Tuesday. For me, it was a Tuesday.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: It's one of the greatest. Brilliant line. Just the whole like, you know, for you, the day that Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.
You can't deny how good that line is. That line.
Raoul Julia knew the assignment.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: He knew the assignment.
[00:09:13] Speaker C: He looked at the script and went, this is bollocks. But all of it is. And I'm gonna walk in that room and I'm gonna chew the scenery because I'm doing this for my kids as my last movie. And he nailed it.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: But one performance does not make a movie.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Whereas you're saying Jean Claude Van Damme as Guile is not one of the greatest performances of modern times.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: Oh, well, you know, him throwing at like I'm not going home as the all American soldier. Guile,
[00:09:42] Speaker B: you love it because you can ridicule it because you know it's bad. Whereas the Mortal Kombat movie, barring is also bad. But I don't, I can't agree.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Shall we talk about Mortal Kombat 2? The. The first annihilation with Dexter's dad taking over from Christopher Lambert.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: We don't talk about that. Although I am still buying it in the arrow release 4K set when they're putting both movies out together. I may not watch Annihilation as much, but yeah, it's got some of the
[00:10:10] Speaker A: worst CGI ever put to cinema.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Don't talk about it.
[00:10:14] Speaker C: At least the original Street Fighter movie was all practical effects.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: At least he got a sequel.
We got. We got a sequel. Mortal Kombat has a sequel. Not just one sequel, we also had.
[00:10:24] Speaker C: And how many of them were good?
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Keith?
It's not about how the quality. It is about the quality.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: No.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: So also we had the, the, the fan made stuff, the YouTube Mortal Kombat Bits and pieces as well that have emerged over the years.
[00:10:39] Speaker C: Street Fighter's got a ton of fan made stuff as well.
Street Fighter is one of the best.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: We all know the Mortal Kombat ones.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Looking at pure numbers according to Wikipedia,
[00:10:48] Speaker B: I wonder who's gonna win for that.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: According to across all franchises. So this is arcade games, console games, computer games. We'll leave the other Media to one side.
Street Fighter is unfortunately the winner at $10.6 billion of revenue as of 2020, whereas Mortal Kombat is at $5.054 billion of revenue as of 2006.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: But most of that money was made from when they charged just 60 quid for the cartridge on the Super Nintendo.
So that's where most of that money's come from.
[00:11:21] Speaker C: You do know that these games existed simultaneously. So what's more, Street Street Fighter.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: That's not how legal battles work.
[00:11:28] Speaker D: It's fine.
[00:11:29] Speaker C: Street Fighter has managed to make all that money with fewer games. There are six mainline Street Fighter games plus the three games.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Are we on 11? 12, I think.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Isn't it 12?
[00:11:41] Speaker C: Might be 12. I think it is 11.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: When they got to 10, they rebooted.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: We won't talk about the fact they then released and called it Mortal Kombat 1 and then kind of rebooted a bit of the.
[00:11:51] Speaker C: Whereas Street Fighter didn't feel the need to reboot because its lore wasn't a mess.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Well, it has no lore, really, does it? That's one of the beauties of Mortal Kombat, is there is that lore. There is that kind of like mythology that's grown up around the game and it all kind of makes sense.
[00:12:06] Speaker C: They wouldn't have to keep rebooting it every five years.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: The latest games, they have that whole kind of thing where you kind of walking through and all the rest of it.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Okay, let's move on to the new films. And so we haven't seen both of them because this is the day after the release of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter is not coming out till October, but from trailers, slash cast.
So start with Mortal Kombat 2 first. So this is a sequel to the 2023 or 4.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: I don't remember what year.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: 23. Yeah.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: So yeah, they've ignored the plot in the first film and just gone with Karl Urban as Johnny Cage.
[00:12:43] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: And he seems to be the pivotal character. Then we also got Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasishi, otherwise known as Scorpion.
Martin Ford, Shao Kahn. Lewis Tan as Cole Young. Who was the character that they introduced that nobody remembers.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: He was. He was the audience.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: Proxy.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Proxy in the first film.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. Lewis Tan as Cole Young.
Joe tells him as Bi Han. Tati. Gabrielle as Jade. Liu Kang is Ludy Lynn. Josh Lawson as Kano, which was one of the highlights of the first film, to be honest. And the second one, Angry Aussie chewing scenery.
Can't really complain.
Yeah. So. And Then
[00:13:26] Speaker D: wasn't he.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: Didn't he die in the first film? I'm like, don't worry about it.
[00:13:29] Speaker D: It's fine.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: I think most of the cast from the first film died and now they're all back for the sequel.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: It's fine. It all makes sense in world.
[00:13:37] Speaker D: It's not like it references their mortality in the name of the film.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: It's not like it's whole. If you die, your. Your universe dies. This is like kind of. You're fighting for the life of your planet.
[00:13:49] Speaker D: Yes. Yeah.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Fighting for the. Remember that. Fighting for the life of your planet. Not just some rando dictator with a cape.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: But then if we flip over to Street Fighter 2.
So we have Noah Santino as Ken, Mel Johnson as Cammy, Kalina Lang as Chun Li. Jason Momoa as Blanca, Andrew koji as Ryu.
50 cent as Balrog, which is everybody's
[00:14:12] Speaker C: favourite bit of casting suit. I can't argue with 50 cents Balrog.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Cody Rhodes as Guile.
Yeah. Eric Andre as Don Sauvage. Which is an interesting choice.
[00:14:23] Speaker C: Yeah. He's basically just the ring announcer.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:26] Speaker D: And then.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Quite a fantastic cast. Which one of these do you want to go and see more?
[00:14:32] Speaker C: I mean, personally.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: You see, obviously, the trailer for this film leans into the silliness of Street Fighter. That's punching the car.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: They're punching a car key.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: Well, there you go.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: It's just randomly punching a car. Why would you do that? So they're leaning into the fact that, like, this Street Fighter is just so silly and ridiculous and fluff that we.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Mortal Kombat 2, where Mortal Kombat has
[00:14:55] Speaker B: got a depth of story.
There's what's going on between Scorpion and Sub Zero. There's a whole kind of like, Johnny Cage comes in, he's got a whole backstory.
[00:15:03] Speaker C: If we're gonna talk the depth of lore about Mortal Kombat, I'm going to just say, and you said that it was made for adults.
This is a teenage boy's idea. A cool adult thing.
It is basically. What if we took 90s metal album covers and we made that a plot?
That is what Mortal Kombat's lore is. Yes, Street Fighter is very silly, but it embraces its own silliness. Mortal Kombat takes itself way too seriously, and as a result, it needs to keep rebooting its lore every five minutes because it just. As we.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: As you've pointed out, you're just relying on thighs. Street Fighter just relies on thighs.
