1.) Senran Kagura is a series of ups and downs. The rhythm game's a'ight
2.) Devil's Third video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4e9x8WaVSE
3.) This is 503
4.) I'm assuming, based on episode length, that some of the best moments were cut out. A shame. This episode is a true trainwreck that I'm proud of. Send all congratulations for this trainwreck to @NWR_James, and tell him to buy Snake Den on the Wii U eShop.

I really enjoyed the discussion on the state of the video game industry and thanks for taking the time out to do an extra episode!


I kind of wonder if the decrease in game/hardware sales is related to the fact that traditional gamers are getting older. 10 years ago the averaged age gamer probably had both time and disposable income, where as now they only have disposable income (on top of more and more games coming out). The bell curve has probably shifted in age because not as many new younger traditional games have come in. They are playing minecraft and phone games. While there was technically a PS4 slim, Sony focused their marketing on the PS4 pro where they focused on the PS3 slim at this point in the last generation. If someone was not interested in a ~400 dollar box 2 years ago, they probably are still not interested even though the box is now 2x more powerful. I don't feel compel to upgrade and also feel slightly burned by the whole idea. Also the market now knows that 60 dollar games will come down very quickly in price (in a matter of weeks instead of months now)


While I loathe the fact that certain Wii games are still 50 dollars at Walmart, Nintendo is being very smart by not devaluing their games. There was even the rumor that they are recalling WiiUs. Most likely because they did not want anyone seeing discounted units at retail. There will never be a Nintendo netflix. They will take the disney method and a year from now Link to the Past will come to the Switich and it will be on the front page of IGN.


We live in an era where it is impossible to play every game that comes out while also having access to Super Mario World for 8 dollars.

When the did RFN started bleeping the swears? Having heard over 500 ing episodes of this show, I feel like that's a ing dangerous road to start, it.

Beats the bleep out of me. James told me he did it once for comedic effect and by the time he was done editing, it was all bleeped. AFAIK, he only bleeped f bombs, so at least there's no question as to what's beneath them.

I was bored. I did it once because it sounded extra egregious and bleeping it was funnier. By the time I was done they were all bleeped.


There is one bleep that isn't an F-Bomb but it was funnier that way.


I actually didn't cut much. Less than 2 minutes of audio, one was in a spot we agreed needed to be cut the other was me. I trimmed some silence, probably a minute or two over the length of the show.

Thanks for taking my question and elaborating on both NWR's likely reasons and other outlets possible reasons for their review scores skewing towards the upper half of the 10 point scale, along with the discussion of whether that ten point scale should trend more towards a school grade or not.  Greg sort of pinned down my thoughts on what I most likely assumed it was - a tendency towards being forgiving on games that are more mediocre than good, but I hadn't considered staff bandwidth issues and trash developers not bothering to provide review copies anymore/migrating to platforms that allows them to exist as a seedy underbelly of garbage (steam/mobile). 


It was also especially encouraging to hear from you all regarding how much rigor is put into the reviews and scores you provide, including how there are discussions over whether the score suggested pairs with the written word.  It is sometimes surprising how disparaging a review sounds in text on other sites, then you see them provide a score of 7 or 8, and it's that dissonance that plays on my mind when thinking about this question in particular. 



I will say - as a young teenager, one of my favorite things to do on my favorite gaming websites of the day was to sort reviews by score and read up on why certain games were lambasted so much, but maybe i'm a minority in the type of viewership for a site like NWR.  I like reading both about the best recommended games and the games that could seem enticing to some but should be avoided like the plague.  I wouldn't expect the site to dig deep even into the dirt pile that some of the eShop provides, but I am a little surprised some games aren't covered, such as Pocket Card Jockey, which I heard about from another website's praise and found myself enraptured in it.


Guess bandwidth plays a larger role than anything in willingness for folks to cover games in the eshop that could be diamonds in the rough, or just a part of the pile.  That's content I'd personally like to see, because I've always struggled a bit to find real good yay/nay recommendations in a lot of the nintendo's digital offerings.  Guess the best I can do anymore is gamble with my money and share with forum users here myself.

Miitopia sounds very interesting to me. I recently got Tomodachi Life and I like that game quite a bit. Maybe I would like Miitopia too, if it ever gets released outside Japan

I think me and Syrenne play video games for very, VERY different reasons.

still, good for her for having such a head-spinningly different top 10 then myself. I actually have grown to resent Fire Emblem fates as a not-so-great entry into the series that tested my fandom. I'd legit rather play Tracia 776 than Fates at this point, and that in and of itself isn't such a hot entry into the series.

I also have to note that I have nnever managed to finish an Atlus RPG, MegaTen related games just don't grab me, and I got bored of Radiant Historia after they tossed a harder version of that bullshit spider at me. I guess Demon's Souls technically although that's just a From Software game that they happened to publish? Still astonished Syrenne decided to talk about games I'd hear about on the LewdGamer news wrap-up sooner than something like... I dunno, Firewatch.

As for game sales... well, I intended to buy more games this year, but there was one big problem; 2016 was an awful luck year for me. between my PC and my PS4 breaking, my lack of ability to suppliment my income via digital art, and the business at my day job being positively dead besides about 3 weeks, and add that up with some bad injury, and I was barely able to budget out what few video games I DID play over 2016. let's see, what DID I even buy?

Street Fighter V (PS4)
Pokken Tournament (Wii U, gift)
Fire Emblem Fates (3DS, gift, although I did spend money on various DLC bits)
Dark Souls 3 (PS4)
Overwatch (PC, which BSOD'd itself to oblivion about a week after I puchased Overwatch)
7th Dragon 3 Code: VFD (3DS, Gift)
Mighty No. 9 (PS4, paid for years ago)
Mega Man Legacy collection (3DS, on sale, puchased to drown my sorrows)
Pokemon Picross (3DS, Free)
Pokemon Moon (3DS)
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (Wii U, paid for years ago)


aaaaaaaaaaand that's it. I bought a total of 4 Games Retail in 2016. I really want to play stuff like Kirby Planet Robobot and Doom and Final Fantasy 15, or futz around with VR, (as a matter of fact, I'm trying to build my new PC to be a compitent high end VR device) but I'm stuck in a pretty bad loop.

I'm a unique case, though. there's plenty of factors as to why video games didn't move in 2016, which is by all accounts, a relatively good year for video games if what folks are saying about Titanfall 2 and Watch_Dogs 2 are to be believed. Ignoring things like 40% of Steam's library being added to it in 2016 and the obvious bits like No Man's Sky and Mighty No. 9, this has been a positive year for games, but... I think it may have to do with both the world state at large and a number of other factors that are pushing folks out. Games as a service, the high cost to get in on VR, the lack of proliferation of 4K... who truly knows at this point?

Great show. Loved the feature discussion on game sales that segued in to game coverage and exposure.

All the big gaming sites are owned by media conglomerates, vox media, etc. They hire alot of shitty hipsters who are clueless about gaming.

The little touch of Greg asking "are we recording" during the intro music was absolutely hilarious.

I thought Greg was supposed to be on this episode?