This episode dives into the iconic characters of Xbox gaming franchises, exploring who is considered the most inspiring and memorable. Hosts TJ Blackwell and Joshua Noel discuss their personal favorites while also reflecting on the mainstream perception of these characters. With a focus on how these gaming icons influence their lives, the discussion highlights the characteristics they wish to emulate or, in some cases, avoid. From the legendary Master Chief to lesser-known figures like Munch from Oddworld, the hosts share their unique perspectives on what makes these characters stand out. As they navigate through nostalgia and critical analysis, listeners are invited to consider their own connections to these gaming icons.

In a lively discussion, Joshua Noel and TJ Blackwell navigate the world of Xbox icons, focusing on the characters that have shaped the gaming experience and left a mark on popular culture. Their conversation kicks off with humorous anecdotes about their histories with Xbox, setting the stage for a thoughtful exploration of their personal inspirations. Joshua highlights David French, a political commentator, as a figure who embodies integrity and the strength to stand by one’s beliefs, while TJ opts for Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the beloved Dark Souls series, emphasizing Miyazaki's authenticity and unique approach to game design that prioritizes personal passion over industry trends.

As they delve deeper, the hosts discuss their choices for iconic Xbox characters, sparking a vibrant debate about the significance of figures like Master Chief. While TJ extols Master Chief for his quintessential heroism and impact on the gaming landscape, Joshua weighs in with his more critical perspective on the Halo franchise, showcasing a dynamic interplay of ideas. They reflect on how these characters represent more than just gaming figures; they symbolize courage, moral choices, and the ability to inspire players beyond the screen. The nostalgia associated with these characters becomes a central theme, with both hosts acknowledging how their past experiences with Xbox shaped their current gaming identities.

Wrapping up the conversation, Joshua and TJ urge listeners to consider the attributes they admire in these gaming icons and how they can aspire to embody similar qualities in their own lives. This episode is not merely a celebration of Xbox characters but a rich examination of how gaming narratives intersect with personal growth and societal values. By encouraging listeners to reflect on their own gaming experiences, the hosts create a relatable and engaging dialogue that resonates with fans of all backgrounds.

Takeaways:

• The podcast discusses iconic Xbox characters and their inspiring qualities for 2025.
• TJ and Joshua explore their personal connections to Xbox characters like Master Chief.
• Joshua admires David French, a conservative voice, for his principled stance on issues.
• The episode emphasizes the importance of character depth in video games like Fable.
• Ninja Gaiden and its protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa, are highlighted for their complexity.
• The hosts reflect on how gaming has shaped their perspectives on heroism and morality.

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We discuss all this and more in this one! Join in the conversation with us on Discord now!

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Support our show on Captivate or Patreon, or by purchasing a comfy T-Shirt in our store!

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Check out the rest of our Gaming Icons bonus miniseries:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/30a3357e-d746-4884-9cc1-d5826f031c9e

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Listen to all of our gaming episodes:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/409f2d81-9857-4426-b1f0-d8a02e58b150

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Check out all of Joshua's episodes:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/642da9db-496a-40f5-b212-7013d1e211e0

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Check out our other episodes with TJ:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/f4c32709-d8ff-4cef-8dfd-5775275c3c5e

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Systematic Geekology

Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.

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Joshua Noel, you mind telling me what you're doing on this episode, sir?

Finishing this episode.

Today we're talking about which characters from Xbox gaming franchises are the most inspiring. We're doing our icon series.

Yeah, he hates Halo. It's one of his many bad opinions you might have heard before.

I think it might be my top bad opinion. Like, of all the bad opinions that we have listed, it might be the one that I hold to the strongest, actually.

Yeah. And your worst one?

Yeah, it's like the worst one, but also the one I'm most willing to stick to my guns on for some reason. Yeah, yeah.

But we're going through finding out who the most iconic characters are for us, for each major gaming company, we're trying to emulate or emulate something. So a little something special. But, Joshua, what is one person you look up to as an icon or icon series?

Oh, man, this is always a hard thing to open with. Today I'm gonna go with David French. He is a writer for the New York Times. He's conservative. Political pundit, I guess you could say.

He ran for president once. Technically. Podcaster. Trying to think what else I can say about him. You know, former lawyer. He's heavily involved in law stuff.

That's his expertise, especially constitutional law. Inspired me to want to care more about the law itself, whether I do, you know, teaching or attorney work, whatever, in the future.

You know, that's what got me on this whole path. Given thought to all of that.

And the reason I find him iconic like someone I look up to is he's conservative in the sense that, like, he believes conservative things, but he's not tribal. So he holds to his views and then proceeds to get attacked by both sides and still holds to his views because he actually believes them.

And, you know, I hope I can be like that.

Yeah. For me, someone I do look up to a lot, and not just because I like his content.

It's going to be Hidetaka Miyazaki, which, Joshua, if you're watching, clearly does not know who that is. That is the creator of Dark Souls.

Ah, yeah.

Yeah. And I.

I do look up to him so much because he's so unafraid, which at first you could get it because the series was pretty small, but he's so unafraid to just make part of a game for himself. Like, it's my thing. I'm gonna enjoy it. He's just not afraid at all.

He has come out and said that there will be a poison swamp in every game he makes because he likes poison swamps and everyone else hates them. That's something I think we should try to emulate on our show.

Yeah, yeah. No, I like that. I like when sometimes you just do something for yourself. We actually do at the drive in, the summer drive in. We like a lot of series.

We let people vote on Facebook group. But for the summer drive in. Nah, that's us. We choose what we're gonna do for that. Because it's true. Yeah.

But also for some reason, it's just Japanese names always throw me off. And it's funny because, like, I do it too, where I'm like, you know who makes the absolute best video game music? Yokoshimaura. And it's just like.

But because I'm just not used to hearing Japanese names. Like whenever someone just drops it, I'm like, oh, brain. Had to. How to catch up with that?

