Messages

251

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 572: Nintendo Franchise Executioner

« on: May 20, 2018, 07:06:55 PM »

I haven't even listened to the episode yet, but I had to compliment you on the article subtitle and first paragraph. You're reaching new peaks, James!

Slight correction: I assume you meant "Virgil or Beatrice", not "Virgil of Beatrice"? Didn't want the brillance marred by a typo, if so!

252

TalkBack / Re: Talking Dillon With Kensuke Tanabe, Risa Tabata, and Jun Tsuda

« on: May 19, 2018, 10:23:52 PM »

Interesting interview and good video discussion. Too bad you couldn't use the audio. If the audio quality is good enough in  future interviews,  you could use the technique I sometimes see Nintendo use in videos/audio which is to have the Japanese response go for a few words and then lower the volume on that and overlay the English translation on top.

253

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo News Report: Let's Go! Star Fox And Eevee

« on: May 19, 2018, 10:55:42 AM »

I love Justin's stories of getting deals on videogames. Great to see Zach as always. He always brings an interesting perspective. Donald has really grown into a good host. Hope you feel better soon Alex!

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TalkBack / Re: RUMOR: Star Fox Grand Prix - This Could Actually Work

« on: May 18, 2018, 12:57:12 PM »

To broodwars: I remember first learning about Beetle Adventure Racing in Nintendo Power. Seemed to come out of nowhere. Such a great, fun game. If EA released a new or updated version of that for the Switch, it truly would be an unprecedented partnership. You really don't see games like that being made any more by the big publishers. They consider the risks too big and are seeking the biggest rewards.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 571: Mandatory Hooligans

« on: May 16, 2018, 10:51:03 AM »

Posted by ClexYoshi: "The Gadget bloke" is NOT how I'd describe Bolo. he's more of a moron that doesn't get enough air to his brain, but somehow still gets trusted with doing things.

He's kinda the Jon Lindemann of Shantae's world, if Jon had a full head of hair and threw spiked balls at things.

-------------------

Whoa! Slow your roll! Show some respect. You're talking about the heir to the throne here! We're one bullet or vacation away from NWR Chat Season 2, Episode 1: The Headgold Awakens.

To Kobeskillz: They have a right to be pessimistic because Nintendo always acts so weird and hesitant about online. If feels like they start from scratch almost every generation rather than buidling upon what they created previously. And I have serious doubts about N64 mostly due to the fact that many of them won't be released due to them being made by Rare (outside of DK 64 and you can keep that as far as I'm concerned).

To Oedo: The crew was able to get a lot out of not very much. If you compare last week's online reveal to when Nintendo first announced it in early 2017, very little is new and even most of that is shrouded in "details to be announced later." Nintendo gave the impression they've been working night and day to bring the service to you and this is what we get?

It feels like they really want that PSN/XBox LIve money, but no clear plan about how to get it. "Ummm, Ummm, here are some NES games, some of which no one cares about! Voice chat? What? F you, use your cellphone! Use the clunky as hell, poorly programmed app that is used for only one game and that we've barely updated in almost a year!"

And locking previously free online play for games behind a paywall? Yes, I know they said from the start that would happen, but that was when the service they've apparently had the janitor working on in his spare time, was supposed to debut in Fall 2017. A few months of a free sample so to speak, before they ramp up the quality. Not a year and a half of free sample to pay for the same quality you've been experiencing the whole time.

256

TalkBack / Re: NES Classic To Re-Release June 29

« on: May 14, 2018, 04:43:22 AM »

Apparently, the Shonen Jump Famicom Mini was just a special edition that will release July 7th. They announced restockings of the regular Famicom Mini that will start June 28th. I haven't heard of any game lineup changes for that.

257

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo News Report: Earnings And A New President

« on: April 28, 2018, 09:54:28 PM »

Some thoughts on Nintendo's corporate structure:

Reggie wasn't promoted to CEO of NOA (the postion Iwata assumed in 2013). I can't find any reference to it when Kimishima or Furukawa took over, leading me to believe the position was eliminated and Reggie is now the top dog as President reporting directly to NCL's president rather than a CEO intermediary ala Kimishima, then Iwata.

