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Episode 288: Extra Tinglish

by James Jones, Greg Leahy, Jon Lindemann, and Jonathan Metts - April 22, 2012, 3:51 pm EDT
Total comments: 12

This week on RFN, it's back to games and mail, which taste curiously like meat and potatoes.

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Now that we've cleared out all the crazy PAX stories, it's back to business as usual... New Business, that is! Greg has extensive impressions of Rhythm Thief, the Layton-inspired music adventure game from Sega. After hearing his account, you'll find it even harder to wait until July's American release of this 3DS gem. How does James follow that kind of ringing endorsement? With utter confusion, naturally, as he cracks open Freshly Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, the only Tingle game available in English (via Europe). It is weirder than you could possibly imagine. Jon throws us a curve ball, or whatever's the hockey equivalent, by joining an online NHL '94 league and spending far too much on a Genesis USB controller adapter. But it's safe to say that he'll be better prepared for next year's retro tournament! Jonny completes the segment with Fez, the absolutely befuddling platformer/puzzle game (which is different than a puzzle-platformer!) on XBLA that is also chock full of Nintendo references, from Zelda to Tetris.

Listener Mail returns this week with some of the best letters we've ever had (and there are more waiting in the bag). A devoted fan in the Australian bush wonders whether her spotty Internet will further limit her gaming choices in the new console generation. A young man grieving his lost grandmother asks how we find comfort in video games. Another listener draws parallels between the early days of 3DS and Vita, questioning whether Sony can save its floundering handheld. Finally, a listener we met at PAX East follows up to prod our memories of when we realized that we'd never grow out of gaming.

We'd love to hear from you as well, so please send in your questions and comments! RetroActive is coming up very soon --next week, in fact-- so please check out MotoHeroz on WiiWare (there is a demo) and store your thoughts in the official forum thread. We'll pick some of the best comments and read them on the show. See you next week, when our friend Guillaume from Negative World visits again!

This podcast was edited by Greg Leahy.

Music for this episode of Radio Free Nintendo is used with permission from Jason Ricci & New Blood. You can purchase their newest album, Done with the Devil, directly from the record label, Amazon (CD) (MP3), or iTunes, or call your local record store and ask for it!

Additional music for this episode of Radio Free Nintendo is copyrighted to Nintendo, and is included under fair use protection.

Talkback

Pixelated PixiesApril 22, 2012

Man, I should really get Rhythm Thief. I intended to get it earlier this month but for one reason or another never got 'round to it.

Ryadin91April 22, 2012

Great! I can't wait to listen to this tomorrow diving to school!

NintendoFan123456789April 23, 2012

Another great episode guys!

I also want to thank you for your condolences in regards to my grandma.  I really appreciate it.

It's funny hearing Lindemann talk about going through all that trouble to try and play NHL '94.  My brother and I owned a Sega Genesis and played that constantly (him being the older brother, he always trounced me).  Completely agree with Greg that he's going to get ROFLstomped by people who would go through that much trouble to play it. 

Lindy should record his matches and post them on youtube with live comments while playing.  New NWR segment: Lindy Plays.

EA REALLY needs to bring out Mutant League Football/Hockey, and rerelease them as a downloadable game for XBLA/PSN.  That would be a happy day for me.

EJtheKApril 23, 2012

Thanks for spending some time with my question, gentlemen!


Greg, I too basically cared about just the Bills and Nintendo when I was 6.  It was a major theme of my entire childhood.  They are two healthy things to love (yes, irrationally, I suppose).


Metts, thanks for the insights.  I'm glad to hear your excitement for Zelda juxtaposed with the lack-of your friends' gave you clarity.  :D  That's what happened to me with Wind Waker.


Thanks again guys.  Great show.  Keep it up.

Wilson got a double dose of comfort games responses. We also responded to him on Connectivity this week, which is odd considering Scott and I have been planning that for weeks. It just happened to be the same week you guys tackled it. Very different perspectives, though, that prove that RFN and Connectivity, while very similar, are different. :)  (EDIT: While we recorded the Comfort Games segment this week, it's actually going in next week's show because of the last-minute Nintendo Direct segment.)

Also, oddly enough, the moment when I realized I was never going to grow out of gaming was the Wii launch. I was totally irrationally excited for all that. As I noticed most of my friends taper off from gaming over the year or two after the system's launch (it came out my freshman year of college), I was aware that this was going to be a primarily solo road through keeping up with Nintendo. Then I started writing for NWR and started working/talking with people who were just as crazy about Nintendo as I was.

Chocobo_RiderApril 23, 2012

Great show, fellas.  Here are my responses...

1. Rhythm Thief looks absolutely astounding.  If SEGA's recent shake-ups mean it doesn't come to NA? NinSage is gonna have to choke a 3rd-party developer.

