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Episode 519: Heroes of the Pun Storm

by James Jones, Greg Leahy, Jon Lindemann, and Guillaume Veillette - April 23, 2017, 11:02 am EDT
Total comments: 5

It's become increasingly clear that we only get three emails: questions, accusations, and text landmines designed to test our reading skill.

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Following last week's double-episodes, we decided go low-key with a more normal episode. Greg kicks off New Business with some concluding thoughts on Snipperclips, before examining the mobile-like Team Kirby Crash Deluxe. Do YOU have enough apples to grind your Kirby? Lastly, he talks about experiencing Pikmin 3 on the Wii U GamePad. Guillaume is disappointed with Shantae: ½ Genie Hero. Not a bad game but he talks about how much of it feels uninspiring. James played isometric teleportation puzzle-brawler Mr. Shifty on Switch. He jumps between praise and cautionary statements about the game's bugs. He has some quick thoughts on life-consuming title Persona 5, and is joined by a less-enthusiastic Gui. Lastly, he talks about Sony's approach to playing console games on the go: PS4 Remote Play. Jon wraps up New Business talking about his Switch-travels with former RFN host, Dr. Jonathan Metts and Radio Trivia host Michael Cole.

Topics we cover in Listener Mail this week: digital refunds, Nintendo's faith in ARMS, a pun nightmare, and a Nintendo MOBA. You can send us your pun nightmare via the inbox.

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's SoundCloud. The Radio Free Nintendo logo was produced by Connor Strickland. See more of his work at his website.

This episode's ending music is Yoshi's Valley from Mario Kart 8. It was selected by Greg. All rights reserved by Nintendo Co., Ltd..

Talkback

none of the character assets in Half-Genie Hero are 3D Models, Gui. this was made in the same engine as Ducktales Remastered. If anything, it looks a lot like they may have been using Flash to do the animation in this game rather than something like say... toonboom. having something like say... a flash puppet that you just move bits and bobs around with creates a smoothness similar to what you get if say... you move a 3D model around.

That being said...!

... not even mad at your HGH assessment. it feels like it's played VERY safe and yeah, the linear levels no longer compliment the Metroidvania style backtracking, whereas when Pirate's curse say... made you backtrack for Bran-Son's sword or the mummy curse inscriptions on Saliva Island, it felt much better. Pirate's Curse IS the better game, and I attribute that to the way the kickstarter was structured and how half-genie hero's stretch goals could append chapters to the game. I imagine if the kickstarter would have went bust that Wayforward would have maybe released this game episodically, and it still would have worked similarly.


Crab Shantae is actually a concept they developed for Shantae 2: Risky's Revolution for the GBA before that got canned. Crab Shantae also is handy to turn into in a pinch to observe a boss pattern since when ducking in the shell, Shantae essentially doesn't have a hitbox. I do think having crab Shantae and mermaid Shantae in the same game is a bit superfluous, but that's like complaining that the High jump boots are superfluous in a metroid game after one gets the space jump.

Bat Shantae still has uses after acquiring the harpy, as it allows for much more measured control at the expense of not being able to go upwards, which is really nice for one particular room I can think of that's pitch black and full of spikes. Harpy Shantae is a legacy transformation from the original gameboy game, which I think also takes president in a game where I think they wanted to represent Shantae at the peak of her power.

There is a metronome you can buy at the Scuttle Town item shop that doubles the speed of shantae's dancing that makes transforming super snappy, and Gui also failed to mention that the third page of dances is devoted entirely to utility dances like the Warp Dance, the screen Nuke Dance, the dryad Dance, and the Gemjug dance. these are usually not dances that you'll need to rapidly exploit as much, so more-or-less there's two pages of transformation dances that you'd actually use for platforming purposes.

... I don't remember the menu thing. O_o;;

Also, Gui, you can call wrench and Sky to pick you up at any time out of a level by using the whistle that Sky gives you at the beginning of the game. This is true for Risky Boots' lair as well.


I still loved this game, because I'm a sucker for the characters and the sheer volume of personality the characters from these games show. I really desperatley wanted to back this game back in the day at the $350 tier to get in the art gallery, but it just wasn't to be. I couldn't get the money together by the end of the month, and I ended up spending that money to get my Wii U, so... All's well that ends well?

you can read my full thoughts on Shantae: Half Genie Hero here on the NintendoWorldReport forums!

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=51034.0


Also, I want to reiterate; I DO NOT BLAME GUI FOR THINKING THIS GAME IS DISAPPOINTING BECAUSE IT KINDA IS WHEN THEY GOT SO CLOSE TO NAILING IT IN PIRATE'S CURSE.

LemonadeApril 24, 2017

Correction, Box Boy amiibo was sold outside of japan. It was on Nintendo Australia's Ebay store with 400 units and sold out in under an hour.

I missed out, so Im just going to import the game and amiibo bundle from japan, even though I cant actually use the game card

KDR_11kApril 24, 2017

Oh there's some extra BS in Shantae HGH that deserves mentioning like how dropping into any hole or touching any spikes throws you back to the last checkpoint and these can be fairly infrequent (especially on autoscrollers). Also the giant monster chase scene where touching the monster restarts the whole thing and there are DEAD ENDS.


The refund policy on Steam is directly caused by EU regulation. EU law says that anything you order online or by phone can be cancelled or returned within two weeks. Nintendo cheats its way around that by claiming that they're performing a service (instead of delivering goods) and making you agree that because the service starts now you cannot cancel/return it (Sony does the same). I believe Steam tried the same excuse but got dragged before the European Court of Justice by a consumer rights group and the courts did not agree that digital games are a service. So Steam was ordered to offer refunds and evidently they offer them even outside the EU. AFAIK they did refunds on broken games before that but now you can return a game because you don't like it.


I haven't heard how Nintendo handles canceling preorders? Steam allowed cancelling those at will prior to release even before refunds were a thing, Sony does NOT allow that (at least in the US, they have refund policies for other countries but not the US), they may offer a single refund in the lifetime of your account but consider that an act of good will and are known to be assholes about it (e.g. punishing people who ask for refunds). I haven't tried what they do with preorders in the EU since the "service starts now" claim obviously doesn't work there at all.


I have to say the podcasts I've listened to didn't turn into Persona-fests, many still get leftover Zelda discussion or talk about Nier instead.

MASBApril 27, 2017

"We all know we want Jon to retire from the rap game."

I ask you, what is this foolishness? We're all eagerly awaiting the rap cover song Jon promised us in December. Not to mention anything he may suddenly grace us with, off the dome, as it were. Whenever I hear "Regulators, mount up!" I think of Jon and Jonny's raptastic effort. If James or Gui travel to E3 this year,  maybe they could meet up with Jon, and make similiarly sweet music together. I suggest "Mr. Wendal."

Outside of that, Delaney dispalyed the artistry we RFN letter writers strive for, but rarely achieve.

I'm glad Texas Brisket Challenge is continuing to pay dividends. I was touched by the depth of feeling in Greg's voice as he rejoiced in the replacement of Phil Simms on the CBS AFC games.

Thanks to Jon for the enlightenment on MOBAs. I had never really looked into them before.

KobeskillzApril 30, 2017

Half hero was super awesome and the paltforming tight.

Dude you're trippin. Negative Nancy.

Wow looks like I'm in the minority regarding this game. It wasn't perfect but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

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