Topic: Episode 77: Charlton Chu

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Those expecting nougat or rodents from Jimmy C.'s latest stint on Radio Trivia will be greatly disappointed

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/radiotrivia/23799

Games featured in this episode:

Link's Crossbow Training (Wii)
Metroid Prime Hunters (DS)
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GC)
Magic of Scheherazade (NES)
NBA Jam: Tournament Edition (SNES)

(Highlight the text above with your cursor to view it.)

Did you like the third and fourth games? Let your fellow listeners know in TalkBack! Think you've got a better choice? Then send it my way and your request might be on the next episode of Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition!  Heck, throw in a question and specific songs if you want.  Just remember, it has to be a game found on a Nintendo system in North America (unless we say otherwise)!

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Not sure I've actually eaten one of these before. Anyway, turns out Scheherazade is the name of the queen who tells the tales of One Thousand and One Nights. Guess I'm just not cultured enough.

[famicomplicated]

Hehe, I've heard of those but we don't have them in the UK (or Japan).


For those that don't know, "Chu" could mean the sound that a mouse makes (choo-choo=squeak squeak) or the sound/action of kissing! (Chooo-!)


Also, I still can't pronounce game 4!

[Shaymin]

And I'm having an urge to get a Charleston Chew right now, appropriately enough.

I was planning to pick up game 1 on the cheap, at least I know the music will be good.

[Mop it up]

I don't think I have ever had a Charleston Chew. Are they any good?

[Bboy]

Having played NBA Jam for SNES, it really confused me when the music sounded exactly the same... only with different songs. I love that game though. I still play it fairly often. When I played it as a kid I would jump off the couch whenever I shot or dunked, annoying the hell out of my brothers. Now it can actually make me shoot too, with the motion controls.

[Shaymin]

I don't think I have ever had a Charleston Chew. Are they any good?

They're pretty good, but it's hard to screw up chocolate + marshmallows.

[Sundoulos]

 Hey, TYP, you still haven't used Metroid Prime Pinball, so there was another possibility for game#2, so you haven't completely exhausted that well!  Edit: I guess you realized that after you said it.

I found pinball on the cheap at a used bookstore not too long ago; I need to give it an earnest try.  I can't say that I really am interested in Hunters because I think it emphasizes the elements of the Prime series that I liked the least; that, and I wasn't a big fan of the controls.

I rented the Magic of Scheherazade a few times when I was a kid, and I think it was one of the first RPGs that I ever played, aside from Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.   As you guys mentioned in the podcast, it had a pretty unique blend of battle systems:  a random-encounter turn-based system in the style of Dragon Quest as well as an action battle system that was sort of like Zelda or Crystalis. 

The game also has a lot in common with Chrono Trigger as well.  For one thing, it features a very eclectic array of supporting characters (http://www.flyingomelette.com/mos/chars.html), including two genies, a robot, a living bottle, a pumpkin, and some sort of weird creature called a rain shrimp.  A lot of these characters had some sort of special ability that you had to use for a boss encounter or to progress through some area of the game.  Some of them were optional, I think.  In addition to these characters, you had the option of hiring a small army of troops that would help you in the turn-based battles.  My memory is a little fuzzy on this, but I think they helped to absorb hits and deal out additional damage.  As the page I posted notes, the troopers looked a lot like the old art for Moblins in the early Zelda games.

The other thing the game had in common with Chrono Trigger was a time travel element.  It wasn't used to the extent that time travel was used in Chrono Trigger, but you did have to go back and forth in time to change elements of the game to progress.  Also, some of the game landscape was altered as you went back and forth in time.  As I remember it, you could also choose to plant seeds in the past to reap money or fruit or something from them later.

Anyway, this game is a nice, but obscure, little piece of gaming history.  I wish it were available on Virtual Console, but I doubt this will ever happen.

[Mop it up]

I don't think I have ever had a Charleston Chew. Are they any good?

They're pretty good, but it's hard to screw up chocolate + marshmallows.

Marshmallow? The linked Wikipedia article states it contains the ever-mysterious "nougat." Which is it?

[MegaByte]

Soylent green.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Cool info on Game 4, Sundoulos. I'd like to try it sometime but also doubt it will come to VC.

[Jonnyboy117]

I remember reading about Game 4 in Nintendo Power and always wanted to play it. Thanks for the info, sundoulos!

[Sundoulos]

No problem.  I played this game a good bit as a kid; it fell into the ranks of the games I liked but could never afford.  I think I managed to beat the game, or at least get pretty close to the end.  That's probably because I was the only person renting it.

Edit: Nevermind, I had forgotten that the game used a password system.  It's been a while...
 

[MegaByte]

Love the American sports announcer James voice impressions.

[noname2200]

It was such a treat to hear Game #4.  I really enjoyed the title back in its day, and while it's aged a bit it's still a fun title that anyone who likes Zelda games should check out.  And thanks to Sundoulos for requesting it:  nice to know someone else has heard of it!

[TJ Spyke]

Listening to this now.

Regarding NBA Jam: when the Wii game was announced, the NBA[/i] announced that they had always owned the actual rights to the name, Midway only licensed it. That meant that EA just had to license the name from them rather than having to track it down.

I have to disagree on Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. I especially liked how your partner now had their own HP rather than being knocked out after one hit. I do agree that there was maybe too much back-tracking. I loved the Glitz Pit though. The Pit of 100 Trials was difficult but fun, you really couldn't beat it until after the final boss because it was just too difficult, Bonetail was the final boss BTW.