Yeah. But if you're on a laptop, consider rating and reviewing our show on podcasts or GoodPods. That helps boost us a lot. The algorithm loves those.

You're on your phone, rate us, review us, comment on us, tell us what you hate about us. But we wanted to thank one of our supporters from. I think he supports us on Patreon. I'm pretty sure.

Austin Nance, you can get your all shout out for $3 a month. You just send me $3 directly and I'll shout you out on every episode for the rest of the time.

If you said directly to tj, you're guaranteed to get the shout outs from tj.

That's true. Yeah, that is true. And then all of a podcast. Yeah, it's true.

You can check out the rest of our church, but check out the rest of our gaming icon series. The link's in the show notes. But today, if you've noticed, we are talking about Xbox icons.

We opened with the quote from the end of Halo 2, which I think is nearly universally accepted as one of the greatest Xbox games of all time. Unless you're Josh. So we're going over characters. Don't argue.

We're going over characters we personally find iconic and which ones the mainstream culture will probably find iconic. We might cheat a little bit. So did Xbox back in the day. So, Josh, what's your history with Xbox. I know. It's not a lot.

Yeah, yeah. Know what I was gonna say. Say earlier. It's just. It might be one of the best Xbox games, and that might be why I'm not really an Xbox guy. Yeah.

I'm on this episode because the hosts that do like Xbox were unavailable for various reasons this week. So you got stuck with me. My history is pretty simple. I was really excited for it when the first one came out.

Got it for Christmas, beat Halo, really played, like, two other games. I was like, hey, this system isn't fun. Then I got a PlayStation and became a PlayStation guy really quickly because I was like Ratchet and Clank.

This is like Halo, but funny. And turns out I like Halo, but funny.

Yeah, yeah. I think Xbox really wanted to be aimed at a more adult audience, especially back then.

Yeah. And I'm just always a child.

Yeah. And then you were a child at that time.

Yeah, that's true. Like, especially at that point when it's like, hey, kill a bunch of that. And I guess I'm just like. Especially.

Honestly, back then, I think I was just really good at video games, and, like, the older I get, the slower my brain gets and the worse I get at video games. But, like, I think it being easy was less the problem and more of, like, if it's easy and the entire thing of it for me is just playing through.

I got bored too quick.

Ratcheting, like, was probably still easy, but then you throw in these, like, Courtney gear jokes, and every single game's title is going to be a reference to a butt for some reason, and I'm like, yeah, this is great.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I grew up with Xbox. I was a solid Xbox kid right up until I had to buy them for myself. And I could get a PS4 for, like, 60 bucks. That's what I did.

And now I don't really play either.

I. Okay. I don't know that story, but I would like to one day.

Yeah, I do love my PS5. I'm a PC guy now, which technically makes me an Xbox person because of Microsoft.

But we're gonna jump into it and we're gonna share our number three picks for personal iconic character. I think Josh got taken into the Xbox dimension.

That's not a place you want to be unless it's, like, the original Xbox, which had the coolest UI of all time. But for me, number three, I think. And here's the deal, all right, I'm cheating. Only one of the games on my top three is actually exclusive to Xbox.

I Had wondered about that.

It's true. But I'm starting with Turok as my number three most iconic character for Xbox, and I.

This is the worst one for me in terms of, like, working for the list, because Turok started on, like, in 64 or something.

Yeah. As soon as I looked up the name, I was like, this is a Nintendo game. DJ I wasn't gonna say anything. I figured you.

But it wasn't.

It wasn't when I was 8 years old, because they rebooted the series and it went on Xbox, and Xbox did this thing back then where they would pay to have exclusive rights for a game for a little while so they could sell more games that had the little stamp on it that said only on Xbox.

Like the third of the Banjo series.

Yeah.

Which is infuriating because the first two were Nintendo exclusives.

Yeah. Yeah. That's what you get for being a PlayStation guy. But Torok, that's just.

That's one of the things that comes to mind for me on Xbox because I was like. I said 8 years old, and dinosaurs are awesome, obviously. So I. I'm really not sure how much other people think about Tool Rock, if ever.

But a huge part of my childhood was beating Turok reboot on the original Xbox as a child, which is. I was way too young to be playing that game.

If you're not familiar, the premise of Turok is you are a guy teleported to the past, working with basically Native Americans to kill evil alien dinosaurs.

Okay. Since it was like, original Xbox, is this going to be like.

Are the graphics so bad that I wouldn't enjoy it, or can I still enjoy this because, like, would hate it? That's so sad, because that premise sounds wonderful.

It is. Yeah, it is. I think a lot of people are still able to, like, look around that. To enjoy old games.

And I do kind of feel bad for people who aren't able to do that because there's no way they're gonna make another Torah game. But it's great. I love it a lot. I think it stood out a lot to me personally, because I was eight.

Oh, yeah.

That'll do it. Fighting dinosaurs and there was a lot of blood. It is really gory.

I just. I'm sad. I can. I can get it. I can play some older games with bad graphics, but usually I have to have, like, some nostalgia factor.

I'm getting ready to get a Steam deck whenever we move, and the first thing I plan on doing is playing DK64 just immediately. And I know that the Graphics are bad. I just never beat it because my brother broke my Nintendo, and gosh darn it, I'm gonna beat it.

Yeah. I will say the one I am talking about specifically is Torok Evolution, but I don't even remember. Like, the name of character to me was always Torok.

That's definitely not his name. It's like Tau Set or something. But he really stands up for the little guy.

Okay, but what if you're teleported to a different time where you have to team up with Native Americans and alien dinosaurs? Yeah. Free game.

Yeah.

That's not.

That doesn't count.

We're in an ageless epic. There's.

Yeah.

I have guns, though, so. Aliens should have left the guns.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's their fault that I'm gonna kill them all.

So is there anything you would emulate from his character, though?

Yeah, I already said it.

Oh, did I miss that part?

Yeah. Mm.

