Topic: Episode 42: To the Rhythm of the Beat

[NdIGiTy]

Pikmin 3, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, and Game & Watch on this week's show!

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/connectivity/31060

Connectivity returns this week with episode 42, featuring the past, present, and future of Nintendo-related content.

Kicking things off is the final installment in our Pikmin series, focusing this week on Pikmin 3. Join JP, Andy, and Carmine as they discuss what we know and what they hope is on the horizon for the Wii U launch title. If you can believe it, they even flirt with the idea of Pikmin 4, too.

After that, Nicholas returns with another entry in his award winning* N-Focus series. This week's segment is all about the history of Game & Watch.

Lastly, Neal, Scott, Danny, and Nate sit down to talk about their latest obsession - Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. If you are on the fence about this game, this segment should definitely win you over. And if you already have the game, well, you probably aren't listening to this because you are too busy playing.

As always, you can click here to send us listener mail. Let us know what you thought about the three week long Pikmin series. If a big hit, we may just start doing more of those. Oh, and on a personal note, I (Scott) have now officially been with Nintendo World Report for one year. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who listened, commented, emailed, tweeted me, and everything else. I can't put into words how amazing it is to be doing this show for such an excellent audience. Thanks for everything. See you next week.

*Winner of the 2012 "Boner Jam" award, presented by Scott Thompson.

00:00:00 Intro

00:00:59 Pikmin 3

00:23:48 N-Focus: Game & Watch

00:30:51 Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

01:08:34 Outro

[Disco Stu]

As someone who doesn't have much nostalgia for the Final Fantasy series I will never buy Theatrhythm, so I can't wait for more of the staff to get Rhythm Thief.  It's a great game well worth discussing.


I bought the Wii Pikmin 2 a couple of months ago as my FIRST Pikmin game.  Guess what?  I love it.  So much.  Beating that game has made me so so excited for Pikmin 3 on Wii U.  Basically I got Luigi's Mansion at GC launch and, not being in a financial position to get the first Pikmin game (I was a high school freshman) I just never got around to the Pikmin games.  I actually like the Wii play controls so much, I can hardly imagine how it played with Gamecube controls.

[geo]

Once again, thank you so much for the timestamps.  This is great for your podcast since you have so many different topics.

[Ceric]

Its been a while since I've listened.  (because I need to manually download it)  Though its nice to see things haven't changed.  The AAC is a .mp3 instead of a .m4a

[oksoda]

Huh? Downloaded directly from the site? It shouldn't be...

[Ceric]

Just finished it up.  NOt a bad episode.

Anyway, Yeah its a little weird when I hover over it it says .m4a but when I right click and save it is .mp3 but, still in .m4a format internally.  That is strange.

[broodwars]

I'm surprised that in the discussion of Theatrhythm, I don't think anyone brought up how somewhat lacking and random the track listing is.  Granted, I haven't heard all the tracks yet because the Final Fantasy 4 battle theme is currently kicking my ass in the Chaos Shrine (I do alright until the very end of the song, when it just dissolves into 5 seconds of rapid holds, taps, and swipes that wipes out my HP in moments), but there are some very notable songs that aren't even available as DLC in Japan, such as Liberi Fatali from FF 8 (you know, the one song just about everyone knows from FF8, even more than Eyes on Me). But considering that it doesn't sound like this crew has much experience with the post-7 FF games, maybe you just didn't have the experience with the games to know what was missing.

I haven't played Theatrhythm with headphones on yet, but the post-FF7 songs seem to have some sound issues, as if they play at a volume level beyond the 3DS speaker's limit.  FF 13's songs in particular seem to have major playback issues with the 3DS speakers.

[NWR_Neal]

Honestly, I have zero complaints with Theatrhythm's song list.
And I've played FFVIII.

You're entitled to your opinion, but I don't feel shortchanged by the songs at all. I just wish more of them were used in Chaos Shrine.

[NWR_insanolord]

To the question of what other games could be given the Theatrhythm treatment, I would kill for a Zelda version. This game sounds cool, but I've never really played any of the games, except FF1.

[broodwars]

Yeah, being at that Zelda concert on Saturday really hit it home for me, but Zelda's really the only other single franchise that can match the scope of music for another Theatrhythm game.  I'd love to see a general Square-Enix Theathrhythm that takes music from the likes of Ogre Battle, Lufia, the Chrono series, etc., though.

[Ceric]

Mario could do it.  You just have to reach out of mainline. 

To the question of what other games could be given the Theatrhythm treatment, I would kill for a Zelda version. This game sounds cool, but I've never really played any of the games, except FF1.

If you like Rythm games and Orchestrated music.  Then get the game.  People are putting to much emphasis on the Final Fantasy aspect.  Its a draw for some people but if it didn't have it this would still be a good game.

[oksoda]

How about a Pokemon Theatrhythm game? That would be awesome. You have to play the battle song well to capture Pokemon. The higher the level or rarer the Pokemon, the harder the difficulty is. Using a Pokemon that is super effective will increase damage and ease the difficulty.

Excuse my boner.

[Ceric]

How about a Pokemon Theatrhythm game? That would be awesome. You have to play the battle song well to capture Pokemon. The higher the level or rarer the Pokemon, the harder the difficulty is. Using a Pokemon that is super effective will increase damage and ease the difficulty.

Excuse my boner.

Except Pokemon Stadium 1 still has some of the best rendition of Pokemon Music.  It could definetly work.  Shoot you could still do Event, Field, and Battle.  Still have a party structure.  Still have items and abilities.  I wouldn't require much tweaking at all to fit.

[TJ Spyke]

I love the Pokemon games, but I never really cared for the music. Some of the tracks were good, but I thought the majority were "meh".

[NWR_insanolord]

I almost never play handhelds with sound on, so I don't think I'd be able to recognize Pokemon music if I heard it.

[TJ Spyke]

Same here (I played Red with the music on though), but I have heard a lot of them through other games like the Smash Bros. series.

[Kairon]

To the question of what other games could be given the Theatrhythm treatment, I would kill for a Zelda version. This game sounds cool, but I've never really played any of the games, except FF1.

I could totally see a Mario game given a similar treatment with jumps and enemy kills and secret zones being the in-game abstractions of your rhythm hits or misses.

[noname2200]

As someone who doesn't have much nostalgia for the Final Fantasy series I will never buy Theatrhythm, so I can't wait for more of the staff to get Rhythm Thief.  It's a great game well worth discussing.

My opinion might be a bit biased because I do love the music from the series, but having played both I think Theatrythm is just the better game overall. They're definitely different enough to justify picking them both up.