God, I have so much to unpack with this episode.
First off, I guested multiple times on your show in 2017, and I'm pretty sure James never contacted me about my list! Then again, that might be because
I subjected him to La Mulana, or he has some sort of association between me and chucksters.My list on nintendo console is as follows.
5.)Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
4.)Blaster Master Zero
3.)The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2.)Sonic Mania
1.)Super Mario Odyssey
I'm glad that Karen is at least getting more out of Super Mario Odyssey than Gui does.
I still need to play Fire EMblem Echoes, but damn if Fates didn't kill my fandom for that franchise. :C
I have so many corrections to unpack with Jon's assessment of Sonic Mania.
http://shc.sonicresearch.org/sonic/history15/23 Download this and tell me you still want harder bosses in Sonic Games. no, really. do it. The bosses in Sonic Games do not need to be Dark Souls or Megaman level struggles. I think they're at their best when they are setpieces that make me smile and maybe have an interesting gimmick to how they work. most of Sonic Mania's bosses besides maybe the Oil Ocean Act 1 boss got that reaction out of me.
Tails did not build the biplane you regularly see in those 16 bit sonic games. That plane is called the Tornado. it is Sonic's Plane, and Tails is just the one who flies it around for Sonic. they need a plane because it turns out the gas milage on mutant 5 year old kitsune is actually fucking TERRIBLE.
The Sonic Boom cartoon show is the best part of that series, mainly because they just take the piss and make fun of themselves at every turn, taking jabs at the likes of ChrisChan, shipping, and other nonsense gobbledygook. Sonic Boom Knuckles is a riot every time he's on screen because he's such an insane caricature of the character.
The quality of Sonic Mania is NOT surprising when you look into the sorts of fan games people make for this franchise. there's actually a friggin' AMAZING couple of proof of concept demos of 3D sonic games that are otu there that blow any of Sonic Team's attempts at it out the water. The quality of the romhacks are incredible when you know which ones to look at. Part of the reason I put up with Sonic is because I've seen this stuff and I know there are people out in this world that DO get the Sonic zeitgeist. Why do you think I was trying to tell you folks about Freedom Planet?!? I was trying to prove a point that there IS Lifeblood with Sonic, it just doesn't lie with Sonic Team!
I think Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and the boost formula games that aren't Sonic Forces are perfectly acceptable. I understand why people would love these games, and I don't bat an eye at people who like a particular style of 3D Sonic. Heck, I don't even bat an eye any more at people who primarily followed Sonic because they liked the archie comics any more. sure, I think of it as a video game franchise first, but people can enjoy Sonic how they want as long as they aren't using it as an excuse to harm one another... like people who get into death feuds over who the best voice actor for Sonic is.
More to come as I listen to more of the episode in the coming days.
EDIT: Greg, I'm a Chicago Cubs fan. I had a 100+ year drought from the TAFT administration! Nintendo was still making Hanafuda at profitable margins! THAT is how long I had to wait. BOTH world wars happened. of course, whatever horrible devil pact Tom Ricketts had to make to make that happen of course has lead us to the world of ruin where the leader of the free world thinks he's "Like a very smart person" and makes me wish I could move to a country in the EU to avoid the imminent nuclear fallout, lack of helathcare, oil fracking, non-neutral net, and countless other headaches brought on by the Cubs winning the world series and thus sounding the horns of the apocalypse.