A brand new guest helps us talk through parallel dimensions, starships, forgotten games about sand, and your reactions to the Wii U news. Plus: Which games are teens' favorites?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/31838
This week on RFN, we welcome a new voice to help fill in while Jon is taking care of business. That new voice is Nate Andrews, whom you might have heard before on Connectivity. He jump-starts New Business with a recap and discussion of his recent Fractured Soul review. Nate and James tag-team impressions for FTL, the seemingly impossible space exploration roguelike for PC. Jonny has his own space report for Q-Games' Starship Defense, a visually striking tower defense game for DSiWare. He also recommends Renegade Ops, a Blast Corp-like drivin' and shootin' game. Guillaume wraps up his thoughts on Touch Detective, and he reminds us of the awesome, Wii-exclusive Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands (quite different than the other console versions).
We return to Listener Mail this week with an unusually large batch of questions, each dispatched rather efficiently. Several involve hand-wringing over the Wii U price, bundles, backwards-compatibility, a digital copy of Nintendo Land, etc. We also get some really interesting survey results from a high school teacher who wanted to know what games are most beloved by today's students. Keep these conversations going, and start your own, by sending in a letter for the show!
If you're having trouble with Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, or just haven't started it yet, head over to the RetroActive forum thread for some handy tips and the nascent group discussion. We'll be covering it on the podcast very soon!
That was the most horrifying laugh from James I have ever heard.
At what point was this laugh?
Oh, and for the record, my favorite game of all time is Chrono Trigger.
Oh, and for the record, my favorite game of all time is Chrono Trigger.
Just out of interest Glad0s, how did you get into Chrono Trigger? Was it through the press coverage of the DS remake/Virtual console re issue, a personal recommendation, or something else?
What IS random about the events is where they spawn. I've had the first event in a quest spawn just as the second stop in the quest was about to be overtaken by the rebel advance.
And not all are straight forward: the broken cryogenic chamber quest doesn't tell you where to go for step two.
As far as my tastes go, I love old games. Chrono Trigger and FF6 are both in my top 5 games of all time, Super Metroid is tied with Prime as my favorite Metroid game, Super Mario World is my favorite Mario game, Kirby 64 (which is not THAT old, but w/e) is my favorite Kirby game, etc.
Honestly, I'd say the SNES probably has my favorite library of any system.
Oh, and for the record, my favorite game of all time is Chrono Trigger.
Just out of interest Glad0s, how did you get into Chrono Trigger? Was it through the press coverage of the DS remake/Virtual console re issue, a personal recommendation, or something else?
Well, in all honesty, it was mainly Jonny and Greg's constant adoration for it on the podcast (and Jon's never-ending quest to finish it) that finally got me to play it. It was my first non-Mario-or-Pokemon RPG, and I absolutely loved it from beginning to end. I grabbed it as soon as it showed up on virtual console.
In other news, I decided to make a little video. I hope you all enjoy.
I feel that that the SNES is like a perfected NES and that the GameCube like a perfected N64.
I never really enjoyed Ocarina of Time until the recent 3DS remake. I played it after Wind Waker, and I found it to be pretty painfully dated, having never played it before. I feel somewhat similarly about Majora, though it's different enough from other Zeldas that it's still somewhat novel.
Dear Teenage Retro Gamers,Please keep talking. I am really enjoying reading your posts!
Also, this may be blasphemous to some, but I think A Link to the Past is a middling Zelda game. I think the beginning of the game is TERRIBLE (i.e. the first 3 dungeons), and the swordplay is frustrating and not enjoyable. The game picks up by the end, but I was never fully drawn into it.
Dear Teenage Retro Gamers,
Please keep talking. I am really enjoying reading your posts!
Question, Glad0s. Are you playing the SNES version of FF6, or the GBA version? I played the GBA version first, and have played a bit of the SNES version since. I think the retranslation and presentation upgrades in the GBA version really helped draw me into the world. But I was honestly drawn into the game LONG before the opera scene (Which, by the way, is not all that special. It was impressive for the time, but as with all technical marvels, it has become dated).
I played through all the Metroid Prime games on the Trilogy collection, with the pointer controls, and they are AWESOME. I tried the Gamcube version of Prime 1 at my friend's house and found it exceedingly unintuitive. Wii controls or bust! : P
I don't understand the hate on the Paper Mario games, especially from the RFN crew and TYP. Simple =/= bad. In fact, there's a very Fire Emblem-esque (which makes sense because both are made by Intelligent Systems) strategy to knowing exactly how much damage you'll deal to an enemy. Also, people tend to overlook how much action commands add to the game. Also, in The Thousand Year Door, there's more complexity, with the Stylish! opportunities which boost your star gauge. Also, you can really spice up the battle system with the use of badges, which add quite a bit of variation to your fighting style. Sure the game is easy, but so are most RPGs in my opinion.
It may seem a strange choice to some, but my favorite game of all time is Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I don't know if I could really explain why I love it so much, but I've played through it 12 times, 2 of which were 100% complete files.
It just never gets old to me. It just has the perfect Mario feel, a good sense of humor, great use of the paper aesthetic, and a great soundtrack. The one big complaint that I will concede to is the TONS of backtracking in the game. It's not great, but I didn't feel like it ruined the experience for me.
I'll kill two birds with one stone: FOR GOD'S SAKE, MAN, GET CHRONO TRIGGER ON DS!!!! IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!!
Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 are two more classics I missed and are on my "Must Play" list. I'm 50 hours into Tales of the Abyss right now and just want it to end, so it'll be a while before I get stuck into another JRPG. I need to catch up on my 3DS Mario's first as I have them both on my shelf and haven't touched either of them.
So Retro Teens - it seems like you two know you JRPGs, can you recommend any recent portable titles that AREN'T Radiant Historia (which is on my Lindy pile)?
Yes, the backtracking is slightly obnoxious at times (especially in that part near the end where you have to go to EVERY TOWN in the game. Ugghghgg)
Like you guys I much prefer the 3D Marios. Mario 64 and Galaxy are my favorites.
So Retro Teens - it seems like you two know you JRPGs, can you recommend any recent portable titles that AREN'T Radiant Historia (which is on my Lindy pile)?
I'll kill two birds with one stone: FOR GOD'S SAKE, MAN, GET CHRONO TRIGGER ON DS!!!! IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!!
..... Tales of the Abyss was, IMO, a decent RPG. Nothing too special, but the story got slightly interesting as the game progressed, and I kinda liked the battle system. I'm now stuck on the final boss, which I find funny, because I haven't been stuck on a boss for probably...I dunno...30 hours?!? That's one problem I have with the game. Lots of the bosses go down without a fight, so I kinda feel like I'm just moving through the game for nothing more than the story, and it's just pretty good.
JRPGs are kinda my thing. I'm still educating myself on some of the more obscure stuff, but I'm moderately knowledgeable about the genre.
I've been really behind on podcasts, so I only listened to this tonight. I'll be student teaching in the spring, and I will definitely be doing a survey like the one mentioned here.With the added Question of: