Episode 040: Silent Soap

## Episode 040

*A survival horror Ikaruga, Super Mario Brother Maker, A Chumbawamba tumbler, and Fieri Emblem.*

## Introduction

Griffin and Nick briefly mention the big political story of the week - the controversy over Washington D.C.'s first Dave & Buster's having *Time Crisis 4* but not *Time Crisis 5* - before deciding to make a gaming-focused podcast for the gamers. Nick is worried about losing their first gamer president, Barack Obama, and both he and Griffin want to see the incoming president being grilled on his gaming credentials by Geoff Keighley, whose ability to interrogate scoops out of industry heads resulted in Nintendo investing $2 million into brainwashing technology (which eventually became the Wii Motion Plus).

Griffin thanks Nintendo for developing *Fire Emblem Heroes*, which "looks fine", but is still worried about the upcoming *Animal Crossing* mobile game. Nick mentions the weirdness of the 2013 VGX Awards, which he had recently rewatched, and points out that there hasn't been a *Metroid* game in four years aside from *Metroid Blast Ball*, which was inspired by the time Geoff Keighley blasted all the hot scoops out of Reggie Fils-Aimé.

## This Episode's Game

*The world's greatest sniper has started a service where he cleans your house without ever setting foot on your property (submitted by [name withheld], name suggested by /u/RobotsFightingTrexes)*
***Silent Soap*** is a VR-supported version of *Spy Party/Dangerous Golf* in which the player must clean a dirty house from the back patio using a sniper rifle. They have ten cleaner bullets (made of water or Windex) which can be used to set off chain reactions and perform various actions; shooting a bottle of Windex will cover windows, floors and surfaces with cleaner. Rolls of paper towels, sponges and other objects lying around can be knocked and juggled about. The trash can is opened and closed by shooting it, and windows can be opened by shooting the lock. However, directly shooting at glass will break it instead of cleaning it.

There are ten levels in total, each with 20 missions of increasing difficulty, from knocking over a bucket of water to cleaning a room full of dignitaries messily eating bowls of chilli without hitting them. Other missions include cleaning the kitchen, throwing away dirty diapers, and doing the laundry. Upgrades include different types of cleaner bullets, gun attachments, and increasing lung capacity (to steady your aim).

The game ships with a plastic sniper rifle which the player uses to shoot the screen (similar to *Silent Scope)*. The Switch version is glued to your face. The soundtrack includes 'The Window Cleaner' (a.k.a. 'When I'm Cleaning Windows') by George Formby.

## Other Game Ideas Discussed

### A game where you must knock Chumbawamba down so that they do not get up again

A physics game in which the player throws various objects at members of the anarcho-punk band, Chumbawamba, who then try not to fall down (similar to *Sumotori Dreams'* hidden mode). *(submitted by /u/PET-KITTIES)*

### Sportchestra

A mixture of *Wii Music* and *Super Smash Brothers* in which musicians must play Blastball with musical instruments, named after one of Chumbawamba's aliases. *(submitted by Chumbawamba)*

### Fieri Emblem

Guy Fieri is slipped into *Fire Emblem Heroes* as an optional recruit who makes all of your cooking extremely bad. He's a Barbarian type with fire magic*.* Petting his spiky hair upsets him, reduces his love rating and makes him fight worse*.* When he turns his visor around, he turns into Dark Fieri. *(submitted by /u/Hella\_Lugosi)*

### A survival horror game where the monsters are as scared of you as you are of them

A competitive multiplayer *Ikaruga*-style horror game where one player must hide from a monster until the timer runs out, after which they get to chase after the monster. Rejected by Griffin due to similarities with *Sabotage Rally* and for being "too straightforward". *(submitted by /u/ConstableJones)*

### Phishing for Compliments

A network of phishers who not only steal people's identities, but also trick the victims into complimenting JPEGs of the perpetrators. *(submitted by /u/ComeFindMeGilbert)*

### Bedside Manor

*"Twelve doctors fight to save a single patient."* *(submitted by /u/ACrowofMurders)* Twelve players spend ten minutes searching for medical tools inside of a mansion owned by a famous, dying doctor, before assembling a team of four surgeons to perform surgery on the occupant. Gameplay during surgery is similar to the early levels of *Trauma Center: Under the Knife* andthe doctor who performs the final action gets all the credit. Players can perform specific roles such as Anesthesiologist, General Surgeon, Brain Person, and Hypnotist. However, some players may secretly be Harm Doers whose job is to harm the patient, so the team must decide who to trust (à la Werewolf). Players can choose to become bouncers instead of performing surgery, which allows them to throw Harm Doers out of the room.

### MarioMare

*WarioWare* but with the W's flipped upside-down, possibly resulting in Mario's horse. *(submitted by /u/PET-KITTIES)*

### Wario is Wizzing

Undiscussed. *(submitted by /u/Doddy\_Bigital)*

### Super Mario Brother Maker

*"A game where you design your very own long lost Mario brothers and can share them online." (submitted by /u/creepyeyes)* Each brother's name starts with a letter of the Latin alphabet, which can be rotated 180 degrees to produce "Wah" characters, and must end with either '-ario' or '-uigi'. Due to this finite number of possible combinations, there are leaderboards to see who can create the best brother for a given name. Further variations can be produced by adding words such as "Shadow" and "Metal", which are released in monthly expansions. All of the brothers have "weird, almost imperceptible" mechanical differences from each other and are playable in *Super Mario 64;* the title screen of this game is used to manipulate faces. Mario appears in the tutorial before being killed off and replaced.

### Al Borland's Tourin' New Orleans

An FMV game in which *Home Improvement* co-star Al Borland, played by Richard Karn, delivers a guided tour of his favorite spots in New Orleans, Louisiana. The four levels are French Quarter, the Bayou, Tremé, and the Garden District. A secret fifth level where Borland is drunk on Bourbon Street plays on certain days of the year. At set points of the tour, the player must shoot a cowboy to prevent Al Borland from being killed, which will immediately and permanently end the tour. The game continues running in real-time to show the morgue and detectives arriving at the scene, Al Borland's body being taken away and buried, and his grave from that point onwards. *(submitted by /u/kaneda26)*

## Trivia

* Contrary to what is suggested during the introduction, there are at least three different Dave & Buster's in Washington D.C.
* Griffin mentions the speedrun of *Trauma Center: Second Opinion* at SGDQ 2016 while discussing Bedside Manor.
* Polygon's article on the live-action television pilot based on *Trauma Team* can be read here.
* Nick and Griffin later worked with an independent team of anonymous contractors to develop a prototype of *Super Mario Brother Maker*, which was revealed during E3 2017.