Ep. 404: My Kid Hid Ocarina of Time, Back to Witcher 1 & Saturday Morning Metroid Fusion

A super heavy Jeff show, gaming dads. We missed a week (no grand adventure, just life), so this one comes in hot, opening with a quote instead of a poem: dads are the most ordinary of men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, storytellers and singers of songs. And in some cases, podcasters. First story: Jeff borrowed his kids' 3DS to play Ocarina of Time, beat it, set it aside, and then couldn't find the 3DS. His 13-year-old came downstairs: "I have it. I've actually been playing Ocarina of Time without you knowing." Why would you hide that from the dad with a gaming podcast? The layered part: it was happening when the homework was supposed to be happening, a couple of weeks after the whole homework saga, so the reaction was yay, and also let's not slip back into old habits. "That's such a great memory. You're in so much trouble." Jeff's pitch for any new dad who hasn't played it: a contained world, maybe a dozen hours, and the 3DS version has little caverns you crawl into for a video hint, so your kid doesn't need YouTubers. First of all, come to your gaming dad. Then the podcast. With the Switch 2 remake on the way, the dads wonder whether a Switch 2 shows up in Jeff's house by the end of the year. Trevor got a PS5, so what's the worst that could happen? Second, controversial: Jeff loves The Witcher 3, and he's gone back to The Witcher 1. Point-and-click sword swings on an animation roll, definitely rough. His why: he's read all five books, kept recommending them, then realized the games take place after the books, with a whole amnesia reset, and he wanted to see where the characters started. The dads kick around the real question: do you send someone back to the first game in a series? Mass Effect holds up; Trevor going from Elden Ring back to Dark Souls 1 would be infuriating. Jeff's verdict so far: the lore buys him patience a new IP wouldn't get, the retro jank is kind of endearing (that Skyrim feeling, where the horse spawns on a roof and you laugh), and a serious game that takes itself seriously gets no such pass. Which leads to Jeff's 16-year-old, then 14 or 15, playing Skyrim: dad told him to go fight a giant, the club sent him to the moon, and he had a blast. Games that cross generations. Last: Saturday morning Metroid Fusion. Jeff's kids suggested it, and they want to do it every Saturday: dad plays, kids watch, the same setup that produced the Elden Ring memories where his kids were the research team telling him what to do. Jeff loves Super Metroid and never played Fusion; Trevor has never beaten a Metroid game. Fusion turns out to be the accessible one: it tells you the objective, shows you the map, and dying doesn't erase an hour of exploring like Super Metroid did. Part of Jeff suspects the kids just want to see him struggle, and his reaction time is not what it used to be. Trevor's confession, a through line of the entire show: he was never good at gaming, and when an old game says "just get good," the answer is I can't and I don't have time, I have to go do my taxes. One small update from Trevor: he beat a video game. Space Marine 2, everything heavy, sparks flying off your boots, zero idea what the story was about, and the first game he's finished in at least a year (Final Fantasy VII Remake was the last, about two years ago). Stay tuned next year for the next one. If this episode skyrockets, Jeff talks more. *Subscribe to the Podcast!* Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/434cj9k... Others on Our Website: https://newdadgaming.com/