Topic: Episode 200: Up Where We Belong

[NWR_insanolord]

I guess I was a lot more of a fan of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix than Jonny was. It was plagued with technical issues, and that drove me away from it, but a version of it without the bugs and the slowdown and the loading times would be one of my favorite DS games. Thankfully, Puzzle Quest 2 incorporates a lot of the improvements that Galactrix made. I'd still prefer the sci-fi setting of Galactrix, but that's just personal preference; in every other way, Puzzle Quest 2 is just as good a game as Galactrix, except of course the technical areas, in which it wipes the floor with it.

[abe]

WHAT A SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!!

You just celebrated your 200th. episode by talking about SOME of the history for ONE Nintendo platform. Although I must say very thoroughly and informative. It is always a joy to hear about the stuff behind the platforms and games. ALWAYS. and here is my quote for the DS: I wasted 53 hours of my life with Nintendogs: Chihuahua and friends but I will never forget the day when Abi my Chihuahua bitch  ran away from home by itself and returned with a present in it's jaws. THAT MADE ME HAPPY AND I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU ABI

[DrStiles]

I'm beginning to think I'm going crazy when it comes to Puzzle Quest.  I've mentioned this on another forum (a long time ago) and no one else confirms it and everyone happily ignores it:

Puzzle Quest is unplayable.

I actually loved Puzzle Quest until I realized that there were only a handful of patterns that the gems are assembled at the beginning of every match.  And when I say "assembled" I also mean the pattern in which each additional gem is dropped down onto the playing area.  The replacement gems are all queued up in the same order for the handful of patterns.  They are not randomly scrambled.  The next time you're playing, pay attention to the beginning of each game.  Soon enough you'll find the same gems in the same places.  If you make the same move, the same gems will replace the ones that disappear.  Also, if you make the same move, the AI will make the same counter move, and that pattern will continue.

Once I noticed this and confirmed it, I put the game down and never touched it again.

Is this fixed in Puzzle Quest II?

In the DS version of Puzzle Quest 1 there was a glitch that caused the same starting board and gem drops for the first puzzle after booting up the game.  I would guess that this is caused by the program not seeding the random number generator.  I didn't notice the AI always making the same moves, so the first puzzle was different every time after the first few moves.  The problem goes away after the first puzzle.  This was fixed in puzzle quest 2 (and galactrix).

[Kytim89]

I was a little dissapointed you guys did not mention that Sonic the Hedgehog made his RPG debut on the DS. Yes, the Sonic franchise is not looked upon very nicely, but it still diserved some kind of recognition.

No it didn't.

What do you mean? This was a good game and no speaks about it.

No it wasn't.

I know this is getting into opinion at this point, but I really didn't like that game.

I lost a whole lot of interest in the Sonic franchise, but when I found out Bioware was developing the game I immediatly went out and bought the game. That is why I want to recommend this game to James Jones because he likes RPGs.

[NWR_Neal]

James, I have to warn you against ever playing that game. It might be in line with you "All RPG, All The Time" mantra from March, but it's a crappy RPG. It doesn't matter if Bioware developed it. It's like Super Mario RPG crossed with Elite Beat Agents...if both of those games kind of sucked and starred Sonic and his shitty friends.

[Kytim89]

James, I have to warn you against ever playing that game. It might be in line with you "All RPG, All The Time" mantra from March, but it's a crappy RPG. It doesn't matter if Bioware developed it. It's like Super Mario RPG crossed with Elite Beat Agents...if both of those games kind of sucked and starred Sonic and his ****ty friends.

Yes, it did have issues, but the sci-fi elements of the game were enjoyable.  It is no Final Fantasy for obvious reasons, but I a lot of reviewers claim that the Sonic's shitty friends are not as annoying in this game as they are in the other Sonic games.

[NWR_insanolord]

As they pointed out in this episode, there are so many great RPGs on the DS; there's no need to settle for something like that.

[Kytim89]

If I had a gaming series I would want it to have a debut on the DS.

[AV]

My family had a vacation to Galveston beach for 4th of July and we returned today.


I had some other podcasts I listened too but I needed to make sure I had RFN 200 to listen on the drive back. I was hoping you would mention Meteos, and you did when I was playing it on my DS.
My blasted Meteos card keeps failing me, i don't know why but occasionally the DS just refuses to recognize it when I try to play it. I have to clean the cartridge to get it to work, and thats odd when all other games work fine. Anyway it's cool you guys talk about DS when I played with mine.
Great discussion on the history

Great show guys. I love playing my DS,during the car ride back to where I live as my brother drove but listening to RFN was a real treat.