[00:15:45] Speaker C: Yes.
Chun Li and her thighs are also Iconic. And we do need to mention that they reference it in the trailer. They do reference it in the trailer because it is an important part of
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Street Fight, A young journey that every young man has to take. Is Chun Lee's thigh.
[00:16:03] Speaker C: So cool. I've made my case. Chun Lee's thighs.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: But in favor of Mortal Kombat. It does have an ace up its sleeve, which admittedly comes from the 1995 movie.
But techno Syndrome by the Immortals is a song that has transcended the genre.
It was so good, they've even brought it back for the new films.
And the fact that you hear the names of all your fighters in there, you get the sense of the weight. It's like fight, you know, show your Might. Fight. All that. All those kind of like. Everybody remembers. All of those little kind of like voice bits. Everybody remembers Fight Fatality. All the rest of it.
[00:16:45] Speaker D: Finish him.
[00:16:46] Speaker C: Have you considered, Keith, that across 1112 games, Mortal Kombat is known for one track that was from an album that came out separately before the film.
And it wasn't even technically made for the film. It was made just for the. For a separate album, as a sort of spin off thing. And that's all Mortal Kombat has. If you name. Can you hum a theme from any of the actual games.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: But you don't need to because you can always just think about Techno Syndrome.
[00:17:18] Speaker C: I'm not denying that.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Johnny Cage, Sonny Blade.
[00:17:20] Speaker C: I will concede that Techno Syndrome is good. But I will also point out that it was made for a separate album and therefore is not for. From the games themselves. And hasn't even been used in the games themselves.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: That's Objection.
[00:17:33] Speaker C: You are.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: I'm going to recuse myself from deciding this one. So I have a fan favorite franchise. I just wanted to pick up a little bit of lore which. Jean Claude Van Damme was also involved in Universal Soldier, which was where the birth of Mortal Kombat came from, which was. It was supposed to be a Universal Soldier game. And then they decided to make Mortal Kombat instead.
[00:17:56] Speaker C: That is why one of the more recent Mortal Kombat games does in fact have Jean Claude Van Damme as a skin for Johnny Cage.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah. We could also mention the fact that, like, Mortal Kombat was such a, you know, force that Nintendo tried to do their own version with Killer Instinct.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: It was rare.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Well, rare for Nintendo, but still it elevated the fighting game to a level
[00:18:23] Speaker C: we'd never seen before. That's the argument we're going to make. Then I can bring out Tekken Ever alive.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Virtua Fighter.
[00:18:29] Speaker C: Virtua Fighter. I can bring it. Like basically every company in Japan, they're
[00:18:34] Speaker B: just cut and paste copies.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: Souls. Killer Instinct from War.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: Marvel versus Capcom.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: Look, Jax has got robot arms.
[00:18:42] Speaker D: Shush.
[00:18:43] Speaker C: Fatal Fury. King of Fighters.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Yeah, we got Sam's.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: I'm going to recuse myself because I have a personal favorite.
[00:18:51] Speaker C: Get over here.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: I think Sam is probably more. More of a.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Remember Sam?
[00:18:55] Speaker A: He's not all judge.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Remember those names, Sonya, Jax was saying
[00:19:01] Speaker D: before we started recording. I. I don't have much like, personal nostalgia for either of them. I have seen the Mortal Kombat film more recently, so I feel more familiar with that. But I've heard the arguments and I've enjoyed them.
[00:19:17] Speaker C: I think.
[00:19:19] Speaker D: I think Lee's won me over.
Sorry, Keith, but I think I'm going Street Fighter.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:19:27] Speaker D: I think part of it being Keith saying it's like we should vote more for combat because it's more realistic.
I mean, Street Fighter does feel like the more realistic of the two.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: You're saying the portals to. To netherrealm and all the rest of it is not realistic.
[00:19:46] Speaker D: And yeah, I mean, the trailer for the new film looks like great fun. I did Enjoy Mortal Kombat 2, but I think part of the reason I enjoyed it is because it just sort of. It did a good job of taking all the elements from the game and converting those into a film that was fun to watch. Whereas Street Fighter feels like it's almost more its own thing. Like. I. I don't know.
But yeah, I enjoyed both the arguments. I think they're. They're both very valid options, but I think I'm leaning Street Fighter.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: Perhaps we will return to this argument in October after the release of the film. Maybe we shall see if Sam has changed.
He probably won't actually release.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: No, I think they're both worthy titles and worthy contenders. But, yeah, you just got beaten in the final round on this one.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: I think, Keith, it was that punch in a car that did it, wasn't it?
[00:20:44] Speaker C: It's a fun minigame, Keith.
Although I will say as a closing statement that neither franchise lets you fight a bear, so therefore Tekken is superior to both.
[00:20:55] Speaker D: That is true.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: That is true.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: And also you can just play a guy who does capoeira and just really ruin everybody else's game.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: So, yeah, if you think we're right or wrong, let us know. Give us a comment or drop something below.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: That's fun.
[00:21:19] Speaker E: Hi, I'm Monica and we're part of Game Guru here at gameguru. We are based on Canalside in Utilitya and opening a new store over in Solihull, Touchwood Centre. Here at Game Guru we focus on playing some board games, creating community and enjoying something to eat, food, drink and even a pastry. Alongside we've really enjoyed the digital dehoks and stepping away from online games, our phones and really reconnecting with those that we're playing with, coming in, talking to family, talking to friends and even making new friends with Golden Ticket members. So alongside our gaming tables, gaming library, kitchen and bar, we do also have two very very special retail collections.
These collections range from anything from Warhammer to Pokemon. We also have singles cards and Magic the Gathering cards, things that are often difficult to get hold of. And we specialize in some of the new launches and new drops with Funko Pops as well. We will be located inside the Touchwoods Shopping center in Solihull and we will be open on opening day 14th of May from 11 till 10pm Moving over to normal times which are 10am to 10pm both at our Utility of Birmingham store and our Solihull Touchwood store. Over at Touchwood Solihull we will have another launch of the Golden Ticket. 100 Golden Tickets available. These will be purchasable for £50 if you choose to become a member and you'll be able to receive a number of benefits, perks, free game time along with added discounts. As we open there, just like we do here at the utility store, we will be running a number of events similar to our Catan event and Lacana event. We also have large spaces for people to play games and enjoy the games that we have. We will also have a lot of games that are for individual players, small groups, large groups and even family friendly games. If you would like to know a little bit more and to receive our regular updates, Instagram and TikTok and also head over to our website where we do have our most regular updates.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: So in recent years Birmingham has propagated a plethora of board game cafes.
So we have Game Guru which is a venue known very well to all of us. Chance Encounters. So Game Guru and Utilitarian arena in Birmingham, Chance Encounters in Digvus next to the Mockingbird Cinema, Double six in Mosley.
