Topic: Episode 300: SPARTAAA!!!

[Pandareus]

We just can't seem to quit you.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/31217

It's time for another one of those special episodes, as we celebrate six years and 300 numbered entries (plus many more one-offs and live events) of Radio Free Nintendo. This year, we decided to mark the occasion by doing what we do best -- talking about Nintendo! A lot. Probably way too much. This episode is all about Wii. In fact, we probably set a world record for the longest any group of friends has talked about Wii in a semi-serious manner.

This incredibly long episode is broken into a few segments for easier digestion. The first couple feature your friendly neighborhood RFN crew --Jon, James, Gui, and Jonny-- covering the Wii from its debut as Revolution at E3 2005, right up to the present day. It's a lot like the DS feature we did for #200, except even more ridiculous and long-winded. Later, we go through the whole saga again from the start, but this time with a series of special guests discussing the beginning, middle, and end of the Wii story in a small group format. You'll hear insider tales and fond personal memories from RFN favorites such as Billy Berghammer, Craig Harris, Michael "TYP" Cole, Karl Castaneda, co-founder Mike Sklens and, of course, our escaped editing slave, Greg Leahy. If you make it through this entire, monstrous podcast and still want more Wii coverage... try the previous 299 episodes! They're pretty good. Except for 103.

We'll get back to normal next week with Listener Mail, so send in yours today! RetroActive is also coming very soon, so hit up that forum thread if you're playing Wario Land 4. And finally, thanks so much to everyone who listens, corresponds, comes to our live panels, promotes the telethon, viral markets on GAF, etc. We love y'all.

[Glad0s]

5. Hours. 5....hours. Wow. Can't wait to listen, gents!

[Dropkik]

5 hours...What in the actual ****?!

Sweet.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Looks like I picked the wrong week to actually release another episode of Radio Trivia.

[famicomplicated]

Congrats guys, a stunning achievement! 
I just hope Gui doesn't retire after having to edit this beast!


@TYP Nothing ever takes away from my Trivia Time, and hey, it's not like podcasts expire right? 

[Crimm]

Try to identify the exact place I started recording myself to fill in gaps that were eaten by technical issues.

[Pandareus]

I had braced myself for a long and grueling editing session this week-end, but the truth is it didn't take me that much longer to edit than usual. Well, a couple of hours more, but some of those were actually due to Audacity hiccups. James and Jonny each took on one of the guest sections, so I even had enough free time to finally see The Dark Knight Rises this week-end, haha.

I hope you guys like the episode. It's pretty damn thorough. I hope my love of the Wii came through despite me just kind of always going back to 2D platformers: there's definitely more about the Wii's library that I like beside the VC, Wario Land, DKCR and NSMBW: Rhythm Heaven, Sin & Punishment, Punch-Out!!, No More Heroes, etc.

[geo]

Googol is the mathematical term, meaning 10^100.  Google is the company name.  That is all

[Soren]

Those first claps...

[DarthBrady]

Thanks! this is just the thing i need to listen to while cranking away at my Nintendo Museum Minecraft Server.


I have to ask... since I have only been listening since around #175 - what is wrong with #103? must be something interesting to call it out like that. Are you being serious about avoiding that one, or should I go check it out and see what the fuss is about?

[Ceric]

Thanks! this is just the thing i need to listen to while cranking away at my Nintendo Museum Minecraft Server.


I have to ask... since I have only been listening since around #175 - what is wrong with #103? must be something interesting to call it out like that. Are you being serious about avoiding that one, or should I go check it out and see what the fuss is about?

If you listened to the Drunkcast its a lot like that only a little crazier.  Though there is some good discussion to be had in there if you can filter through the white noise.  If you listen to 103 then listen to at least the start of 104 for the Dr.Metts Rebuttal.

[Lithium]

when i listened to 103 it was a couple of months ago, but i decided to listen to the entire archive starting from episode 1 so i had all the context that made 103 hilarious. (not that i did that JUST for 103, i didn't even know what was coming when i listened to 103) when i finally caught up to where to started listening to RFN (around the same time as Darth Brady) Greg was having his final episode

[Disco Stu]

I like how the undercurrent of homoeroticism in this podcast has invaded even the sub-headline now! :


Seriously though, what a fantastic celebration of not just the podcast, but the last generation of Nintendo gaming.  It was great to hear Gui's defense of some of the company's shortcomings in the past 6 years, and you didn't come off as an apologist!