[Crimm]

The reason Sonic's RPG debut is not worth special mention is the franchise is no long worth special recognition.

That's all I'm going to say about it; if you have an issue with that position you can put the blame purely at the fault of Sonic's handlers.

[Mop it up]

At first I was surprised Nintendo was so willing to give up the Game Boy name, after all the success they've had with it. But it started to make sense after seeing where the DS was headed. They were targeting all audiences, including adults and females, and a name like "Game Boy" isn't very appealing to them.

I believe it is "Staff Roll" from Super Mario 64.

It sure is.

[Kytim89]

At first I was surprised Nintendo was so willing to give up the Game Boy name, after all the success they've had with it. But it started to make sense after seeing where the DS was headed. They were targeting all audiences, including adults and females, and a name like "Game Boy" isn't very appealing to them.

I believe it is "Staff Roll" from Super Mario 64.

It sure is.

In my mind I always refered to the DS as the Game Boy DS. It is still a Game Boy in all facets but name. Basically the DS and soon to be 3DS are Game Boys in stealth mode. But like you said, they removed the name to appeal to a broader audience, but it is still a game boy. This might be why they have yet to release a new addition of the game boy because technically they already have one at their disposal.

What do you guys think of my avatar?

[NWR_Karl]

For the record, the PAX East Post-Drunkcast story can be found elsewhere on the internet, as told by myself and Mike Sklens.

[Patchkid15]

I just listened to the story told by Karl and Mike, that must of been one exciting night. However, I still want to listen to the original audio when crew is present.

[Kytim89]

The reason Sonic's RPG debut is not worth special mention is the franchise is no long worth special recognition.

That's all I'm going to say about it; if you have an issue with that position you can put the blame purely at the fault of Sonic's handlers.

All that matters is how one feels about a particular game regardless of whether it is good or not. I guess beauty is in the eye of the behold and I apologize for wasting your time. All that counts is that I like the game and that makes it a winner.

[Crimm]

While I like that you're so emotionally invested in the game you really need  to take what I say less seriously. I do maintain that the game isn't really deserving of special mention for simply existing, but that extends to 99.99999% of DS games. Hell, if you're not Brain Age or Nintendogs the fact you exist is not inextricably linked to the narrative that is the life of the DS.  I love a lot of DS games that I didn't mention.

[King of Twitch]

  hahaha 

[Sundoulos]

I was always surprised that they didn't have more RTS games on the DS.  Yes, Starcraft wouldn't have worked that well on the DS, but a game similar to Warcraft 3, with a focus on smaller groups and more micromanagement, probably would have done very well.

For that matter, I think the Wii might still have been a good choice for an RTS game.  I've been disappointed there as well.

Starcraft 2 notwithstanding, RTS games seem to have dwindled a lot in prominence in the last several years, though, and I don't think they've ever been all that popular in Japan.

[Shaymin]

I'm pretty sure the only DS RTS are Revenant Wings and Heroes of Mana. (OMG MUSHBOOM RUSH)

[NWR_Karl]

There was an RPG/RTS on DS called LostMagic that was sort of decent - it had terrible routing, though. If there was a tree in front of a troop, they basically walked in place until you pointed them away from it. There was a cool rune-drawing system, though.

[NWR_insanolord]

There was an RPG/RTS on DS called LostMagic that was sort of decent - it had terrible routing, though. If there was a tree in front of a troop, they basically walked in place until you pointed them away from it. There was a cool rune-drawing system, though.

From what I remember, that was one of the main problems of both Revenant Wings and Heroes of Mana as well.

[KDR_11k]

There's also Ecolis (and some shoddy GBA port, I think it's called Command & Destroy or something). I think Japanese RTSes rarely ever bother with pathfinding. Consider that the old Warcraft and Command & Conquer games ran on hardware less powerful than the DS and had pathfinding that's just pathetic.

[NWR_insanolord]

It really is a shame more developers haven't tried making RTS games for the DS. The iPhone has a pretty decent RTS library, but I'd think the stylus touch screen on the DS would allow for more precision.

[KDR_11k]

Even the iPhone has a very limited RTS library, you get a ton of tower defense but full RTSes are rare. Land Air Sea Warfare is one of the few real ones.

I suppose with the wasteful resource handling these days people just can't get enough performance out of the DS for a proper RTS.

[Kytim89]

Bue Dragon Plus was an RTS for the DS similar to Revenant Wings.