We're recording late at night. I'm a morning person. Very much a morning person.

Mm. So number three, pick. You have a number three personal Xbox icon.

I do. I just remember that I gave you my top three, but I didn't even, in my own mind, think, like, who's number three? Two and one. Okay, I got it.

I got this. It took me.

Yeah, you do.

I go through my own list. I'm like, who is number three? And it's actually really obvious who my third one would be. Munch. Which is also sort of cheating. So the Odd World games.

The first Odd World, I think was just PC or something. I don't know. Don't remember. I never played that one. When I did have an Xbox for a week, one of the three games I beat was Odd World Munches Odyssey.

It was a really easy game, but it was a lot of fun. I like the quirkiness of it and just, like, the ability where you, like, you just would go to a little vending machine.

I'm gonna get a Super Jump drink real quick, and then you could Super Jump, you know, it was cool.

The reason it's cheating is because these games have been reported and re released, and you can play them on Switch, but I didn't find that out until today, so I feel like I should get a pass also. As soon as I have $30, I'm playing this on the switch. That's fantastic.

You know. You know what's really funny though? The first time I played Odd World, it was definitely on a PlayStation. It was on a ones PlayStation 2. Yeah.

Munch. Is Munch on that one Too much's Odyssey.

I don't know.

Okay, so there's three I don't. And I've never played the other two. I only played Munch. The gameplay was fun.

The reason I'm choosing Munch, other than the fact that he's Xbox, I have very limited characters that I familiar with to choose from because again, I had an Xbox for like a week. I actually really liked his activist streak. So there's two characters. There's Abe and Munch.

Abe is like, he has this spiritual journey and he's gone back and he can possess people and he's got like weird whatever powers and he's like. It's very anti industrial. So it's like spiritualism and like, like the kind of anti Industrial that J.R.R. tolkien was.

So like, if you read Lord of the Rings and are like aware of the point, it's pretty similar. That's like Abe's part of the story.

Munch is the last of his kind and he was part of like this place where different creatures were being locked up and tested on. Basically when he gets freed, part of his mission.

While he's going along doing all this stuff with Abe, he is going to set all of those animals free that are being tested on alien animals, of course, because if you can see the screen on YouTube, these are aliens. So, yeah, I just, I like that he wanted to free the other animals. He was, you know, a little selfless.

He could have just been like, hey, I'm free, peace and out. So I'm going to emulate his desire to free creatures that are being tested on because that's something that I. I don't love when it's not necessary.

I think there's good and bad ways to do that. I don't know what to immolate. If these drinks are giving him super jump and stuff. I feel like they're probably steroids. I'll emulate that.

I don't want to be addicted to steroids.

Yeah, yeah, that's a, that's a really good point.

Yeah. So that's what I got for. For number three.

Yeah, yeah. And we're going to do this a little different. We're just going to throw in a Couple honorable mentions between 3 and 2 to. To pace ourselves. Right.

And I just want to get out there and say I could have absolutely done this without cheating and only said Xbox exclusive characters like Marcus Fenix from Gears of War. The problem is, I was just never huge into Gears of War. Don't get like, don't. Don't roast me over a spit. They're good games. I like them.

I have played the first three I did not play.

And Judgment I did not play four or five, which I feel like is pretty common, but they just weren't ever what I was thinking about playing when I was on Xbox, if that makes sense.

Yeah. I've always known that these games exist. That is the only thing I can say about these.

Is why I was aware it existed. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, it really. I felt like I was missing out on something even though I was playing the games.

That's. That's bad. Having FOMO or something you're currently doing is bad.

Yeah.

Also though, I have that about Disney sometimes.

Like, if I haven't, like, actively, like, done research before I go to Disney World, I'm like, is there something new that happened that I just forgot to look up? And then I spend a large portion of my time at Disney World wondering what I'm missing in Disney World. Because you're always missing something.

That's true. Yeah, that is true. I do think, though, it'll be really funny.

And I didn't send this to get a slide made for it, but SoulCalibur IV had console specific exclusive DLC characters, which means specifically in Soul Calibur 4, Yoda is an Xbox character, so.

Well, then. Oh, I do remember that. And then Vader was an exclusive to PlayStation, right? Mm, I forgot about that. That was cool.

I remember almost getting the game because that was a thing of him being like, I don't want to be Vader. He's a bad guy.

Yeah.

But then I wasn't willing to get an Xbox.

Starkiller was in both or was a secret third thing.

Starkiller is just one of the best video game charact.

That's true.

But moving on, included him in the episode that comes out next week that we already recorded.

Yeah, but we did. Yeah, sure did. But pick number two for a personal iconic characters from Xbox. Josh, who was yours, Your vast limited experience.

Well, this is one that I feel like TJ probably also would have picked if I didn't give my list first, actually.

Yeah. Yeah. I Love this game.

I think it's Blinks the Time Agent, but my brain goes, it's Blinks the Time Cat.

Yeah, I don't even call him Cat. I. At some point between playing it and rediscovering it, I dropped the L out. So now in my head, he's Binks, the Time Cat.

Oh, me too.

It wasn't until I, like, because I was sending you the names and I didn't want you to call me out for being an idiot, so I was, like, researching all night. Which, by the way, I got two of the names wrong before I sent you a text. But then I edited my text before I sent it.

Awesome.

Yeah, yeah. Binks was one of them because I. I really thought it was Beeks. But no, it's Blinks the Time Agent. I love Blinks. He is hilarious.

I actually didn't play this while I had an Xbox.

My neighbor had an Xbox, and there was five or six games that I played on his Xbox because I couldn't get them on my PlayStation, and this was one of them. I never played the sequel, but I loved the first game. I thought it was a lot of fun. Just because, like, anything with time is fun. This is like that.

That click, the Adam Sandler movie. Like, if you had that controller, that is his power set, which is just fun for a video game. It's just kind of. It's kind of a quirky little game.

