As I said, it’s not always wonderful. Waking up four times a night… not wonderful. Standing in a stress position to hold the hands of a tiny child trying to walk… not wonderful (but also wonderful). Constantly tidying things that are never actually tidy… not wonderful. But if there’s one thing that sums up having young children it’s this: It’s 4pm on a Saturday. Essentially the evening if you’re a parent. It’s a little too early for dinner, but you at least know that that’s soon and then after that bed time isn’t far off. The sweet release of bed time. Anyway, you see a crumb of chocolate just sat in a crevice of your shirt. Given that dinner, as established is still some minutes away, you fancy a small snack. Yum! Chocolate. But you’ve forgotten, just for a split-second, that you have a baby. Welcome to VG247’s The Best Games Ever Podcast: Ep.18 - The best game you thought was one genre but turned out to be another.
Check out VG247’s The Best Games Ever Podcast on Apple Podcasts and subscribe. Or listen on Spotify. It’s even on YouTube if that’s your thing.
Please do let us know what you think of the show – and if this is your first time listening, do go back to listen to the previous episodes. If you’ve got suggestions for topics, we’d love to hear them. If you’re a Connor fan (there must be some of you out there), make them Fighting Game related or at least adjacent, as that’s pretty much all he knows about. “What is VG247’s Best Games Ever Podcast?” you ask while wondering if the intro story is what you think it is and if it really happened. Yes and yes. I don’t recommend it. Anyway, this podcast, which is why you’re on this page, is essentially a 30-minute panel show where people (me and some others on VG247) decide on the best game in a specific category. That’s it. It’s good. Listen to it. We’ve got some details on the show’s content below (if you want to get a refresher before heading to the comments to make a wonderful, considered post or don’t want to listen but do want to know what games we picked), so if you want to avoid spoilers, don’t scroll past this fan-made creation of what Chris Bratt would look like if he was in Bugsnax. (Support friends of VG247, People Make Games, on Patreon).
The best game you thought was one genre but turned out to be another
This is the topic of Episode eighteen of VG247’s Best Games Ever Podcast. Here’s a rundown of who picked what.
Tom - Bugsnax
Look. Loads of you are going to be all “that’s not really a different genre, is it?” and to that I say: “poo poo.” If you’ve not experience the horror of Bugsnax you can’t comment on it. Simple. It’s harrowing. The PlayStation Access video above explains it all brilliantly if you have no intention to ever play the game yourself.
Alex – Brutal Legend
It might seem like the obvious choice – and that’s because it is. But honestly, who cares? Brutal Legend is absolutely the best example of a game that you think is one thing… but turns out to be another. Publisher EA is partially to blame for this, too – almost all of this game’s marketing beats sold it as an action-packed hack-and-slash game set in a heavy metal world. And it is that… for a while. But part-way through Brutal Legend, it reveals its secret Ace of Spades: it’s not just an action game set in a world inspired by heavy metal album covers, it’s a real-time strategy game. Soon, you’re taking part in wild battles with masses of troops, fighting demons for the fate of a world populated by Ozzy, Lemmy, and other metal greats. It’s brilliant – even in the hard turn into RTS turned a lot of players off.
Connor - Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 is a game for perverts, but I had no idea I swear. I swear to god I didn’t know. I, a pure 13 year old, thought I was buying a cheap fighting game. So what if it had bikinis on the front, how was I supposed to know it was softcore porn? The lads at the GameStation let me buy it, it’s their fault when you think about it. If you like beach volleyball it’s allegedly the focus of the game. You’re meant to build up a friendship with a variety of women in order to improve your overall performance at seaside sports. You can also play tug of war and “butt battles” by the pool, but you can’t even parry incoming ass blasts so what’s the point, to be honest. You can, believe it or not, also do jet ski races. In fact, it was one of the major selling points for the game, according to revered DOA historians. It did have a casino though, which was fun, but the game was a totally different package than what I was expecting. In hindsight I probably should have thought of a thought-provoking genre-twisting game, but the moment I saw the podcast brief Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 was the only thing that came to mind. I am sorry. Come back in a week for another episode of VG247’s Best Games Ever Podcast.
