The RFN crew blasts through games, answers your letters, and even looks at a bit of recent news.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/26311
The regular crew is back on board this week to bring you another exciting Nintendo podcast! Jon describes his considerable progress in Chrono Trigger, and we discuss the impending Virtual Console release of the seminal JRPG. James has been overloaded with work, but he does sneak in quick impressions of Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars for 3DS. Jonny sweeps through no less than five games for the past week, but his focus is on Valkyria Chronicles (from the guys who brought you Skies of Arcadia) and a unique, incredibly impressive indie game called Sequence. Greg talks about the new Mortal Kombat and draws surprising comparisons to Rare's long-abandoned Killer Instinct series. He also reports on the latest Nintendo Seminar 2010 game from Japan, the honestly named Pull Pull Pullpy.
After a quick break, it's time for Listener Mail. The flood of excellent questions continues, so we get to spend time on topics like Nintendo's response to the PSN outage, the eShop delay to E3, long-term availability of the Wii Shop Channel, the apparently fleeting concept of replay value, a "black label" sub-brand for Nintendo, and the questionable necessity of a second Wii Nunchuk. We'd love to hear from you too, so please contact the show!
Finally, the results are in, and Perfect Dark is your selection for the next RetroActive! The official forum thread is already going, so be sure to leave a few memories or fresh impressions (of either the N64 original or XBLA remake). We'll choose some of the best comments to be read on the podcast in just a couple of weeks.
7. Thanks for holding Sony's feet to the fire on the PSN thing. My only issue with the Wii online vs PSN comparison is that so many have spent years beating on Nintendo's weak but functional online, and yet the large response from this PSN debacle is glossed over like "oh haha, silly hackers, sh*t happens - who wants to play some HD gamezz?!?"
7. Thanks for holding Sony's feet to the fire on the PSN thing. My only issue with the Wii online vs PSN comparison is that so many have spent years beating on Nintendo's weak but functional online, and yet the large response from this PSN debacle is glossed over like "oh haha, silly hackers, sh*t happens - who wants to play some HD gamezz?!?"
Sony's online service sucked for a month because hackers broke in and stole everyone's information, forcing Sony to shut it down for a month while they rebuilt the service. Nintendo's online service sucks because Nintendo was cheap, inexperienced, and lazy when they designed it. That's a bit of a big difference to me. While PSN has its problems (and a lot of trepidation from gamers now that it's back up over security concerns), I'll still take it over the barely existent mess that Nintendo uses.
Is it cheaper? Yes, it is. If Nintendo charged us $50-60/yr or $400-$600 for the console, I'm sure they'd have invested in a stronger online infrastructure. Since my online Wii games work, since my WiiWare/VC titles are available when I need them, and since I prefer the content of the Nintendo channel to the "battle of who could care less" that is modern gaming journalism - I'm quite content with the cost ($0) benefit (bare bones yet functional online) ratio.
Seriously adadad, I've taken college courses in which I read less than that post.
Seriously adadad, I've taken college courses in which I read less than that post.
Yeah. Sorry about that. I was very tired when I wrote it which is why it's so rambling. I take it you don't study English Literature then :P: : :
"continued rambling"
I haven't read a single post in this talkback.You also like to Steal Bandwidth and have declare yourself as our King on RFN.
Did i mention I run the forums? I run the forums.
I haven't read a single post in this talkback.You also like to Steal Bandwidth and have declare yourself as our King on RFN.
Did i mention I run the forums? I run the forums.
So your Kratos Play thing? I knew they need more for God of War 4 ...I haven't read a single post in this talkback.You also like to Steal Bandwidth and have declare yourself as our King on RFN.
Did i mention I run the forums? I run the forums.
To be fair, I set my icon to I like to Steal Bandwidth on my own. And I'm not a king. Kings do not have the power to make and unmake the world as I do.
...Please, We didn't need iPods for that.
Millions of soccer moms and iddy biddy kiddies listen to iPods, <sarcasm> uh oh! I guess all your music sucks now! </sarcasm>
...
Seriously adadad, I've taken college courses in which I read less than that post.
Yeah. Sorry about that. I was very tired when I wrote it which is why it's so rambling. I take it you don't study English Literature then :P:
happyastoria & NWR_insanolord -
You're right. There is plenty to criticize about Nintendo - just like all the companies. Also, the console wars are not new and any war will have casualties on all sides.
However, since you guys are apparently content with the status quo, answer me this: Why is it only this generation that the bigger gaming media outlets almost completely ignore Nintendo? Or worse, can't write/talk about Nintendo without snide remarks?
I used to LOVE watching G4, but I can't do it any more because they can't cover the games I like without insulting them.
I used to love listening to Geoff Keighley on GameTrailers but I don't think he's brought up Nintendo once in the last 18 months without immediately inquiring about the Vitality Sensor with a smirk on his face.
