Just our luck that we put this episode out the same day that PSN comes back online.

Hey Neal do you think that the next pokemon game for 3ds will contain special edition pokemon ar cards which will do the same function but with pokemon. Also in battle via multiplayer if me and my friend has the game and a 3ds ( of course )  we can have a poke battle with one ar card. You put the card on the and half of the card will be mine pokemon half will be yours. I select the attack and my pokemon does the attack in real life and beats the bloodsocks out of yours.Her is a pic of what it could look like.

Hey Neal I have few questions to ask you.( can you review the questions on the next ep. to the guys or make this your next topic. I would appreciate if you go over all the questions i will see your answers when i listen to the next ep. on my 3ds )


Do you guys think that in the next update on june 7th will include 3d video recording?


Do you think that nintendo will release a video player?(the same interface as the one included with the first update but, with the abllity to play videos from the sd card.


Do you think that once the eshop release there will be alot of free apps and Do you think nintendo will include alot of free demos of 3ds games. ( pilotwings,nintendogs,etc.) ( the same demos people were playing at nintenod world 2011) ( Also if they were to include lots of demos, since they allready have a demo for this game  would they include Kid Icarus in the eshop?)


Lastly what spotpass ideas do you have for the system in general but mostly for mariokart 3d?
mine is for nintendogs + cats to spotpass your friends.( seems crazy) so if me and my friend both have the game and my friend is online i can send him/her let's say a flying disc and leave a message to them  like " Hey whats up?" and vice versa.


A personal question ( has this happen to your 3ds ? )


I recently seen line scratches on the top screen of my 3ds because of the bottom screen that won't wipe off. I was thinking of sending it to nintendo( but, i'm, worried that i won't get it back in the mail) then buy a screen protector or buy a scatch remover ( displex) and buy a screen protector .  What should i do?


    P.s -To:Zach the 3ds doesn't need a second control stick because of the motion controls miamoto said himself for supermario3d and this might be the case for all first person 3ds games.

Mr. Miller, you are aware that all of the retro tracks in the newer Mario Kart games are bonus tracks, right? They still provide us with 16 new tracks with each new iteration. To the best of my recollection, only twice have we received more than 16 brand new tracks, and that was with the original Super Mario Kart and Super Circuit, which both offered 20.

you're right !

I loved the dismissive sigh during the Mario Kart discussion. :D Speaking personally, though, I prefer that Mario Kart and most other Nintendo games not dramatically alter their formulae. I know it's common to dismiss those Nintendo games that remain the least altered, and if that's an honest opinion then far be it for me to argue, but I actually like it when a great gameplay system is refined rather than altered. Mario Kart DS and Wii are two examples for me: they're not dramatic departures from the original's winning formula, and I love those two games because the underlying gameplay is just fantastic.

Mario Kart Wii rocked my world for several months. noname, I completely agree with you. My main knock against the recent Mario Karts is that Battle mode, which was amazing in Super Mario Kart and still fun in MK64, has been really neutered.

Other than that, Mario Kart Wii sits right next to Brawl in my eyes as "flipping awesome multiplayer game." Outside of unlocking all the characters and karts, which caused me to sink something like 15 hours (wild guess. It has been three years.) into the single-player, I also got very competitive with the multiplayer, both local and online. The online in that game is excellent.

In all honesty, the more I think about Mario Kart Wii, I don't know what I'd want them to change in a future game. Just dress that gameplay in a sundress and I'll be just as crazy about as I was when it was wearing jeans. Making a direct follow-up to Double Dash would be dope, though.

Maybe even a Double Dash Option.

I think there's definitely something to be said for both arguments (refine vs. reinvent) but my main argument in regards to Mario Kart is that the Wii version is polished SO finely that I just don't see a need for another Mario Kart game anytime soon.  They're going to put out a 3DS one, and that will probably look and play very well, and it'll be a nice handheld version of the game, but if they put out another console Mario Kart in 2013, I think that's too soon.  2014 probably too.  They've been iterating on the franchise since the mid 90s, and aside from Double Dash, they've not really ever deviated too much from the formula.  The gameplay in MKWii is directly descended from MK64 through 3 console games and 2 handheld games. 

So any derision of the Mario Kart franchise on my part comes not necessarily from thinking that Mario Kart Wii is lacking, but thinking that any follow up had better damn well do something new or I'm just not interested.  Mario Kart Wii is as finely polished a version of that game than I will ever need or want.  The same goes for Animal Crossing.  The three North American versions of Animal Crossing are 90% identical in content, and that's simply not good enough anymore.  We have definitive versions of these games.  Please, no more until creative ideas, not market demands, require new releases.

You're 100% right on Animal Crossing, but I still come to the same point I got to on the podcast with Mario Kart: What should they do to change it up?

To date, there has been one Mario Kart game per system. I, personally, see no problem with this, especially since each game stands out on its own and had its own new "twist" (twist might be a little arguable)
SNES - The first one
N64 - Multiplayer
GBA - Portablity on par with SNES
GCN - Two per kart, LAN play
DS - Portability on par with N64, online
Wii - Home console online, motorcycles, motion controls

Granted, some of those hooks might mean nothing to you (e.g. motion controls), but I'll stand here and defend Mario Kart as a series that isn't oversaturated, and a 3DS incarnation followed up by the inevitable Cafe incarnation won't overload the series (unless Nintendo goes against type and adds/alters nothing). I mean, it's been more than three years since Mario Kart Wii came out.

I don't own the Wii one because of its cost and I have ExciteBot to fill that itch.  I'm looking forward to the 3DS one because I think this series would benefit from the 3D, I hear the Wii one is so refined, and Mario Kart DS is awesome.

Also Neal a great feature that you should add to Newscast we should have a live stream of the podcast or have a segment called," ask newcast " where while we're live streaming we lets say you guys had a facebook page we would go to your page and post questions and you answer them live.  And maybe on Fridays we could have a " Wii or Ds night" where at a specific time we Battle you guys online in a specific game. For ex. If you wanted to have a conduit 3ds night we would battle you and maybe Zach and Andy. The prize could be like I don't know maybe ," Be a guest on the show from sykpe "

I've never been a fan of Mario Kart. I've always felt it's a series with uninspired tracks, awful controls, and eye-bleeding graphics. Yet somehow, Mario Kart Wii managed to overcome all of that and become my favourite Wii game. It's still got terrible graphics (I haven't seen square hands with no visible fingers since the Nintendo 64 days), but the new tracks are very creative and well-designed, the control is much more fluid and intuitive, and the vehicle and character selection is extensive and top-notch.

So, now that the series is this refined, where does it go from here? Well, Mario Kart Wii still has some issues. For one, the vehicles are terribly imbalanced. There are a select few that are viable in a race, all of which are bikes, that are simply too fast for everything else to catch them even with the items (on most tracks). Secondly, most of the retro tracks are downright terrible, especially with MKWii's much-improved game engine. So half the tracks in the game aren't even very fun. Thirdly, the battle mode was designed for online and has no options in the local portion. There are other points I could get into, such as needing a more robust online mode, but those points are either related to Wii hardware issues or not very relevant.

For these reasons, I don't think we need to see the series take a radically different direction just yet. The next console entry should have an abundance of new tracks (at least 24, but preferably 32), better vehicle, character, and item balance, and tons of gameplay options including things we've seen in past entries (like the double-karts). After we've had a truly definitive version of Mario Kart, then they can bring on the new direction.