But the reason I really love, like him as a character, though, is so funny. Princess gets stolen. He's just like a factory worker. Like, this is just a time factory. He just goes in. You work on time, you leave. He's not a hero.

And everybody's standing like, oh, man, this sucks. And they show a picture of the princess, and he's like, she's hot. I'm gonna save the day, me. I'm gonna go.

And that was the entire motivation for everything that happens afterwards.

Yeah, yeah. It is just. It's really fun, you know, it's. It was different.

Yeah.

Like, it was a 3D platformer that tried to change things.

It was. It was cool. I wish we did more with it. Weirdly enough, somewhat. Now I'm connecting the dots and making this about PlayStation.

When the Jak and Daxter game that came out after the third Jack, that was only on psp and it wasn't one of the Daxter games, I forget what it was called. But Jack no longer has Dark Power, so he only can use, like, the light version of.

I can't think of what that stuff Is if only James was here to save the day. He's not. But anyway, some of the light powers could do some of that stuff for, like, you're controlling time and stuff.

Like, you could slow it down and then, like, go through the little. You know, like, there's always little puzzle stuff in these kind of platformers. It was fun. Yeah. But no, I like these games. It was a lot of fun.

It was really quirky, and the mechanics are really what sold me. But as far as a character, you know, I want to emulate the fact that he was able to just kind of say, I'm gonna be a hero, and then just do it.

But I will immolate how he definitely just was kind of objectifying the princess. You knew nothing about her other that you thought she was hot.

That's true.

Yeah. So, you know, I don't want to do that. Like, hopefully when. When I see my wife and I'm not just like, yeah, I could stay married. She's hot.

Hopefully there's other reasons why. Why I stick. Stick to it, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. So for me, my number two, and it really does hurt to say this. Go back. Yeah, it's Master Chief. I'm gonna go with Master Chief at the two spot.

I know that's crazy. Please keep listening. Don't click off. Yeah, it's Master Chief. Clean sweep. Easiest sweep in the world for number one. And that's.

Why is it my number two? There's just one. One other, I think, cooler guy that deserves number one more for me.

And I really wish we had done this a couple days ago so that people wouldn't accuse me of recency bias for my number one pick, but it's Master Chief. I'm not going to explain Master Chief to you. You probably know him. That is the only character on Xbox I can.

I think I can say that about, like, which is not.

Which is saying a lot because Xbox was really big, but he is the only Xbox character that I would put anywhere near the level of Mario and Sonic in Pikachu because he's Master Chief. If you've never played Halo, you probably still know who Master Chief is. And he's just pretty.

It was pretty generally accepted when I was growing up that Master Chief was the coolest person ever because he was Master Chief. And that's never really stopped.

You know, almost all of the good pieces of Halo media in most people's opinions are about why Master Chief is so much cooler than everyone else.

I just can't wait for him to take his helmet off and for us all to see that it's Chuck Norris.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank God. They're not gonna do that ever. They would never show Master Chief's face.

Yeah. Not even on a TV show.

Especially not in a live action TV adaptation.

Yeah, I. I feel like.

So we have a series going on now, our companion series to our regular themes, that our annual theme is polarization, and we're trying to find the good and the other. And our companion series, which is free on Patreon. You can be a free subscriber on Patreon and get that content.

We're having all the hosts or not all because there's only 12 months and there's like 14 or 15 hosts. A lot of our hosts will be being interviewed and trying to find as many good things to say about something they don't like as possible.

I think I'm probably gonna go with Halo, see how many good things I can find. Because, like, for me, he's just a very boring character. And I think the design's great.

I think he looks cool, and I'm really glad that a lot of people get meaning out of him and stuff. He's the least interesting character for me on Xbox. But I think the same thing about Optimus Prime.

Everybody loves Optimus prime, and I just never got it. I was like, why? He's boring, but I have bad opinions. It's literally my nickname on the show.

I'm really glad that people get inspiration from him, though, because finding a place to get inspiration in can be hard. So if you find it, that's cool.

You know that one's going up there.

What? Optimus? You didn't know that? I don't like Optimus Prime.

That's insane. Yeah, that might be worse, actually.

I've never cared about the Transformers, but it's mostly because Optimus prime just bothers me. He just annoys me.

Yeah, that's insane.

I mean, I only started liking Superman like last year or the year before. I don't remember. I can't keep up. My mind can be changed.

Can it?

It changes about Superman. Maybe someone will just write like a super badass Halo comic and I'll suddenly like Master Chief.

Oh, you should read them. They exist.

Which ones?

All of them.

Send me a place to start. I'll do it right.

The comics, the books, everything about Halo is good. Except.

Okay, I'm making a pledge now. I'm gonna. I'm gonna read the Halo comics.

And for people who are interested in whether or not I change my mind, they can just Keep following the show and I'll bring it up every now and then.

Yeah, yeah. You should read the ones that are about Master Chief, though, because there's a lot that aren't. Anyway, what do you emulate from Master Chief?

It's not that hard.

Yeah. All right. That's what I'm doing then. I'm gonna emulate that. I'm gonna. I'm gonna get strong enough to just toss.

But, like, can you tell me anything about his personality other than like, he's cool?

What do you need? What else do you need? He's cool.

I don't know. Like. Like, I would say, like, TJ is cool, but, like, I could tell somebody about you.

Like, like you're funny, you know, like you're a stand up person. I know you're going to be honest. Like.

Like, it's like one of the distinctual TJ things is he's going to have my back, but if it's a choice of having my back or being honest, he's going to be honest. Like, is there anything that's like, distinctually Master Chief or. Yeah, cool.

Everything you just said is true about Master Chief.

So you're already Master Chief.

I've been trying to be like Master Chief my whole life.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right. So everything I think about TJ is what other people think about Master Chief.

Yeah.

Also that's cool.

I wouldn't say he is funny intentionally. The game rides around him to make him say the punchline for a lot of stuff, which is super funny.