We got the Q Social Box on Pershall Street.
Element Games has opened in the Minories Centre, sliced and diced in lovely Selly Oak. And if you've not been there, I really do recommend that one LGBTQ friendly and Adam is amazing.
Wayland's Forge, also in Custard Factory that's
[00:24:05] Speaker C: less a board game cafe, though.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's more of a board game purchasing shop, but you can play. They do do some game nights, I think, as well. Griffin's Gaming, which is on Trent street, which recently opened. Game Guru has just expanded to a new location in Touchwood in Solly hall, and there's a few other places I think you can play One Piece trading card game. That's also in the Bandai Namco Cross store in Birmingham. So, kind of looking into where do you think this hobby sprung up A little bit. We have UK Games Expo, which is the UK's biggest gaming and board game event, which happens every year in the nec. But Birmingham seems to be becoming more of a destination as a board game place to go and have food, meet your friends, socialise and play a board game or two.
[00:24:55] Speaker D: It's something that's been around for a while as a concept.
The Dice Box in Leamington has been open for quite a long time now.
But, yeah, it does seem to be something that has expanded a lot into Birmingham.
There's been a few that have kind of come and gone, but the ones that are around now do seem to be staying, which is wonderful.
And I think it's.
It offers something sort of on the high street that is sort of different to the usual sort of shops. You can't really replace it with an online experience in the same way.
It's the cafe element, like you can go to Starbucks but come here and do the same and play a board game and have fun with your friends kind of thing.
So, yeah, I think it's a wonderful thing that it is becoming more popular.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: Do you think it's kind of replaced that traditional pub experience where you go for a few beers?
[00:25:58] Speaker C: And I think it has, because we're seeing a lot of reports of late of just like sort of younger generations are drinking less. And I think if you're, you know, if you're going out to socialize, a traditional pub environment where it's focused on alcohol isn't really the sort of place that they want to go. But if it's like a place where you go hang out with your friends, play a board game and, you know, eat, drink what you choose to drink. And there isn't like an emphasis on alcohol, but it's an emphasis on the board games and the socialization, I think that's probably a big factor in it, to be honest.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I agree with that. Quite fancy. I mean, I think people, when they hear board games, still think of things like Monopoly or the Game of Life or kind of Scrabble, all those traditional board games. But board games have come on so far in the last 20, 30 years. Now there's some real strong ones that you'd have probably heard of. Carcassonne, Ticket to Roid Catan. Those are kind of bit like gateway drugs into like ridiculously complicated games like Brass Birmingham, which is a really popular, massive strategy, in depth game.
I mean, Keith, what do you think with the change with board games over the last few years?
[00:27:09] Speaker B: I kind of like the fact that it's not relying on you to be the owner of the games because before you had this, you had to buy a game and then it was like you had to get people together and it was like, you know, who could go to whose house, how'd you got space? Whereas the cafe element of it is they're mostly stocked with a plethora of different games that you can pick and choose. You can try something, you can have a go and there's room, you've got space, you can play a small intimate game between one or two people, you could have six, seven, eight players. You've got that kind of space that you're not relying on somebody's front room or whatever it is. And it does.
I like the fact that social element of it as well. It's like there's just something about being in a space with other people as well, that it's not just a front room and it's just, it feels a little bit, it feels like you've gone out. It's like more of a, an event and it's like, it seems like it's, it's more purposeful.
But that fact that you can try something, you can try a card game, you can try a board game, you could watch other people play, you know, that's one of the things that's good about stuff like Games Expo is you can look and see other people playing, you can kind of ask questions.
[00:28:18] Speaker C: So, yeah, the great thing about UK Games Expo is you, you will often have the people behind the games showing them off. And like, I think this shows you, like, as you're sort of saying, Ryan, the sort of breadth of games available out there, UK Games Expo is massive. It like, I think it's spread across like three halls at this point in the nec. And obviously we know how big the halls in the NEC are and those are packed like, it is like very close knit once you go in there, because it's so rammed with stuff.
But as you know, as you go around like all the people demonstrating the games and they're all people associated with. Even if they're not necessarily the developers of the games, they're people who work for the companies that make them. And so they're all very close to it. And so you can sort of go and sit there and try them out, but you get someone close to the game telling you how the game works, how the game plays. And I think that gives you a good insight into what the game is. And this, like I said, such a huge range of stuff that's out there now.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: And it's always very dangerous for our wallets whenever.
[00:29:23] Speaker B: But you've got, you know, games are appearing in lots of different places now. So if you get. Comic shops have a limited amount. But Waterstones now has a quite a major selection of board games and card games and all kinds of different, you know, they have the kind of party game stuff, the kind of like hot dog and chicken and stuff like that. But also they've got, you know, walls full of games. Their expansions, you know, Foils is the same. They've got a selection of all kinds of different kind of board games. And the thing is, they're not all fantasy role playing games. There's, there's, there's all kinds of different kinds of games. Games themed around franchises as well.
[00:30:00] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:30:01] Speaker B: So you've got the Villainous series and they have themed packages based on Star wars and whatever it is. You've got lots of other franchises that have got games based off them. So yeah, like it just means that you've got some kind of buy in. You understand the world that you kind of gain.
[00:30:18] Speaker C: Yeah. Like one game I know I've seen in Waterstones is Seven Wonders. So it isn't just like the port party games like you said that they've got, but like 7 wonders I've definitely seen in Waterstones. And that's basically like imagine if Civilization was board game. You know, you're managing an empire of stuff and it's got, you know, it's all about managing your resources and doing. It's very sort of in depth.
So, you know, there's sort of a range of different things. But yeah, it also has the fun little party things where it's just you and your friends kind of get drunk and just throw insults at each other in the name of points.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Companies have realized there is a market for these. I can't remember the name of the actual game itself. It's Monsters Unleashed or something. And it started off and it was kind of like Monsters who were kind of like monsters you knew and that played. But then they actually got a version that was with the universal monsters. So you could be Dracula, you could be the Wolfman, you could be the Mummy and whatever it is, or the Creature from the Black Lagoon. And one of the other things I kind of like about them, particularly ones you can buy yourselves, is you often get little figures and stuff. Because back in the probably 80s and 90s, I wasn't really into Dungeons and Dragons because I could never get people to play, and it just seemed, like, overly complicated.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: But HeroQuest, which had a very successful
[00:31:35] Speaker B: comeback, so Hero Quest was like my introduction to that. Kind of like, it's more limited. It's not an ongoing campaign.
[00:31:42] Speaker C: Yeah. I was thinking broad.
[00:31:44] Speaker B: So it's like an ongoing campaign where you commit into, like, several years of gameplay. This could be something you could play in a couple of hours, be entertained, and then next week try something else.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: But again, it's iterative. You can play multiple versions. You change the map every time and change the adventure.