Reggie isn't a Representatitive Director or even a Director. He was promoted to Executive Officer in 2016, the same time that Shibata and Ko Shiota were promoted to the same position. Both Shibata and Shiota have since been made Senior Executive Officers and Directors. However, Reggie is part of the board, but I'm not sure how the votes are weighed. The hierarchy seems to be representative director, director, executive officer.

As far as Shibata goes, it's definitely a promotion. He's basically the number 4 or 5 man at Nintendo now. He's taking over one of Furukawa's jobs as head of Global Marketing.

258

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Switch Online Details To Come In Early May

« on: April 27, 2018, 03:21:30 AM »

Hmm. Such a seemingly low-key info release. I hope it's not due to those details being mundane and mediocre.

259

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Plans For E3

« on: April 27, 2018, 03:16:24 AM »

Bumpie's Party? :p

The only thing that doesn't make sense is the Splatoon 2 finals and the Smash tournament being held on the same evening. Have the Smash tournament on Wednesday evening. Spread that stuff out!

Hopefully there will be fewer repeats of games on the Treehouse this year (though I'm sure Smash will be shown at least 3 or 4 times). And hopefully the hosts will remember to introduce themselves and others. They sometimes forgot last year and seemed a little nervous in comparison to past years.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Names New President, European Head Returning To Japan

« on: April 26, 2018, 08:42:01 AM »

You always have the best gifs, Lemonade!

I remember when Iwata died, that Shinya Takahashi was strongly rumored to be the top choice within Nintendo, but was passed over in favor of Kimishima, to give him a few more years of experience. Instead, he gets yet another promotion, but stays the head of games development. I wonder if those rumors didn't have any truth to them or if something changed in the past few years.

Advice for any NWR dwellers who want to become Nintendo's president someday: Join the corporate planning department! As Iwata, Kimishima and now, Furukawa demonstrate, it's the path to the top!

261

TalkBack / Re: Etrian Odyssey X Announced In Japan

« on: April 10, 2018, 01:42:52 AM »

I would have said that it was strange that another EO game will be on the 3DS, but since there is such a short time table between announcement and launch, it still  makes sense as 2018 is the last really viable year for the system (Mario & Luigi in 2019 notwithstanding). I wonder if this also indicates that they are having difficultly figuring out how to do an EO game for the Switch? I hope they don't expect big sales at this point though.

Hopefully Zach will be on NNR this week to give his reaction to the news.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 566: I'm. From. France.

« on: April 09, 2018, 06:23:33 AM »

You too can have the WWE Network for only $9.99. 9 9 9

I haven't seen a regular show in awhile. Do they still drill that into the viewers nonstop?

263

TalkBack / Re: The Thirsty Mage: Persona 5

« on: April 09, 2018, 03:37:50 AM »

Great episode and discussion, even though I haven't played the game.

I remember seeing a tweet from James saying he had been awake for almost 24 hours by the end of this recording. You could tell that while he was engaged in the discussion, he was also ready for it to be over. I thought "Don't kill him! We need him for RFN!"

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo News Report: The PAX East Home Team

« on: April 09, 2018, 03:29:55 AM »

Happy Belated Birthday to Don's mom!

The look on Zach's face when he found out that Justin had a Punch-Out!! arcade machine and what he paid for it was priceless.

Great work and discussion as always guys.

BTW, when is Alex going to be able fix his webcam? Your viewership numbers may go down if this goes on for too much longer!

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TalkBack / Re: SNK 40th Anniversary Collection Announced For Switch

« on: April 09, 2018, 03:24:02 AM »

Nice that SNK is shining a light on their earlier history before they became a big name in the arcade fighting game scene. Seems like they are putting in some work to make the games look and play their best. They should throw in the Game Biy Color version of Crystalis as a bonus (even if it is inferior to the NES version).