Not gonna give that to him because he's just like the straight man. He's really good at it and it is really funny.

That is also you, though. Somehow everything's always set up for you to say the punchline and you are the straight man.

Yeah.

Figuratively and literally.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty good. I've been Master Chief my whole life. Yeah. However, I will say he is brave to a fault, which I get it.

If you were engineered from childhood to be the perfect soldier. I don't know, if I was in that boot, those boots, I probably would also never give up literally ever at anything.

But for everyone else, I do think you need to know when to cut your losses.

Yeah.

Isn't that like Aristotle's mean, like, where he talks about, like, virtue is Always between two extremes of like the extreme of running away and running towards something blindly. His courage.

Yeah, yeah. Which I don't want to. I don't want to do that. I don't want to get in over my head. Which he is Master Chief, so he's never in actually over his head.

See, this isn't fair. Even because he's Master Chief.

Yeah. Yeah, I guess.

What's he going to do? Lose? I doubt it.

What if he's fighting Optimus Prime? You know, he.

Master Chief wins that fight, and Optimus turns it into a lesson for the other Transformers. They both win, man.

Also, I'm adding that to the what if series. I bet someone will vote for that.

Yeah. Imagine she fought Optimus Prime.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good one. But yeah. I don't know. What's to say? I'm not gonna commit to a genocide. He's genocidal.

Yeah.

But then that's when Halo 2 comes in and he's like, oh, wait, the army is a cool guy. Oh, man, I can't kill all the Covenant. This guy's chill. He's really the perfect character. He has no flaws.

Yeah, he's tj. I thought he was Chuck Norris. Turns out he was D.J.

Yeah, Chuck Norris's only flaw is that he's pretending to be an old man.

I thought you were gonna say Chuck Norris is only flaws. That he's not D.J.

That'S crazy. But a couple more honorable mentions. I think I saw you. I think there is a slide for him already. Ezio de Frenze Auditore or Audio Torre de Forenze.

It's not an Xbox game, but everyone loves Assassin's Creed. Maybe I'm wrong. Okay, cool.

I thought that was like all systems.

It is. That's what I'm saying. That's what I just said out loud. But it's a nostalgic thing, man. You know, I grew up playing the games on Xbox, so for a long.

Time, I thought they were PlayStation exclusives.

Exactly. Frank west from Dead Rising. He is actually huge.

I was actually gonna bring this one up too.

Yeah.

Honorable mention here.

Yeah. Great game. What a fun concept. Frank's cool. He's a photographer. There's like, man, I gotta. I gotta let the world know.

And when he's in this Molly's like, well, man, I should save this mall full of survivors. And also zombie apocalypse. I can take whatever I want from the stores in the mall. So that's pretty relatable.

I think this might. This might be a little weird, but he Kind of makes me think of Isaac Clark. It's just easier to see how he's being in.

What's that word I'm trying to think of? I must say creative. Like he's. Because, you know, they both do the same thing. Like, Isaac Clark didn't have weapons. He's a mechanic.

He just was ingenuitive. So he was like, hey, you know what? I'm gonna use my mechanic stuff, kill these space zombies.

But because the way the game is built, it feels like he's just a guy fighting zombies in space. And like, this was always supposed to happen because you're not familiar with those tools. So it's harder to see how he's being clever.

Whereas in Dead Rising, pretty easy to see how he's being clever. When you go to the toy store, take out a toy lightsaber, start beating zombies with it, or you get a lawnmower. That's my favorite thing to do.

It was great.

Yeah. That's actually why I think Dead Rising two might be one of the best video game sequels of all time.

Because Dead Rising two, like, you get really crazy with it and start combining items. He's like, oh, I found a bucket. I found a drill. Boom. Drill bucket. Put it on a zombie's head.

I never played Dead Rising too, but that sounds great.

It's really fun. It's a great time. But, yeah, it really does deserve to be up here. Dead Rising 2, I do think is better left for dead.

Yeah, we're talking about zombies.

One of the best games ever.

Actually, I. I think that's just correct. The amount of time I spent in college playing this is. Yeah, yeah. I should have been doing homework.

But left for that, it's so good. A modern day remake of Left 4 Dead would kill.

I might kill for it.

Yeah, I would kill for it. I would kill an entire race of aliens for it. Last year.

Oh, okay.

I'm a changed man this year.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would have done it, though. So for personal number one pick, Josh, I'm gonna let you go first.

Who's your number one iconic Xbox character of all time?

Okay, so this was difficult for a weird reason. I had to actually think I'm gonna go with the hero of Oakvale.

All the fable games are great to the point that, like, I think I've made it pretty clear I'm not an Xbox person. This episode. Right. I almost. I haven't bought a PS5 since PS5's been out.

I almost bought Xbox Series s when as soon as they announced they're restarting Fable games. It also had a little bit to do with the Indiana Jones was going to be out on Xbox first.

Then I realized I could get Steam Deck and I could play all that and play the new Ratchet and Clank. And I'm like, yeah, you know, why not do all of it? But yeah, no, I love Fable.

This was one, I would go to my neighbor's house when the new ones came out. The reason it was difficult. Fable 2 and 3 gameplay is so much better. Like significantly better.

By the time you can do magic, also have a gun and have a dog, there isn't a better video game. Like there's. Yeah, Kingdom Hearts. I mean there are games I like more but like mechanically of like what is just fun to do.

Shoot stuff, throw magic fireballs, have dog. Come on. Yeah, yeah. It's just fantastic. I'm so excited that they're bringing it back.

Like, I, I literally at work, the trailer dropped and I just told my manager. I was like, I'm going to the restroom to watch this Fable trailer. I think I watched it five times before I came back to the kitchen.

Yeah, I'm watching this trailer. I think so. It was great though. Oh man, I got so excited.

