Topic: Episode 590: Hardware Sales, Viewed from Above

[NWR_Lindy]

Deceiving investors is easy if you're incorporated in a different country.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/48427/episode-590-hardware-sales-viewed-from-above

This week everyone has a "new" game for Switch, all of which are actually old games that are now on Switch. James reviewed point-and-click adventure Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse. It's a solid point-and-click with an outrageously convoluted plot, but if you're looking for Gnostic art thieves, has he got the game for you. Jon and James spent three hours of quality time playing the NES Games Online, now part of Switch Online Service. Jon has some thoughts on Dr. Mario that some might call controversial, but I think he's just worried about pill poppers hiding in the shadows. Greg got his hands on Sega Ages: Thunder Force IV. I'm not sure why they dropped the correct title, Lightening Force, but I'm still looking for some software to touch-up my smile. Guillaume closes out New Business with overhead racing game Mantis Burn Racing. No mantises were harmed in the making of this modern-day Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road.

After the break we expose some dark email secrets. This week we figure out how Nintendo can monetize nostalgia with 2019's shared Smash Bros. and Game Boy anniversaries, and create super hero video games for Liam Neeson vehicles. You too can propose a video game treatment for The Grey by sending us an email.

New Business

• (00:03:14) Broken Sword 5.
• (00:20:22) NES Games Online
• (00:52:37) Sega Ages: Thunder Force IV
• (01:10:37) Mantis Burn Racing

Podcast News

• (01:18:38) End of Chapters

Listener Mail

• (01:23:47) Game Boy or Smash Anniversary: Which is bigger?
• (01:42:29) Designing a Super Hero Game
• (02:09:21) BROWNS WIN! BROWNS WIN!

[Shaymin]

That Infamous competitor Gui was trying to remember was Prototype, and it was an Activision joint.

[KDR_11k]

Prototype was the spiritual successor to Hulk Ultimate Destruction, reusing most of the game mechanics though I assume Hulk did not absorb people and take their appearance to sneak into places.

Speaking of off-brand superheroes, Megaton Rainfall is a game not about Nintendo hype movements but being essentially Superman and having to defeat aliens without inflicting too many casualties on the population. It's VR-optional but overall it's just not that much fun to fly above a destructible city and only shooting at the alien ships. Neat tech demo for procedural generation though, you can fly to any point on Earth and it generates cities and stuff (also other planets but those don't have cities).

[Order.RSS]

Venom was playable quite extensively in the 2005 GameCube/Xbox/PS2 game Ultimate Spider-Man. During the free roaming missions it played a bit like GTA3, the army came after you fairly quickly I believe. He also had some story missions which featured some of the most horrendous quicktime events I've ever seen. There's a segment where you're hammering the shoulder buttons to wedge open doors, and I swear the controls just don't work. Super frustrating.

I'm still amazed we haven't seen a console-sized Wonder Woman game, but heroes like Spawn, Aquaman, Deadpool, and Teen Titans have. She's super iconic, can be slotted into any timezone (from Ancient Greek to modern day), fits every genre (fantasy, thriller, detective, war, sci-fi) and has a varied moveset to draw from (flight, ranged lasso, sword & shield).
Let's have Platinum make it in the Bayonetta engine.

[MASB]

Very disappointed and surprised to hear about the end of chapters/art. I guess, in a way, it's another casuality of having to dumb down the desktop experience for cellphone users (not that that's what RFN is doing, just that cellphones offer an inferior experience in this case, so what's the point of offering better if they don't/can't see it). I use VLC Media Player and never had a problem. VLC is available on Android and iOS. The functionality is the same for aac files between desktop and cellphone versions as far as I know.

I suppose it may also show how few people visit the site versus download a podcast via an app and that's it. That's why you need to bring back Now Playing to remind people that NWR exists.

I hope The Famicast guys don't conduct a similiar survey.

Will you post links to whatever images you do use with the time stamps on the website? Someone crazy (like me) may use Chapter and Verse to make our own version using that.

[pokepal148]

How dare you be hatin' on Code Lyoko. That show is surprisingly decent looking back.