I am actually stuck in Super Mario Galaxy 2 where I have to complete a bunch of time trials and races to get stars and beat world 4. I am also stuck in the chain chomp factory where Mario must put on a spring suit and make it across the level without running into wrolling chain chomps. This level is literally making me tear my hair out.

If Nintendo does a third installment of this series, I wish that they would make these trials optional, or something on the side where you are not constrained by your inability to complete them. Basically where I am at in the game I am stuck there until I complete these trials. This takes me away from the game itself and is really frustrating.

Overall, this is one of the best games that I have ever played and Nintendo was on their A game(no pun intended) when producing this title.

Could the online capabilities of the 3DS accomodate something like an MMO? This might sound dumb, but I like the idea of taking something like Final Fantasy 11 or Star Wars: The Old Republic on the go.

You mean "figuratively", Robin. ;)

This may well be possible, but we won't know until at least the September announcement with final hardware features, pricing, and a release date for Japan. I agree that a true portable MMO makes sense and would seem to be one of the most obvious untapped areas in all of gaming right now.

Bioware has recently expressed interest in treating the 3DS like the PS360 if the internet connectivity is good enough. I really like Bioware games, but I would really like them better on the go. This is why I like Sonic Chronicles so much.

I read an article recently where an interview was conducted with Greg Zeschuck of Bioware and he basically stated that his company is ready to develop heavily for the 3DS if the internet connectivity is good. This has got me thinking of a portable Mass Effect game where DLC is administered via wi-fi hot spots. It seems all the major HD franchises are getting handheld titles and I would rather see this happen to the 3DS than the PSP or the PSP 2.

How would a portable MMO work? I agree with you that this type of market has not really been viable in the past and we might be seeing the birth of a new form of game play.

I know that I am out of mind for saying this, but since Microsoft  is not in the handheld market yet maybe they could allow 3DS iterations of Halo, Perfect Dark, Crack Down, Fable, Gears of War and maybe Conker with heavy emphasis on both gameplay and portable internet connectivity.

You might ask why do I want them on 3DS when I can just buy an xbox? Yes, i could buy and xbox, but I want these series on the go with the 3DS.

The Timesplitters Series, or at least numbers 2 and 3, had the play descriptions at the end of the game as well, such as "Most Dishonorable," and "Most Accurate," as well as your most used gun. FYI.

That makes sense in Timesplitters (made by some of the same people as Goldeneye and Perfect Dark).


By the way, if you haven't become a fan of RFN on Facebook, now it's even easier...


http://www.facebook.com/RadioFreeNintendo


SHORT URL GET!

Gotcha Force <3

Was this done before the live action Metroid Other M trailer/comercial came out? Curious as to what the RFN crew thinks about it.

Unsure. We recorded Thursday evening, so if they were out before that then there you go.

Title = Ha.
Physics is fun!

I was really annoyed when I found out that Brawl didn't give out titles.

The way Chou Soujuu Mecha MG is structured with the multiple difficulties that encourage coming back later when you got better gear is standard for Sandlot, they do that in the EDF games and Zangeki as well. Oh and it might be worth mentioning that some levels take place in a city with buildings everywhere that you can pick up and use as a weapon. There's a translation guide on GameFAQs that helps with figuring out some of the less obvious mission goals and explains all the upgrade modules.

@James

Definitely get Monday Night Combat. After just one week it's easily my favorite XBLA game that's not Geometry Wars 2. I'm trying to talk all my friends into buying it so I have people to play co-op with.

Good show. I particularly enjoyed the discussion on closure and endings in video games.


As for Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor (2010) being a retail bomb or disappointment, I'm betting that it will sell well enough for EA. For one thing, EA will dump most of its marketing budget on it. Being that weird subsect of video game players that really like all these new military-themed shooters, Medal of Honor is doing some interesting things despite copying the Call-of-Duty formula. The PR buzz word on the game is that it will be more authentic than CoD (rather than being more realistic) which I guess it's allowed to say given how hard EA is promoting their consultation efforts with special forces that served in Afghanistan. On the technical side, there are more robust (well, to my lack of knowledge in the area) engines being used in MoH with the single player using Unreal 3 and multiplayer using EA DICE's Frostbite. Comparatively, Black Ops looks like it's still using a modified id Tech engine (Nothing wrong with that if World at War and Modern Warfare 2 is any indication). I do wonder if the two engine shenanigans will be to MoH's undoing. We'll see how things turn out in October and November. I for sure won't contribute to either MoH or Black Ops since they will be $60 new on the PC which is a price I'm not willing to buy. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 does fine by me and there will be the Vietnam expansion rolling out (hopefully for PC). Also, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit comes first!


