After a brief announcement, Guillaume welcomes veteran Anand and rookie David (a.k.a. Davoid) on the podcast's 31st episode. Amongst the games discussed: GNOMZ, Kid Icarus 3D Classics, Xenoblade, Etrian Odyssey, and more!
The gang then discusses what "Nintendo magic" is (and bashes Sega mercilessly along the way) and Nintendo's different shows and faces of PR. Someone sets the living room carpet on fire.
As usual, the theme music comes from Negative World's owner and dictator, Zero. The music throughout the podcast is taken from Kid Icarus: Uprising on 3DS.
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.
And Sonic's schtick was just a rip-off of Dragon Ball anyway. 7 Mystical gems that bestow incredible power, and a powered-up form that consists of being all yellow and spiky? Please.
Just want to comment on something. Someone said something about Zelda's intro's lacking a bit because of all the tutorials for teh casualz. This is probably the reasoning behind all the tutorials but my question is... is this really going to work on casuals? Sometimes I think about trying to get my girlfriend into Zelda and then I think about Skyward Sword or something and holy god, no way would she last through the THREE HOURS or so of boring tutorials it requires to get into the real meat of the game. I know she doesn't represent all "casuals", but I think in general casuals tend to need more immediate gratification, which is something recent Zelda games tend to lack big-time.
I also think Nintendo kind of failed with the controls for Skyward Sword. You guys were talking about how a positive of Nintendo is that they tend to pare controls down to the basics and you tend to sort of intuitively know where everything you need is, and I agree. But Skyward Sword is kind of the opposite, it crams so much onto the controller and it has you like... holding down a button to do one thing but clicking it quickly to do another and such and even deep into the game I was still hitting buttons and doing the wrong things a lot.
I actually love Skyward Sword a lot, but it has some serious flaws that get in the way of the "smooth" feel that other Nintendo titles like the Mario Galaxy games and such have.
@Zero I'm surprised that no one took issue with my statement that 3D Zelda ISN'T a good example of 'Nintendo magic', in general. I thought that would be more controversial...
Hmm... I probably would take some issue with it, but I think it has "Nintendo magic" in a different way than something like Mario.
For instance, pretty much NO ONE (excepting Valve with Portal) has any idea how to design 3D action/adventure environmental puzzles except for Nintendo. There is such a craft put into Zelda dungeons that puts most games that try these kind of puzzles to shame.
I'd also say that 3D Zelda games make a way better use of space than most games (excepting the big boring field in Ocarina of Time.) In Zelda games you really get the sense that every single area was hand-crafted and serves a real purpose beyond just running past it to the next objective. It's worth your time to stop and look around.
Still, it's just weird to me how not so smoothly Link moves. Skyward Sword made some big strides in this aspect (and then took steps backwards in good button utilization) but it's still not even close to Mario. Though really... not much is. Mario kind of stands alone.
Yeah, it definitely has some hallmarks of Nintendo design. The puzzle design is brilliant and incredibly polished and refined. But the movement always felt so clunky to me, particularly in Ocarina. It certainly didn't feel very Nintendo.
On the other hand, even Metroid Prime feels pretty awesome. Slow, but awesome.
Link has never really moved as well as Mario, right? I mean, even back in the 8-bit days. Mario had momentum and all that, while Link's movement was more... digital.
Link moves awful in the first LoZ. Much better in A Link to the Past with the 8-way movement, but I've never really liked Link's tiny sword and the way he swings it. Meh.
I'm probably biased because Link's Awakening was my first Zelda, but it plays the BEST.
You're not biased. Link's Awakening is hands-down the best Legend of Zelda game. It is the best in everything, including the way it plays/the way Link moves.
It's not just awesome some of the time, it is awesome ALL OF THE TIME.
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