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Episode 447: Who Is Cobra Commander?

by James Jones, Greg Leahy, Jon Lindemann, and Guillaume Veillette - October 4, 2015, 12:11 pm EDT
Total comments: 8

This isn't a rhetorical question; I need to know.

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The show comes down from its Mario Maker high with a nearly Mario Maker-free New Business. Spurred by the delay of Star Fox Zero, James kicks it off with a report on his first time playing Star Fox Command. He finds the control options for DS games on the Wii U Virtual Console lacking, but nothing compares to the horror that is Slippy's fiance or the canonization of Krystal. Greg has a report from Mario Maker! No, the declaration of Mario Maker-free New Business wasn't a lie; he's playing the latest DLC for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: The Mario Maker stage. He's also been forced by the blackened heart of Roger Goodell to buy an Xbox One, so he starts off Rare Replay with only the finest of the legendary company's output: Jet Force Gemini. Free from Jonny's constant "comments," Jon is liberated to report on Destiny: The Taken King without looking over his shoulder. It raises the questions, why would you just want to hunt loot all the time and do the same content over and over? Lastly, Guillaume is in a bit of a Mario Funk, can Konami's (RIP) early Wii title Elebits charm him back into gaming? Can he explain why Konami Europe (RIP) felt the need to rename the game Eledees just to make an LED pun? No, and no.

After the weekly trampling of sedate tones of Japanese music by the well-meaning but disastrous attempt to cross-promote NWR, it's time for Listener Mail! Topics covered include importing games to the UK, Nintendo merchandise collecting, Nintendo merchandise rejection, making new IPs, marketing new IPs, and James' life-altering advice on Visual Novels. Most people promise to alter your life in exchange for money but we will alter your life forever for just the price of sending us an email!

It's time for our RetroActive Jr. on Mario Tennis: Power Tour and we hope you'll play along with us. We will be talking about it on episode 449 so hurry and post your thoughts, questions, and observation in the forum thread.

This episode was edited by Guillaume Veillette. The "Men of Leisure" theme song was produced exclusively for Radio Free Nintendo by Perry Burkum. Hear more at Bluffs Custom Music.

This episode's ending music is called Sophia from the game Gimmick. All rights reserved by Sunsoft. It was suggested by Jonson via the mailbag.

Talkback

EnnerOctober 04, 2015

Good show. Really enjoyed the discussion on the success of Splatoon, it's marketing, and having it contrasted with Code Name STEAM.


Then James made a reference to Narcissu (1st and 2nd available on Steam) and I knew it was a great show.

TOPHATANT123October 04, 2015

I think the art style is what hurt Code Name Steam the most, probably would have sold 4x as much if they went with a cell shaded anime art style like Valkeria Chronicles instead of chasing the american comic book audience that doesn't exist and doesn't look good at such a low resolution. I appreciate the ambition though.

Corpse Party is already out on 3ds in Japan, haven't played it myself but I watched someone play it. Super spooky although not much of a visual novel.

Music: Earthbound Beginnings - All That I Needed Was You

I think a lot of things hurt Codename S.T.E.A.M., including and especially the game centering around Steampunk U.S. historical figures, that's gotta hurt the international interest in some part.


I had to give up on Destiny earlier this year about a month after the release of House of Wolves.  That expansion did a lot to fix some of the leveling problems I had, but it was still all too repetitive with the PvE end content they had in that one (can't remember the name).  My biggest challenge before that was that I have 3 friends that used to play with me, you need 6 people total to do a raid, I think, and can only take 3 people total through the strikes.  We never could get 2 other people to do a raid, and every time we were all playing at once, someone would be the odd man out for strikes. 


PVP was fun and I miss it sometimes, but I can't justify a $40 expansion for playing the PvE alone & PVP.  I can't complain I didn't get value out of it because I played it A LOT and got my times worth out of it, but at the end I'll remember it as primarily short of what I wanted it to be/what it would have been capable of being if there was a decent queue system for raids & flexibility in how many people could run strikes together.




SorenOctober 05, 2015

I can confirm the cat's paw is on the Mario Maker stage.

KobeskillzOctober 05, 2015

I forgot I had sent that Amiibo email. I sent that out of frustration when I completely missed on the last wave.

I know you guys aren’t into Amiibo but if you are and you check the stores every time you go to them you would see just how bad it is. Literally you only see Mario or the same bowser or Luigi. For the past year!!!! I live in So Cal (LA) so it’s not like I live in a small town or anything.

The only people who are excited about some Amiibos getting restocked are scalpers because I bet you anything I won’t see a single one of those re stocked
Amiibos in stores.

Also Activision and Disney don’t seem to have a problem stocking their toys. Seriously their section is always jammed packed. I don’t buy the whole US being harder to distribute. I sure it is but that doesn’t seem to affect their competitors.

This just illustrates yet again how terrible NoA is. They have been complete garbage for a while now. Makes me want to move to Europe. Lol.

JonOctober 06, 2015

Fun show as always!

It's nice to hear a legit discussion of SF Command without a ton of trashing it. It has its flaws but also has some merits. I liked it quite a bit.

I think the most fun I had with Command was when I really started to figure out the strategy of the overworld sections - using the Great Fox and extra fuel etc to bypass the plethora of encounters and get down to the main objective quickly. It really helped pick up the pace of the game. And since most of the encounters were all very similar, it felt a lot less redundant

Quote from: Enner

Then James made a reference to Narcissu (1st and 2nd available on Steam) and I knew it was a great show.

Wondered if anyone would get the reference.

Quote from: Jon

It really helped pick up the pace of the game. And since most of the encounters were all very similar, it felt a lot less redundant

I ended up going back to it (video tomorrow!) but yeah the "this is the same" takes it down to me. Like some parts of the game work well but they really needed to mix it up. Some straight ahead content would have done the game a lot of good. It's kind of a bummer that I learned the overworld strategy to minimize encounters. I'd rather the game makes me want to dive head-first into them.

JonOctober 07, 2015

Yeah, that's totally fair. The game should make you want to participate in actual gameplay rather than avoid it. Negative points for not being the most fun encounters. Points for the option of efficiency I suppose?

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