Here's to 300 more episodes of RFN and another generation of playing great games on the Wii U and 3DS!

[Traveller]

Lies 103 is a masterpiece!

[Shaymin]

5 hours of awesome...

Challenge considered.

[NWR_Lindy]

I like how the undercurrent of homoeroticism in this podcast has invaded even the sub-headline now! : :

Undercurrent? I need to try harder.

OOOPS POOR CHOICE OF WORDS

[Enner]

Thanks for the podcast! Just finished listening to it. I really enjoyed all the Wii talk as it put some perspective on the system's life as a whole. I got the system quite late in July of 2010 so most of my feelings on the system are positive given I didn't have to wait to get a good game to play on the system.

[Ceric]

I like how the undercurrent of homoeroticism in this podcast has invaded even the sub-headline now! : :

Undercurrent? I need to try harder.

OOOPS POOR CHOICE OF WORDS

Yes it was.

I would have chose:
"Undercurrent? Man its getting Harder."

[ShyGuy]

I hope Greg is one for four and half of those five hours...

[Pixelated Pixies]

I still haven't listened to all of this epic cast but I just thought I'd say that it's really nice to hear from Craig again. That guy is a legend.
 
CRAIGWAY!
 
Speaking of legends, I can't wait to hear from Greg again as well. You guys have really managed to get together an amazing crew of Nintendo experts.

[TJ Spyke]

I hope Greg is one for four and half of those five hours...

I haven't finished the podcast, but it looks like he is only on for for one segment (which is about 40 minutes long) and not part of the main podcast with the regular RFN crew.

[Do_What]

I'm only two and half hours into it and I love it. I am so glad that so much of the show is just like an RFN. I love the wii discussion. You guys are great. I've listened to about 250 of these things (I think I missed an entire year of the show at one point) and it's my favorite video game podcast beside retronauts. At times they're the only ones I can even listen to.


Maybe it's because I grew up pretty much only owning used or quite old games, not having a new release every month never bothered me during the life of the Wii. Since a lot of games seemed to die quickly their prices dropped quickly. In the times when there weren't a lot of blockbuster new games coming out there were a bunch of games I hadn't played on the discount rack. The site has a whole feature thing about all the games people never played on the Wii. I don't have a massive backlog because I was able to play a steady stream of games during the Wii's life. To me there was never a lull of new games, because it didn't matter to me whether a game just came out or if it had been out as long as I hadn't played it before. I just picked up a copy of Metroid: Other M for $8 brand new. I'm playing through RE4 Wii edition for the first time (I played it a lot on Gamecube) because I picked it up for $10. The same goes for any console, really. No one plays every game that comes out for it, and so there is always a new game for them to play.


Gamecube is my favorite nintendo home console, but wii is right there with it. I think this has been a remarkable console cycle for nintendo. Thinking about what they actually accomplished, it's astounding. They are completely terrible at ending things though. Think about the momentum they could have if all the project rainfall games were getting pushed leading into this year. Or maybe there was a Baten Kaitos Origins (I love the **** out of that game) or Chibi Robo on the horizons that you could possibly start or finish playing on your Wii U. Oh well. I still think the Wii is good and I got a lot of joy out of it. I never bought any VC games because they always felt too expensive. I did grab a couple of wii ware games, but not as many as there are good ones.


I'm looking forward to finishing the episode tomorrow at work.

[Chocobo_Rider]

Great episode, gents.  Seriously pulled off one of the most enjoyable episodes for #300.  Way to rise to the occasion!

Responses ...

1. Paraphrase from Jonny: "their innovation is in gameplay, nintendo's never really done crazy controllers."

I can only assume you're referring only to PRIMARY controllers, right? Cuz I mean, in general, there's PowerPad, PowerGlove, all kinds of other goofy things.

2. I was in love with games all the way up until the end of the PS2 era.  But after that I was planning to live "a generation behind" and just buy games when they are a fraction of the price but still just as fun.

Then, I went to a classmates party and he had a Wii and was showing it off to everybody.  It was awesome and several months later ...

3. My wife spent weeks hunting down delivery trucks until she finally got a Wii for us at Christmas.

4. By the next Christmas my sister had a Wii and asked for video games.  That was a BIG. EFFIN'. DEAL. to me.

5. My dad played Wii Sports Resort with my wife and me one night.  He beat us at bowling and is still proud of it to this day.  I believe Gui said something about "remembering these experiences all my life." I agree, Gui!

