James will probably die bathed in the warm light of his XL.

Nice one. You pulled off a healthy discussion on Yoshi's Story and covered the highs and lows quite well. I had fun playing through it, but yeah, there are inconsistencies with the design and the difficulty like you said. It says a lot of how far they've come that Kirby's Epic Yarn, which could be argued as being inspired by this game, is receiving such glowing reviews in spite of its apparent easiness. Must have some truly top-of-the-line level design in there to be overcome the extremely forgiving nature of the game, something which Yoshi's Story is not as successful in.

I really don't understand the complaint that Castlevania: LOS is "too long" outside of the obnoxious Chupacabra sections, which really didn't need to be there and serve no purpose.  If the game keeps you consistently engaged (as it did with me), does it really matter if the game is 6 hours or 20?  And, frankly, most people who say this game is "not very Castlevania-y" haven't played beyond the first 1/3 of the game, which is very Lord of the Rings-ish (though I still enjoyed it).  Unfortunately, the game does have a terrible demo that doesn't highlight anything about the game except magic-less combat, which makes it look like a God of War ripoff.  I'm glad to see that Greg is enjoying the game, though.  It's one of the more enjoyable games I've played this year, and it's one that I think is getting a lot of unfair criticism for what it's NOT (yet another cookie-cutter Metroidvania) rather than what it IS (a blend of light exploration and combat mixed with a gothic horror/fantasy setting and creatures).  I'm especially a big fan of the soundtrack, though I do agree with Greg that it did need more tracks.  The one appearance of "Vampire Killer" in the soundtrack is also conspicuously missing from the OST.  Speaking of which, I would have really enjoyed an orchestral arrangement of that song.  Maybe we'll hear that in Lords of Shadow 2, which was just recently leaked.

Hah, it's hilarious that TYP believes the Yoshi's are singing "Be Careful..", too! I use to think that exact same thing as a teenager when this game first debuted. I lol'd when I heard him say that. :P

So the alternative to the kid look of Yoshi's Island would have been pre-rendered? I didn't like the kid style much but pre-rendered is even worse (I hated DKC's graphics even back when it came out).

Jonny, couldnt agree more on Sonic games.  Everything just seems to be at odds with each other.  Plowing through a level at full speed just doesn't feel right to me for some reason.

You guys aren't the only ones... >_>

Huzzah! I'm not insane after all, then!

You are not alone, Mike. I heared the same thing when I played the game.

James is cracking me up on this episode with his constant one-liners. Sometimes I didn't laugh on the recording because my Skype connection was fuzzy that night, but the delayed reactions are just as good.

Okay, but if you guys start to hear the Yoshis sing anything else, the rest of us will start to get concerned. :)


I wanted to participate in this retroactive, but RL kind of conspired against me...  It's just as well because I was also terribly disappointed in Yoshi's Story the first time around, particularly since I loved Yoshi's Island.  :(  I'm glad I just rented it back in the day.

I'm still disappointed that Yoshi's Island has never showed up on Virtual Console.

I fully expect a 3D-enhanced version of Yoshi's Island to appear on 3DS. That game had lots of foreground and background effects that would make the game an appealing choice for such an enhanced release.

Weeemeemmmber, weeemeember, be caaaweeeful. (That's what I hear)

TYP, once you hear "be careful", you can't un-hear it. Thanks for that.

I just heard "EEEE-AAAYYYY-OOOOOOOH." Gobblygook.

And Jonny, you don't ride the giant Cheep-Cheep--you avoid it at the risk of death. It's in one of the jungle stages. It's in one of the sky stages where you ride Falcor (the lucky dragon from "Neverending Story").

Falcor? Is that what he's called in English? He's Fuchur here but I guess you Americans would butcher that name to no end.

My RFN legacy.

Zach is correct, they are singing IIII EEEEEEee OOOOOO (Japanese reading), but the human brain is so desperate to make sense of what it...senses.... BE CAREFUL!