[00:32:01] Speaker C: Well, different stories is the best thing about HeroQuest.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: Yeah, but, yeah, I mean. I mean, me and Viv are big fans of, like, big potato games, and they're kind of herd mentality is the icebreaker game that we use with a lot of friends. And it's like, if they never played a board game before, it's like, try her mentality. The rules are really simple. It's a good way to play. It's good fun. But as you said, chicken and hot dog, Obama Llama, those kind of games, they're really popular in there.
[00:32:24] Speaker B: Well, you had the explosion of all the card games and stuff, so exploding
[00:32:28] Speaker C: kittens and cards against humanity and the unicorn one.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: Bears versus babies.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: And like, you've got magic the gathering stuff, which is the other big.
[00:32:38] Speaker C: The other end of it.
[00:32:39] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: But, you know, you still got.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: The trading card game is now like a ridiculous gambling habit for certain people.
[00:32:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, like, Pokemon's kind of. The Pokemon TCG has kind of been popular since it started.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: So many cards are, like, insane for it.
[00:32:55] Speaker C: Yeah. But I think, like, it's gotten very silly as of late because you now have just people scooping up boxes of Pokemon cards the moment they come out. Because I'm gonna sell these for ridiculous. I'm gonna scalp all this. You know, it's just like, this is supposed to be like a card game for children. You do know that, right?
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Yeah, but do you think this is the whole thing about. It's a bit more of a digital detox. And getting people away from being on their phones and on screens all the time. And just passively enjoying entertainment. Which is no problem with having passive enjoyment of entertainment. But this is kind of the antithesis of that. This is getting your friends to a location to engage in conversation and play a game at the same time.
[00:33:37] Speaker B: I think it's a big element to that. Like Lee was saying, the difference from going to a pub is often you kind of just sat there having a drink. It's too noisy. You kind of having to shout at everybody around you. And it just becomes a bit of a chore. Whereas this is more. I could have a coffee, you could have a beer, somebody could have a cake, whatever it is. And there's. There's a chance to have chats while things are going on or whatever it is. And it's. You have, you have. It's a nice sociable space to be in.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: And if you've not got a wide social circle, some of them give you opportunities to go and find a social circle. So I know Game Guru do singles nights where they'll say, come down, play a game.
[00:34:13] Speaker C: I think. Doesn't chance encounters do.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I think chance encounters and I think sliced and dice do. Like Blood on the Clock Tower regularly. And you can go there and join one of those games.
[00:34:22] Speaker C: Although I'm not a big fan of Blood on the Clock Tower, to be honest.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it's one of those phenomenon games which.
[00:34:28] Speaker C: It's got a really good social deduction games are kind of interesting just because, like, I've. The only social deduction game I've ever gotten to was a video game. And that's among us. And because, like, I think, like, the problem I've had with things like Werewolf and Blood on the Clock terror is it's basically like, all right, now sit here and deceive everyone.
And there's no real sort of foundation to it, in my opinion. And that's where among us sort of took that formula and did it better. I wish there were more in person social deduction games that had like, that kind of element, more of an element to them.
[00:35:00] Speaker D: There is the Battlestar Galactica board game where at least one of you is playing a Cylon has to try and kind of disrupt what's going on. It's very among us.
[00:35:10] Speaker C: Yeah, It's a good job that, like, a Battlestar Galactica video game recently came out. And I could look at what the Cylons actually were. I didn't know until I looked that up. And so now I know what you
[00:35:20] Speaker A: mean watch the Battlestar Galactica reboot because it's one of the greatest modern series that you will ever watch.
[00:35:26] Speaker D: But yeah, some of my friends and I used to play Battlestar board game quite a lot. And it got to a ridiculous, like mathematically improbable degree that I would be the Cylon in every single game to the point where I would like sometimes I would genuinely be. Be considering putting me in the brig from the beginning, just in case.
And we did discover as well, at the beginning of the game you get a card, like randomly given a card that either says you are not a Cylon or it says you are a Cylon. Here's all the things you can do as a Cylon kind of thing.
And basically figured out that whoever was sat there reading their card for a really long time was probably going to be a silent.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it seems to have been. Yeah, it's great to see new places popping up as well. And I think that's the other thing is there's so many social spaces that have disappeared for young people recently. They're like youth centres are all disappearing and everything feels like it comes with a exorbitant fee attached to it. You can't really go to the cinema anymore like you used to and just watch a couple of films a day without either having an unlimited card or spending quite an expensive amount of thought money or you got to go to the pub. So there's not many social spaces left. People feel like they can go and hang out.
[00:36:42] Speaker C: I do think as well there is like to a degree there is like a social media element of like the rise of board games and tabletop in general.
Because we've had like a lot of web series that are focused on tabletop stuff.
Obviously the big one is like critical role for D and D, but also staying within like Geek and sundry, which is where that started. They also had the Tabletop with Wil Wheaton series and I think that's. That was a big part that introduced
[00:37:10] Speaker A: a lot of board games to people.
[00:37:12] Speaker C: And of course, if we're talking about mathematical impossibilities, Wil Wheaton was always like terrible at rolling dice on that show.
But like, I've watched quite a few episodes of that and it is a really good introduction to it. And it's a shame that it's not really around anymore because I think, you know, but I think it's sort of all spread out from there and words gotten round off the back of it and, you know, clips have been shared and I think That's. That's a big factor in what's gotten people out there.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think the rise of Warhammer and other games like that with miniatures seems to have driven quite a lot
[00:37:46] Speaker C: that Warhammer makes this country more money than the fishing industry.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it is the other. You said it's weird to think of things like that where miniatures are so popular now, where they were away from. It's kind of. This is like a second wave, I think, from the 70s 80s era where these kind of board games were popular and people are going back to that as a kind of a break from always being online, always being present.
I mean, I'm. As you're probably aware, I like building Gumbla, which is slightly more, less than mini, but quite big models. But yeah, I find that as a really nice time to just zone out for a little while and concentrate on building something. Sam, I know you do a lot of miniature painting as well and you play Warhammer as well.
[00:38:28] Speaker D: Yeah, I think as well that mindfulness element is great. But one of the good things about a board game cafe is if you want to socialise with people, but you also want that sort of a bit of quiet time kind of thing. Like maybe you're not the sort of person who is comfortable just having a long face to face conversation with someone.
Having that board game kind of gives you a bit of an excuse to have those gaps in the conversation. So it is good for people who aren't as sort of socially confident to be able to kind of socialize with people.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Yeah. But especially with the miniature, it's like, look, I made this, that kind of thing. But yeah, I mean, I think it's just been a kind of. It's great to see something come back that's come back with quite a bit, bit of a vengeance over the last few years. And it's something which is a positive in the world rather than your latest subscription fee or you've got to pay this to go there.
