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Episode 468: Oops! All Memes

by James Jones, Greg Leahy, Jon Lindemann, and Guillaume Veillette - March 20, 2016, 3:11 pm EDT
Total comments: 10

How do you judge the value of a man who lazily uses memes to make a joke about memes while they themselves are overusing a meme? Harshly.

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Radio Free Nintendo has been off-script for a few weeks. In an attempt to reset the balance, Grand Imperator James ordered up a double-serving of Listener Mail for the team. Greg, Jon, and Gui start the show off with a tremendous display of insolence and disrespect, but once order is restored the email flow begins. In the first half of the show we cover GameTrailers' "recent" closing, the "recent" release of Fire Emblem: Fates and its "recent" success, and backwards compatibility with the NX (as always, we don't know anything about NX).

After the break, and the triumphant return of Now Playing, it's yet again time for Listener Mail! In the second act of the show we cover our pick for the best Punch-Out!! game, game design and "quality of life," and gaming in bed. Total email count this week: 8. It's just a start, but we do our best work under pressure. Weigh down our inbox with your emails. No promises of a return to normalcy, as they have been largely unfulfilled, but do know that such insolence will not go unpunished.

This episode was edited by Guillaume Veillette. The "Men of Leisure" theme song was produced exclusively for Radio Free Nintendo by Perry Burkum. Hear more at Bluffs Custom Music.

This episode's ending music is Tal Tal Heights theme from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The game was composed by Kazumi Totaka, Minako Hamano, Kozue Ishikawa. All rights reserved by Nintendo.

Talkback

TOPHATANT123March 20, 2016

Game Trailers shut down because they had an office in Los Angeles and a paid staff of content creators, graphical designers and editors. They often joked about how all they did was lose money so it's a miracle they stayed open as long as they did. There were some great personalities there though and they really were like a family. Also they had a great podcast: GT Time.

Here's a selection of some of my recent favourite Kyle Bosman moments, if you want to understand why Game Trailers was amazing, please watch and enjoy!

1st Annual Bossy Awards 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLSAhxRnaMM

2nd Annual Bossy Awards 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oihPpByV-9M

3rd Annual Bossy Awards 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiHPB_dPyhU

Ian Hinck & Kyle Bosman Improvise a cutscene from Typo Man
https://youtu.be/UzWyUB2Ej8Q?t=19m10s

EnnerMarch 21, 2016

If you want an exhaustive, from-the-trenches account of GameTrailers and don't mind spending a bit of money (or a trial subscription), Shane Shatterfield will gladly fill your ears: http://siftd.net/#!/content/18266/gameface-episode-36. Shane Shatterfield was the Editor-in-Chief during GameTrailer's golden years under Viacom as it was the top performing website in Viacom's online network. Shatterfield left the website before Viacom sold GameTrailers to Defy Media. From Shane's point of view, what brought down GameTrailers were asinine decisions from new and unattached middle management, Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube preventing GameTrailers from building a significant presence on YouTube, and ad blockers.

Giant Bomb's west coast studio is located in the beautiful and gentrified city of San Francisco (<3).

Great show, as always.

KobeskillzMarch 21, 2016

Quote from: Enner

If you want an exhaustive, from-the-trenches account of GameTrailers and don't mind spending a bit of money (or a trial subscription), Shane Shatterfield will gladly fill your ears: http://siftd.net/#!/content/18266/gameface-episode-36. Shane Shatterfield was the Editor-in-Chief during GameTrailer's golden years under Viacom as it was the top performing website in Viacom's online network. Shatterfield left the website before Viacom sold GameTrailers to Defy Media. From Shane's point of view, what brought down GameTrailers were asinine decisions from new and unattached middle management, Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube preventing GameTrailers from building a significant presence on YouTube, and ad blockers.

Giant Bomb's west coast studio is located in the beautiful and gentrified city of San Francisco (<3).

Great show, as always.

Beautiful? lol j/k


I loved their retrospective videos. I saved all of them. The Zelda ones were awesome.

