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Episode 318: Don't Shit on the Fish Farmer

by James Jones, Jonathan Metts, Nathan Mustafa, and Guillaume Veillette - December 15, 2012, 4:58 pm EST
Total comments: 13

We pulled an ex-NWR favorite out of retirement for this packed episode.

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It's been a couple of years since Nathan Mustafa shut down the Newscast and stepped away from the site, but we've always been fans and are fortunate to have him return as a guest for this week's RFN. You might recall that Nathan is a veteran of iOS game reviews, a skill that factors into this episode at a few different points. But Guillaume has the honor/duty of going first in New Business, since we lost his audio for this segment last time. You'll hear his strong defense of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on Wii U (a chorus joined by Jonny as well), plus a very positive take on Matsuno's Crimson Shroud, a very cheap and unusual RPG just released for the 3DS eShop. James follows up on Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward to answer our curious questions about how this sequel takes advantage of the 3DS platform. Nathan reminds us that Harvest Moon is alive and well on Nintendo's current handheld, but he has no love for the recent iOS port of Mutant Mudds. An exacting 2D platformer with virtual buttons... what could go wrong? He also discusses New Super Mario Bros. U and wonders if anyone else is having so much trouble with the game's difficulty. Jonny cleans up the segment with his early impressions of Rocksmith, the game-like real guitar trainer, and his thoughts on a recently acquired copy of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy further cement the heavy 3DS emphasis of this week's New Business.

We recently put out a call for fresh Listener Mail through social media, and many of you responded with great ideas for the show. The latest batch of questions take us through the Android-based Ouya console, sharing Nintendo Network IDs (see list below), brainstorming Pikmin 3, Nintendo's odd approach to downloadable games, and how to push for Mass Effect Trilogy on Wii U. Send in your own questions for next time! Don't forget to keep playing Majora's Mask, and look out for a special, abbreviated holiday episode next week, followed by a rare vacation for the RFN crew before we return in the new year with lots more Nintendo talk, our top games of 2012, the live RetroActive, and maybe even a certain bald guy.

You can follow (and try to friend, space permitting) the RFN crew + Nate on Nintendo Network with these IDs:

Jonny - JonnyNWR
James - zCrimm
Guillaume - Pandareus
Lindy - (TBD - He doesn't have Wii U yet.)
Nathan - Greybrick

Also, visit this forum thread to find many other NWR staff members and fellow fans.

This podcast was edited by Guillaume Veillette.

Music for this episode of Radio Free Nintendo is used with permission from Jason Ricci & New Blood. You can purchase their newest album, Done with the Devil, directly from the record label, Amazon (CD) (MP3), or iTunes, or call your local record store and ask for it!

Additional music for this episode of Radio Free Nintendo is copyrighted to Nintendo and is included under fair use protection.

Talkback

Heads up: The Crimson Shroud developer is Matsuno, not Mitsuno.

Hoping James got good and far into VLR. Like, say, getting 24.

Thanks, I meant to double-check that spelling and then Gui posted the episode way early! ;-)

Pixelated PixiesDecember 16, 2012

I support early posting of RFN.

supergttDecember 16, 2012

To answer a question about AC3 from the podcast, yes you can destroy masts, you get chain shot later on that can destroy sails and masts. You can also get grape shot and heat shot.

but you can't really target specific spots.

the sailing parts of the game are the best.

AVDecember 16, 2012

I thought ouya did have touch screen on the controller

http://m.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/check-out-ouyas-sleek-game-controller-touchpad-913793

I think it might be big with casual cheap gamers and maybe they can make roku ouya and that could take off

I'm a little disappointed in harvest moon talk because it just released on e-shop so that is tempting , but what you guys said Is typical for franchise . The last one I played was first ruin factory and got tired of it 30 hour in and didn't finish it .

I'm glad you mentioned my pikmin 3 ideas , I really thought hard about stuff . I'll post all them here on forums later

A few years back I was playing Rune Factory: Frontier. I spend a few episodes on it.

AVDecember 16, 2012

i'm not really disagreeing james, its a chore but its easy to get hooked. I still might pick up the newest one because I think it might be worth while still.


