Topic: Nintendo Free Radio Episode 6: More Space & Suction Than An Infected Hoover

[broodwars]

Nintendo Free Radio Episode 6: More Space & Suction Than An Infected Hoover

The Pokedex lied to me! Apparently, Wailord can fly through space and evolve into Moltres! Thanks, Child of Eden!

Grab your +5 Rainbow Staff of Awesome and prepare to Fly Away, because NFR is back to deliver another multitude of multi-platform memoirs courtesy of hosts Donald; Stephen; and Austen.  Donald kicks off this week's New Business with a trip down memory lane in Kirby's Dream Collector's Special Edition for the Wii ("Sucking" and "Blowing" puns withheld by special request).  Moving from the glacially-evolving to the recently-innovating, we travel to an alternate (and exquisitely cel-shaded) war-torn universe with the critically-beloved (but unfortunately poorly-selling) PS3-exclusive strategy game Valkyria Chronicles.  Nowhere else can you see Vyse and Aika from Skies of Arcadia team-up with a bug-obsessed tank commander and his group of misfits to defend their homes from an invasion by Steampunk, ancient magic-wielding Nazis.

Afterwards, Stephen takes us to the surprisingly barren Chinese jungles with the recent World of WarCraft: Mists of Panderia expansion, a game best described as Kung Fu Panda meets...Pokemon?  As the sun seems to be setting on WoW, we light-up the nighttime sky with the PS2 launch title Fantavision and launch into Spaaaaaaaaaaace with the infuriating Kickstarter-funded space combat Rogue-Like FTL.   Further raising the stakes, Austen strikes back with a Rogue-Like of his own with the delightfully bizarre Tokyo Jungle, the only game this Fall to potentially feature a Pomeranian locked in Mortal Kombat with a Velociraptor for control of a post-apocalyptic Tokyo.  In case you didn't think this game selection could get any weirder, we follow that up with one Demonic Lord's rubber ducky-fueled quest for Warioware-style vengeance in Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit.  On a more somber note, we then conclude the segment with Austen's thoughts on returning to Tetsuya Mizuguchi's enchanting (and psychedelic) musical opus Child of Eden.  Can it be that our harshest critic has a game from this console generation even he can't help gushing about and wishes was on the Wii U?

After yet another harrowing journey through the unhinged psyche of the Nintendo World Report Forums with Now Posted, we tune in the latest episode of Watcha Been Watching.  Included in this week's programming are titles such as the war-time political drama Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Aaron Sorkin's further decent into madness and mediocrity with The Newsroom, and the apparently-decent Nintendo DS RPG-based anime Sands of Destruction (where the heroes' goal is to destroy the world...kumo).

With the recent poor critical reception of Resident Evil 6 on our minds, our Feature Discussion delves into the Future of Japanese Games Development outside of Nintendo.  In this new age of globalization and expensive AAA game development, what Japanese studios seem equipped to weather the storm?  What future Japanese titles are we looking forward to?  What do Japanese studios need to do to become relevant again in the eyes of the rest of the world?  All these questions and more may be lightly touched upon in this week's shotgun-style Feature Discussion.

As always, we then close the show with our 1ups/Poison Mushrooms, including the needlessly infuriating process involved with downloading anything on the (allegedly) online-savvy PlayStation Vita, the gaming industry's apparent burning desire to kill off single-player gaming as part of their passive-aggressive war on GameStop, and the annoyances of in-game travel time.

We're still looking for feedback and questions for Listener Mail, which you can send to nintendofreeradio@gmail.com.  You can also post in our thread on the NWR forums, or leave us comments under this post on our website at http://nintendofreeradio.podbean.com.  Finally, if you're an iTunes user, be sure to drop us a rating as well so we know what you want to hear on future episodes!  NFR will be back in 2 weeks for Halloween, but until then NFR's Journey Will Continue. Keep taking the path less taken and join us!

This podcast was edited by Stephen Shook. All music is copyrighted to their original owners and is used under fair use protection.

MP3 Link

[broodwars]

With the initial post up, some minor notes: allow me to apologize on behalf of the show for the late arrival of this episode.  All 3 of us have been getting beaten up pretty hard by work and life in general lately, so although we recorded just a few days later than usual, the episode was not ready until now. 

Also, there will be a .m4a version at a later date with chapter breaks and all those nice little extras some of you folks love, but with another episode recording right on top of us later this week there just hasn't been the time to make one.  For now, please enjoy the .mp3 version that Ceric's been slaving away on for so long. 

And as always, we welcome your feedback both here, on our website, and especially in email. 

[Shaymin]

New Business timestamps for now:
Kirby Collection: 1:00
Valkyria Chronicles: 10:55
WoW: 23:40
Fantavision: 34:40
FTL: 41:00
Tokyo Jungle: 51:05
Hell Yeah: 1:06:20
Child of Eden: 1:11:50
End of New Business: 1:21:16

[azeke]

One should be more open-minded to be on nintendo themed podcast, i kinda shook my head when Phineas and Ferb was shunned just because: "-- why would you watch this? -- have you watched it? -- nooooo....".

Come on. P&F is actually pretty good and some of the song are just brilliant.

[broodwars]

One should be more open-minded to be on nintendo themed podcast, i kinda shook my head when Phineas and Ferb was shunned just because: "-- why would you watch this? -- have you watched it? -- nooooo....".

Come on. P&F is actually pretty good and some of the song are just brilliant.

We all have our tastes, and we all take a bit of ribbing for some of the odd games we play and shows we watch, and judging by the Disney billboards down here this show is made for a very young audience.  So yeah, I wanted to know why he was watching that, and as he made his case you'll notice I didn't disparage it.  A few episodes ago, Ceric here played a Microsoft Office game and in the last episode he played Simon, and Donald & I had similar questions then.  I took a little ribbing in this last episode for buying RE6 knowing full well how it reviewed, and no doubt I'll take more when I eventually talk about that game.

I think we're a fairly open-minded group.  We're just messing with each other a bit.   :

[Ceric]

...
Come on. P&F is actually pretty good and some of the song are just brilliant.
...

Agree.

Did you catch the end? Before Stingers.

[Jonnyboy117]

I'm a little behind on NFR but appreciate the shout-outs and discussion of Japanese gaming on this episode.

[Ceric]

Thanks.

[Lithium]

Yeah im watching the west wing (after seeing season 1 of the newsroom) and i definitely get the sense the aaron sorkin just uses his shows as a soap box, although im liking the west wing more so far and i didnt absolutely hate the newsroom like you (i forget who exactly saw it) seemed to. another thing that bugs me is the music direction in his shows, for some reason it comes across as cheesy.