Topic: Episode 208: Basic Hearing Ability is Required

[Yoshidious]

From shmups and import platformers to box art oddities and motion-controlled baseball, this week's episode of RFN has it all!

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/23928

This week's episode kicks off with a pair of shmups from Jon: Soldner X-2 and M.U.S.H.A. (the latter from Virtual Console). Greg has a pair of enticing but frustrating games in Mirror's Edge and the NES version of Ninja Gaiden. James discusses the rage-quit feature of Monday Night Combat, while Jonny splooges over Ufouria, Sunsoft's latest Virtual Console offering, and the surprisingly awesome download title, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

Then we have a bangin' set of emails to answer, starting with a question about our favorite weird box art examples. Then we touch on our perennial favorite pinata, Nintendo's management of Virtual Console and the service's future on Wii and other platforms. We joke around about the next classic Nintendo property to be updated (after Kid Icarus), and close it out with an informative audio essay on the sad state of baseball video games and the genre's poor showing on Wii despite the natural fit with motion controls.

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[Kytim89]

I agree that the virtual console is one of the best things to happen to games and a tear comes to my eye when I see how down hill the service has went in the last few years. We all knew that Nintendo could never have every single game on the service we want and so it might very well end.
 
The service will end mainly due to two things: first, return on investsments. Basically there is not enough money being made for Nintendo to warrant any kind of effort to bring titles to the virtual console. The second reason is that eventually we will have nothing but games that cost more money to bring over to the VC and legal tanglements that will eventually put a nail in the VC's coffin.
 
I promised that I would never mention the "R" word on this forum again(for fear of being banned), but the fact that these particular games will never set foot on the virtual console is just appaling since we, the Nintendo fans, helped those titles come fourth with our money.
 
I mean the TMNT series of games are caught in such a huge spider web of legal rights that we may never see Turtles in Time for SNES on the virtual console. Nor will we ever see any of the good arcade titles such as the one with Simpsons.
 
I have to ask this question to the RFN crew. What is the ultimate fate of the virtual console? Will it fizzle out, or will it pick back up and start giving us good titles again?
 
You can bet your last dollar that the wii will have a virtual console. Nintendo needs to adapt the hardware of that system to better accomodate software emulation for the consoles already available and what ever ones that will emerge on the wii 2.
 
It is a dream of mine to see some kind of emulation for the SEGA Saturn. Yes, it is difficult to emulate, but I want an easier access to that console's game library(Princess Crown) and this is what the virtual console is all about, right?

Here are few things that I would like to share with the RFN crew:
 
http://wii.kombo.com/article.php?artid=12036

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=32215.0

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=32069.200

http://www.examiner.com/wii-in-chattanooga/sega-saturn-games-possibly-heading-to-virtual-console

[Jonnyboy117]

There is a version of Princess Crown for PSP, although I don't know how it compares to the original.

[Kytim89]

I think that I have the lowest score on the forum. 

[LittleIrves]

I found you guys late in your life-span (my first RFN was "Rondo of Games") but I must add to the bevy of kudos: Y'all do great work.  And I hope to contribute more around here.  Until then...
P.S.  Just listened to Epi204 -- somehow I skipped it a few weeks ago -- and I concur that Demon's Crest is phenomenal.  Played it with a buddy as a rental way back when, after beating Super Metroid, and the game held up well in SM's mighty wake.  A very cool, unique platformer worth seeking out.
Will be listening to 208 this week as I walk to and fro the train station.  Hoping for some Enjoy Your Massage tips & tricks, so I'll cross my fingers.
-Another Jon(ny)

[NWR_insanolord]

Jonny was incorrect in the baseball discussion. The Power Pros baseball games (there are two of them in North America) do have the MLB license, as they were published here by 2K. They are quite good, and, despite the super-deformed look, have a lot of deep sim elements in there if you want them.

While listening to Jonny talk about the Lara Croft game, I went into the other room and turned on my 360, started the demo downloading, and walked back to where I was.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

This episode will hopefully keep me awake during my early commute / biz travel starting in...under 5 hours?! Crap, I gotta get to bed!

[TJ Spyke]

Kytim, I think the NES TMNT game must have not sold that well on the VC. It is clear that the legal issues aren't that bad (Konami and Ubisoft reached a deal for that one), but it must have not sold well enough to convince them to do the sequels.

[AV]

I wonder about baseball too. I really do enjoy that aspect of Wii Sports.


Maybe Nintendo can release individual sports thats more fleshed out. Wii Sports Baseball requiring Motion Plus and you can pick the innings, if you want to control fielding or have it automatic, have a few different stadiums, and have lots of different multiplayer options so you have alternating multiplayer

[Kytim89]

Kytim, I think the NES TMNT game must have not sold that well on the VC. It is clear that the legal issues aren't that bad (Konami and Ubisoft reached a deal for that one), but it must have not sold well enough to convince them to do the sequels.

I bought that game and felt like it was not worth any thing. I would bet that the SNES games would sell a lot better if they were released.
 