I mean, the cafes will never be free, of course, but there's always. It's a reasonably low charge for the amount of hours of gameplay that you're doing.
[00:39:34] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely.
I think as well you were saying earlier about the sort of gateway games. It's worth remembering they aren't just like the board game cafes aren't just for the really detailed ones. They will have things like Scrabble and Monopoly. I think we've seen people playing Jenga and that sort of thing like Kaplunk, which, you know, whatever your kind of level of experience or how into a board game you want to be, there will be something there for you. They've got all the party game type games as well.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: Kid friendly games.
[00:40:10] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[00:40:12] Speaker C: And like, further to your point, like, you don't necessarily need to go in and play the games they have on show because, like, we go to Game Guru to play D and D and they're quite happy for us to do that. So. And we're just bringing all our own stuff to that. So.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. A lot of board game games are probably happy where you can just rent a table for a few hours and have a few rolls and enjoy the game.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: Is that flexibility of the space of those kind of cafes that make it.
You know, there's. They can cater to people who have never done anything before. They can cater to people that have got, like, experience and playing their own games, but just need space.
Because often that is. The thing is, spaces are tricky to come by. You know, if you're doing a D and D session and you've got six, seven players, if you're living in a flat or a small house, you can't accommodate that for it to feel comfortable and for people. Whereas where we play at Games Guru, we can get six, seven people around a table. There's some space to move.
You've got somebody who's quite happy to go off and make all the coffees and the drinks and stuff.
[00:41:16] Speaker C: And it's great for me because I can just spread out all my magic cards.
[00:41:22] Speaker B: But I think as well, you've got the proliferation of actually what board games are. You know, like you were saying, you know, traditionally it was Scrabble, Monopoly, whatever it is.
And then at the other end of the scale, you've got the kind of like Dungeons and Dragons stuff. And then what we've got is this, this gap in the middle that's just been filled in by all of these kind of other games where people have gone, well, let's take a bit of D and D and a bit of Monopoly and put that together and this and that and that, that mix and match of get elements of gameplay so people can understand from both sides. Oh, I understand how this mechanic works. I get something out of it.
So, you know, there's an explosion of these kinds of games.
[00:41:58] Speaker C: Yeah, like. And it's all sorts of genres. You've got fantasy stuff, sci fi stuff, horror stuff. I've even seen like a game that's about.
About like relationships. That's literally the game. And it's like you're sort of navigating the relationship through card gameplay and stuff like that.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: I think one of the great. One of the games they got on the shelf at Games Guru is basically an Agatha Christie game, you know, so you can do that mystery solving type stuff.
[00:42:21] Speaker C: Yeah, like there's a lot of sort of Cthulhu related type games which are sort of like your investigators and you're trying to uncover a spooky mystery of some sort.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: There are not always versus games as well. So you get cooperative board games like that where you work together as a group to solve the issue rather than just doing that.
[00:42:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's a great way for people to get together and spend some time. And like Sam said, it's like you're not under that social pressure that you normally are in other situations. You can, you could go for one week and just focus on the game and you had a nice time because you just had a bit of a chance to decompress.
You played a bit of games, you had the odd laugh.
[00:42:59] Speaker C: And of course I think the nature of board games being sort of very turn based does facilitate that quite nicely because when it's not your turn you can kind of just be quiet, let other people. But then when it's your turn then you can kind of. You can probably pull together some really cool move and impress everyone at the table and now everyone wants to talk to you.
[00:43:20] Speaker A: Yeah. But yeah, I think a force were good and it's good to see so many of them pop up.
[00:43:24] Speaker C: Y yeah.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: If you want to know where they are around Birmingham we'll probably put links in the description below
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It's time for our regular review of one geek thing that has been in our lives over the since the last recording it be it film, tv, video game, comic or, or any of the above or musical or etc. Just the one geeky pursuit we have been enjoying.
So this time I'm going to start off with.
[00:43:55] Speaker D: So mine is one that has been my one geek thing before a good year and a half or so ago now. But one of my favourite games as a teenager was Age of Mythology which I mentioned it previously because they rebooted it as Age of Mythology Retold.
So for those who don't know, it's very similar to Age of Empires. You're sort of creating this civilization, you worship one of the.
One of the major religions, so the Greek or Egyptian or Norse kind of pantheons.
And then as you progress and advance your civilization you choose new gods to. To worship and which gods you worship dictates what?
Myth units. So, like monsters you get to field as part of your army and God powers you can use.
So I've been playing that since they rebooted it, but they've been steady release, steadily releasing new DLCs with new civilizations.
And what has got me particularly excited about it this month is they've just released the Aztecs as a new civilization you can worship.
And they're great fun to play.
One of their myth units is war Bunnies.
They've got little hats on, and as they kill people, they multiply. So it starts off with two little bunnies and then gradually goes up to five bunnies. And if you're fielding a whole army of them, you can just have this horde of bunnies come charging down to kill your enemies.
They've also got what are basically siege armadillos who do a little roly poly attack if they're charging into a big group of people and. And some wonderfully creepy sort of death owls if you sort of walk along like this.
[00:46:05] Speaker A: Or.
[00:46:06] Speaker D: Death owls. Death. Death, yes.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: Not death owls.
[00:46:14] Speaker D: They've got like a sort of skull mask and might be deaf, we know, maybe.
And they're very cool as well.
And each kind of civilization in the game has a different way of earning favor as a sort of resource. So you get favor with the gods, and with the Aztecs, you can kind of sacrifice your villagers at a temple to earn favor, or you can kind of basically harvest the life force of anyone that you kill.
So they're quite kind of badass and just really good fun to play.
And, yeah, I was immediately sold on war Bunnies. And it's just impressed me more and more the more I've played it.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: So for somebody who hasn't played any of the Age Mythology pantheon of games, what's kind of the appeal?
[00:47:13] Speaker D: So, war brains? Well, yes, it's a bit like. So if you've ever enjoyed anything like Age of Empires or Civilization, it's a very similar kind of mechanic.
But I think the fun of Age of Mythology in particular is being able to field things like minotaurs and centaurs in your army.
They've got quite a fun kind of narrative campaign as well, if you want to sort of get more of a kind of storytelling element from it.
They do also have a map builder, which can be quite good fun. So if you wanted to sort of build a scenario that's a bit like.
Like Lord of the Rings or something, you can. There will be myth units like trolls and so on that you can add in to Sort of recreate that.
And yeah, they're quite like each civilization that you play has quite a distinct mechanic to it in the way they earn favor or the way they gather resources and that sort of thing. So that it can be quite kind of tactical. And I know there's a lot of kind of online players who play it quite competitively, which I've never quite got into because there seems to be lots of very sort of specific tactics for when you're playing against a person.
