A new platform on Virtual Console gives us the perfect excuse for a Game Boy Advance retrospective feature. Also: a Mario Kart Wii fanboy reacts to the latest MK8 info!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/37067/episode-377-when-fun-just-isnt-enough
Jonny's back in the hosting chair and ready for action this week! He launches into Yumi's Odd Odyssey and also returns to Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate now that an expanded version is out for Wii U and other consoles. Guillaume continues to slog through Ace Attorney Investigations and also tries the ever-charming, ever-controversial Earthbound for the very first time! Jon is still waiting for his 3DS to come back, so he uses New Business to talk about the latest Mario Kart 8 details. Finally, James gets into Saints Row 4 and explains why it doesn't connect for him as much as the previous game.
After the break, we use the addition of Game Boy Advance titles to the Virtual Console (only on Wii U, at least for now) as a good excuse to look back at this odd era in Nintendo's handheld lineage. The panel's opinion of GBA as a platform is somewhat mixed, but we all agree that it has some wonderful games and a very colorful, if abbreviated, history. If you got into Nintendo during the Wii/DS boom or just somehow missed GBA in the early 2000s, you might be surprised to hear about the creativity and experimentation that did occur on a system that was and still is often associated with SNES ports. Try the links on our sidebar to the right for more info on some of our favorite titles mentioned in this episode!
Send in your own thoughts on GBA or any other topic for next week's Listener Mail segment! We're also pumped for some online thrills in Goldeneye 007 for Wii -- meet other players and arrange matches in the official RetroActive forum thread! The wrap-up discussion on our podcast will probably be coming up in the next couple of weeks.
I'm going to guess that an actual discussion of Altered Beast for the GBA took place, and that it was edited out.
If so, thanks be to Gui!
I wish it weren't so blatant. But you're welcome.
The Game Designer's Studio was a shell corporation set up by Square in order to develop games for the GameCube despite having an exclusive deal with Sony to only create games for PlaySation consoles. In order to evade that deal, Square only held 49% of the shares while Akitoshi Kawazu held 51%. The creation of this company also made it possible to take advantage of Nintendo's Q fund--financial support from Nintendo for new GameCube developers.
The company ended up developing only a single game, the original Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. During the development of the game on April 1, 2003, Square merged with Enix to form Square Enix, canceling their deal with Sony. Because of this, Square Enix went on to acquire The Game Designers Studio and renamed it to SQEX Corporation. After Square Enix acquired Taito in 2005, they merged it with SQEX to form Taito Corporation.
My issue isn't a learning curve, it's locking 80% of the game behind hidden exits that require the use of techniques the game never tells you are possible - despite the game seemingly hand-holding you up to that point - is bad game design.Fair enough, homedog. Thanks for the elaboration.
I like the GBA library better than the DS library. GBA has the better Metroid, Castlevania, Zelda, Mario and Luigi, Advance Wars, and Wario Ware games. Also I just realized the DS is home to my least favorite Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games of their entire respective franchises. I should also note I never played an RPG outside of Mario and Luigi on either system.
I love Metal Mario, the beginning of Earthbound, and fun.Ahahahaha. Great comment. Perfect for this episode, too.