Anyway here is the rest of the list:


Entire game is co-op with gamepad as 2nd player or 2nd wiimote/nunchuck. optional touch screen controls that copy and improve upon nintendo land pikmin mini game variable and random enviromental weather conditionsinstantly switch out and manage colors of pikmin on touch screen without needing to go back to onions Dynamic level design that changes and adapts to gameplay ( mudslides caused by animals , flash floods and areas could become pools instantly, wild fires can be a online co-op and exclusive modes Draw lines for pikmin to follow, either by pointing or touch screenshake nunchuck to melee attack andA.I. for pikmin that instinctively causes aggression if you loose dozens in battle, actively dodge attacks as they see others die from specific hazard, they build pikmin ropes / ladders to climb onAbility to use objects in environment better, so pikmin can toss rocks, use small killed creatures to bait bigger ones

Okay, I'm suggesting a moratorium on Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing: Transformed discussion, just because I can't take much more of James ragging on it and Jonny apologizing for James's ragging on it.

I may have to pick up Crimson Shroud, since I love tabletop RPG's.

PlugabugzDecember 17, 2012

By certain bald guy i hope its Patrick Stewart.

TheFleeceDecember 17, 2012

Quote from: Mr.

I thought ouya did have touch screen on the controller

http://m.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/check-out-ouyas-sleek-game-controller-touchpad-913793

I think it might be big with casual cheap gamers and maybe they can make roku ouya and that could take off

I'm a little disappointed in harvest moon talk because it just released on e-shop so that is tempting , but what you guys said Is typical for franchise . The last one I played was first ruin factory and got tired of it 30 hour in and didn't finish it .

I'm glad you mentioned my pikmin 3 ideas , I really thought hard about stuff . I'll post all them here on forums later

It looks like the Ouya has a trackpad on the top center of the controller. I wasn't aware of that and I'm not so excited about it. My impression was that some interesting games could come out of the console, I wasn't thinking about ports of mobile games at all. I was hoping for maybe a new contender in the home console market. It'll have access to On-Live and just about every video streaming service too. Sure all the mobile stuff will be playable and that will be whatever it is, but I feel the console is the first step in playing great quality games for less money and having access to how your machine behaves. I'm excited to see what the future brings.


I liked your ideas for Pikmin, especially the fire idea. It would be cool to use the Pikmin to protect the environment or to even control Pikmin under water to retrieve items. Maybe Harvest Moon should use some new ideas to energize the series- how about Multiplayer?

KDR_11kDecember 17, 2012

There's a number of Android games that already support physical controls. Unlike iOS they don't have to hide that fact, there are even devices like the Xperia Play around that come with built-in controls. Stuff like Dead Trigger supports dual analog* FPS gameplay on that system.

Isn't OnLive on its deathbed?

The whole talk about farming to automate the farming reminded me of playing Minecraft with the Tekkit mod pack (the Technic pack contains more but one of the issues I have with it is that it introduces dangerous mobs during the daytime which make it difficult to get anything done). It even has a fairly advanced growing and breeding system for plants. Of course building automation systems for your farm requires some ingenuity but there's so many tools at your disposal that you can come up with something. The Yogscast Jaffa Factory series on Youtube is about the wonders of automation in Tekkit.

*= Since the XP's "analog sticks" are just a secondary touchpad it usually works by having the left one work like an analog stick and the right one like a touchpad so you aim by sliding your right thumb around.

geoDecember 17, 2012

If anyone has played a bit further in the pikmin game in nintendoland, there are a few ideas in there that might make their way into the final game, such as the 3 types of pikmin upgrades.  They have a hammer that makes the pikmin drop hard on top of enemies, a vine that lets the pikmin home in on enemies once thrown, and a fist that shoots the pikmin at an enemy like a bullet.  That could expand upon the nectar upgrades by making you choose which upgrade is best for certain types of enemies (hammer for ones with weak spots on top, vines for flying enemies, and the fist for enemies that move fast or have weak spots on the side). 

KDR_11kDecember 19, 2012

I suspect that friends list size limits are about RAM. Unlike PCs consoles tend to be very memory constrained so accounting for a friends list that could be infinitely large would run the risk of pushing a game past the RAM limit. With a fixed upper size of 100 you know that friends list cannot take up more than X MB of RAM so you can design your game's RAM usage around that.

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