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TalkBack / Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch) Hands-on Preview

« on: April 09, 2018, 03:18:43 AM »

Between reading about this game and Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, I'm glad Nintendo is taking the time to use the extra power of the Switch to enchance and improve the games. If you're going to use Wii U ports to fill in the release schedule between wholly original games, you might as well do it right. Hopefully people who didn't own a Wii U will give these games a chance.

267

TalkBack / Re: Know A Franchise - The Elder Scrolls

« on: April 09, 2018, 03:11:32 AM »

Being the only person on a podcast isn't easy. I thought you did a pretty good job sounding natural. When you're conveying reams of information, that can be hard to do.

Can't wait for the Chrono Trigger episode. I never tire of hearing people talk about that game. It's still my favorite RPG after all these years. There's so much to it and the execution was so well done, especially for the time. I read the Nintendo Power hype machine for months leading up to the release of the game in August of that year and couldn't wait to play it for Christmas. I played Chrono Trigger , at least a little, every day for a solid month. I can't remember doing that for a single game before that time, I found it so compelling.

I do wonder if Chrono Trigger has really gained any new fans over the years or if it is almost all people who played the original release or the enhanced DS version. I doubt it garnered many new fans from the cellphone and Steam versions! A true sequel would be a dream come true, but I think so much time has passed that even if you assembled the original team, I'm not sure they could capture that magic again. It would be one of the biggest feats in gaming history if they could manage that.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 566: I'm. From. France.

« on: April 09, 2018, 02:21:21 AM »

Jonny's been absent from the hosting chair for over two and a half years now. Based on James's comments in this episode and many others, it's clear to me that it's time to invite Dr. Metts back for an episode entitled "The Corrections, Part Deux, Mon Dieu!"

Upon reading of Jon's near death experience, I must admit I took it too seriously and thought "What happened? Car accident? Hold-up? Mudslide?" I didn't hear any news about an earthquake so that didn't enter my mind. Glad all was well, though I'm sure the sense of powerlessness during an earthquake isn't pleasant and might be the worst thing about it (from a personal perspective).

We should do a study and see if Jon could safely use NES cartridges to shoreup his house against an earthquake. If effective, we could finally find a use for all of James's LJN "Classics".

James: "Restaurant." Once again, trying to impune Jon's reputation. Tsk, Tsk.

Nintendo should claim on the waiver wire all of Sega's Master System graph paper games. There must be good potential in some of those forgotten games.

Sell Ice Climbers to the Good Humor Man. It'd set off a revolution in the dairy confectionary industry.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 565: High Stakes Wiiware Gamble

« on: April 04, 2018, 10:33:06 PM »

Ah, the pitfalls of reusing a template. I know it well from experience. But I didn't have the good taste to request a track from Punch-Out!!

I also noticed that this RFN episode was included in the Top Site Images this week. I'm not sure if that's ever happened before, at least for a regular episode. *cues "The Jeffersons" theme music*

Devil's Third will be remastered for Switch. The big new feature will be the use of the infrared sensor to scan your face. Now people like Jon can map their face onto the Hero's ala the ditched feature from Perfect Dark. To celebrate the feature, Itagaki will redo his terrorist video into a contest where you can map your face onto his in the video. It'll take the world by storm and sell  at least triple what the WiiU version did!

If Nintendo ported Amiibo Festival to the Switch, we would have an entire  Nintendo News Report dedicated to why that is a bad decision with Justin Berube taking point. Re-releasing that would somehow add to the glut of Animal Crossing amiibo, not decrease it. We'd have a E.T. Atari 2600-like  stock disaster on our hands.

Fatal Frame 5, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Paper Mario: Color Splash and Yoshi's Woolly World would be high on my list to get Switch ports.

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TalkBack / Re: Arcade Archives Punch-Out Makes Weight, Releasing March 30 In Japan

« on: March 23, 2018, 10:45:56 PM »

Yeah! Now we're starting to get to the meat of the announced titles. I just hope that the seven thus far announced titles do well enough that Nintendo will allow Hamster to release their really obscure arcade games.

