Topic: Episode 442: You Got to Have a Fall Guy

[NWR_Lindy]

Jon Lindemann's got to know we're going to get him out.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/41057/episode-442-you-got-to-have-a-fall-guy

It is a great time to be alive! RFN Season 5 is now fully up and running and The Summer of Too Hot for Games, brought to you by Nintendo of America, is over! James kicks off New Business with LBX: Little Battler eXperience. He's got some big news for fans of Capcom classics Mega Man Battle Network and Gotcha Force. That news? You probably ARE James Jones and you should look into LBX. Greg is seeing the world in a new dimension with 3D Gunstar Heroes and 3D Streets of Rage 2. Someone is still releasing classic games on the 3DS eShop; it just happens to be Sega. Guillaume has a game that many of you many not realize you already own, Woah Dave! for Wii U - which is free if you already own the game on 3DS. He also gives his early impressions of Final Fantasy VII, as played on a PSP Go(!); this show strives to be at the forefront of gaming. Lastly, Jon has reconnected with the world of Madden, with Madden 16. Is EA's game design strategy three yards and a cloud of dust, or are they spreading out their receivers?

After the break it's the first feature discussion of Season 5: a reflection on system end-of-life release lineups. The crew steps through the games released in the last 18 months of each Nintendo system (through the GameCube), and picks out their favorite titles. Along the way some curious trends show up. In true RFN fashion, nobody can agree on what the end of the Game Boy's life was, we all found the GameCube wanting, and there is yet another reference to the podcast's favorite NES trivia question.

In other news, it's that time again: we're getting ready for our next Retroactive feature. RFN is excited about the impending release of Super Mario Maker, perhaps to a fault. However, it seems like Nintendo has forgotten some of Mario's past accomplishments when putting together this tribute to the plumber in red. So, here is the topic for our next Retroactive: Games on the Virtual Console featuring Mario that are NOT represented in Super Mario Maker (i.e. Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros.). Any use of Mario sufficient. With all that said, we aren't ready to announce a poll. We need your help picking the candidates! Send us your suggestions for the next Retroactive, your questions, your comments, or your suggestions for our ending music to the RFN mailbag. We'll announce the poll alongside the launch of Super Mario Maker, on September 11.

[broodwars]

Wait...didn't you guys ALREADY do a RetroActive on Super Mario World & possibly Mario 3? I could've sworn it was one of the early RetroActives.

[Crimm]

Yes. And the point is those games don't qualify anyway.


Games NOT represented in Super Mario Maker

[broodwars]

Yes. And the point is those games don't qualify anyway.


Games NOT represented in Super Mario Maker

Ah...right. For some reason, I read that wrong. Still not a topic I'm thrilled about, but at least it'll be lesser-known games. Sadly, Mario Sunshine will probably be in the running. Ugh...

[Crimm]

Not on the VC so you're in the clear there.

[Disco Stu]

The obvious choice for the next retroactive is Super Mario Bros. 2/USA. I would love to do a deep dive on that one.

[Evan_B]

I nominate Super Mario Land 2 for the Game Boy. Underrated and often hated.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Other handheld games worth considering: Mario Golf (GBC), since it is single-player friendly unlike many Mario sport/kart spinoffs, and one of the Game & Watch Gallery GBC releases.

[Enner]

Time to get Super Mario Brothers: The Lost Levels in!


Good show. Good feature discussion.

[lolmonade]

As someone who is in the boat of "irrational fan" of Final Fantasy 7, the complaints Gui levies against the game aren't wrong.  But you're more forgiving of these things if you first played this game as a young teen who didn't have much exposure to RPG's beyond this one.  The game like many PS1 era RPGs (especially Final Fantasy) have the biggest problem of it taking forever to feel like you've made any relevant progress.  Trying to start Final Fantasy 9 recently, I was hit in the face with how excruciatinly slow  everything was, between the cut scenes, dialog, and battles. 
 
I also don't know what the heck they plan to do for the remake.  It's a no-win situation, because their comments clearly indicate beyond the story, they plan on making heavy-handed changes to the gameplay.  I just don't see how they win in the scenario, because every fan probably has a clear idea of acceptable/unacceptable changes.  Id like them to keep the battle system intact but maybe make the animations more fluid and a clear "skip KoTR BS cutscene" button to help speed up the pace of the game, but know they'll be going with their more current style battle systems. 
 
I also have no doubt they'll go with Emo Cloud like they have in nearly all recent iterations of the character since the original game, but despite Gui's comments about his lack of character/personality, I always interpreted his early-game dialog as him being very battle-hardened/cold/distant like you might expect an ex-military person to be.  I also think he goes through a pretty decent growth arc throughout the game from turmoil to assuming the role as leader outright & earning his companions trust despite the revelation that his memories of being in Shinra's army being someone elses.  That's what I worry most about the game, more than any gameplay, asthetic, or dialogue changes, is how some of the main characters are portrayed. 
I don't know.  Anyone here have experience with Recent Squeenix character development in their RPG's?  I think the last proper one I played was XII.

[lolmonade]

I nominate Super Mario Land 2 for the Game Boy. Underrated and often hated.

I second this suggestion, but I've literally never heard someone complain about Super Mario Land 2.  Super Mario Land 1 was hard to defend, but I think a lot of people put 2 in the same quality category as the NES/SNES games.

