We return to RetroActive to discuss an overlooked (and contentious) WiiWare game.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/30000
While Greg kicked back to enjoy the NFL Draft, the rest of us kept RFN running smoothly with plenty of help from our friend and frequent guest (of late), Guillaume from Negative World. Jonny doesn't really have a fresh game to discuss in New Business (just a quick wrap-up on Fez), so he leads a brief tour through the recent Nintendo Direct announcements. Most notably, the group expresses both concern and optimism for New Super Mario Bros. 2 (as of recording time, we didn't yet know about the digital release plan). James digs deeper into the dark hole of Freshly Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, and now we have the bemused perspective of Guillaume, who also played it at some point. Jon teases the host and much of the Internet masses with his glowing impressions of Diablo 3 from the recent open beta test. Finally, our guest jams on Mario's Picross (for Game Boy/3DS), SSB Brawl training, and 3D Classics: Kid Icarus.
After the break, we bring RetroActive #22 to a noble conclusion with a comprehensive, warts-and-all feature on MotoHeroz. This critically acclaimed, little-played WiiWare title comes from the developers of Trials HD and Trials Evolution on XBLA. The Wii off-shoot is quite similar in many ways, but it also incorporates thoughtful platforming and a baffling online mode to complement the very challenging, often equally satisfying races. We all developed quite different feelings about MotoHeroz after playing it for this feature (including a near-complete turnaround for Guillaume), leading to one of the most ambivalent and enlightening RetroActive segments yet!
We'll have Greg and Listener Mail next week, so please send in your very best questions (recent Wii U news might be a good starting point). And if you have suggestions for the next RetroActive, there's a forum thread for just that.
There seems to be a bug with the podcast. :(
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/30000 (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/30000)
I can attest to these bugs, maybe.
I'm skipping around and my VLC won't have any of it. Just gets stuck on the 32nd minute. That's the MP3, btw.
I've re-uploaded the mp3 file, and having also downloaded it to test the playback, it now seems to work fine (I was able to skip around the file while playing through VLC and WMP with no bother). Absolutely no idea what went wrong in the first place as there was nothing wrong with the original file and it clearly uploaded in its entirety, but hopefully you should have no trouble if you re-download the mp3 version now.
can someone repeat those twitter accounts?
Tingle gives feedback on how good your bid was if it succeeds, if Tingle smiles and the NPC frowns then you're pretty close to the optimum value, if both are happy you're somewhat off and if Tingle frowns you're way off. I got a feel for the amounts to ask for quite quickly. Also combat isn't zero-sum if you have a bodyguard and hover up a combo of enemies, fighting alone does cost a lot though.
It's funny how people seemed to maintain "it's not a bad game" on the podcast despite having more gripes and negative comments than actual praise. It's also funny that this game nabbed an 82 overall score on Metacritic; based on my experience and the overall tone of the discussion here, that seems rather generous.
Go for new game +, many puzzles become solvable, some quite easily, after that. Also there's a rosetta stone type of thing in the game (doesn't require new game plus), you don't need to do any cryptanalysis on the characters but you may need some general knowledge that isn't part of the game (e.g. pangrams).
Another nice podcast fella's. Glad I passed on the retroactive, it just sounded too frustrating.
And speaking of frustration, I think Johnny's opinion on New Super Mario Bros 2 is a bit unrealistic (trying to be kind here!). It sounds like he wants Nintendo to function like an indie developer in the same year that they published their first annual loss.
New Super Mario is a series that makes money, it's not like they have annualized it or milked it beyond redemption like an Activision or Ubisoft franchise and the previous 2 games are both solid 2D platformers. Not my favourite Mario games but nothing to be ashamed of.
One of the things I like about Nintendo is that they do experiment as well as milking their classic franchises.
So I think it's a bit unreasonable to moan about a predictable money maker that will massively help their bottom line, especially one that comes out a year after Mario 3D land which is pretty unique for a Mario game.
That said, I've yet to have a problem with Nintendo. I officially think that the release of NSMB2 and NSMBWii U so close together might start calling awesomeness into jeopardy. However, based on Nintendo's history, they have definitely earned the right to be pronounced innocent until proven guilty!! To think the opposite would be to neglect history.
Here's how I would sum up the situation:
"Rehash" game + awesome = no problem.
"Rehash" game + not awesome = problem.