2. I don't miss the bottom screen being used for visuals on the 3DS, as it was more with the DS.  I never liked when, say, videos would play out on both the top and bottom screen and were bisected by the middle of the system.  Then there was always the design choice of whether to cut out the middle of the video and act like there was a natural bar in the way, or to pretend there was no space between the top and bottom screens and get this weird psychological stretching effect.

No, I quite enjoy that 3DS games take a more "organized" approach to the dual screens.  Flashy, dazzling visuals on the bigger, 3D screen and practical, infrastructural, gameplay devices on the bottom screen.

Of course, while I may see sensible organization, one such as Jonny may see stifled creativity... but... that's the wonder of differing perspectives, right?

3.  The totality of Lindy's NHL "saga" just put a smile on my face for the entire time you guys were talking about it.  After a long day of dissertation writing, it really made me thank the universe for little wonders like RFN.

4. The Trent/Beamdog thing was made into a big deal that people will undoubtedly keep bringing up for months (years?) to come.  Yet, in the same week, the equally notable Senile Team has commented on positive experiences with WiiWare and looking forward to future work with Nintendo in the download space.  Yet.... no one seems to care.

EJtheKApril 23, 2012

Neal, hearing your Wii story made me smile. :) I think the Wii launch was when my friends and family knew I would definitely always be 5 years old in this piece of my life.  Like you, I was also in college at the time.  I actually camped out at the local Wal-Mart awaiting the first shipment of Wiis. ...yes, I did sleep and eat there...

Not wanting to miss a college football game, I even paid a friend to hold my place in line at my camp-out while I went to the game.

At first, I was 'the cool kid down the hall that managed to get a Wii.'  Later, as you said, excitement tapered off, and I became 'the goofy kid who lived at Wal-Mart over a weekend to get a video game console.'  However, the magic/excitement never died to me (and a select few friends).

Anyway, thanks for sharing your story as well.  I really enjoy hearing everyone's similar but different tales.  Good to meet you at PAX.  Keep up the good work at NWR.

Erik

My Wii launch story involved camping outside a Target for way longer than I'm proud of. It was a lot of fun, though, as a few friends camped out with me. However, I either lost touch with them or they stopped being as into Nintendo games as me.

NintendoFan123456789April 23, 2012

Quote from: NWR_Neal

Wilson got a double dose of comfort games responses. We also responded to him on Connectivity this week, which is odd considering Scott and I have been planning that for weeks. It just happened to be the same week you guys tackled it. Very different perspectives, though, that prove that RFN and Connectivity, while very similar, are different. :)  (EDIT: While we recorded the Comfort Games segment this week, it's actually going in next week's show because of the last-minute Nintendo Direct segment.)

Quote from: NWR_Neal

I look forward to hearing it!

EJtheKApril 24, 2012

Quote from: NWR_Neal

My Wii launch story involved camping outside a Target for way longer than I'm proud of. It was a lot of fun, though, as a few friends camped out with me. However, I either lost touch with them or they stopped being as into Nintendo games as me.

Haha.  You have to love the camp-outs at discount stores.  They're not a bad place to be if you need essentials.


At Wal-Mart they moved us inside to the garden section.  I'm both proud and not proud to say I have slept on a shelf at Wal-Mart using a bag of peat moss as a pillow.


Good fortune that some of your friends camped out with you.  My friends paid visits, but I spent the nights with random fellow fans I met playing multiplayer DS games.

broodwarsApril 25, 2012

Sony's in a really tough place with the Vita, and honestly outside of reasonably pricing the accessories (the memory cards, especially) I really don't know what they could have done better out of the gate.  That software lineup was well above-average for a system launch, and certainly better than the 3DS's at its launch.  It seems to me that Sony decided that the "console games on the go" niche was the only one they could go after, as the mobile phone/iPad market and Nintendo pretty much own the "bite sized" portable games market (i.e. "portable games made for portables").

I just bought a Vita this past week, and while I have some issues with the interface and Sony's slow implementation of PSP digital backwards compatibility, I've had a really good time with my Vita.  I bought 4 games at launch (Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Lumines Electronic Symphony, Wipeout 2048 , and Escape Plan), and all 4 are excellent in their own ways.  I'd actually argue that Uncharted GA is a better game than Uncharted 3 in most respects, despite some of its touch screen/gyro gimmicks.  The upcoming Resistance: Burning Skies and Gravity Rush look pretty cool as well.

Sony really just needs to get more games out there and fix the Vita's BC and firmware issues, but much like with the 3DS I think the games press is very premature to dismiss the Vita.  It likely won't outsell the 3DS (especially with Japan's obsession with Monster Hunter), but I think it'll be a more than satisfactory system in its own right...just as the PSP was.  But seriously, Sony needs to drop the prices of those memory cards, especially since all Vita games require one and the unit doesn't even come with one.

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