Topic: Episode 386: A Blue Shell of Our Former Selves

[PGC-Agent Cooper]

This week's episode features special guest Billy Berghammer and a spectacular title provided by Mr. Jon Lindemann. It's always the quiet ones.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/37649/episode-386-a-blue-shell-of-our-former-selves

We had to drop something a little special for RFN listeners just before E3, so here's a sizable pre-show episode made even bigger by the deep tones of Billy Berghammer. He's a well known Mario Kart fanatic, so of course we spend a huge chunk of New Business on the brand new Mario Kart 8 and find quite a range of opinions. Guillaume also revisits Klonoa: Empire of Dreams on Virtual GBA Console, while James slays one of his Moby Dicks with Japan-only Super Famicom tactical RPG, Bahamut Lagoon. Fans of his Ogre Battle 64 lectures will particularly enjoy how James dissects this legend of the import scene. Jon seeks and indeed finds Mario redemption with the delightful and relatively easy Super Mario World, one of three Virtual Console titles in this segment. Jonny delivers the third with the all-original, surprisingly polished and NES-like Mega Man V for Game Boy (on 3DS).

The second segment begins with the sad news that Iwata won't be attending E3, but then we switch up the mood with very positive impressions of the new Wii U system update and thoughts on Nintendo's improved standing as extremely strong Mario Kart 8 sales carry them into a wide-open E3 and an increasingly barren video game market in late 2014. Before we let Billy go, there's just enough time to squeeze in a bit of Listener Mails about the Smash Bros. E3 Invitational Tournament and the game's overall presence at the big show. Keep those emails coming throughout the week, as we may have other opportunities to answer your questions!

We've got tons of E3 coverage coming your way just days after this episode drops, so be on the lookout for special episodes of RFN and Connectivity, as well as tons of video coverage and, of course, our detailed, hands-on impression articles of every damn Nintendo game at the convention. If you still need input before all that hot news is live, Jonny joins Mike Sklens and Neal for a long and exuberant Connectivity segment about E3 2004 (it was a really good year), and you can also hear Jonny and friends from Crosstawk on a new Beatles-themed episode of Discover Music Project! It's a great way to check out that show for the first time.

[AdmanAbou]

I have been waiting all week for this. YES!!! Thank you guys! Please please please try to enjoy E3!

[ClexYoshi]

Lindy, that introduction was so bad it crashed my flash plugin.

[azeke]

Always ticks me off when people only thing people can say about Bayo is "boobs", not only because gameplay depth in actual game is almost infinite (and deeper than in all your favourite games), but because it makes it obvious that people simply have a very poor vision or something.

Bayo's boobs aren't that big at all. I'm pretty sure even modern Lara Croft (the one that was created as a reaction to cow tits Lara Crofts of old) will "outperform" Bayo there.

[azeke]

...Wii U is probably the slowest console...

Not true. Even before 5.0 update Wii U booted up faster than my Xbox 360.

[azeke]

...seeing that your friend is playing Mario Kart right now and ability to join his game...

is there on 3DS (no idea about MK8).

[Soren]

You know what's not on the Mario Maker poster? A Mario sprite. When has Nintendo showed a Mario-anything without Mario present?

[ClexYoshi]

The Mega Man V discussion is delicious! I honestly would take Mega Man V over Mega Man 7, which is the console game I feel this would be the closest to in terms of screen crunch and the way it handles things like E-tank inventory management/shopping.


I kinda wish they didn't have as many walls of text there, but I suppose I have a soft spot for the stardroids from reading the excelent Mega Man Gigamix published in the states by Udon entertainment. Hitoshi Ariga's reimagining of the Stardroids honestly makes them pretty awesome, especially what he ended up doing with Sunstar.


Something I do feel will be kind-of lost on Johnny as he continues his playthrough of Mega Man V that especially resonated with me was the boss rush with all the mega man killers. Even though Quint is a complete joke of a character and a boss, having these characters who were a big draw for the other portable Mega Man titles return for one last hurrah really resonated with me, and I feel that it worked out FAR better than Doc Robot ever did.


... by the way, it's time for me to do something that I will continue to do until somebody tells me to stop, and that's plug https://sites.google.com/site/rockman4mi/, which has several of the enemies and some level setpieces from Mega Man V in color and in a proper NES Mega Man title along with 8-bitified Mega Man 7 and 8 sprites, all sorts of craziness from other Mega Man games, and... it's all blended together in such a way that makes it a fantastic tribute to it and many other games, such as with the subtle Final Fantasy 8 [ugh] references with Rush's abilities or the random Gradius level.

[pokepal148]

Pokemon is interesting because they outright will have distributions of event pokemon directly based on the ones used in a championship.

there's a mamoswine being distributed soon that is based on the one used by last years world championship.