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TalkBack / Re: Super Smash Bros Switch, Splatoon 2 Tournaments Announced For E3

« on: March 22, 2018, 07:55:35 PM »

It's funny. I was just scanning the NWR headlines and saw Smash Bros. tournament for E3 and thought nice, nice. Then I re-read it and saw it said Smash for Switch, then I went "Oh, Oh, Oh!"  Really interested now. With the Treehouse and tournaments, I'm glad Nintendo has decided to schedule activities that we can watch during E3. While not everything is a home run, it really adds to the fun and interest for me.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 563: Mining Wii Points on the Blockchain

« on: March 18, 2018, 08:59:17 PM »

I'm not sure I even want to listen to this episode. It can't possibly live up to its portrayal in the article.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Direct To Air March 8

« on: March 08, 2018, 01:46:30 AM »

I wonder if there will be any more Nintendo Arcade Archives announcements. If they continue to release onky one a quarter, they'll be finished sometime next decade. :p

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 561: What Year Is It

« on: March 08, 2018, 01:37:11 AM »

Who says Jon isn't a professional journalist (James)? Fact-checking himself while on the podcast! Can't ask for more than that. I remember Jon mentioning the falling asleep story before, only then he said that someone fell asleep in front of Hiroshi Yamauchi, thus causing the Pimp-Hand to cut ties with that company. I knew the real story from reading Game Over by David Sheff, but for whatever reason, I didn't bother to post it. Neither did anyone else from what I remember, so I guess I wasn't the only lazy, apathetic one. :p I was going to do it this time until Jon ended the episode on a fitting note!

After the divergence, I figured James was going to rightly (?) not mention the man beam sentence, but an unseen force must have compelled him! And why use one Cho-Aniki reference when you can squeeze out (?) another one in the farewell.

I'd like to play the translated versions of several Super Famicom RPGs like Treasure of the Rudras, Bahamut Lagoom, Treasure Hunter G. Also Wrecking Crew '98. It looks like the guy who had the Famicom Bunko: Hajimari no Mori Super Famicom game has dropped working on the game. Too bad. So many latter-day Super Famicom games yet to be translated.

A team is slowly working on Great Ace Attorney. Looks like it'll be finished before Kingdom Hearts 3 or FF7 Undead Edition! I typoed Kingdom Hearts into Hearst. Prophetic perhaps?

BTW I'm eating Wasabi-flavored Doritos Nachos right now. Limited time only, folks!

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo News Report: Odyssey Update Leads The Charge

« on: February 26, 2018, 03:23:25 AM »

Switch cartridges come in 1,2,4,8,16 and 32 GB capacities. Below are the file sizes for the various MM games:

Mega Man 128 KB
Mega Man 2 256 KB
Mega Man 3 384 KB
Mega Man 4 512 KB
Mega Man 5 512 KB
Mega Man 6 512 KB
Mega Man 7 2 MB
Mega Man 8 235.42 MB (PS Store)
Mega Man 9 63.06 MB (PS Store)
Mega Man 10 143.73 MB (PS Store)

Mega Man Legacy Collection 289.6 MB (PS Store)
Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 4.96 GB (PS Store)

Mega Man 1-10 Game Size Total 446.46 MB

MMLC 1&2 Total Size: 5.25 GB

Based on the PS Store sizes for MMLC 1 & 2, if Capcom did absolutely nothing, they'd have to use an 8 GB cartridge. With some work, they may have been able to use a 4 GB card.

It's amazing to me that they work so hard to balloon the footprint of games from 20 and 30 years ago, yet will do nothing to keep file sizes down. Capcom has to employ people to make the Switch release, so while they're paying them anyway, why don't they allow them to do something useful. I don't know if it's just a corporate thing to never use even the easiest solutions to problems. If they want to cheap out on game cards, that's fine, but don't say it's because there's no way to fit it. too much work, etc.

They can pay dozens of marketing people, but they can't pay one or two programmers for a few months to think about the problem and come up with a viable solution? Sounds like radio.

So 446.46 MB are the games. 4.8 GB is something else. No way to reduce that without diminishing the product? Okay.

I wonder about the upcoming Street Fighter Collection. If they can find a way to make one of the 3 MB games into 3 GB, I'm sure they will.