On the Wii side of things, I didn't notice the upcoming FPS free-for-all coming this year with Call of Duty: Black Ops, Goldeneye 007, and Conduit 2. I wonder if Goldeneye will take the sales lead just on brand familiarity and nostalgia. It looks like Conduit 2 will probably be the one to bring up the NPD rear in this shoot out.

"Time-Derivative of Gotcha Momentum" is more general but didn't seem as catchy.

That only works when the disc isn't spinning :P:

Bah, you never said linear, and here I was thinking I was being clever.  Time-derivative of Gotcha Momentum even covers the spinning disc.

Nice to see a shout out for Gotcha force, love that game!

If the 3DS does have the ability to play movies, Nintendo should allow the movie Avatar to be advertised along with the 3DS and its movie player to symbolize that the first 3D movie is playable on the first true 3D console.

That would work were it true, but Avatar wasn't the first 3d movie.

The first high profile, big budgeted 3D movie.

What I meant was that Avatar was a ground breaking film in regards to 3D and there is no doubt that the 3DS will be a success with 3D gaming. Why not pare the two together? They seem like the perfect couple, right?

@ Kytim I knew what you meant, I was just giving you a hard time. My apologies  ;D

I am doubtful that Nintendo will distribute these digitally, despite the general feeling that they will. Don't get me wrong, I truly hope they do release them digitally, but one never knows what will spur Nintendo towards doing or not doing something.

I can see Nintendo getting nervous about piracy, and choosing cartridges as the "safer" medium, regardless if this is true.

I can also see studios wanting Nintendo to give them shelf space. Sony continues to sell physical UMDs with movies despite the fact that movies can also be purchased through the Playstation Store, perhaps for similar reasons. Although movies for PSP via the Playstation Store may be a recent thing, I am not sure.

Nintendo wants it to be easy to enjoy their products, and while a digital download may seem intuitive to us, it sure isn't to everyone that will be buying the 3ds or 3ds software. Nintendo may also reason that some of their customers may not have access to downloads, seeing as they continue to support wifi spots at Targets, Best Buys, GameStops, etc.

Nintendo also goes for that Christmas morning customer base, and who wants to get a download card under the tree? Well, besides us.

Doesn't Nintendo have a movie channel or something like that in Japan?

Yes, and it is called "Wii no ma." There were rumors that it was coming to America, but from what I have seen of it, it does not look very impressive.

I think streaming video services and selling individual movies for anytime access are two different beasts. That being said, Netflix on the 3ds would be great.

I just want to have the ability to buy and save movies onto my 3DS internal/SD card memory and then watch it on the go.

The problem with selling movies on game cards is that they will compete with actual games for shelf space. This was a HUGE problem for PSP movies and that, combined with consumer confusion about the format, led to the format's demise. Using physical media also means the movies cost a lot more to distribute, so the final price will be higher. Despite the appeal of 3D, most people would not be willing to buy a movie that only plays on 3DS, for the same price as a DVD or Blu-Ray. And by the way, DVD sales are plummeting (Blu-Ray sales have never been huge), so there is evidence that people just don't want to buy physical movies anymore. There are too many alternatives that cost less and offer easier access.

I think a big part of UMD's demise as a move format was that it would usually be more expensive than the DVD versions while also usually lacking most of the special features. Unless you really wanted to watch the movie on the go (and didn't want to carry around a portable DVD player), then there was zero reason to buy the UMD version. Get the DVD version for less money and have more special features.

DVD sales are declining, but I wouldn't say plummeting.

I'd appreciate it if Nintendo offered LEs for their games, if only because it would probably be the only way we'd ever get things like soundtracks (since it's pretty obvious at this point we'll never see them in Club Nintendo).