But yeah, even though the game mechanics are way more fun in the later games, that story in the first, first game where your characters, like parents, entire family, the entire freaking village just gets slaughtered and then you get brought to the Heroes Guild, which also Heroes Guild, very simple name. But it's just kind of like, huh, it's kind of cool actually.

It's so like, it's interesting how the game built it where like I could see the plot being, I'm mad as hell, let me go kill the things that killed all of my family.

But instead the plot is, hey, you find your long lost sister, you learn what it means to be a hero, and your decision at the end of the game is like, whether or not you're either going to kill the bad guy.

And it's like, it's not actually just a revenge story, which it easily could have been, but instead became a story of like, what does it actually mean to be a hero? And for me, like, especially because I played that when I was pretty darn young, you know, like, for me, like, that was a big deal.

Like, I picked up the game, I saw how it began and I was like, heck yeah, I'm going to use magic and kill things for revenge. And instead the game Invites you to make decisions and say, actually, hey, what do you think it really means to be a hero?

And that was like one of the first times I think a game made me think, you know, instead of just, hey, I love Ratchet and Clank, but here's mini Nuke blow up thing. Blow up things. You know, there's not a lot of thinking in Ratchet and Clank. They're blowing stuff up and laughing. That's it.

The hero of Oakdale, though, depending how you choose that last battle, he's a real hero and I like that story. So I want to emulate that ability to kind of put vengeance to the side and prioritize being the kind of person I would say is heroic.

As far as things to immolate. Some of the magic and stuff that he chose to get involved with when I was making the decisions were pretty questionable.

So maybe not get involved with dark magic, perhaps. Yeah, maybe.

Yes, I do. I do think Fable is an unbelievable height for Xbox.

God, yeah. So good.

There's not another RPG that they've made that even touches. And I really do think, I think Fable 2 at least is probably better than at least 3 Halo games.

I think if I was actually like not just doing characters doing like all time favorite games, Fable 2 probably makes my top five.

Yeah.

Assuming we don't let me just choose five Kingdom Hearts games. I assume that that would be against the rules.

Yeah. Well, probably not, but Fable is special.

Yeah.

There's.

I can't think of another game that is fun for other reasons than the fact that you can buy every house in the game, crank up the rent, and just make money that way.

It's also just secretly Monopoly at the same time.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

There's nothing else like it.

I'm gonna put it this way. This is mostly just specifically for Will Rose and people who are like die hard fans of our show.

I think if Kingdom Hearts did not exist, what Kingdom Hearts is to me now, this would have been to me.

Yeah.

You know what?

I'm.

I feel like that makes sense.

Yeah. And I just.

That is one thing I think that has kept the PlayStation ahead of Xbox is not only because it is Japanese in Japan, it's the JRPGs that are on PlayStation that Xbox gets like none of because it's not Japanese. It's that simple.

But this is good. This is a good game.

Fable is phenomenal.

The decision to start bringing guns in also, I just like, I. I really want to figure out who was it that decided to. Let's introduce Pet Dogs, not so smart. They're like, you know what? We got magic and goods.

You know, people really want a dog. Yeah.

Yeah. That's the most American rpg.

Yeah, I think that's probably pretty accurate. Yeah.

Yeah. So for me, the most iconic Xbox character to me is Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden.

And if you are a Ninja Gaiden fan, you are well aware that yesterday. No, the day before yesterday, they announced and released a remake of Ninja Gaiden Black 2, which I have been playing, and it's phenomenal.

If I'm not going to get super into it. If you are a Ninja Garden fan, I'm sorry, the Emmy. We can talk about it separately.

For those who are uninitiated, I'm just going to say the game is fantastic. Real Ninja Gaiden fans know that there are some problems with the Black series of Ninja Gaiden games.

I. I just want to say, so people know that it's not a recency bias thing.

When I was making the slides before TJ told me his picks, I had this on there because I knew this was his top pick.

Yeah, I wanted Ryu Hayabusa in Smash Bros. So badly, I couldn't believe it. He was pretty much one of the only characters that I actually wanted in the game.

Yeah. I mean, I assume you wanted Mario.

No, he's bo. Why would I want Mario in a platform fighting game? He's boring. What's he gonna do, punch me?

I think the game also would have been cool if it was literally just Mario Sora from Kingdom Hearts and Ryu from Ninja Gaiden. I mean, we would be the only ones playing probably, but, yeah, it'd be great.

If you don't know Ninja Gaiden, now's a great time to start, because for a first Ninja Gaiden game, I can't think of a better option than Ninja Gaiden Black 2 just came out two days ago as a remake. It's really good. It looks fantastic. It's on Unreal Engine 5. I know a couple of people who have already beaten the game four times. It's been two days.

God.

And if I had known the morning of after that Xbox direct that it was live, I probably also would have beaten it a couple of times by now. It's phenomenal. There's nothing like Ninja Garden. They've also announced Ninja Gaiden 4, which I think comes out sometime this year.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking about, because last year you did an episode where y'all come to like your. Your top five, like Gen 8 games or something.

And you mentioned this game and like a week after you recorded it, I think is when they announced the fifth Ninja guidance game. Or maybe it was a week after it published. A month after you recorded.

No, no. They're releasing Ninja Gaiden 4 this year at some point.

Oh, is that what they announced? I just know they announced something about Ninja Gaiden pretty shortly after you were recorded.

Masters collection, huh? Ninja Garden Masters collection. Yeah, that's.

I know something.

Yeah. Which is also a great option to play all these games. Now, this is also cheating because Ninja Garden started as a side scroller on an NES or snes.

That's a different series. That's all. Different series, different character. Ryu's awesome.

If you take all of the coolest traits of a ninja you can imagine and put them into one character, that is Ryu Hayabusa. Also, look at him.

He does look cool.

He looks cool. He is cool. I do think he's cooler than Master Chief.

What about Optimus Prime?

Yes, yes. Because here's the thing. Optimus prime doesn't have a skin in Halo 3. Ryu Hayabusa does.