I even used to think Michael Pachter was smart until he started his annual "Wii is doomed" predictions. Don't worry, now I recognize that Pachter is stupid in regard to all consoles. But I believe Nintendo is still his forté.
I don't care if people want to share their negative opinions or criticize all day long (not my thing, but feel free!) but I can't stand the reality of the situation that Nintendo is currently not allowed to receive credit for the things it does right (didn't like a million "hardcore" Wii games come out last year?!), yet Sony/MS only really get flak when one of them lets millions of pieces of personal data get hijacked. What a wonderful double standard, eh?
The thing is, I don't think the gaming media is ignoring the Wii because they "hate" Nintendo. Whenever a new Mario Galaxy or whatnot releases, they usually trip over themselves to gush over it (even if the game doesn't really deserve it, which IMO was the case with quite a few Nintendo-developed titles this generation). The reason the media tends to ignore the Wii and its games is because the library quite frankly sucks, and it sucks by an overwhelming margin compared to the libraries of the other two home consoles. The media gets tired of covering mediocre or terrible games on the Wii, so they tend to overlook the genuinely good non-Nintendo titles like Fluidity or whatnot unless there's something truly noteworthy about them. That's not an "anti-Nintendo thing". That's an "anti-crap thing", and they'd be the same way if the libraries on the other two consoles were as bad.
The same goes for the online capabilities of the other consoles. The media constantly harps on Nintendo for its bare-bones, frustrating-to-work-around online system because it is so antiquated and counter-intuitive. The online capabilities of the other two consoles (the recent PSN episode aside) just work, they're easy to use, and it isn't too difficult to find people online to play and/or chat with.
Nintendo developed the Wii to be antiquated from Day 1, and the technical deficiencies of the console have harmed everything about the console except for console and 1st party sales. Hell, just imagine if Nintendo hadn't decided to launch MotionPlus several years into the system's life-cycle but just made it part of the standard controller from launch. Just imagine how much better the quality of motion control on the system could have been. Instead, we get waggle for several years and when MotionPlus finally launches, there's few reasons to support it (especially since Nintendo's big showcase for the device in "serious games" still hasn't released in Skyward Sword, a game whose fate right now is uncertain with Nintendo announcing another console at E3). So yeah, that's been the story about the console since Day 1: missed opportunities and financial shortcuts, and Nintendo is the one responsible for that. They've been reamed for it and they'll continue to be reamed for it, and they deserve it every single time. Maybe after being battered enough over these issues, Nintendo will finally learn from their mistakes with their next generation of hardware.
As I've said, there are plenty of good reasons to criticize Nintendo's handling of the Wii. But a lot of sites go above and beyond those. I'm upset by that mostly because of how unprofessional it is. If they hate Nintendo (or, more likely, hate how they feel Nintendo has changed), that's their right, but it cheapens the idea of game journalism when they let those feelings spill out into their work. If game journalists ever want to be taken seriously they need to move beyond this bullshit.
As an example of what insanolord is getting at, look at the recent piece we posted "Nine Things Nintendo Needs For Wii 2." Aaron is a good friend, but from editing that, I got the sense that he really didn't pay attention to anything that came out on Wii outside of a few titles. Is that his fault? No, not really. WiiWare's poorly marketed, as are the other games. There is also a lot of **** surrounding them.What really gets me is when I pop over to say IGN to look in every once in a while their is always a "Top This" List but Where's the reviews, previews, etc. I know stuff is going on. We all like to speculate but, what about whats already coming that I might not see? Does anyone else think its Ironic at times that Newscast and RFN give me more information about games in general then I normally gleam from looking around?
I do blame, to an extent, paid games media for failing to be aware of one-third of the games industry. There are very good games on Wii and WiiWare. We cover most of them. It almost seems like very few other sites do. That might be dictated by readers, hits, and ads, but even still, if you claim to be anywhere near an expert in the field, you need to keep up on all trends. I might, at the end of the day, generally prefer my Wii to my 360/PS3, but I make a point to keep up with games and trends on those systems; even if I know I don't really care about the next big first-person shooters, I still want to know what the deal is.
Then again, my favorite game for this entire generation has been House
What really gets me is when I pop over to say IGN to look in every once in a while their is always a "Top This" List but Where's the reviews, previews, etc. I know stuff is going on. We all like to speculate but, what about whats already coming that I might not see? Does anyone else think its Ironic at times that Newscast and RFN give me more information about games in general then I normally gleam from looking around?
:words:Why would anyone want a site that just does Top X list? I can't even fathom how that garnishes a readership that grows.
:words:Why would anyone want a site that just does Top X list? I can't even fathom how that garnishes a readership that grows.
But in general the point is that a Nintendo Centric Sites Podcast tends to introduce me to more products on Other Systems then the multi-platform sites.
