Topic: Episode 940: Zoom In on Showpony’s Groin

[Jonnyboy117]

Sakurai's next project is exploring "the forbidden zone."

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/72199/episode-940-zoom-in-on-showponys-groin

45 minutes is a weird middle ground in the human mind. It's not exactly long, but likewise it isn't a short time.

You can get a lot done in 45 minutes: cook a simple meal, draft a few emails, run a load of laundry, write a podcast article.

But it isn't like you can read a book, or watch a movie, do anything particularly complex - like write a podcast article. When you have an appointment in 45 minutes you're more likely to find a way to kill that time than you are find a way to use it productively. Please do not tell my boss.

Somehow, 45 minutes feels like so much less than 75% of an hour.

"Why?"

That is a great question, an hour is 60 minutes because...

Oh, you mean why does it feel that way?

Well I'm already geeked up to talk about it, so we're going to talk about Mesopotamian mathematics. Sexagesimal math is really easy for fractions because 60 divides cleanly by twelve different numbers. This makes finding common denominators straightforward. The Babylonians were inheritors of that Base-60 legacy, and used it to advance astronomy - which ultimately results in measurement of time.

Wait, what were we talking about again?

Right - 45 minutes. You can use 45 minutes to introduce a Kirby racing game. Arguably, this can be done much faster, but not when it's being done by Masahiro Sakurai.

You can ALSO catch-up with an old friend, in this case former RFN host Dr. Jonathan Metts.

This week Gui is still out, Jon returns, and with Jonny filling in  - we have our first four-man show in a month. We devote a lot of time to Sakurai's truly unique presentation style for the Kirby Air Riders Direct.

We also talk about James' horrifying ten-year run as host of RFN and give some insight on NWR's history. There's a lot of naval-gazing going on this week.

We do answer a couple of emails adjacent to the above topics: what's up with Jonny's NWR book and what other Nintendo franchise needs the "Sakurai Touch."

We even saved a few minutes for Jonny to give some New Business with impressions of the "middle-aged" Marvel Rivals.

Questions? Send 'em to the inbox!

Thanks to Jonny for joining us this week. Next week Gui will be back, and we'll finally have the crew together again.

Chapters:

• (00:01:55) 10 years of James as host.
• (00:13:15) The 90s are back? Not like this.
• (00:16:51) Kirby Air Riders Direct.
• (01:00:48) Putting Sakurai to work.
• (01:28:38) NWR Site history.
• (01:43:44) Update on the NWR book.
• (02:05:22) MORE NWR Site history.
• (02:25:53) New Business: Marvel Rivals.

[Printertales]

This post is the perfect representation of what 45 minutes feels like — drifting between focused thought and accidental tangents, with some existential time dilation thrown in for flavor.

The bit about 45 minutes not feeling like 75% of an hour hit me right in the temporal cortex. It’s that weird length where you're too antsy to settle into something deep, but too guilty to completely waste it. I once spent a full 45-minute stretch deciding whether or not to start a game of Hades. Never did. Just stared at the Switch menu like a fool.

Also, Sakurai absolutely needs to be let loose in the forbidden zone. No more rules. Give him "Wii Music 2: Jazz Vortex" and see what happens. Or let him reinvent Ice Climber as a roguelike dating sim. Kirby Air Riders Direct is exactly the kind of overly polished, overly sincere, overly charming weirdness I expect when Sakurai is in his element—and it’s beautiful.

Glad to hear Jonny back on the pod, too. Always feels like classic NWR when he’s around. And man, ten years of James? That’s not a run, that’s a sentence.