Master Chief doesn't count because he was already in the game, so he couldn't get a skin in the game, you see.

But the high abuse is not getting a skin in the game.

Yeah, exactly.

Loses.

Yeah, he loses the. The high abuse of armor unlockable in Halo 3. It's like one of the hardest things to get. But it looks awesome. You just be Ryu as a Spartan.

It's so sick. You get the katana on your back and everything. But it's in Halo. It's sick. He's just a cool guy, man. He's honorable. He's defending his village.

He's standing up for his village, believes in. He watches his dad, who is named Joe, by the way.

I love it.

His dad's name is Joe Hayabusa. Joe. Gotta love the Japanese.

Fantastic.

Watches his dad die. He's not worried about that. He's like, man, I gotta stop them from stealing the demon statue. Because he's the Dragon Ninja. That's his job.

He has the true dragon sword for a reason.

Yeah.

He's gonna fulfill his duty.

I just want to be like, duty.

I said duty. And he's gonna fulfill it. Now, let me say Ninja Garden is from the.

If you are going to play these games, be ready for that.

That's a thing.

But Ryu, my glorious king, Ryu, he never cared. He was like, wow, beautiful women. No thank you. I have to go kill a bunch.

Of werewolves in a big city.

Yeah, yeah, he is, but with a sword. But he can actually use it.

Not like wano doesn't count.

So special. Also, the games are just super hard. I think this would remedy the Xbox problem for Josh if he tried to play them.

If you think Halo is easy, I almost guarantee you will not think Ninja Gaiden is easy.

I feel like if I played Halo today, I probably wouldn't find it easy.

Probably not.

Yeah.

But now, see, the problem is when it started, I feel like people forget how like first person shooters or like shooters weren't as big a thing back then. Like most games were platformers or side scrollers. Then Xbox happened.

Yeah. And well, here's the thing.

And we now shooters are just so common. I feel like if I started Halo now, I'd be like, yeah, it's another shooter game.

Yeah. Here's the thing though.

Halo is responsible for so much of the genre of FPS, which is why, you know, talking about the mainstream icons, Master Chief's number one for Xbox, easily because he's Master Chief. But Halo as a franchise has paved the way for so many other games.

If you go back and you play call of duty 1 and 2 and 3 and SOCOM and medal of Honor and all the other slop that was out there before the release of Halo, and then you play every game, every FPS game after Halo. There is a noticeable difference.

Yeah, well, and that's like, man, I don't have this the right word for it. First off, I liked Destiny, which is just PlayStation trying to do Halo and not as good. But I think it's just.

I was at a point in my life where it was easier for me to get into that kind of game when Destiny came out. But I was gonna say, oh, it's also like Assassin's Creed, like that type of game. Completely different after Assassin's Crew.

Specifically after Assassin's Creed 2 came out. Like, we couldn't have any of the Batman games we've had. Like the Arkham games would not be a thing if Assassin's Creed wasn't a thing.

And I feel like a lot of games say the same thing about Halo.

Yeah. But before that, one more character we should mention. I don't know if you got a slide form or not, but Sam Fisher.

Is that the Dead Rising guy?

No, that's Frank Walker. Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell.

Oh, no, I always forget that that exists.

Yeah. That paved the way even for Assassin's Creed. Like, Splinter Cell was instrumental in making stealth games.

Good because there are some really old ones like Thief Tencho, that kind of thing that are fine, but Splayer Cell happens. Tom Clancy makes like nine of them. And then every game after that, the stealth is, like, really, well refined.

Yeah, I. I even remember some, like the.

There were like, levels from like the older Spider man game or like Rascal to go like super far back, I guess, like, how the sneaking parts were just infuriating.

And I feel like every game post Assassin's Creed when you have sneaking levels or like, part where you have to be like, sneaky or whatever, stealthy, they don't suck anymore. They're not infuriating in the same way. Yeah, it's a different way now.

Sometimes they still suck, but that's a game design issue.

Yeah. They could have just played Assassin's Creed and chose to do it that way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But anyone else you want to mention? Geralt of Rivia.

Yeah, I wouldn't remember this name. I just. I felt like we can't not mention Witcher.

Yeah. Not Xbox exclusive. But the first one was.

Yeah. So the second one, Microsoft. This is what I learned doing research for this. So. Yeah, the second one was.

So many Xbox games, they just reported to other things. So, like, we just they're really exclusive. Yeah, yeah. Which is like what happened to Sora?

Sora was a PlayStation character and then was a Nintendo character. Then was a PlayStation Nintendo Xbox character. And it's like, yeah, now he's his own thing.

I don't remember what these were, but I was looking up all time strongest Xbox characters and this came up and I thought it was funny.

Cuphead, could you tell me who the.

Who they are?

They kill the devil.

What?

Yeah, that's Cuphead and his brother, Mugman.

Fantastic. How do they kill the devil? Do they just give him too much caffeine or they shoot him? Oh, well, okay.

Yeah, that's Bruce Lee.

Yeah, I had to do a, you know, the honorable mention. Xbox exclusive. Bruce Lee Quest of the Dragon. As far as I know. I can't think of any, like, other Bruce Lee games.

So, like, Bruce Lee is Xbox exclusive in my mind.

Oh, yeah. Well, Bruce Lee is in UFC 3 and 4 as a. As a fighter. Yeah.

But that's because they're like, you know, it's like when you put An Xbox character in, like, Smash Bros. Just an Xbox character.

Yeah. Which is really funny. Banjo Kazooie.

Nintendo character.

Rare, rare character. Companies owned by, like.

But, like, you can't think of, like, if you think Banjo, you think Nintendo. You don't think Xbox.

No, I think Xbox.

I think that might be a generation thing. Think my generation played him on Nintendo and then was like, oh, hey, cool. They made a spin off of him on Xbox once.