I like to build a big army of bunnies or minotaurs or whatever.
[00:48:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:50] Speaker D: Flatten some AI civilization.
But yeah, it's very replayable.
There's all sorts of different maps and things.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: Thank you, Lee. How about yourself?
[00:49:03] Speaker C: So the game that I've been playing recently is.
So basically there is. It's made by A2. I think it's a two person studio and published by Tophat Studios, which is a small sort of indie publisher. But what they did was they took a lot of my favorite games and just threw them in a blender and made a game called Motor Slice.
And what it is, it's basically a parkour game. So it's very Mirror's Edge, very Prince of Persia, Sands of Time.
And a lot of it is basically you're sort of doing wall runs and trying to duck under traps and do all this sort of stuff. But then there's an element of Shadow of the Colossus that's thrown in there because at the end of every level you fight a massive bit of construction equipment that is trying to kill you and you have to take it down. And it's this huge thing that you basically have to climb all over and solve and figure out how to get in and up and get around it and attack all its weak points.
And it's been sort of just a really fun experience to go through.
It is very sort of small indie game and you can tell it's kind of a bit small. You know, it's sort of a smaller game because it's not quite as polished as things like Mirror's Edge.
Just, you know, it's got a bit of jank to it, but at the same time it's such a well put together thing that sort of. It sets a solid foundation for the studio, I think in the sense that like the level design is really good.
They've put together these. It's very challenging in some of the bits because you're, you know, you're sort of jumping from wall to wall, but sometimes you'll get like grinders coming out of the wall or, you know, you'll have, like, enemies that fire things that you. That you've got to parry their attacks back at and all this sort of stuff. And basically you're. The premise of it is that you are a woman who is classified as a slicer. We never really sort of know what this is, but their job is to take down these machines that have done something.
And she is in this megastructure, which they believe is like one of the sources of where all these machines are coming from. And you're basically going through it and trying to take down all these things.
I was instantly sold on this game from one of the trailers because there's a massive excavator that swings its arm at her and this thing's like the size of a building and she just parries it with her chainsaw.
And I was like, all right, I'm sold on this.
And yeah, it's just like when you get to these big fights, it's like the first one's like, against, like a big dump truck kind of thing.
And you. You have to kind of get right underneath it where there's like a pole you can climb up and you kind of climb up through it and sort of you. One of the.
The mechanics in the game is the motor slice, which is.
You'll find certain walls that you can jam your chainsaw into and ride the wall along using the chainsaw and you can kind of move up and down on it.
And a lot. That's how you attack a lot of these things. You sort of are going around them, trying to climb them, but you use those bits as, like, navigation, but it also does damage to them.
And yeah, it's just. It's a very sort of. It's got like a very mysterious vibe because, like I said, we don't really know what the slices are. We don't really know what the megastructure is. And all this sort of stuff, it's sort of done very vaguely, but it's done in a way that's sort of still very intriguing and very interesting. And, yeah, I've just been having a lot of fun with it. So sort of relatively short experience, but I definitely recommend it, especially if you're into, like, games like Prince of Persia, Mirror's Edge, that sort of thing, because it's very, very similar to those sorts of things.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: Awesome source.
Keith, how about yourself?
[00:53:02] Speaker B: I'm going to pick something that's been over 30 years in the making.
Back in 1988-89, Rick Veach's run on Swamp Thing came to an end, I think, with issue 88.
And this is a run that had started many, many years before with Alan Moore taking over with the saga of the Swan thing, which kind of pushed DC into the kind of Vertigo era with more kind of mature comics. The whole kind of thing that Alan Moore kicked off with his kind of way, you know, Watchmen stuff.
And Swamp Thing came to an end, but he didn't really finish the story that Rick Veach wanted to tell.
So now we're here 30 odd years later, and DC have given him the opportunity to bring that story to a close.
The issue that's just come out is a restored edition of something that was kind of partly completed at the time, did get finished. The artist on it is Michael Zulli, who unfortunately we lost a couple of years ago, but he managed to finish the first issue of this four issue run.
So that's been restored, that's been released, and then Tom Van Drake is going to take over as the artist on the remaining three issues. And it's just giving Rick Veach a chance to kind of bring his saga of Swamp Thing to an end. Obviously something's gone off and done other things amongst the DC universe in the meantime. But this has been published under the DC's Black Label issue.
And what's interesting about it is they're putting it out, or at least the first issue has been put out as if it had been published the next month after the last issue was published. So they've kept the old trade ads for comics that were going to come out at the same time. So it feels like the same kind of paper. The printing style is really the same as what it was before.
And they're running ads for comics that were coming out in like 1988, 89. And it just feels like a complete throwback, as if no time has passed at all between the last issue and this issue.
So I have no idea where he's going to take the story over the next four issues.
But it's just really interesting that DC have kind of, after this amount of time, have decided to give the creator the opportunity to finish a story that he started, did like many, many years ago. And it is one of those runs that people talk about still to this day. You know, you would have thought the Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing was the kind of the one that would be the stand one, but the Rick Veatch one just kind of took what Alan had started and kind of ran with it and took it in areas that you just didn't get in comics at that time. You know, you were getting similar stories in other Vertigo titles, you know, some of the stuff that Sandman did. But there's something about Swamp Thing that just was a bit transcendental really.
And there's just something about it. It's just so powerful and poignant. And again, because we're in a point where Swampy's all about kind of nature and the earth and all the rest of it. And we're in a time now and it'd be interesting to see what.
How maybe Richie Rick's ideas have changed because of what's happened to the earth over the past 30 odd years and whether that's going to change some of the direction of where this story will go.
But I was kind of excited when it got announced last year and it was immediately I contacted Dave at Nostalgia and Worlds Apart and went, this is going on my pull list. And I think a lot of people who were reading the book at the time have just gone, yeah, it's a no brainer. We're just going to be straight into this book and see where this story was supposed to go.
The covers have been really beautiful. They did a lot of nice.
You know, they did a Michael Zulli alternative cover, which is really pretty as well.
It's just gonna be an interesting to see how the story should have ended.
[00:56:52] Speaker A: So what is a character that DC seems to struggle with? I mean, they've tried to do a couple of films.
[00:56:59] Speaker B: There was a really good TV series.
I think you might still be able to watch it. Amazon, which is really good. I have got, I think it's 88 films.
Restoration of the something movie from the kind of late 80s.
Yeah, but it's one of those kind of quite weird characters. You know, Marvel had Man Thing, which was not the same, but it was a swamp monster type thing.
