Great episode, gents. Seriously pulled off one of the most enjoyable episodes for #300. Way to rise to the occasion!
Responses ...
1. Paraphrase from Jonny: "their innovation is in gameplay, nintendo's never really done crazy controllers."
I can only assume you're referring only to PRIMARY controllers, right? Cuz I mean, in general, there's PowerPad, PowerGlove, all kinds of other goofy things.
2. I was in love with games all the way up until the end of the PS2 era. But after that I was planning to live "a generation behind" and just buy games when they are a fraction of the price but still just as fun.
Then, I went to a classmates party and he had a Wii and was showing it off to everybody. It was awesome and several months later ...
3. My wife spent weeks hunting down delivery trucks until she finally got a Wii for us at Christmas.
4. By the next Christmas my sister had a Wii and asked for video games. That was a BIG. EFFIN'. DEAL. to me.
5. My dad played Wii Sports Resort with my wife and me one night. He beat us at bowling and is still proud of it to this day. I believe Gui said something about "remembering these experiences all my life." I agree, Gui!
6. I know Nintendo stopped marketing to "us." But, hey, marketing isn't games. Games are games. And my favorite games of this gen are on Nintendo's platforms.
7. Gui: "I was enjoying myself and everyone else was bringing me down." Agreed, sir.
8. I somehow played hundreds of smooth hours of Brawl online. *shrug*
9. The Wii was by far the most popular, but third parties ignored it. If they felt like focusing on that, nurturing it, they could have made a ton of money. But, they said "no, we'll make games the way we've always made them." For the most part, they just couldn't make a good flagship game, they had to make their flagship games "big budget" games.
10. I loved the "faux retro" revival. And yes, MegaMan 9 felt most at-home on Wii. The controller, the fact that all the previous 8-bits were on the NES. It was the right fit.
11. In my opinion, the Wii's software lineup in 2010 was one of the best release schedules ever! When you look at all the quality games, it seems like a no-brainer to me.
12. Again, I can only paraphrase from memory. Gui: "When I heard people say Nintendo abandoned them, that's how I feel about the other companies." YES, GUI!!!! As someone who only had a PS1 and a PS2 during those generations, I was ready to walk away from "modern gaming" before the Wii. The PS3/60 just didn't interest me. After I got in to the Wii I thought, "that DS thing seems to have some good stuff going on." And the rest is history.
13. I don't think Nintendo is "saving video games" to be altruistic. But, I do think they are doing it. I hope they don't fall too deep into this HD/DLC rabbit hole that swallowed up their contemporaries.
14. Gui, you are the man this episode. I like to think "Wii apologists" can actually just be "people who really like the Wii." Remember when being a fan of something wasn't automatically a fan-boy?
15. I agree that WM+ was largely wasted on the Wii. But the Wii U will give it an entire second chance.
16. I think Lindy said something about "everyone" wanting Other M and Sin+Punishment. He was right, "gamers" wanted those. The people in our circles wanted those. We can't discount uber-popular games like Mario and Wii Fit by saying they are just appealing to "the masses" and then also discount games that only have "core" appeal.
17. You say 2011 had a rough year and we're blaming Nintendo for only releasing those 3 games. But, what happened to all the third parties complaining that Nintendo games crowd them out from the Wii's huge install base and that's why their stuff doesn't sell?
Why do third parties not get equal blame for not filling the holes they supposedly were starving for? Also, when everything comes out in 2010, we all know there can't be a sequel in 2011, right? This isn't [third party who does annual releases] we're talkin' about.
18. Hearing from Greg was like a warm blanket for my soul. Cheers, mate. Go Bills!
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Sorry for the super long, not very well developed post. But, hey, in an (awesome) 5-hour podcast, maybe you get quantity and not quality, right?
Looking forward to 400.