But in general the point is that a Nintendo Centric Sites Podcast tends to introduce me to more products on Other Systems then the multi-platform sites.
lolmonade beat you too it.But in general the point is that a Nintendo Centric Sites Podcast tends to introduce me to more products on Other Systems then the multi-platform sites.
Of course, I can turn that around and say that that's an indictment of how bad the experience is on the Wii when even a Nintendo-centric podcast has to turn to the other consoles to find games they want to talk about most weeks.
Though the site itself still manages to get some news on a more or less regular basis.
That's fine we can agree to disagree.lolmonade beat you too it.
Eh, not quite since he was talking about a waning quality of Nintendo-produced titles and I'm talking about the entire library, but whatever.QuoteThough the site itself still manages to get some news on a more or less regular basis.
We'll just have to agree to disagree on what should really be considered "news" sometimes on this site, but it is true that there is a large pool of dedicated writers on this site always scouring for Nintendo news. That's true.
1. The "business" aspect of journalism is a problem all over because it makes the outlet's primary goal to generate hits/viewers instead of to INFORM THE AUDIENCE. But you're right, that's the reality we live in.
However, there are millliiiiooons of Wii owners and DS owners. If they had good business sense they would be trying to bring those people in. Try not to think like a moron in black and white terms. Those millions of people are not just soccer moms who don't know what a computer is. Even if 3/4 of those Wii owners only use the console as their "third" platform? Guess what? They probably would like to know if a good game was released!!
But did Kotaku cover MH3? No. They just posted a creepy video of a foreign kid spazzing about the game.
Did Kotaku cover NMH 1+2? Yes, but they covered the (then) Japanese only PS3 port of the years old first game literally 6x more!
There's an important mass media concept called "Menu equals diet" - there can't be an audience for Nintendo/Wii information if the outlets are "too cool" to provide it.
2. The PS2 had a crap ton of shovelware. No one seemed to have a hard time ignoring it for the sake of the good games.
1. The "business" aspect of journalism is a problem all over because it makes the outlet's primary goal to generate hits/viewers instead of to INFORM THE AUDIENCE. But you're right, that's the reality we live in.
However, there are millliiiiooons of Wii owners and DS owners. If they had good business sense they would be trying to bring those people in. Try not to think like a moron in black and white terms. Those millions of people are not just soccer moms who don't know what a computer is. Even if 3/4 of those Wii owners only use the console as their "third" platform? Guess what? They probably would like to know if a good game was released!!
But did Kotaku cover MH3? No. They just posted a creepy video of a foreign kid spazzing about the game.
Did Kotaku cover NMH 1+2? Yes, but they covered the (then) Japanese only PS3 port of the years old first game literally 6x more!
1. The "business" aspect of journalism is a problem all over because it makes the outlet's primary goal to generate hits/viewers instead of to INFORM THE AUDIENCE. But you're right, that's the reality we live in.
However, there are millliiiiooons of Wii owners and DS owners. If they had good business sense they would be trying to bring those people in. Try not to think like a moron in black and white terms. Those millions of people are not just soccer moms who don't know what a computer is. Even if 3/4 of those Wii owners only use the console as their "third" platform? Guess what? They probably would like to know if a good game was released!!
But did Kotaku cover MH3? No. They just posted a creepy video of a foreign kid spazzing about the game.
Did Kotaku cover NMH 1+2? Yes, but they covered the (then) Japanese only PS3 port of the years old first game literally 6x more!
The fact that you cite Kotaku as a main source of your ire (and insult me by calling me a "moron thinking in terms of black and white". Thanks for that, by the way) does more damage to your argument than I could hope to achieve.
A site like IGN, Destructoid, or whatnot's job is to inform their audience while generating ad revenue from things their audience has interest in. If their audience had interest in Wii software, it wouldn't make business sense to ignore it. Even if every writer at these sites hated the Wii with every fiber of their being, someone would still be covering these games if their audience had the interest and hits to justify it. And frankly, I don't see them ignoring worthwhile retail software so I find your argument invalid, and I've already stated the financial reasons why WiiWare gets overlooked. Destructoid especially is fond of posting articles on The Last Story and Xenoblade, as is IGN (including articles on how they want these games). For that matter, remember the massive amount of hype that IGN put behind the craptacular Conduit, with articles seemingly every day about it leading up to the game's release?
I'm playing my PS2 more often than any of my current gen systems. Persona 4 is quite the amazing game!
I don't visit very many gaming sites (and the ones I do, it's mainly for the community/forums), so I don't really know the current state of the gaming media in terms of the big wigs like IGN, GameSpot, Kotaku, etc. I stopped caring much about what such sites think years ago, as I found actual player accounts to better suit my needs when I want game info than what any of those sites offered me.
One article I did end up hearing about though, was an article IGN posted about New Super Mario Brothers Wii being a lazy rehash, which was clearly a slander against the Wii.