But it was just how Alan Moore kind of pushed him into this kind of like new arena. And there's a lot of kind of like it's all set in kind of the bayou and all that stuff. So there's all this kind of mysticism and all that kind of stuff that comes into it, magic and stuff. And it's where John Constantine and stuff kind of came out of. He kind of originated in Saga of the Swamp Thing and he spun off into his own thing as well. So there's a lot of history with the character. A lot of stuff. A lot of people who of my age certainly have gone, you know, we can't wait to see how this story should end.
So it's bizarre that D.C. have decided to do it, but I think a lot of us are kind of really grateful about we're gonna get to see how this should have ended.
[00:58:08] Speaker A: So that's all in your local comic book store.
[00:58:11] Speaker B: Should be in your local comic book store. I imagine it's sold out at this point, so there'll probably be reprints and republishings. But it's certainly definitely the way. And if you can get hold of the.
The whole saga of Swamp Thing stuff and the Alan Moore stuff, up to this Rick Veach stuff. It is really good stuff. Stuff definitely worth reading if you want to catch up with it. It's a lot, lot of really good story.
Story in there.
But yeah, I was impressed with this first issue. Can't wait to see where it goes.
[00:58:38] Speaker A: Awesome. Worth checking out.
Thank you. So for me, I'm going to go with Dino De Laurentiis's greatest space opera.
So legendary Italian producer you're probably aware of from June 1984. But this was the space officer opera before June, before David.
[00:58:59] Speaker B: Four years before.
[00:59:00] Speaker A: Four years before.
Featuring the finest. One of the finest movie soundtracks by a British rock band, the Queen.
So it's not Highlander, if you. That's what you're thinking of. But yeah, it was Flash Gordon. And we got to watch it with wine courtesy of the lovely wine events company. Sam has done a blog on the. Your website. So go and check that out. As well as the launch of Flatback.
But yes. So we went to the planet of Mongo, also known as the Mockingbird Cinema in Dignas, and we got to enjoy five glasses of wine along with a film that Sam had never seen before this day.
[00:59:34] Speaker D: What?
I. I just had him.
[00:59:38] Speaker A: How. How have you never seen Flash Gordon?
[00:59:41] Speaker D: I. I have now and I'm pleased to have corrected that error.
[00:59:45] Speaker C: I saw it as a kid because I was a fan of Queens.
[00:59:47] Speaker A: Yes. It's a great soundtrack. Yeah. Saved every one of us at least multiple times. Yes. But yes. So if you've not seen Flash Gordon, it's based on a 1920s.
[00:59:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:00] Speaker A: Serial campy kind of comic book that was multiple parts in the cinema.
[01:00:06] Speaker B: And well, it was. It was like a three panelish comics strip and then it became a Buster Crab serialized like Republic Pictures type thing.
[01:00:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:18] Speaker B: The same as who's doing Book Rogers.
[01:00:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:00:20] Speaker A: So we watched this on May 4, which was quite appropriate because George Lucas,
[01:00:23] Speaker B: basically Star wars is a rip off.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: Well, Star wars only came about because George Lucas couldn't get the Rights to make Flash Gordon because Dino De Laurentiis didn't want him to make the film.
So. But yes.
[01:00:35] Speaker C: So all of George Lucas ideas are basically old serials.
[01:00:38] Speaker B: Does Sam know who directed this film as well?
[01:00:40] Speaker A: No. Well, it does now, I think. But you didn't at the time.
Yes.
[01:00:47] Speaker D: Although it's gone out of my head now.
[01:00:50] Speaker A: It was the wonderful Mike Hodges who has also done many of the films. But he's probably best known for Keith.
[01:01:00] Speaker B: I can't remember.
[01:01:01] Speaker D: Best known for Keith.
[01:01:03] Speaker B: Yeah, not for me.
[01:01:04] Speaker A: So get Carter.
[01:01:06] Speaker B: Yep.
Damien 2.
[01:01:08] Speaker A: Damien 2, Omen 2. Yeah. Pulp, the terminal one.
[01:01:11] Speaker C: Yep.
[01:01:12] Speaker A: But yeah, Get Car is probably his biggest one. But he did a lot of TV as well.
[01:01:16] Speaker B: But yeah, bit of a departure.
[01:01:17] Speaker A: Yes. But yes, Screenplay Lorenzo Semple Jr. Starring Sam J. Jones, who people probably know nowadays more from Ted and Ted 2 where he quite frequently play Sam
[01:01:28] Speaker B: J. Jones, at least acted by.
[01:01:29] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:01:31] Speaker D: But yes.
[01:01:32] Speaker A: Melody Anderson, Oneella Muti, Max One Sideo and one of his father finest roles as Ming the Merciless, Top Hole, Timothy Dalton, Brian Blessed, Peter Wingard with one of the finest British voices ever put to screen as Cleitus.
But yes, it's such a great campy vibe to that film and I think every single actor was weirdly enjoying themselves, apart from Sam J. Jones, which in their kind of production hell kind of side of it. But yeah, I think it's such a great campy bit of. And Brian Blessed, of course has made a career out of saying one certain line from that film.
[01:02:08] Speaker C: But yeah, well, I think it's two lines. It's the Gordon's alive and dive.
[01:02:14] Speaker A: Dive.
Yes, but it's a very short runtime as well, which I completely forgot. The film's not actually that long in runtime itself, but it gets through so much so quickly.
It is just.
[01:02:27] Speaker C: They made the soundtrack first and then like fit the film around it. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that's how it was made, but you know. Yeah, I think just like it should.
[01:02:36] Speaker A: Talking of that soundtrack, I think Queen went in two footed with this one and Brian May, lots of guitar riffs. It's very space operatic in the style.
[01:02:46] Speaker C: Brian May kind of let it. He definitely wrote the main theme.
[01:02:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But I think there was a soundtrack alongside it. But they did a lot of work on it and a lot of songs off there.
[01:02:55] Speaker C: It's what checks out though, if Brian May was the one who led the whole project because like he's a massive nerd and it would be. He'd be into the sci Fi thing. So, you know.
[01:03:05] Speaker A: Yeah. But for a running time adjusted to two hours, it packs a lot in compared to what is now three hours in a blockbuster. And there's probably a lot of pools.
[01:03:14] Speaker B: Some really nice production design as well.
[01:03:16] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely beautiful.
[01:03:18] Speaker B: Absolutely fantastic. But the question I have is how did the wine part work?
[01:03:23] Speaker A: So basically you get ushered in with a glass of wine. So you join the screening with a glass of wine. I do ask you to not drink it until you'll get an explainer why the film's been chosen. There'll be some trivia, there'll be some questions going through, but basically roughly around every 20 minutes, usually after a kind of pivotal scene, there'll be a pause in the film, the lights come up and then you get introduced to your wine and the wines are themed around the film itself. Chosen.
[01:03:50] Speaker C: And when Brian Blessed says dive, do they just bring out a vat,
[01:03:55] Speaker A: just giant straws? No. So you dive in.
