Just a heads up: Looks like the wrong date is on the podcast (it's got the November 24 date from the last 'cast on it).

Thanks, Shaymin.  I've fixed the feed.

If you're looking for suggestions on what to cover on your off-weeks, how about adding some "big" non-Nintendo video game news?  I don't think you need to cover the other consoles in nearly as much detail as you do Nintendo, but it would nice to hit on a couple of the more important news stories every other week.  (I know you already do this to a certain extent.)

I enjoy the Newscast, but I do agree that the format could use an overhaul at this point. I'm excited for the changes, especially the move to a weekly show.

At this point, I wish I had some suggestions. I think vudu's suggestion could work well, especially if it can be related back to Nintendo in some context (maybe discussing the impact some news could have on the company).

I have to say, when so much of the podcast is just whining about the Wiiware service, it's kind of a drag to listen to. I understand that most weeks there's nothing good that's come out, but honestly it would be better not to even allude to Wiiware than the way you deal with it this episode.

And it's less excusable this week than usual given the free demos you could have played. Then you would actually have known what the games were about and been able to talk about them. Thruspace is actually pretty cool.

I totally hear that, Pandareus. We'll try to be less hateful about WiiWare/DSiWare in the future. I think that the idea of just discussing WiiWare/DSiWare games that are of any amount of interest is worthwhile, though. Hopefully we'll be able to strike a good balance soon.

Although I did play the ThruSpace demo and was bored by it. So while it would've been good if we all played the demo, my thoughts would've been dismissive because I wasn't a fan of it.

So intense! How can you be bored by it!? The harsh time limit and the controls that take some getting used to ensure that I'm in a constant state of panic while playing, haha.

As for the new focus of your podcast, if this helps: I started tuning in because of the game clubs you were doing.

Yeah, the Game Clubs were interesting.  I'd still honestly like to hear a defense of Star Fox Assault on an episode, but I suppose that the scope of Game Club is different...you probably wouldn't want to make the feature a carbon copy of Retroactive.

Also, I enjoyed the discussion of Epic Mickey, but I did think it was funny that as Neal talked about the game, his enthusiam for it seemed to wane dramatically.  I've enjoyed it thus far, but I've only just made it past the first boss.  I have to say that the decision making process was effective there because it was obvious how to destroy the boss with thinner, and I was a little saddened knowing that I had effectively killed the boss and now probably won't see it later in the game.

Neal, do you know whether the boss battles are different when you use paint or thinner...or is the strategy basically the same?

I posted this in the main Epic Mickey thread, but I think my main complaint about the gameplay lies in the fact that it's almost too beholden to the idea of the paint and the thinner.  Thus far, it seems like all enemy encounters revolved around spraying an enemy with one or the other, and it bugs me that you can't seem to use a jump or spin attack to destroy even minor enemies.  I'm fine with the main powers of paint/thinner as they exist, but I think it would have been more interesting if you used the paint or the thinner in strategic ways to defeat an enemy, such as removing an enemy's armor with thinner or creating objects with paint that could be used in combat (e.g. anvils, swords, weights to slow down enemies, etc.).  I'm still early on in the game, so I hope that the options open up a little.

Anyway, for what the game is, I am sincerely enjoying it, and I plan to play it through to the end.

Without giving too much away, Game Clubs will evolve with the show. We might not do it in the same way, but we'll discussing singular games for extended periods more often. They could be WiiWare/DSiWare games, GameCube games that were widely disliked by everyone except Nate and I, or anything else that has been on a Nintendo system or is Minecraft (we have to keep Nate on somehow!).

So yea, I hope you all enjoy the content that we're going to bring you in the new year. It's going to be more work, but I think it should be totally rad.

And Epic Mickey...oh man, Epic Mickey. It's not that I hate it, because I don't...but I don't know if I really like it either. It's weird. I think the best example I have for this phenomenon is this: I played for about two hours last night. I really enjoyed about two-thirds of my playtime. The other third consisted of me being pissed off at the game's mechanics/design/everything.

Each boss has a paint method and a thinner method. So far I've faced four "bosses." Three of them were really cool, and in one of them (the one TYP detailed in his impressions), the ways to use paint and thinner are completely different. However, the most recent one was barely a boss fight and more of a room where you do things while a boss sits in the background. I didn't realize it was a 'boss' until I finished it. I wanted to punch things when I realized that's what the game was trying to call a boss.

So, the other day in minecraft I decided to start a new world, and it is probably the best world I have spawned in to date. For starters, I spawned close to a surficial lava pool- which is great for making obsidian. Nearby there is a cave network, in which I have already found tons of iron, and the coastland is heavily forested. One of the more interesting aspects of this world is the peninsula that curves to run parallel to the coast, the top of which is dotted with deep wells. Almost all the way up to the edge of the sea are some large, snowy mountains, they seem pretty impassable but I may make a watch tower on top of them to survey both the land behind, and the archipelago that extends from the opposite side of the peninsula.

So far I have made an obsidian portal that allows me to travel to the netherworld, a fairly extensive mine inside of a mountain face, and a minecart track that will take me from my house on the peninsula to my inland mines.

.... and because I don't know where else I would pimp this, here's the DMP Jonny had me on for. The way I see it, people in this thread already put up with me, so they're more likely (or less?) to find this relevant. Or perhaps they would just like to know what this death metal I constantly reference is: http://www.crosstawk.com/newbusiness/2010/12/7/discover-music-project-episode-7.html

Nate, you just spoiled half of our weekly episodes. :P

I love it so much that you guys are so annoyed by covering the downloads considering the show was basically created because the RFN crew didn't feel like doing stuff like that anymore.

I would have loved to have played some free demos to talk about on the show... however every time I load the Wii Shop Channel, my system locks up. 

I will say that a lot of our discussion on how to expand the show has centered around how much we do or don't want to step on the toes of our big brother podcast over at RFN.  We're all very aware that both A) if it's a head-to-head competition for listeners with RFN, we'll lose and B) there's a million gaming podcasts out there with more or less the same ideas between them, so it's not like there's no room for duplication of format at all.    It's a balancing act, and we definitely understand that.

Here's the bottom line... for Newscast to continue, and we want it to continue, it has to be something that WE (as in the four of us) are excited about, otherwise it just becomes us bitching about the downloads for 40 minutes every other week.

"Nintendo's Download Services:  We're Just That Bad."™

Newscast Presents: Looking Back on Primal Rage

The last couple of episodes (I'm still catching up on podcasts from Thanksgiving) have been very interesting. Best of luck to you guys with the new format -- it sounds exciting, and you're absolutely right that you should focus on content that keeps you excited. You have developed a great chemistry with each other, so the show could only get better if you also shift to topics that you love.

The bad news: I have no willpower.

The good news: Cave Story DsiWare is AWESOME!