Topic: Episode 454: Mobile Sidejob

[NWR_Lindy]

This is a very serious conversation about "microtransactions."

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/41549/episode-454-mobile-sidejob

It's the first full episode with the full cast for a while. With the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday in the States, and NWR's telethon, it's also going to be the last for a couple of weeks.

James kicks off New Business with Level-5's most insidious transmedia property: Yo-Kai Watch! After inoculating himself with doses of Inazuma Eleven and Little Battler eXperience, he is immune to Level-5's siren call. It turns out a mutation responsible for a coin purse that leads people to spend recklessly rendered his immunizations ineffective. Jon has a report on Halo 5, starring Master Chief, Smash Bros. next DLC character. Guillaume states what should be obvious: Snoopy's Grand Adventure (3DS), Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX (Wii U Virtual Console), and Rodea the Sky Soldier (Wii) are less than fantastic games. The plus: Octodad: Dadliest Catch is silly fun. Greg concludes New Business with a different kind of transmedia property: Capcom's Gaist Crusher on 3DS. An anime, a manga series, two games, and Treasure's legacy couldn't save this attempt to out-Level-5 Level-5.

After a break, it's time for listener mail. Jon dips out after a question about "shoehorning" Nintendo franchises into mobile, while the rest of the team continues to answer a question about how and why the 3DS library seems to be backloaded with RPGs. You can ask us about our backload by sending us an email.

Just a reminder, Nintendo World Report is thrilled to be doing the sixth annual telethon/live podcast for Child's Play charity. Jon and James will be opening the show on Saturday, December 5, at 11:30 AM EST with a LIVE NOW PLAYING, with NWR Site Director Neal Ronaghan on hand but unable to stop it. At noon Eastern, RFN will have an hour of listener interaction. Later in the afternoon, Jon and James are putting on their business suits for a segment that you...may want to miss. Lastly, if we reach our donation goal, we promise we will cap off the day with a Shenanigans segment that will put Red Velvet to shame. Don't know about Red Velvet? We envy you. We love the telethon, because it's our opportunity to interact with you and, most importantly, we get to help a good cause. We hope you'll be able to join us.

[TOPHATANT123]

A kusoge protege? Couldn't have put it better myself. Start 'em co-reviewing rushed sports games and before you know it they are reviewing the next Cutie Pets Pick Berries.

Shoehorned Mobile Brainstorm
1. Donkey Konga
2. Wario Ware: Snapped
3. Tube Slider

I think Nintendo knows what they are doing in terms of mobile, Badge Arcade is a ruthless piece of software. That bunny is written so perfectly, he's doesn't come across as overbearing with his cutesy charm but pushes an incredibly hard sell.

No mobile game will excite me. Due to the nature of them there will always have to be compromises. Even games that are designed for touchscreen and have no free to play elements, like say Ghost Trick; incredible game, but whenever the operating system updates there is a 50/50 chance the game will just not work anymore where Capcom has zero obligation to fix it and you can't get a refund.

In terms of RPGs though end of 2013 was like half way into it's life, very early in it's life in the west it was mostly ports like Overclocked, Soul Hackers and Tales of the Abyss. It's just that RPGs are expected to have a large amount of content/text and it takes a long time to make this content/translate it.

If Nintendo tries to add american voice acting to #FE I don't think anyone will thank them. Not the fans, not the voice actors, certainly not the person working the bank books. Just bring it over ASAP before the Wii U dies.

[Enner]

Good show.


The current vibe of the most popular mobile games is that they are trifles, distractions. I think Nintendo will play in to that spirit rather than resist it with more-involving games. As TOPHATANT123 demonstrated above, I would expect light, breezy action from Nintendo's smart device games.


GIR#FE English localization has me a bit worried. Contracts are strict in Japan, with music-related ones being the messiest. I hope Nintendo and Atlus had the foresight to negotiate stipulations for worldwide release for all the voice acting and singing they are making.


As for English voice overs, I hope Nintendo gets a good shot at it. While I doubt they will localize the songs (poor track record with anime dubs on that), it would be nice to have a good English dub of GIR#FE. Persona 4 has shown you can dub a script steeped in Japanese culture to the love of fans.

[TOPHATANT123]

I do actually like Wario Ware Snapped when it works, it was just, I dunno... ahead of it's time?

[Crimm]

In my old apartment the lighting made it so Snapped would literally never work ever. I haven't tried it since I moved into the house but the Fatal Frame spin-off was not a successful process.

[KDR_11k]

So Greg even has Dragon Booster or whatever it's called, that shitty dragon racing game by Treasure?

[Yoshidious]

I mentioned on a recent episode that I acquired a new condition copy of Dragon Drive: D-Masters Shot on GameCube for a tenner (it's still sealed, and it'll probably stay that way indefinitely). According to Ty's review, it's a not-very-good 3D shooter as opposed to a shitty racing game, but I'm not in a rush to play it in any event.


http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/4123/dragon-drive-gamecube

[Lemonade]

I played through the Halo 5 campaign on easy (yeah, Im one of those gamers) and I didnt find the AI team mates to be a problem at all.

But now that I think about it a bit more, maybe I was doing all the work without noticing.
There was only one time when they failed to revive me.

[Shaymin]

I'll second the concerns about RPG burnout, especially since I went from reviewing one RPG to another immediately. That's not to say they're not great games (lord knows I loved Stella Glow) but I'm wondering what effect it's going to have on my impressions that I played one for 31 out of a possible 52 hours this weekend.

And the mobile franchises should be Metroid, Ice Climbers and Mach Rider.

[Neifirst]

I'll second the concerns about RPG burnout, especially since I went from reviewing one RPG to another immediately. That's not to say they're not great games (lord knows I loved Stella Glow) but I'm wondering what effect it's going to have on my impressions that I played one for 31 out of a possible 52 hours this weekend.

And the mobile franchises should be Metroid, Ice Climbers and Mach Rider.

I'm very curious as to how Xenoblade Chronicles X is going to get reviewed considering how enormous it is.  I've already got my eshop version downloaded, and the special edition & strategy guide on the pre-ordered, so clearly scores are not going to persuade me either way - but it seems to me that it's an experience that should be savored over many weeks and months.  I guess most reviewers will have had the game for upwards of 3 weeks before release, so that's better than nothing, I suppose.

[Disco Stu]

I was very happy to hear those creepy synthesizer vocals from Pilotwings at the end of the show  .

[Crimm]

RPG burnout is real. I went Legend of Legacy to Yo-Kai! to TO BE ANNOUNCED to Xenoblade Chronicles X

[NWR_Lindy]

I played through the Halo 5 campaign on easy (yeah, Im one of those gamers) and I didnt find the AI team mates to be a problem at all.

But now that I think about it a bit more, maybe I was doing all the work without noticing.
There was only one time when they failed to revive me.

Yep, that's because you played through on Easy, where the enemy shots aren't powerful enough to one-shot anything. Give one level a shot on Legendary and you'll see exactly what I mean.