[01:03:57] Speaker C: Like you follow his advice.
[01:03:59] Speaker A: So if you've never been to a with wine screening, Tony and Lucy and the rest of the wine events company are absolute masters at this at the time. Now Tony is a registered sommelier so he's a very good selector of wines. And all the wines are usually reasonably cheap as well. I mean most bottles value between 8 to 12 pounds that we were drinking. So it's not super expensive wine that you can kind of find yourself.
So to come across some of the grapes, we went through a Ribolla Giala, which is an ancient grape from Italy, also known as the Muscat of Alexandria, which is one of the oldest grapes on earth. So that was really nice.
We also had a Hungarian wine, a Georgian wine and then, yep, Portuguese wine. So it's not just like you stand French and Italian. He like tries to introduce different kind of wines and the theme of these ones were all, all liberated from Ming Seller and it he picked out the finest wines from the world.
[01:04:55] Speaker D: They were unusual, exotic ones. Was the, the the sort of idea, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:05:01] Speaker A: I mean they're always really good fun events. We've done a couple of them, but he does quite a few of them.
You'll probably expect things like Mamma Mia and those kind of proud films, Dirty Dancing with Wine. But he does occasionally throwing a. Throw in a bit of a curveball like he did with Flash Gordon on this one.
[01:05:19] Speaker D: There's quite a few good looking ones coming up over the rest of the year.
I think they're doing Princess Bride with wine which I feel like if there's a film that is to fantasy what Flash Gordon is to sci fi. It's probably Princess Bride.
[01:05:34] Speaker B: So how does the interruptions work? Because obviously when I go to see a film, I'm expecting it to play all the way through. Does it affect you?
[01:05:45] Speaker A: It's a natural point they used to do.
[01:05:48] Speaker B: Is it like an ad break on my tv? A little bit like an advertising in
[01:05:51] Speaker C: between scenes kind of thing.
[01:05:52] Speaker B: It's basically like what you would do at home when an ad break comes on. You go and get a wine.
[01:05:56] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:05:57] Speaker B: The explanation of why you're drinking it rather than it's just what you got in the cupboard.
[01:06:00] Speaker A: So you get an explanation. You usually get some trivia about the film. A little bit of an introduction. Tony usually comes dressed in some ridiculous outfit every single time.
[01:06:09] Speaker B: Did he dress up like Voltan?
[01:06:11] Speaker A: He dressed up as Flash. He dressed up as a nude Flash with his little tighty white.
He dressed up as Bing and he dressed up to finish the film off as Voltan as well.
[01:06:21] Speaker B: Sweet.
[01:06:22] Speaker A: But yeah. So some of the titles coming up, I mean, you've got Mamma Mia 2 with wine, of course. Greatest Showman with wine.
Labyrinth with Wine, which is kind of works quite nicely.
And then. Yeah. Bottle Shock, which is a wine themed film. So that makes sense. Grease with wine.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with wine, which is interesting.
[01:06:44] Speaker D: I believe that one's with wine and chocolate.
[01:06:46] Speaker C: With wine and chocolate.
[01:06:47] Speaker A: That makes sense. And then Pulp Fiction with Wine, which I really want to watch just for the juxtaposition of Pulp Fiction with wine.
[01:06:55] Speaker B: That seems quite a random choice.
[01:06:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Blade Runner with wine. Temperature for Blade Runner with wine. The Crow with wine.
[01:07:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:07:04] Speaker A: So as I said, there's really interesting.
[01:07:06] Speaker B: They're not films that you would normally expect for that kind of event.
[01:07:09] Speaker D: Yeah. I think one of the things I enjoyed with Flash Gordon is they. They did quite a good job of kind of pausing the film at a sort of slightly silly point. Like it almost became part of the joke that, like the pauses were like getting laughs in themselves and. Yeah. And the.
I would say it almost felt more like a wine tasting with a movie rather than a movie with wine. Like he was properly going through what notes you can expect from the drink.
[01:07:41] Speaker A: And I don't think it ruined the enjoyment of the film either.
[01:07:45] Speaker D: No.
[01:07:46] Speaker A: If anything it made it slightly more interesting as you were getting slightly drunker.
I think that works quite well with Flash Gordon with its pomp and campiness.
[01:07:56] Speaker D: Over the course of the film, more and more people were joining in with the.
[01:07:59] Speaker A: Ah.
[01:08:01] Speaker D: Every time it came up.
[01:08:04] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, they are always good fun. I mean, I'd just go and check out their website, which is wine events company, and there's usually quite a lot of interesting titles that some you wouldn't expect to be paired with wine, put it that way.
But yes, I would recommend.
[01:08:21] Speaker D: So to recap, Sam, War Bunnies or Age of Mythology retold Lee Motuslothes.
[01:08:29] Speaker B: Keith Swamp Things return to DC Comics.
[01:08:32] Speaker A: And for me, Flash Gordon with wine. Well, Flash Gordon at any time, to be honest, but with wine makes it a bit more special.
[01:08:38] Speaker C: Recreate the experience at home by just drinking a big bottle of wine while watching Flash Gordon.
[01:08:43] Speaker A: Yep.
[01:08:44] Speaker C: Or several bottles of wine. I'm not your dad. You know what you want.
[01:08:48] Speaker A: Big wine bottle and a big straw.
[01:08:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:08:56] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us on the Geeky Brewery podcast. This iss.
Where can we find you online?
[01:09:01] Speaker C: You can find me on YouTube and blue sky at Bob the Pet Ferret or on the geeky Brimming website doing the weekly gaming roundups.
[01:09:09] Speaker A: Keith, where can we find you online?
[01:09:11] Speaker B: On the socials of note, you can find me as hardlookhotel and then Wednesday's on the geeky primary website with my comic picks.
[01:09:18] Speaker A: And Sam, where can we find you on?
[01:09:20] Speaker D: You can find me at sdedwards89, on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky and on the GeekyBrew website every Thursday doing the film roundup.
[01:09:31] Speaker A: And you can find us all, as we said, at geekybrew.com for regular roundups. If you're watching this, you're probably watching on YouTube or Spotify. Hello. And if you're listening to us on your podcast service of choice, don't forget to subscribe and share and do the usual thing and tell all your friends about it.
But yeah, thank you for watching or listening, depending on your preference. And we shall be back again soon. But for now, everybody, bye.
[01:09:56] Speaker B: The Geeky Brummy podcast is presented by Ryan Parish featuring Sam Edwards, Lee Price and Keith Bloomfield. The podcast is produced by 50 parish and is recorded at Millennium Point in the heart of Birmingham. You can follow us on all of the social medias eekybrummy and you can support the show by visiting ko-fi.com Geeky Brummy this was a Geeky Brummy production. And until next time, Tarara bitch.
