This has got to be my new favorite Podcast. I've got a Kidney infection so my wife is taking care of our son while I lay in bed listening to your podcast. Life is good.

Thanks for saying, and get well soon!

Thanks for the hard work yet again Greggers.

Thanks man, and get well soon!

I think I'm going to buy a case of Corona for this week's podcast.  It's so much more relaxing when I have a beer in my hand.  Although it may make the distinction between first and third-person shooters even blurrier for me.

I beat Shadow Complex already (slightly below 6hr when I first beat the final boss) and have it at something like 96% completion, the problem is that when I triggered the endgame sequence (that self-destructing room that makes the final boss spawn) it removed all the item markers from my map so finding the four remaining items would be really damn hard to do and I'm thinking about just restarting.

BTW, it does have a speedbooster, it's called friction dampener or something. I don't think you can shinespark with it but you can run up walls and stuff.

I just call 'em xPS ever since third person shooters abandoned the lock-on targeting.

Regarding the boss discussion: I feel like Yoshi's Island was a direct response to Super Mario World's (and the entire series') lack of boss variety. Every boss is unique in YI, and several make use of Yoshi's abilities.

It does have some minor bugs. On the plus side, reaching Level 20 reveals all remaining collectibles on your map, so that may be an alternative to starting over. (You'll probably want to start over eventually for a minimalist run or New Game + on the way to Level 50.)

The ending music you added Greg almost brought a tear to my eye, lol...

Also those were some of the best outtakes you guys have had in awhile.

Other than that great discussion as always, if only i owned a 360 to pick up shadow complex.

If you're a fan of the soundtrack in Super Mario World, I recommend checking out this really fun OCRemix of the Castle music, "Turning Terrors" by AeroZ:

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01760/

On bosses, I agree with TYP, and I think Yoshi's Island is the standout in the entire Mario series for boss variety and creativity. Of course, it helped that Yoshi has more native abilities (the butt stomp and eggs especially) than Mario does in SMB3/SMW--meaning that more could be done without having to resort to a power-up specific boss design, for instance--but there's also just more imagination going on in YI. Encounters such as chasing Raphael the Raven around the moon or duelling with giant Baby Bowser from a distance show to me that the development team made the bosses a higher priority for YI than in the Mario games. They're still too easy in a number of cases though.

I played through a portion of Mario World and its just missing its "hook" to me. I can't get into it.

I was already past level 30, in fact I reached 20 before that girl even gave me the map in a cutscene.

More awesome Castle Music here -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7BaTMxbVY

More awesome Castle music here -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVpWUsRocdc

I love retroactive but I don't like when it takes up most the show. With both weeks of retroactive talk it took up about an hour and forty minutes. While listening I just get bored of listening to talk of the same game for so long. I get bored of it after about 20 minutes in an episode. I like the segment but is taking too much of the episode and I don't enjoy the episodes with retroactive nearly as much. Maybe just limit the talk to one episode or two smaller segments.

Just my thoughts!

I'm fine with Retroactive being a major portion of the overall podcast so long as the commentators can continue making interesting conversation about it.  If you get bored listening to it, skip to a later part of the episode or close the file altogether.  I'd only be concerned about the length of Retroactive if the rest of the podcast were forced to be shorter so you guys avoid going over X number of minutes.  New Business is my favorite section, so I'd rather not get something like "well, I've played this, this, and this.  I've love to talk about them, but we need to save our time for the big Retroactive latter on".

I'm still trying to get through this episode, myself.  I keep falling asleep roughly around the middle of the podcast for some reason.

I loved the long Retroactive, it was nice to listen to the crew talk about a game that is actually good that actually, has, well, things to talk about!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. The length of the discussion is related to the game itself, how much we like it, how many forum comments we have, how complex and/or influential the game is, etc. Greg actually edits out some portions for time or pacing, so you're getting a slightly condensed version already. We could probably stand to organize our thoughts better in advance, which would make the conversation go more smoothly and quickly.

Personally if a game has a massive RetroActive segment and it just spirals out of control, i'd quite like having that entire unedited segment split off into an episode of its own. Like Episode 159 R.

I just skip those retro parts...

Or just not listen to the whole thing at once! Problem solved. :)

My problem with the retroactive parts is that you do lose a bit in other segments like reader mail and lose the main feature. I would prefer to have a long retroactive just be in one episode. Not across two episodes.

I am fine with retroactive the way it is now... the only issue i sometimes have is that sometimes on the second week ideas and statements are repeated, making the the second episode feel more repetitive then informational and fun.

The length of the SMW RetroActive segments the past two shows was not the cause of listener mail being reduced or omitted in those cases--among other factors, the first part of the recording ran far longer than expected and put us in a time crunch. So Kraken, if your dislike of RetroActive is premised on its effect on other segments, then I can tell you that you're misdirecting the blame. If, on the other hand, you simply dislike the same game being covered in consecutive weeks, then that's a different matter.

That doesn't fix the fact i want more!

Also peoples remember Greg has to edit these. So let's have a heart OK?  :P

But i also said i wanted an unedited one! :P

::shakes head::

::nods head at a 4 degree angle::

I want more simply because i enjoy the banter and the wild tangents they have. The fact that its unedited will help to maintain the purity of it.

Pretty sure there aren't many listeners particularly interested in hearing Skype disconnections etc., however I'm only being facetious. To an extent I agree, some off-topic banter is appreciated, and the zingers suggest that there is a fair amount there although I'm making a large assumption saying that. I can understand wanting to pare down some bum discussion but I wouldn't want the show to feel too regimented. In the end I feel as long as what's being said or discussed is entertaining or informative (or even both in the case of James' Disaster skit) I am up for listening to pretty well anything.

And yes that's why I sent that listener mail moons ago asking about awkward sexual encounters.

Actually come to think of it I think that question should be revived from the Mailbag next time Karl is on the show as I'm sure he would have some great sex stories - probably some gaming-related ones too!

"Purity" is hardly a word I'd expect to be associated with any of our podcasts.  LOL

HAH!

Honestly, as much as I'd love to further drag RFN down into the gutter some more, I think the boys would probably prefer that my appearances be kept as professional as possible.

But hey, you can always hope.

So Karl, how are those reviews coming along for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and Batallion Wars 2?  ;)

They'll be done for Episode 200. ;)

THOUSAND