Holy shit, James Jones is a fan of SBH?!? probbly one of my favorite youtubers. VERY intelectual. he actually is the one who helped formulate my argument on what makes Shovel Knight so amazing and Axiom Verge not so much.

ejamerMarch 22, 2016

"...lucky in that I bought a PSP Go..."  -Gui

I'm in the same boat.  Bought a PSP Go when they were being cleared out, and it's been a fantastic investment.

Lots of extremely cheap PSN games have been enjoyed, and I've got a healthy backlog of games still to go through because of the aggressive sales frequently found on the console. As an added benefit, some are playable on a PS3 were I to ever buy one, and most are playable on Vita/PSTV as well.

The ability to easily download and manage podcasts independent of a PC, sync a PS3 controller, or connect to TVs are all added benefits. It's also the smallest portable console that I own other than a GBA Micro. So yeah... you aren't the only one who appreciates the console.


Question:  Why is it regularly cheaper to buy retail versions rather than downloading games for Nintendo consoles? Competitive pricing was supposed to be one of the big appeals for digital gaming - and for other companies/consoles that is often the case. Atlus games regularly have amazing sales. PSN weekly sales regularly have something for value-conscious gamers.

But on Nintendo consoles the sales tend to be much more limited and its' very rare that you can buy a digital copy of game for lower prices for years after a game is released. It drives me nuts, because Nintendo consoles are also by far the most restrictive when it comes to user rights regarding digital content. In that regard the pricing premium for digital content seems completely backwards.

rygarMarch 22, 2016

I didn't even remember playing that punch out arm wrestling game until I listened to the show today. Outstanding call back.  My favorite iteration is the punch out arcade game. I dumped so much dough into it.

Quote from: ejamer

Question:  Why is it regularly cheaper to buy retail versions rather than downloading games for Nintendo consoles? Competitive pricing was supposed to be one of the big appeals for digital gaming - and for other companies/consoles that is often the case. Atlus games regularly have amazing sales. PSN weekly sales regularly have something for value-conscious gamers.

But on Nintendo consoles the sales tend to be much more limited and its' very rare that you can buy a digital copy of game for lower prices for years after a game is released. It drives me nuts, because Nintendo consoles are also by far the most restrictive when it comes to user rights regarding digital content. In that regard the pricing premium for digital content seems completely backwards.

Nintendo has talked for years about maintaining the value of their games - hence why when they do sales, it's special occasions and usually for 30% off for retail games. Retailers are sometimes willing to take a loss on the product as a way to get you in the store, so they may go under cost. (I'm pretty sure I've cost Best Buy and Amazon at least a thousand bucks with my E3 preordering the last few years), but Nintendo doesn't need to (or want to) do that.

The fact that they've moved to the Selects model on 3DS and Wii U, even if the newest games of the bunch are about two years old, does help a bit.

Retailers have to account for the cost of just holding onto inventory.


Physical goods take up space, a back catalog means you have to have more real estate devoted to warehousing, which is 100% a cost center, since you don't "sell" from the warehouse.


Physical goods also take up shelf space. Something that's sitting is costing them the chance to put something that would sell right away in that slot.


Physical goods need to be inventoried to make sure they aren't walking out on their own. The more there are the more time it takes to do.


In some areas you also pay tax on your inventory, so you'd like to keep it lean.

azekeMarch 24, 2016

Quote:

...there was no Punchout on GBA...

Not the same, but there was Hajime no Ippo game on GBA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GNidYDyntU

Quote:

...online games on 3DS...

Tekken on 3DS is VERY sensitive to region. If your partner is too far away from you, it will be lagfest and it will be like you are submerged into a bowl of honey.
Dead of Alive Dimensions lobbies were dead last time i checked few years ago, so i couldn't find a game.
Street Fighter IV is really good, the only problem is that if you allow touchscreen commands, players can spam charge moves (like Guile's sonic boom) constantly. Check the setting before initiating search.

SFIV is also the only game that allows you to play the game while it looks for opponent, you can even progress through singleplayer arcade mode though you most likely won't be able to finish a round because there are plenty of players.

Resident Evil: Revelaitons and Mercenaries have online Raid modes.

Kid Icarus has online multiplayer. And playing it on the bed is actually the best option because you can put it on your lap/belly.

And heyyyy, a sale for Mercenaries was just announced, right on cue.

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