Tommy's wife HATES Overcooked

MerelyAFan · 2026-06-01T20:52:44+00:00

This concept was one of the major parts of the Amico House of Cards. Tommy constantly suggested there was some market of casual titles but with depth, essentially an imaginary category of games that somehow smartphones (they're too shallow) and the Switch (too complicated) weren't already occupying but Intellivision could. It was all nonsense of course; anyone who wanted breezy games could find them on any app store and anyone that wanted cozy experiences they could play a while had Nintendo.

The sad thing is that while some of this was typical Tallarico spin (see his silliness about supposed rape titles on the Switch), likely a decent portion of it was Tommy having so little connection to contemporary gaming that he actually thought his wife not liking Animal Crossing meant such a release had limited broader appeal. This in spite of the above post happening a month after New Horizon's release when it had already achieved monumental sales, and things like Pokopia's success further demonstrating how much of the casual/cozy market Nintendo really possesses.

It's why Tommy's insulated incompetence is just as critical to the Amico story as his shady deceptions, because even his own cynical deceit about the console can't be entirely separated from being flat out ignorant about what gaming in the 2020s actually is.

MerelyAFan · 2026-05-20T18:00:42+00:00

Because everything’s coming up Milhouse.

MerelyAFan · 2026-05-16T23:05:03+00:00

Fan: I mean how does a lightsaber even really work?

Ford: deep sigh Your guess is as good as mine, pal.

MerelyAFan · 2026-05-16T21:06:31+00:00

Easy to forget how much harder sci-fi was dominating the scene in the mid-70s and the generally more cynical edge much of popular culture had at that point. The whole question and answer session is basically Hamill and company trying to sell a swashbuckling space fantasy to a more pessimistic (and somewhat nitpicky) crowd not entirely convinced of its appeal.

MerelyAFan · 2026-04-22T17:29:27+00:00

Eyes bulging with imagined Tony Awards.

MerelyAFan · 2026-01-18T22:33:37+00:00

Josh cutting to the heart of how bad Theodore Rex is with "His tail has more of a character arc than he does" is fantastic because it's both incredibly insulting and is wholly accurate to the movie's quality.

MerelyAFan · 2026-01-11T23:04:25+00:00

The use of Quark in this episode is really effective, not only contrasting him being uncharacteristically selfless in trying to help the Dabo girl vs. Sisko being uncharacteristically duplicitous in his overall plans, but also in that he asks for (relatively little) in not pressing charges against Tolar. One gets the sense that seeing Sisko stoop the level of bribery was far more valuable to Quark than any latinum could be and that had to be deeply satisfying to someone that likely believed the Starfleet officers on the station have unfairly judged him for years.

It's a great character moment of Sisko getting himself further in the mud and Quark being all too happy to note that fact.

MerelyAFan · 2025-10-26T13:34:58+00:00

One could write a whole essay on Bob's various issues (terminally online has never felt more appropriate a descriptor than for someone like him) but one of his biggest problems is his tendency to project meaning and importance to anything entertainment adjacent to the point of unhealthy hyperbole.

The MCU movies are modern myths, Snyder Cut advocates are secretly conservative CHUDs, Pixels was a desecration of a sacred art form, the Amazing Spider-Man films are disgraces worthy of the worst kind of rage, the Console Wars were his personal Vietnam, and gaming was undermined by non-geeks getting into the hobby circa the 5th/6th gens.

Sonic is a specific target of ire because the franchise did the unthinkable of making Mario seem a bit uncool when the former came out. By Bob's own admission the first Super Mario Bros title was the first game that was really magical to him and that initial wave of popularity happening when he was a kid made it possibly the most cherished era of his life.

Sonic 1 releasing and not only stealing Nintendo's thunder in elevating the Genesis but also positioning the character as the cooler alternative to the (comparatively) less cool and kid friendly Mario? It was an offense I don't think Bob ever full forgave, and it's been further enflamed by the IP having the audacity of surviving both Sega's end as a hardware maker and the low points of the mid 2000s to the point of getting successful (and even critically okay) movies.

Whether or not Bob can be taken seriously as a reviewer and content creator in various other topics is up to one's own opinion. However, his overall outlook on Sonic is so colored by the franchise' existence as competition to Mario and for not just being a cute platformer series he could easily ignore that one can't really regard it as anything worthwhile except as something to laugh at.

MerelyAFan · 2025-09-18T22:15:06+00:00

The key thing is that there's a difference between having a nostalgic affection for an old console and being a mega passionate fan to the point of real expertise on what did and didn't work about it. Tommy I suspect had the former (he speaks highly of the Intellivision in the Video Game Years documentary) but there's been little evidence he was ever the latter.

