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Episode 331: Maskerade

by James Jones, Jonathan Metts, and Guillaume Veillette - March 30, 2013, 9:21 pm EDT
Total comments: 14

Everyone knows that a power trio is the purest form of rock and roll.

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Jon is still dealing with his cross-country move, so it's just three of us this week as we blast through some hot new releases, games in and around PAX, and a choice selection of Listener Mail.

James goes first, because he's been playing the very newest game around -- Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon! It's a nice group discussion, since all of us have been working through it this week. Gui continues with another exciting new game, Lego City Undercover. Even though it's not as funny as he'd hoped, our editor really likes this long-awaited Wii U release. Jonny uses his turn to cover half a dozen upcoming games from PAX East (use the handy links on the right side of this page to learn more about them). With the remaining time for this segment, we return to Guillaume for some serious Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2 love, even though certain things drive him nuts (and leave the other guys confounded altogether).

In Listener Mail, we start with a show-stopper: Which is better, Mega Man 2 or 3? Other topics include the possibility of a virtual reality accessory for Wii U and the practice of reusing elements across multiple games from the same developer. As always, we'd love to hear from you too! Another quick programming note: since we needed more time to play Ys Book II, the conclusion to RetroActive was pushed to next episode. There may still be time to leave your comment in the official forum thread and get it read on the podcast!

Also, if you want to hear more stories and impressions from James, Gui, Jonny, and many other NWR staff at PAX East, be sure to check out the latest episode of our sister podcast, NWR Connectivity.

This podcast was edited by Guillaume Veillette.

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

Johnathon LovelessMarch 31, 2013

While you are vacuuming ghosts, to dodge objects, or melee attacks, just press (B) and Luigi does a jump, and your won't have to let go. However you do lose your charge from pulling away from the ghost.

Thanks, that does help! Maybe the game should point it out sometime.

Kytim89April 01, 2013

Here's the scene from Dirty Harry:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xjr2hnOHiM

FjurbanskiApril 01, 2013

Quote from: Jonnyboy117

Thanks, that does help! Maybe the game should point it out sometime.

I'm pretty sure the game mentions it at least once. But it is sort of in passing as if it's not very important. Either that or I was skipping text quickly.


And I really have to agree with you guys about the strange choices they made when it came to the game's portability. It's not a very portable game at all.


I had a lot of fun with it, but I think it should have been on the Wii U and less disconnected.

Pixelated PixiesApril 01, 2013

I had no idea there was dodge or jump button. I can't tell if I'm just really stupid or if the game did a really poor job of highlighting it's existence.

ejamerApril 01, 2013

Great discussion on Luigi's Mansion. Sounds like a solid game, but also not a game I want at full price (or maybe at all) because of the way they've stripped down the overall experience to fit "handheld expectations".



One of my biggest gaming disappointments last year was Fluidity Spin Cycle - the compact levels and complete death of exploration was a huge let down, and it sounds like Luigi's Mansion has the same issue. Why? If you want a game to be portable, make it possible to save at any time instead of introducing artificial barriers into the game world. Removing the ability to explore the world as a whole removes a large part of my interest in games like this.

Pixelated PixiesApril 01, 2013

Quote from: ejamer

Great discussion on Luigi's Mansion. Sounds like a solid game, but also not a game I want at full price (or maybe at all) because of the way they've stripped down the overall experience to fit "handheld expectations".



One of my biggest gaming disappointments last year was Fluidity Spin Cycle - the compact levels and complete death of exploration was a huge let down, and it sounds like Luigi's Mansion has the same issue. Why? If you want a game to be portable, make it possible to save at any time instead of introducing artificial barriers into the game world. Removing the ability to explore the world as a whole removes a large part of my interest in games like this.


That's fair.

Though, for me, having a more piecemeal experience does not necessarily detract from the sense of exploration. In Dark Moon it can still be immensely satisfying to work out how one room connects with another. It's true that the areas are more compact than say a Metroid, but it's really just a question of scale rather than quality.

I can totally appreciate where James' is coming from when, on the podcast, he said that the interruptions could be jarring. There have certainly been a few occasions when I wished that E. Gadd would just leave me alone. As I played more of Dark Moon, however, I realised how much more enjoyable it was to play intermittently rather than in long play sessions. Over Easter, for instance, I would play a mission in short bursts between watching movies and stuffing my face. It made a whole lot more sense to me then.

Dark Moon is still very much about exploration and experimentation. It's just a much more compact and segmented type of exploration. Some might say that 'compact' and 'segmented' are incongruous with 'exploration', but I would have to disagree. Spin Cycle, Fallblox and Dark Moon are some of the best games on the platform, and I think that's largely because they were designed with shorter play sessions in mind; yet they still retain all the satisfaction of discovery. If you are intent on playing them in one or two sittings, then perhaps there are elements of each of those games which have the potential to frustrate, but played piecemeal I think they work beautifully.

I agree with PP!

Jonny was lucky to not see cutscenes watching the Duck Tales demo, because apparently there will be a lot of emphasis on them. This is so disappointing, it's not at all what I want. It may push me to back a Kickstarter for the first time: the Shovel Knight one.

Killer_Man_JaroTom Malina, Associate Editor (Europe)April 03, 2013

In contrast to many, I think Mega Man 5 is the best of the NES bunch, and I'm perplexed as to why people still go bananas for Mega Man 2. I'd love to have a proper debate over the merits and minutia of the first six Mega Man games some day.

SorenApril 03, 2013

Great discussion on Runner 2! I feel a lot like James after a session with the game. You didn't talk about the retro levels though. Have you guys tried it? How do you feel about the difficulty level there?

Pixelated PixiesApril 03, 2013

Quote from: Jonnyboy117

I agree with PP!


Try not to sound so surprised.  :P:

KeyBillyApril 03, 2013

Thank you so much for answering my silly VR question!  I felt deep shame after submitting it.  You had a lot of really good thoughts about it and I laughed at the idea of a gamepad helmet.  I had not considered the issue of motion sickness being more prevalent with Japanese people.

When I was imagining how Nintendo would introduce it, it was not with a FPS.  Rather, it was a Nintendo Land or Wii Sports type of game with asymmetric gameplay.  For instance, have the person with the Nintendo Glasses (what many of us fanboys wear year-round) seeing one view, with the other players seeing a wider view of the same area.  The other players might help ("Look up!  There's a spider!") or hinder, similar to the Luigi's Mansion game.  There are a lot of group games that could be played this way.

Also, imagine being able to switch to the camera on the glasses, which would show the person wearing them their surroundings.  A minigame might involve other players saying if they are pointing at the screen with their Wii controllers.  The player wearing the glasses can only see them when he is pressing the button on his controller, and the total time he can use the camera is limited.  So, if he uses it too much, he won't be able to use it again.  The player can win by correctly guessing whether the person is lying or not for a certain number of rounds.

Even if there is no way it would actually happen, it's fun to think of how Nintendo would approach a VR accessory.

Your ideas are much better than anything we had imagined for it!

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