Even this extra-large episode can barely contain all the Nintendo Direct news and our Top Five Games of 2014!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/39452/episode-413-strip-club-regulars
We have a special format for you this week, as there is neither New Business nor Listener Mail. That's thanks to a surprise Nintendo Direct earlier in the week, which gave us far more discussion topics than we could possibly fit into this first segment. We crammed in as much as we could and hit most of the major points, including New 3DS XL for North America, "The Latest in the Fire Emblem Series" for 3DS, an avalanche of amiibo announcements, lots of walking in Xenoblade Chronicles X, the long-awaited arrival of Wii games on the Wii U eShop, and further confirmation that Splatoon could be Nintendo's first fully-featured modern shooter. There's a lot of disagreement and controversy throughout, so buckle up for this one!
The latter half of the show is just as lengthy but far less adversarial, since we each get our own personal list for the Top Five Games of 2014. The diversity in our picks is maybe surprising, considering it was one of the leanest release calendars in Nintendo's history. Many rich discussions emerged from our passionate and sometimes shocking choices, and this feature is a great showcase for the four distinct personalities on this podcast. It's impossible for you to agree with all of us, so just let that go and enjoy the conversation!
We're currently planning to do our annual (and ill-fated) predictions feature next week. Maybe you could fan the flames with a prediction of your own -- go crazy on that email form! We are also still working on the next RetroActive roll-out and hope to announce something concrete next week. You can help a lot by posting ideas in the forum thread (where they'll be considered for many subsequent editions) or using the more ephemeral Twitter method, thanks to our brand new account: @RFNpodcast (finally!).
Satoru Iwata's controversial speech at the Game Developer's Conference last year was designed to offer a "though-provoking message", Nintendo's president has clarified.
Iwata argued that pricing mobile content too low risked devaluing quality games.
"Paying attention to such value and trying to keep it at high level is very important," Iwata continued, in a recent investor briefing. "I did not intend to say that all the free-to-play games or lower-priced digital content should not exist.
"Unfortunately, my speech was reported as if I had said, 'inexpensive games have low quality'. Since this misinterpretation occurred, I regrettably have to say I should have organised my speech more appropriately."
If Square Enix wants to experiment, go nuts. But throwing the Final Fantasy name on a non-Final Fantasy product doesn't MAKE it a Final Fantasy game. Final Fantasy Explorers is an interesting game, but its interest is totally unrelated to it having the Final Fantasy name. If they want for the name to continue to have value then they need to respect it and what it means to people.
I had the exact same reaction as James Jones when they Fire Emblem trailer started. I literally jumped off my seat and started dancing only for my jubilation to be muted when the 3DS screen popped up.I had a mixed reaction. I've been hoping that Intelligent Systems would release Advance Wars next so when I saw Fit Emblem it was a major let down. Then I realized I absolutely loved Awakening (the only FE game I've ever played) then I felt better, but I still wish it was AW
It was a brief moment of joy, followed by crushing dissapointment, followed by a salve of "Wait, I loved that game."Great way to boil my paragraph into a single sentence