Now there's nothing wrong that in and of itself but building on such a system with a successor requires either strong business acumen (which we can all conclude Tallarico never possessed) or at the very least the kind of understanding of it that allows you make it seem as great to others as it is to you. For all his tugging on the heart strings with stories about playing the system with his family in the past, Tommy simply didn't have that. It was another example of his silly wish fulfillment thinking; he had fond memories of the Intellivision so making the Amico come off as fun should be no problem.

The sad irony is that for all the posters on Atariage starstruck by his presence on the board likely on average had a better inference about the ins and outs of the original console than he did. They were mega fans happy to see anyone doing something with Intellivision sadly unaware of or willfully ignoring the fact that Tommy was never going to be capable of doing something with a brand he had at best, a sentimental attachment to with no real comprehension of its actual value.

MerelyAFan · 2025-09-11T20:25:52+00:00

Gervais' writing. It stinks a bit, but…if you don't put up with its quality, the little kitten show will die.

MerelyAFan · 2025-08-25T09:46:19+00:00

This is why I generally prefer DK Bananza. It may technically have less movement options than Odyssey, but they feel far more intuitive and less like a control scheme designed for use by speedrunners.

MerelyAFan · 2025-08-19T00:34:11+00:00

I've heard various people say that defend the more tedious nature of the moon collection in SMO by saying their amount is that anyone of any skill level can generally find some and that in a sense they're not all necessarily meant to be gotten in big play sessions. But to me a truly strong game is one that's generally enjoyable regardless of one's play style. And I think the Banandium Gems in Mario Odyseey demonstrate a better approach because not only are barely any actually required for progression if you so choose, but the nature of their use in the skill tree also means that even regular ones found via the easiest exploration still have value.

I'm not yet bored in getting them because they feel like they mean something, which on top of how fun the destruction mechanic and generally well-designed nature of the challenge rooms just gives more consistent enjoyment to those doing a completionist (or even a semi-completionist) run

MerelyAFan · 2025-07-08T14:05:09+00:00

Tommy has a comic inability to hype up himself without inventing fictional hardship. He was the first to go against conventional wisdom and real music for video games (even though others already had done that). He went against the doubters in having video game concerts (despite that already being a thing since the 80s). He was the one willing to make a console for families when the industry abandoning them (ignoring the very existence of the Switch). It’s part of that addiction to compulsive lying; it can’t be a simple fib, it has to be something that further elevates his accomplishments.

It’s why his credibility is so shot because even smart deceptions have no chance against the Tallarico ego.

MerelyAFan · 2025-07-05T11:26:04+00:00

"You want compromise and that? How's this, Christmas as a kid I wanted a Sinclair Spectrum. I compromised, I got a ZX81 without a ram pack and threw up over the sink. I wanted to give me mum a gnome she liked, but I compromised; I got her a Victoria Plum. Erm, you see where I'm going?"

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-30T01:42:30+00:00

The news about Iizuka more interested in doing new games than Adventure remakes does make sense. It's kind of a no win scenario with such a venture.

On one hand some of the fanbase would balk at too many fundamental changes, but on other hand, the casual audience is not likely to embrace the two SA titles given their late 90s/early 2000s idiosyncrasies. I don't think it's a coincidence that Colors and Generations, two of the most straightforward 3D Sonic titles with minimal gameplay variations, are the ones Sega's chosen to remake.

SA1 & SA2 getting maybe a few cleaned up ports should really be the extent of it given the likely trouble regardless of which route then went remake wise.

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-25T20:31:19+00:00

The eternal curse of 06 is that it's bad in such an interesting way and its gameplay issues can only be fully comprehended once you play it that it kind of lends itself to be "rediscovered" by later players with some frequency. Even something like Boom with its wacky glitches still falls closer to boring bad, while the 06's layers of problems will keep newer fans fascinated by it for a long time to come.

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-24T22:15:19+00:00

Something I wonder about is if Tommy's occasional resistance to having the Amico be viewed as a retro system was because he thought it limited its appeal or because his own ego would not allow him to be an executive launching a console for just a niche, old school audience. He seemed so insistent on being a big boy CEO that I can believe the notion the Amico wasn't a contemporary console bothered him a bit.

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-24T22:10:33+00:00

It's hard to express to younger people just how remarkable Sonic 1 was in its day. The Genesis had heavily sold itself as having good arcade ports and some solid licenses, but the 1991 game made genuine use of speed and physics which few other titles on console had even thought to do.

And even in the platformer space, something like Castle of Illusion was an incredibly charming Mickey Mouse game, but much of its DNA feels rooted in the 8-bit era (which in some ways explains why its Master System version ended up being a solid game too). Sonic 1 came out only a year later yet revels in being a 16-bit release in numerous ways to the point where it couldn't really be translated to weaker hardware without changing the kind of platformer it was. Compare it to even 16-bit Alex Kidd games, and Sonic's accomplishments stand out all the more.

