In this episode, gamewizard65 and Alaska_Gamer make their podcast debut! Along with Paleo_Orca and, sigh, Guillaume, they discuss Operation Rainfall and the weird publishing decisions of Nintendo, preferred graphical styles, Ocarina of Time 3DS and other remakes, and sim games (mostly of the "god game" variety).
As usual, the theme music comes from Negative World's owner and dictator, Zero. The rest of the soundtrack is taken from Xenoblade.
Comment on the topics, the podcast, the guests, the host, etc. on Negative World! Or, be a weirdo and post them on Facebook or Twitter instead.
Well, we're both operating in the dark here but it seems likely that the game made some money (unless you drink the millions upon millions to localize a game kool-aid) and considering that, if I remember correctly, the game released when there wasn't much else coming out from Nintendo, I wonder if not releasing it in America would have been such a better business decision. Anyway, I wouldn't take everything Reggie says at face value.
But if you're right and Nintendo is slowly moving towards only releasing blockbusters (and actively denying Nintendo developed non-blockbusters to the US) then it seems like we should start openly rooting for Nintendo to fail.
I never claimed that they lost money on it or that it would have been a better decision to not release it. I don't believe that for a second.
I'm just relaying info I grabbed somewhere. And I just remembered where I heard it: the producer (within NoA) of Geist. He said it during a Radio Free Nintendo episode about that game.
You're not going to get half of the "best games in the world" if they actually follow through with this policy. Star Fox, F-Zero, Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Wario Ware, your beloved Pikmin, none of these are typically million sellers in North America.
Anyway, your entire statement is complete bullshit since there's no chance Nintendo will stop making games.
@Secret_Tunnel I think he means that if they failed in their strategy to only release blockbusters, then they'd necessarily have to rethink their strategy and start releasing more diverse games. I don't think he means "We should root for Nintendo to disappear."
How was PoF anyway? As much as I disliked the first TJ&E game when I tried it, I still want to give the sequel a shot. The fact that people tell me it's worse drives me away but, I mean, sidescrolling platformer!
Well I never beat it when we had it on Genesis. Then I got it on Virtual Console and, according to Nintendo Channel, I played it for "1 minute". Haha. But I think that's inaccurate because I remember getting somewhat far playing it co-op with my brother on the Wii. It's OK, it's more like an exploration platformer, I'm not even sure you can die by falling to be honest. I think the reason I never beat it was more out of lack of interest than challenge. Most people I wouldn't recommend it, but you seem to have every game so if you're running out of other games you're interested in, sure, check it out.
Maybe we can play the original some in Montreal since I know you've wanted to play it co-op.
@Guillaume Most of the people who were disappointed in Panic on Funkotron were fans of the original game, so you probably have a higher likelihood of enjoying it than they did. I'm still not sure it's a great game, in any case. Probably a better bet than Boogerman, though.
EDIT: Wait, Guillaume never played it co-op? Okay, well of course he didn't enjoy it, then. Dude, you have to play that co-op. Preferably with a little sister or something.
Listening now. Someone doesn't seem to be the biggest fan of Rainfall! I have a lot to say about that, but in the end it comes down to one thing... it already has gotten the attention of Nintendo, which is a heck of a lot more than most online petitions do. Sure all it resulted in was a Facebook PR post, but what that says to me is that Rainfall got Nintendo's attention and Nintendo felt like Rainfall was big enough that they had to respond, which is pretty amazing when you think about how little Nintendo responds to fan outcry in general.
Which means... Rainfall needs to keep pushing hard! Don't let Nintendo think they ended things.
Finally gave this podcast a good listening. Topics were pretty good, though I found a bit more 'off-topic' stuff sometimes. Also, maybe it's just me, but it seems several times there were interruptions during conversations when someone was trying to get a point across. This could just be different personalities.
Topic 1: Operation Rainfall
@Zero Yeah, I was hearing a lot of negativity at times. I must say, I greatly applaud the effort of the gaming community as a whole, it's the most involved and focused movement I've witnessed that goes beyond the simple (and ineffective) online petitions of the past. Whether or not the campaign succeeds, I'm happy to be a part of the movement, and knowing the message is getting carried across to Nintendo.
Topic 2: Cartoony vs. realistic graphics
It's a preference, but in general graphics should suit the style.
It's cool when photorealism blends in with the fantastical. Pikmin is my favorite example, and I look forward to seeing the Wii U version!
Topic 3: Remakes
Remakes definitely have their place, and it's a great way to bring back games to a bigger audience. As long as we still get our new games I'm happy.
Topic 4: Educational value of 'sim' games
I liked Paleo's topic! SimEarth always appealed to me ever since I first heard about it on the SNES, I may have to check out the VC TG-16 version. Animal Crossing's museum really is cool. There are a bunch of neat facts about the fish, insects, and fossils/ dinosaurs. And just like Guillaume, I remembered when Jonny had mentioned Art Style Orbient on RFN. That is a great game with surprising physics that is super easy to jump into and understand.
And that was interesting about the brain activity study, I hadn't heard about that, I wonder what kinds of games were involved.
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Guillaume, I like the new addition at the end of the episode where you briefly highlight some of the great public content on our site. Zero's open letter to Nintendo, various game reviews, sirmastersephiroth's Top 10 lists, and Kris Wright's White Knuckle Scorin'!
Hmm, I feel like I disagree with a lot of you guys on remakes. It seems you guys prefer remakes not mess with the original much. I don't have much interest in that, as I have all of my old consoles still hooked up and can play the games that way if I want the original feel, and mere graphics/sound/control boosts don't do much for me.
I'd definitely prefer stuff like Resident Evil (Gamecube) that take a great game and put real time and effort into it to add a lot, balance, etc. and make it even better. Or even Metroid: Zero Mission which is almost a completely new game.
Actually now that I think about it, honest question... has there even been a case of a developer putting a ton of time and effort into a remake like with the case of Resident Evil on Gamecube and it not turning out that great? I'm curious, I really don't know. I'd agree that just throwing in a new ability or stage or whatever without rebalancing everything and making it all work is kind of pointless, but if you get someone to really focus on creating something new and great... yeah.