[TJ Spyke]

The first NES game was good at the time, but was brutally difficult (even by NES standards). The sequels sure were better.

[Jonnyboy117]

Correction: I mentioned "Chaos Legion" as the Compile shooter released on GameCube. The actual title is Chaos Field, and I have now tagged both it and Radio Allergy in the article in case you want to read more about them.

[greybrick]

Mirror's Edge does control better with a pointer, I found that it was much easier to execute levels on the PC version.

I do think that scaling the game back graphically would hurt the experience. Sure, the textures are not detailed, but the levels themselves have that clean look thanks in part to the lighting and sharp resolution. Additionally, each level loads large amounts of geometry, and I think the feeling that you are discovering a route would disappear in a situation where all that loaded were the objects necessary for beating a level.

[broodwars]

I thought Mirror's Edge was a fine game so long as the focus was on movement and evasion.  Towards the later parts of the game, the game shifts towards combat, which is where the game just falls apart.  A particularly annoying section for me was in this one level where you're running through a deserted mall with the cops close behind.  At the end of the level, there's a sequence where the game obviously intends you to climb up into the catwalks, perform a wallrun to a hanging bar, and then swing to a piece of scaffolding to make your escape while the cops below are ineffectually shooting at you.  The problem is, I tried that sequence for something approaching an hour and never pulled it off: the moment my hands touched the hanging bar, every cop below me would instantly fire at me and kill me while I could do nothing about it.  The only way I got through that sequence was to go against everything the game was telling me to do and trigger the cops running into the area so I could pick off the first one; take his weapon; and then mow down all the cops in the area so they couldn't shoot me up in the catwalks.
 
Of course, it didn't help that later PS3 firmware updates seem to have caused stability issues with the game.  I had problems with that game crashing, especially at the end of the second-to-last stage just when I hit the end.  I never did complete the game.

[Plugabugz]

I stopped fairly early onwith Mirror's Edge, particuarly with the lack of "general area lock-on" for jumping and targeting. Combined with the extreme dizzyness it gives me, i never picked it up. I only got it for £5 like Greg. I'm playing Prince of Persia 2008 at the moment (which i'm loving) and while its lock-on is a touch too generous it does really allow for the free flowing feel in that game.

And about the image i referred to on the back of De Blob (i was hoping they'd use the image in the Chapter art too but oh wells): http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vYTxoeHzgUuDKm-lSHs_a-kw6pMvAKBx-BgwSVk2C6c?feat=directlink

[greybrick]

the extreme dizzyness it gives me

I think if a games makes you sick, that is the only qualifier you need to explain your dislike!

On a side note, I did quite enjoy the Time Trials. They got rid of the combat, and allowed you enjoy the mechanics in an environment much more conducive to replay. I think the comparison to an NES game was quite apt.

[Plugabugz]

the extreme dizzyness it gives me

I think if a games makes you sick, that is the only qualifier you need to explain your dislike!

True, but Metroid Prime 3 did the same thing but settled down after about an hour or two. Mirror's Edge just gets worse each time because it was constant. It's the same shakycam style "realism" that makes other things like Cloverfield unwatchable.

[Jonnyboy117]

You can train your neurovestibular system to better tolerate shaky cameras and other visual perturbations, but I can't imagine the training would be very pleasant.

[TJ Spyke]

The shakycam also exists in Kane & Lynch 2: Dead Men, although you have the option to turn it off and just have a steady camera. I can imagine why a shaking camera could make someone feel dizzy (especially if they suffer from motion sickness).

[Yoshidious]

And about the image i referred to on the back of De Blob (i was hoping they'd use the image in the Chapter art too but oh wells): http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vYTxoeHzgUuDKm-lSHs_a-kw6pMvAKBx-BgwSVk2C6c?feat=directlink

I couldn't resist using the old banjo-playin' chap from the Phalanx box art - thanks for sending us the image anyway!

[Plugabugz]

You can train your neurovestibular system to better tolerate shaky cameras and other visual perturbations, but I can't imagine the training would be very pleasant.

Some things like Stargate Universe use it for stylistic effects, which is tolerable and doesn't even bother me, but Mirror's Edge was just too much mainly because there wasn't a fixed point to focus on (like there was in Cloverfield), so it's easier to avoid it.

[AV]

FYI jonnyboy your ad worked. I am listening to CrossTalk: Box office Poison right now. I am really enjoying so far. If you need somebody to talk about piranha 3-D I'll be willing to contribute to the podcast :-)  PM me if your game

[happyastoria]

FYI jonnyboy your ad worked. I am listening to CrossTalk: Box office Poison right now. I am really enjoying so far. If you need somebody to talk about piranha 3-D I'll be willing to contribute to the podcast :-)  PM me if your game

Yeah, It's an entertaining podcast. It's interesting to hear Jonny talk about something non-Nintendo related.

[greybrick]

:O

[Crimm]

:O

OH GOD! THERE IT IS!