I have similar issues with game closure that you have, Jonny.  Especially with RPGs, I find that after about 20 hours or so I feel like putting them down and moving on to something a little more fast-paced, and then I have a lot of trouble going back to the game.  I loved Tales of Vesperia and enjoyed Sakura Wars 5 (for example), but somehow I just can't bring myself to go back and finish them when I have so many other games I could be playing. It's funny, really...replay value somehow still factors in greatly with my interest in purchasing games, yet I have trouble even getting myself to finish many of them once.

I have come to place little or no importance on the concept of "replay value" for that exact reason.

Those same problems would almost certainly apply to cartridge-based 3DS movies as well. The physical medium has less storage and is more expensive than discs.

What I was talking about was similar to what the iphone does with movies. You would buy the movies from a 3DS app store or Netflix, download the movie and save it onto the internal memory of the 3DS and access it any time you want to watch the movie. How would this cost compared to physical media such as discs and cartridges? It would seem that downloading the movies would not only be cheap, but also quick and easy on Nintendo's part and we all know how they love quick and easy and especielly cheapness.

You guys are just deluding yourselves with thoughts of a comprehensive online store with feed updates and digitally distributed movies. This is Nintendo we're talking about, in conjunction with the movie industry. Both of these parties historically prefer physical media for the (appearance of) stronger anti-piracy. I only see digital distribution of movies happening if Ninty teams up with Netflix. I give it an 80% chance movies are only distributed on 3DS cards, at least initially.

I know neither Nintendo nor the movie industry are generally very logical, but people pirating a movie with the resolution of the 3DS that people only want because it's in 3D, which can't be done on anything else but bleeding edge TVs, doesn't seem like something that would be a problem.

@ TYP

Well, at least someone agrees with my doubts:

Everyone that has posted has pointed out genuine problems with selling movies in physical form, but we are forgetting who we are talking about here.

As I said before, difital distribution is way cheaper and more return on investment than physical media. Also, Nintendo would most likely make it where you can not open up the 3DS shell and there can not pirate the software.

I hate to be the guy who always complains, but I have two things I'd like to say.

First, why is there exclusive content on the RFN Facebook page?  You guys have your own website--use it to its full potential.  I don't care if content is duplicated there, but can we avoid pictures, posts, etc. that are only available on Facebook?

Second, the plugs for Radio Trivia are great--more people need to listen to it because it's fantastic--but you stop teasing the new podcast by giving away which games are played?  I probably could have gotten Zelda II on my own but now I'll never know because as soon as I hear some 8-bit music I'll know the answer.

Actually, Vudu, the teasing of a game selection was a request on my part in the hopes that RFN listeners who don't listen to Radio Trivia might be interested in hearing music/discussion of that revealed game, and then check out that Radio Trivia episode. The RFN episode plug intentionally comes out about a week after the Radio Trivia episode goes live--the idea is that regular Radio Trivia listeners would/should have already listened to the most recent Radio Trivia episode.

TYP, have you considered making a facebook page for Radio Trivia like the one for RFN?  I've been posting links to some of the episodes, but be willing to suggest it to friends.

I've normally listened to the latest Radio Trivia episode before the game selection is revealed on RFN; I haven't been spoiled yet!  Mostly because I listen to podcasts when I run or work out, and RT is usually pretty great for running.

As far as the facebook site, I certainly don't know what future plans the hosts have, but it's not like they have a whole lot of exclusive content there.  After all, I'm sure that the goal is to provide content that would attract people to the show and NWR in general, not the other way around.

As far as the digital distribution discussion goes, I don't see Nintendo embracing it at the outset, either.  Like it or not, the demographic that prefers digital distribution still makes up a minority of Nintendo's target audience.  A lot of the consumers are still parents (or others) who will still prefer to purchase something tangible, so that they can give it to their children as a gift.  Just because I hate the clutter that collecting generates, I generally prefer getting stuff digitally, but it's still a difficult mental/psychological barrier for my family to overcome.  Even my wife doesn't prefer giving me a digital copies games or movies.    ...and to be honest, if I were to give a movie or a game to my (almost) 3 year old, it's going to be in the form of a disc.

It's official. I need to start mailing all the crappy games to James just so I can get so closure by listening to RFN. :)

Aw, now I got to the point where James complained about me taking so long to mail Jam with the Band... and now I feel bad.

I think that game might have been infected by Monkey Madness.