Episode 003: Surgery Date (feat. Phil Kollar)

## Episode 003

*Ace Ventura. Yomi. Tekken, but better. Guest star Phil Kollar.*

## Introduction

Nick and Griffin address listener complaints about the fact that both *Grandma Wants It Al Dente* and *Cook for Cube* were cooking-themed.

The previous episode's game *Cook For Cube* is revealed to have received a takedown order from the President related to patents relating to extorting confidential information from individuals.

## This Episode's Game

*Doctor battles* (submitted by Woah!! It's Joe!)
***Surgery Date*** is a multiplayer-only combined dating game and competitive physics-based simulator game. Players are presented with a potential real-world romantic partner across from them at a dinner table and are encouraged to date them as they would in real life with an aim towards forming a lasting romantic relationship.

If the date goes south, a player may press the switch to surgery button, at which point the two players must immediately simulate surgery upon each other, performing cuts and dodging the other player's scalpels using the Microsoft Kinect motion tracking system. The player who presses the button is given a ten second advantage, encouraging mind-games between the players during the dating game element.

The aim of the game, however, is not to kill the opponent but to perform successful acts of surgery, with the death of an opponent being considered a losing condition. Players therefore may choose either to dodge their opponent's blades or to try and force their own death by forcing themselves upon the knife.

Unlockable perks include the ability to stop time temporarily and the ability to use X-Ray vision. Characters from medical-themed TV series like *Grey's Anatomy* and *General Hospital* make appearances as unlockable avatars.

Whilst the surgery sim part of the game was to produced in-house, the romance side of the game was to be handled by Bioware.

## Other Game Ideas Discussed

### Ace Ventura MMORPG

An MMORPG in which everyone plays as either *Ace Ventura* or *Ace Ventura: When Adventure Calls*. The latter has a mandatory minigame where the player climbs out of an elephant's butt. (submitted by @danielbtweets)

### If The Police Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Be Police

Neither Nick nor Griffin could think of how to do this pitch. (submitted by @Kabanaw)

### Tekken But Better

Nick was of the opinion that *Super Smash Bros.* already exists. Griffin suggested the addition of collectible monsters.

### Papa John's Alternate Timeline

An alternate universe in which Papa John's serves mexican food, whilst Chipotle serves Pizza. No actual game mechanics. (submitted by Dan Teasdale)

### Reverse Wheel of Fortune

A *Resident Evil 3* clone in which Vana White faces off against a sentient wheel with the consciousness of Pat Sajak. (submitted by Ryan Goodburger)

### Monster Rancher, But Instead of CDs It Uses Tweets

A *Monster Rancher*-like game which generated monsters based upon tweets. Whilst the monsters themselves would not be directly generated from the tweets' content, a text to speech vocaloid would speak out an entire tweet at the beginning of each battle. (submitted by @get24maizenblue)

### A MOBA Your Pet Can Play Against Your Friends' Pets

An iPad MOBA designed to get pets into hardcore gaming. The discussion quickly collapsed into the repeated use of the two MOBA terms Nick knows; Jungling and Teemo Top. (submitted by @EsPyramid)

### Rude Teen Courtroom

A courtroom game in which the player is cast as a judge presiding over a courtroom full of rude teens. Players must decide who is right in each case without being swayed by just how comparatively awful the various teens are. The only way to win is to throw cases out. (submitted by @scribejones)

## Trivia

* The Shaquille O'Neal tweet which Griffin and Nick reference whilst discussing their Monster Rancher game can be found here.
* Despite the reference to metascore-ruining 'Eurogamer 30s', Eurogamer had, in fact, stopped using numerical ratings on their reviews two days prior.
* Nick claims that he once submitted a photo of Papa John's face as an emote for his Twitch channel. It was "soundly rejected" as he did not have written permission from Papa John.