Topic: Nintendo Free Radio Episode 16: The First Rule of NFR

[broodwars]

… is that any Virtual Console discussion is too much

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After a heavy round of news (not to mention editing), Nintendo Free Radio is back on the air and ready to pour hot gaming knowledge into your brains. A somewhat abbreviated New Business features Donald tackling two major 2011 games that could not be more different from each other - From Software's vicious RPG/masochism simulator Dark Souls (now without online trolls) and one of the original 3DS killer apps, Super Mario 3D Land. After that, it's a tag team match as Stephen and Austen form a parejas incredible to deal with the explorative platforming action of Guacamelee, both PS3 and Vita versions. Austen wraps with a game that attempts to do to the gaming industry what Airplane! did for disaster movies - does Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard reach its lofty goal, or do we have a Seltzer/Friedberg film on the horizon?

In Whatcha Watchin', the theme this week is superheroes, as Austen and Stephen explore Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Ultimate Spider-Man, while Donald investigates the financial troubles of the Fantastic Four in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy. Look for cameos from the Lannisters, Transformers Prime and Swamp Loggers as well. Yes, really.

The Feature Discussion originally was going to be a recap of the April 17 Nintendo Direct, but one announcement sent the segment spiraling into discussion of the merits of Earthbound and a look at the status of the WiiU after its fifth NPDs (note: This show was recorded before the Nintendo financials and announcement of their non-traditional E3 presentation). We bring it home with Mushrooms ranging from concerts to the end of droughts to the end of an American institution.

We still want to hear from you - who's going to be proven totally wrong about Earthbound? Send your predictions and anything else you want us to tackle to nintendofreeradio@gmail.com or even leave them in the comments here. Until next time, say... FUZZY PICKLES!!

This podcast was edited by Stephen Shook. All music use is covered under fair use provisions.

[broodwars]

Alright, now that the post itself is up, time for some housekeeping:

1. Yes, this episode is incredibly old and we're sorry about that. As it turned out, the recording came out badly and well...lots of **** happened to unavoidably delay it. However dated the Feature Discussion is, the rest of the episode should hold up just fine. We've made some changes in the production process to try to keep further delays to a minimum. "Please Understand".  : : : :   Otherwise, #DealWithIt 

2. Shaymin is working on editing NFR 17, which we recorded about 1.5 weeks ago as of the time of this posting. He's looking at trying to get it out sometime this weekend if things pull together.  Otherwise, you should see it by the following weekend.

3. If the audio on my microphone's been bothering you, starting with NFR 17 I'm using a new microphone that should hopefully be considerably cleaner.  "I hope to make you understand the value" of this microphone.

4.  We are recording NFR 18 with special guest (and forum overlord) Insanolord this weekend. As we will certainly be discussing E3 and the Microsoft reveal, I'm going to be working as hard as I can to get that out just before E3. "Please be excited."

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm looking forward to entertaining you all with talk of games that are over a decade old and/or that you have no interest in whatsoever.

[azeke]

I knew i'm gonna get my four hours Altered Beast discussion.

[broodwars]

I knew i'm gonna get my four hours Altered Beast discussion.

Well, you'll have something almost as good in Ep. 18, but you'll have to wait till Ep. 17's released to find out what it is.  :

[pokepal148]

[Ceric]

That's actually not a bad idea.  I could go pretty long starting with alter beast.

[pokepal148]

if you guys ever decide to do a 103 tribute call me up

[Ceric]

if you guys ever decide to do a 103 tribute call me up

Before NFR I did a 103 Clean cut.  Its somewhere on the forums.

[broodwars]

Housekeeping Update: Due to Health reasons, the NFR 18 recording's been pushed back a week. "Please Understand." We're going to split editing duties on that episode so it can still get out in time for E3. NFR 17 will be released next weekend on Friday night. Until then, enjoy episode 16! 

[pokepal148]

yay, i get mentioned on the podcast

[TJ Spyke]

I haven't listened to this one yet, but I found it funny every time i would get mentioned. I've been mentioned like on 5 episodes.

[broodwars]

I haven't listened to this one yet, but I found it funny every time i would get mentioned. I've been mentioned like on 5 episodes.

Don't worry. The Kombo will continue...

[azeke]

As always i'm only responding to offtopic stuff, cause i don't have any reaction to "doomed Thanks Iwata" stuff.

Stranger than fiction is the only good Will Ferrell movie i've seen. Don't feel the need to watch Anchorman

Batman The Brave and the Bold gets really, really good after mid season finale. And becomes completely amazing in season 2. "Chill of the Night" easily beats anything DCAU at "being dark", except for select STAS episodes.

Music Meister is not underrated Batman villain because he was invented for the show.

Also lots of great stuff like these:



"The Batman" got extremely good in season 4, where Alan Burnett took over. But that's about it. Intro was amazing in seasons 1 and 2 though.

Watch Teen Titans only if intro is in english. If it's in japanese -- skip. Characters story arcs are pretty good.

USM is so shitty, it's not even worth discussing. And so is Young Justice

90s Spider-Man is okay, but Spectacular is simply much better at everything.

On GoT, i SO psyched for next episode because THE most enraging event in entire series happens in it. Oh my, can't wait to read impressions of people who didn't read the books in the morning 3rd of July. Almost as psyched for it as for E3.

On Disney ditching 2d. It's sad of course, but at least main Disney's movies are getting better and better. You may say Lasseter is not doing much better than Iger but he IS releasing movies that were stuck in development for decades and somehow, makes them good (Wreck it Ralph, Tangled).

Technique like the one used in Paperman will not save 2d, it's actually a way to kill it even faster and reduce people needed in animation team.

I can see 2d moving to crowdfounding because big companies can't justify budgets and especially excruciatingly long development cycles that are required for hand-drawn animation any more.

Oh and about Disney's animated TV shows for every Gravity Falls and Phineas and Ferb they have dozens of mediorce shows and USM and animated Marvel in general which they seems to want to run even further into the ground.

[broodwars]

Well, I personally think The Batman turned the corner at the end of Season 1 when they introduced their take on Clayface, but I think it was a fairly consistently entertaining show.  Most importantly, though, it was a Batman show, unlike Brave & the Bold (where the focus is on the guest stars).  You won't get any disagreement from me, though, that Season 4 was its best season.  I remember the show having some just amazing animation.  I may end up rewatching that show for NFR sometime in the near future, because I haven't watched it years.

I'm trying to give Brave and the Bold a chance, but it's just not clicking with me.

As for Teen Titans, some of my favorite episodes used the Japanese version of the intro, in particular the 1st Control Freak episode and the episode where Robin's forced to take Killer Moth's daughter to the prom. I may end up rewatching this show as well someday for NFR, as I last watched The Batman and Teen Titans when they were released together on DVD.

[Ceric]

I don't remember the animation being that great in The Batman.  Not bad but not spectacular.

I am surprised at how negative we must sound being positive.

[broodwars]

I don't remember the animation being that great in The Batman.  Not bad but not spectacular.

I am surprised at how negative we must sound being positive.

As is typical of animated series, the animation quality varied from episode to episode, but it had some pretty high points in Seasons 3-4 from what I remember. Like I said, it's been a while. Sadly, I think The Last Airbender and Legend of Korea are about as close as we're going to get to the glory days of TMS in 2D Western Animated series.

And, incidentally, I FAR prefer the original The Barman intro to that...thing that replaced it in Season 3. Ugh.