His games were still the Nintendo games. That's just the other one, which was a lot of fun. I'm not down on it. It was awesome. I spent a lot of time at my neighbor's house when that came out.

Yeah. But okay, to you, who are the top three iconic Xbox characters for the mainstream? What do you think everyone else is gonna say?

I just assumed they were gonna pick three people from Halo.

I wouldn't say that, except I might say that it would not surprise me if you asked someone for three Xbox characters and they said Master Chief. Cortana, the alien from Halo.

Yeah.

Like, his name is Arbiter, but. Yeah, his name is not Arbiter, but he's the Arbiter.

See, I feel like if you ask an actual gamer, or maybe not like a hardcore gamer, but someone who plays enough games, not just like a rando, you know, like.

Yeah, no offense, Will Rose wouldn't come up with this list, but someone who's played games that isn't, like, super involved might come up with Master Chief, one of those people from Left 4 Dead, and then the Witcher guy. I could see that being.

Yeah, I could see that everyone's gonna say Master Chief first.

I think a surprising amount of people would still put Cortana in second or third, because Cortana was so popular from Halo that Microsoft was like, hey, people are doing virtual assistants now. Let's name ours after the virtual assistant in Halo.

Fantastic. That's where. That's why.

Yeah, that's why it's called Cortana.

I never connected those dots. Yeah.

Yeah. Geralt of Rivia might make it up there. I don't know a lot of Witcher fans. I've only played the Witcher 3.

I. I just feel like that. That's sad.

Yeah, but that's also.

I don't know. I've never played any of them, so.

Three is better than the other two by landslide.

Yeah, but that's like. I'm sorry. I just. I don't have a lot of Xbox examples.

It's like when people are like, I'm Kingdom Hearts fan, and they played like specifically Kingdom Hearts 2 and maybe Kingdom Hearts 3. And I'm like, that's. No, that's not a Kingdom Hearts fan. That's. You've played two games.

And also Kingdom Hearts 3 doesn't even make sense if you didn't play the DS games or any of that. So, like, what do you mean you're a fan? You know? Yeah, yeah, it's like a Christian. I've read like two books of the Bible.

You don't have to read your Bible to be a Christian. But I'm also kind of like, why bother claiming it at that point? You know? I'm like, I just don't get it.

That is true.

Just don't.

But I will say if you. If you look up the list for top selling Xbox games of all time, like half the top five is Halo.

I'm gonna assume the entire top five were Halo.

No. You know what breaks it up because I'm pretty sure. Yeah. So the first two Halo games are 1 and 2.

The third most sold game on Xbox of all time is Sneak King.

What is that? I've never even heard of that.

That is the Burger King hide and seek game on Xbox.

So can we say the Burger King is an Xbox character?

We can.

I. I changed my list.

I think it's valid also. It's a great game. It's really good. Like, I played it in daycare. It was fantastic.

This is the first time I've heard of this.

It's really well made. I forgot about it until I looked at this list.

Awesome.

But I think most people would probably say Master Chief, the guy from Fable, and then like, dealer's choice for third.

So, like, I'm not a weirdo who just like really likes Fable. Like, no other people agree with that particular opinion.

Yeah.

Oh, cool. That's good to know. Those are good games, man. Also, if I'm gonna like, pick who I want to.

What characteristics I want to use to, like, build myself up. I want to be as kingly as the Burger King, have as much burgers as the Burger King, and as economically sneaky as.

He. Also had a racing tie in game. That was pretty good.

I don't want to objectify women the way that blinks does.

No.

Yeah. But I do want to control time.

And, you know, I'll emulate that thing from Fable again of like, really trying to think about what it means to be a hero. Like, actively putting thought behind my decisions, I guess. Yeah. I think that's good.

Yeah. I am going to emulate as to the best of my ability, being 7 foot 2 and 480 pounds.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Next time you see me, I'm gonna be wearing a shirt size that shouldn't exist.

I just want you to know that my heart might stop. Like, I might just be that terrified of you. Just became a giant before I saw you again.

Yeah. Next time we see each other, I'm a foot taller than you.

Yeah. I. I don't. Just don't think my brain could process it.

That would be really funny, though.

It would.

Anyway, yeah. No, I want to be as dutiful as Ryu. Show that dedication to my duty. This episode is sponsored by Char D. Yeah, I don't want to.

I don't want to judge an entire people based on the actions of. Well, to be fair, in Master Chief's case, they were destroying Earth as a. Yeah, that's bad.

I mean, so are. So are humans, you know?

I think they rebooted last year. Check it out.

Yeah, I thought those were just. I thought it was a phone app. I didn't know that was, like, a real game.

It's a real game.

Huh? Who knew?

Me. So we're going to go ahead and wrap it up. Josh, do you have a recommendation for the people?

Yes. Thank you. Hearts is now available in all. All of all systems.

I don't recommend playing the one on Switch because it's a cloud version and that kind of sucks. Any other one version, though, you should play.

If specifically you have, like, fiber Internet and an ethernet port on your switch, then the cloud version still doesn't really work that good.

That was really disappointing build up.

Yeah, it does work a lot better if you have a really phenomenal Internet connection, but it's still not that good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me, I'm going to recommend. Put aside whatever book you're reading. Your new role is to become a follower of Brandon Sanderson.

You're going to decide right now that you love high fantasy and you're gonna sit down and you're gonna do whatever it takes to read the Stormlight Archive. And if you're already Ascent tonight, I don't remember what they call themselves. You should read the Cosmere. Look up a reading order, check it out.

It's only like 40 books. It's nothing serious. But seriously, I cannot recommend enough. Everyone reads the Way of Kings books. Phenomenal. Phenomenal book.

Gets us out there, gets us recognized and then we can make more money and we can do stupider stuff. Thank you again to Austin Nance. Couldn't do it without you.

And remember to cash at me $3 specifically if you want me to say your name on the show Gaming icon series link is in the show notes and remember, we're all a chosen people. A giftom of priests.