I don't visit very many gaming sites (and the ones I do, it's mainly for the community/forums), so I don't really know the current state of the gaming media in terms of the big wigs like IGN, GameSpot, Kotaku, etc. I stopped caring much about what such sites think years ago, as I found actual player accounts to better suit my needs when I want game info than what any of those sites offered me.
This this this! 1000X this! Don't like what websites are saying (or not saying) about Nintendo? Don't visit their site anymore.
To be frank, that's fair criticism.I'd agree to that if they applied the same level of criticism to the other systems, but they do not. That was my point.
... Nintendo's seeming lack of interest in using the Wii's technical prowess to its fullest.
... Nintendo's seeming lack of interest in using the Wii's technical prowess to its fullest.
Yea, first party Wii games are terrible. Good point! </saaaaaaaarcasm>
I'd agree to that if they applied the same level of criticism to the other systems, but they do not. That was my point.
Well, you did say the entire Wii library sucks. Twice. So I can see how that could be inferred as stating such.Yea, first party Wii games are terrible.
I don't believe I've said anything of the sort,
Well, you did say the entire Wii library sucks. Twice. So I can see how that could be inferred as stating such.
To be fair, James and Greg are the only ones who constantly play Nintendo games, the other two are a different story.
Mop it up - You are very smart. I thank you for being awesome.So here's the real question for ya. If you were playing Portal 2 would your Wife/Fiance/Not Sure play Co-Op with you?
Insanolord - You are 100% correct with your Simpsons analogy. More people should be so smart.
Jonny - You guys do a fine job keeping things focused on Nintendo. More is always welcome, but you do just fine.
Also, you should never feel like you have to get to a new game just to have something new to talk about. I've really enjoyed hearing about Lindy's trek through Chrono Trigger from week to week. It would water down the quality of the show if you guys were just rushing from game to game for the sake of fresh topics but never really dug deep enough to have anything meaningful to comment!
~
On a personal note, I find it funny that though I usually burn through games JamesJones-style, I've really played nothing but Pokémon White, PLatUnwoundFuture and DKCR since like... March. So my "new business" would have been very "consistent" shall we say =)
PS - watched PLatEternalDiva the other night. Flappin' awesome. More Prof Layton games/movies can't come soon enough!
PPS - Funny story. Since I am an (adjunct) professor with an "L" last name, I proposed to my wife by sending her to locations around town with puzzles I printed on a ProfLayton template I made. I had friends waiting at the different locations dressed as "strangers" to give her the next puzzle. The last location was our favorite restaurant where I was waiting with the ring.
We're pretty awesome dorks, so, it was pretty much the coolest thing ever ^_^
Oh yes, she would. Honestly, the only problem I've found with a gamer spouse (and trust me this is a good problem to have!) is that there is almost no such thing as "single player" anymore =PJust watch out. My wife gamed some when we were dating but, once we got married it went out the window.
If I want to play a long single-player campaign on my own schedule (rarely happens these days anyway!) I'd have to sit her down and say: "look, this game is too time-consuming to play between our separate schedules ... you play one of your games while I'm doing this one" and then she gets a little sad, but then she is happy once she goes back to Puzzle Quest for eight-hundred-billionth time ^_^
Just watch out. My wife gamed some when we were dating but, once we got married it went out the window.
The other one is officially against forums rules but, that was right too.Just watch out. My wife gamed some when we were dating but, once we got married it went out the window.
Funny, that sounds just like a certain cliche about marriage...
Oh yes, she would. Honestly, the only problem I've found with a gamer spouse (and trust me this is a good problem to have!) is that there is almost no such thing as "single player" anymore =PJust watch out. My wife gamed some when we were dating but, once we got married it went out the window.
If I want to play a long single-player campaign on my own schedule (rarely happens these days anyway!) I'd have to sit her down and say: "look, this game is too time-consuming to play between our separate schedules ... you play one of your games while I'm doing this one" and then she gets a little sad, but then she is happy once she goes back to Puzzle Quest for eight-hundred-billionth time ^_^
To be fair, James and Greg are the only ones who constantly play Nintendo games, the other two are a different story.
Greg has access to a larger pool of Nintendo games thanks to his Japanese Wii (which includes a distinct Virtual Console library and Japanese DS demos). I think you are mistaken about James bringing up Nintendo games more often in New Business. He's had just as much trouble as Jon and I. Perhaps someone will eventually do a statistical analysis. I try to always have something to say about a Nintendo game, but it's not always possible. Worthwhile releases don't happen consistently enough on any single platform (keep in mind we buy these games with our own money), and it is surprisingly difficult to bring fresh game impressions to the show every single week.
Also, I can use this space to insert the easy joke that Jon has brought a Nintendo game consistently for several weeks now... all the same game, of course.