6. I know Nintendo stopped marketing to "us." But, hey, marketing isn't games.  Games are games.  And my favorite games of this gen are on Nintendo's platforms.

7. Gui: "I was enjoying myself and everyone else was bringing me down."  Agreed, sir.

8. I somehow played hundreds of smooth hours of Brawl online.  *shrug*

9. The Wii was by far the most popular, but third parties ignored it.  If they felt like focusing on that, nurturing it, they could have made a ton of money.  But, they said "no, we'll make games the way we've always made them."  For the most part, they just couldn't make a good flagship game, they had to make their flagship games "big budget" games.

10. I loved the "faux retro" revival.  And yes, MegaMan 9 felt most at-home on Wii.  The controller, the fact that all the previous 8-bits were on the NES.  It was the right fit.

11. In my opinion, the Wii's software lineup in 2010 was one of the best release schedules ever!  When you look at all the quality games, it seems like a no-brainer to me.

12. Again, I can only paraphrase from memory.  Gui: "When I heard people say Nintendo abandoned them, that's how I feel about the other companies." YES, GUI!!!!  As someone who only had a PS1 and a PS2 during those generations, I was ready to walk away from "modern gaming" before the Wii.  The PS3/60 just didn't interest me.  After I got in to the Wii I thought, "that DS thing seems to have some good stuff going on."  And the rest is history.

13.  I don't think Nintendo is "saving video games" to be altruistic.  But, I do think they are doing it.  I hope they don't fall too deep into this HD/DLC rabbit hole that swallowed up their contemporaries.

14. Gui, you are the man this episode.  I like to think "Wii apologists" can actually just be "people who really like the Wii."  Remember when being a fan of something wasn't automatically a fan-boy?

15. I agree that WM+ was largely wasted on the Wii.  But the Wii U will give it an entire second chance.

16. I think Lindy said something about "everyone" wanting Other M and Sin+Punishment.  He was right, "gamers" wanted those.  The people in our circles wanted those.  We can't discount uber-popular games like Mario and Wii Fit by saying they are just appealing to "the masses" and then also discount games that only have "core" appeal.

17.  You say 2011 had a rough year and we're blaming Nintendo for only releasing those 3 games.  But, what happened to all the third parties complaining that Nintendo games crowd them out from the Wii's huge install base and that's why their stuff doesn't sell?

Why do third parties not get equal blame for not filling the holes they supposedly were starving for? Also, when everything comes out in 2010, we all know there can't be a sequel in 2011, right?  This isn't [third party who does annual releases] we're talkin' about.

18. Hearing from Greg was like a warm blanket for my soul.  Cheers, mate.  Go Bills!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry for the super long, not very well developed post.  But, hey, in an (awesome) 5-hour podcast, maybe you get quantity and not quality, right? 

Looking forward to 400. 

[TJ Spyke]

NinSage, Mattel did the Power Glove. Nintendo just marketed it. As for Power Pad, I suppose at the time it must have been weird, now we would just consider it another dance pad.

I was lucky to get a Wii on launch day. I went to a Walmart around 7PM for a midnight launch, and I was lie 28th in line (they had 30 Wii systems). It was kinda fun, even played a little Mario Kart DS with some other people waiting in line.

I hear people complaining about Brawl's online, and I would agree that now it is bad. I got the game at launch though and played it every day for like 2 months straight (when my Wii started having problems), and in that time I only had problems playing online 2 or 3 times. It was only when I came back a few months later that I started having problems.

[Pixelated Pixies]

I hear people complaining about Brawl's online, and I would agree that now it is bad. I got the game at launch though and played it every day for like 2 months straight (when my Wii started having problems), and in that time I only had problems playing online 2 or 3 times. It was only when I came back a few months later that I started having problems.

I thought Brawl was a good game, but it's online was absolute garbage. In the whole time I was actively playing that game I had only 5, maybe 6, matches which didn't either lag, freeze or fail to actually begin. My internet was also pretty incredible back then. It was such a dissappointment for me personally, as I had friends I coul play against online but none who were able to come over and play locally. Can you imagine having Smash Bros but having no else to play with? It sucks. I really hope Smash 4 gets it right.