[TOPHATANT123]

The obvious choice for the next retroactive is Super Mario Bros. 2/USA. I would love to do a deep dive on that one.

I second this, by chance I just started Mario 2 for the first time yesterday via Super Mario All Stars on the SNES someone was giving away, I had always had a Megadrive before this and my first proper Mario platformer would have been New Super Mario Bros for DS which put me off the franchise all together.

Mario USA is much more of an adventure game than your typical Mario platformer and lacks the sense of speed and inertia that the others have. The Birdo(?) fight is also really annoying and felt repetitive after the first encounter, heaven forbid you get sent back to the start of the world and have to do it all over again. The music is awesome though.

I was surprised to find out all of the sound and graphics had been redone initially thinking it was just a compilation cartridge. Super Mario Bros is timeless but I just can't for the life of me get past world 8. Mario 3 is also fun and the remake fixed some of what put me off about the originals artstyle but my one complaint is that the goombas look so incredibly ugly, like worse than they do in Super Mario Bros for NES.

Another surprise with it is that the SNES has a toaster-like eject button!? A very strange novelty coming from the Sega systems.

[Kobeskillz]

Gui


I'm currently playing Final Fantasy 7 as well and it's my 2nd time trying to do it. I'm about 5 hours in and it just hasn't hooked me yet.


I can see how these graphics back then in a SDTV would amaze with the movies and backgrounds but right now I would say Ocarina of Time has aged much better both in graphics and especially in gameplay.


This game has me praying that I could buy a repel or something. A max repel!!! You get lost in the stupid field and you might fight 20 encounters before finding the right place.


Also Mario Bros is actually a great co op game!! I remember having a blast with my brother. It will make enemies for sure. Have you played that game co op Giu? Not the bad NES version but like the SNES one or even the gameboy advance ones? Any of the modern ones with the updated graphics and control. Two players the game is just a blast and far better than Whoa! IMO.


No knock on Whoa!

[Kobeskillz]

Does it have to be a platformer?


If not I would suggest Paper Mario!

[Leo13]

Wait, James didn't you say anything with Mario that you can play on Wii, Wii U or 3DS that isn't prohibitively expensive.
You can play sunshine on Wii and its less than $30 on eBay.

[Shaymin]

He specifically said it has to:
- Involve Mario
- Be on a Virtual Console

[Disco Stu]

Does it have to be a platformer?


If not I would suggest Paper Mario!

I've been very ok with the moratorium on RPGs for retroactive. I say let's keep that going....

[K-S-O]

I want to nominate Yoshi's Island for Retroactive.  I think that would make for some great discussions.

[Jonnyboy117]

Super Mario Kart

[Leo13]

He specifically said it has to:
- Involve Mario
- Be on a Virtual Console

Sorry dude, I just listened to it again if you fast forward to 2:02 on the podcast clock you'll hear James say "can you get it on a virtual console or is it available for a system that you can play right now as in could I play this on a Wii, a Wii U, or a 3DS. If the answer is yes and its not prohibitivly expensive then it's eligible"

Sorry dude Sunshine counts unless they decide that $30 is "prohibitivly expensive"

On another note, as much as I love and could see myself vote for Sunshine, I suggest either NBA Street V3 or Smash Bros 64

[broodwars]

He specifically said it has to:
- Involve Mario
- Be on a Virtual Console

Sorry dude, I just listened to it again if you fast forward to 2:02 on the podcast clock you'll hear James say "can you get it on a virtual console or is it available for a system that you can play right now as in could I play this on a Wii, a Wii U, or a 3DS. If the answer is yes and its not prohibitivly expensive then it's eligible"

Sorry dude Sunshine counts unless they decide that $30 is "prohibitivly expensive"

On another note, as much as I love and could see myself vote for Sunshine, I suggest either NBA Street V3 or Smash Bros 64

If those are the rules, then I nominate Super Princess Peach. I legitimately want to hear the crew talking about that game, much more than yet another stale conversation about an NES Mario game.

[Crimm]

$30 is up there. You can nominate it and it might make the list. We might also save that for its own thing since it would likely dominate.


Keep in mind I write the article after we talked about it. So while anything that can be played on Wii U/Wii/3DS is game we are going to curate among ourselves.


Also, ANY MARIO INVOLVEMENT. Punch Out! for example, counts

[azeke]

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[Kobeskillz]

$30 is up there. You can nominate it and it might make the list. We might also save that for its own thing since it would likely dominate.


Keep in mind I write the article after we talked about it. So while anything that can be played on Wii U/Wii/3DS is game we are going to curate among ourselves.


Also, ANY MARIO INVOLVEMENT. Punch Out! for example, counts

Paper Mario
Mario Tennis Advance

[Zvarri!]

It also seems like a lot of Fire Emblem games came out at the end of a console's lifespan. If 1990 marks the start of the end of NES, then both FE1 (1990) and FE2 (1992) are included. FE4 came out of SNES in May 1996, followed by FE5 as a (the?) 1999 SNES title. FE8 was 2004/5 for the GBA, and FE9 was 2005 Gamecube. FE12 was a 2010 DS game, and FE14 looks like it will be at the end of the 3DS's life as well. That's more than half of the series' games released at the end of a console's life.