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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 374: Men of Leisure

« on: March 17, 2014, 07:16:10 PM »

Good episode.  I really liked the discussion on the economics of releasing stuff on Virtual Console.  When they read the question, my knee-jerk reaction was the usual, "Because Nintendo doesn't care about North America," but the crew went through good reasons why we lag so far behind Japan.


Regarding the Smash Bros. at EVO thing, I think it's more of a question regarding what the intent of an event like EVO is.  Is it more akin to a chess tournament, where the games are almost entirely skill, or is it more akin to the World Series of Poker, where luck plays a factor in the short-term results?  This isn't a knock on poker or games with luck elements, mind you... Obviously, the better players will end up winning more often in the long term, and luck management is a very important aspect of these games.


I don't personally care for the whole "NO ITEMS/FOX ONLY/FINAL DESTINATION" thing, but I can get the appeal of it.  It's more like real-life boxing or soccer or whatever.  It doesn't make a lot of sense for an event like EVO to have a Street Fighter IV tournament, where the winner is crowned based almost entirely on skill, but then have a Smash Bros. tourney next door that is a wacky item-fest.  These big championships and stuff seem to be a celebration of skill more than anything, and a "pure" wacky Smash Bros. game would feel kind of out of place.


Makes you wonder if the attendance for some of these things would be even higher if they had some of these higher-variance games.  Thousands of people play in the World Series of Poker with the dreams of knocking off people like Phil Ivey.  Maybe more people would try the same against the amazing Smash Bros. players?

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 365: Demo Dogma

« on: January 13, 2014, 07:12:39 PM »

Great to hear that Gui enjoyed Retro Game Master.  He was really right about Arino being sort of an anti-AVGN in terms of how the unfair games affect his mood.  They really keep the situation light and keep cracking jokes about the different situations.  In fact, when they finally subjected him to Battletoads, Arino actually enjoyed it more than most games.  I realize the Japanese version is significantly easier, but man.


It really is a shame that they can't release the arcade trips on DVD (for legal reasons, I think?).  Those are often my favorite segments on that show.  They are charming as hell.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 122: Your Very Own Pet Rocket Launcher 

« on: December 26, 2013, 07:04:18 PM »

Thanks for using one of my requests I sent in, TYP!  I had actually meant to register right after sending that email and then forgot to get back around to it and felt silly when I realized I just signed the email "Jims" and that's it.


Regarding Game #2...


I was really glad you used Legacy of the Wizard because, even though it is definitely obscure these days, it's a really unique little part of gaming history.  As you mentioned on the show, it was an early game by Falcom, a company that is really proud of its game music, and the soundtrack itself was done by Yuzo Koshiro.  It's an interesting little music relic from the past for some of their later titles.  And the game itself is a really early example of sandbox gameplay that you didn't see much on the NES (aside from Zelda, I guess).  It's a game basically just about wandering around figuring out where your character can go, and often forcing them into places they don't belong (especially by jumping on enemies and stuff).


It's definitely way too obtuse, though, and could've been improved greatly by simply indicating which of the 4 major sections of the map belonged to which character.  There are definitely hints with the barriers in the way, but it's still not always clear where to actually go when you're in the right section.


Oh, and to confuse things even more, there's a 5th character who is mostly useless and is only supposed to be used toward the end of the game.


Only ended up getting 2 out of the 5, including my request.  Never played Game #3 (skipped that one), but knew it thanks to a Brawl remix.  I really enjoyed Game #5's music, though.  That last track seemed like it was inspired by Inception.