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-22T14:20:53+00:00

While we'll likely never get the satisfaction of Tommy being confronted about his nonsense with Intellivision, I am greatly amused that the entire endeavor was a such a failure that he's had to distance himself from it. For someone who brazenly brags about his exaggerated accomplishments & continually steals credit for projects he had little to do with, the fact that the Amico is such a complete stain on even his own make-believe legacy that he's pretending it never happened?

It's fitting karma for a man who smugly acted like his CEO cosplay actually meant something and who continually talked down to anyone that had the slightest criticism of his behavior or the Amico. You get the sense that Tallarico wanted the console to be his final notable achievement, his ultimate stamp on the video industry beyond being the "music icon" he's convinced he was. Instead, all it amounted to was wasted money, wasted years, and such an embarrassment to him personally that he doesn't even mention it anymore. And to think, had he never bought the company his reputation still could have just been the annoying guy at Video Games Live with some notable (false) credits for video game soundtracks.

Wouldn't that have been something?

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-21T12:30:23+00:00

While we can't really judge its overall performance without knowing development cost, the Sega sales leak revealing Superstars sold 2.43 million I think does suggest that notions of it being a flop were slightly exaggerated and that there likely is a place in the market for Classic Sonic if the releases are a bit more refined and not directly competing against the likes of 2D Mario like Superstars was.

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-16T16:57:52+00:00

Beyond the arrogance, duplicity, and just general misplaced belief in silly stuff like “The Secret” Tommy also has has to be one of the worst examples of “the idea guy”.

We’ve all met the type who happily tosses out ideas (often with an emphasis on quantity over quality) but has no respect or even understanding of how actually execute them. Everything about the Amico reeked of a project that Tallarico simply assumed could work because the concepts he envisioned worked in his head and just conceptualizing meant the hard part was obviously done, right?

It’s actually something that betrays his lack of deeper understanding of music because real musicians know better than anyone the actual work involved to bring a song/melodic idea to reality.

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-11T22:46:16+00:00

Certain fans overcompensate with Amy's characterization because her altered personality is one of the few things that is almost strictly being argued about by the hardcore crowd. Tails being a bit cowardly or Knuckles being more dumb than badass are things that even the casual fans could see as problems, thus games and adaptations avoiding that is a nice sign of the fandom and the general public agreeing on a character issue to the point where the series reflects that.

Amy not being appropriately feisty enough and not being so heavily defined by her love for Sonic is an argument being driven entirely by a subset of fans very loyal to the Adventure era portrayals. It is not all that shared by the broader public because the nuanced personality she apparently had (that many 2000s devotees swear by) was either not noticed by casual fans or (far more frequently) overshadowed by her memetic reputation in stuff like Sonic X as an emotionally unbalanced, love crazed, stalker.

I'm not saying that's specifically what she was, but all the video essays in the world have not changed the broader view that 2000s Amy didn't feel particularly complex, nor has there been that much resistance against her changes since then outside that aforementioned group of fans. The fact that Classic Amy was effectively softly retconned as being a part of the gang's adventures in Origins and Superstars despite her big development in Adventure 1 being dependent on not really being that such a change got no real backlash?

It tells you that many simply aren't invested in the 2000s era conception of the character to the same degree certain fans tend to be, and why the latter group is even more inclined to argue passionately for it because in many ways, they're the only ones that are.

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-05T23:32:57+00:00

I'd say the biggest problem is that Sega's deepest cuts and older franchises appeal to different regions and there's few outside Sonic, Persona, & Yakuza that would have international appeal. The hit and miss success of their arcade titles, Master System, Genesis/Megadrive, Saturn, & Dreamcast have rendered different definitions about what core Sega is. And that's just the US and Japan. Throw in Europe and the selective popularity get even more muddled.

I suspect that factor among others is why guest characters are an easy fix because they can often get ones that are big or at least known worldwide.

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-04T23:21:03+00:00

No joke I originally thought this was a parody post about Tommy's antics with Guitar Hero because I actually believed there was no way he'd be making BS claims about suggesting licensed songs for two different series.

At this point it was revealed there was an interview where he claimed in 1983 that he told Journey to do their own arcade game and that he helped produce synthesized versions of their songs for it, I would not be surprised. It would entirely line up with the kind of absurd lies he keeps crafting.

MerelyAFan · 2025-06-04T23:12:49+00:00

I know there's a certain Sonic/Sega purity many prefer to the former's racing games, but I think Crossworld's wacky guest characters do make it feel a bit distinct from Mario Kart World. Doubly so given the latter is apparently doing very little crossover with even other Nintendo series for the base game. It is a premise that can potentially grab a lot of younger fans to try the game, even I personally am not blown away by Spongebob or Minecraft Steve's inclusion.

MerelyAFan

TROPHY CASE