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Episode 488: I Need the Good Rocks, and I Don't Mean Geodude

by James Jones, Greg Leahy, and Jon Lindemann - August 6, 2016, 9:36 pm EDT
Total comments: 8

I'm just a man, walking around, with a pipe but no rocks.

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Gui's quarantine continues into its second week; in lieu of flowers, please send a donation to The Society for the Advancement of Charm in Games. After editing last week's mega-cast, James got lazy and declared this show would be a three-man affair. Jon kicks off New Business with Pokémon Y on 3DS. As this spiritual Ekans (it's "Snake" backwards) winds itself further around Jon's heart, we try to save him from an extended cocaine metaphor by hooking him on another self-destructive addiction, Monster Hunter - specifically the future of the series. Greg has thoughts on Blastball local multiplayer, and he finds the game's stupid moments to be the game's best. He also has thoughts on TurboGrafx shooter R-Type, now available on Wii U Virtual Console. Much like recent Retro Active title Rondo of Blood, this game is superior to its SNES pseud-port Super R-Type. James continues to make terrible decisions with impressions of The Battle Cats POP! on 3DS eShop. A Sword and Soldiers-style game starring Japanese sketches of cat monsters, Battle Cats is a weird mobile-to-3DS conversion hampered by decisions as weird as its premise.

After the break, it's time for Listener Mail. We start off with a plug for an upcoming charity event; The Nickcast: The Race Against Time is a 24-hour Chrono Trigger livestream, raising money for Alzheimer's research. It's coming up next Saturday (August 13). Other topics include: physical releases of digital-only games, the number of rumored NX devices a family man will have to buy, and descriptions of our gaming battle stations. You can arm us for war by sending us an email.

This episode was edited by James Jones. The "Men of Leisure" theme song was produced exclusively for Radio Free Nintendo by Perry Burkum. Hear more at Bluffs Custom Music's SoundCloud. The new Radio Free Nintendo logo was produced by Connor Strickland. See more of his work at his website

This episode's ending music is A Submerging Titan from Super R-Type. All rights reserved by Irem.

Talkback

TOPHATANT123August 07, 2016

I recall from the 8-4 podcast Capcom tried Monster Hunter on mobile but I don't think it really took off.

I'd advise the person with the family (assuming that NX is as people say it is) to stick with the 3DS for travelling and leave the NX at home for now. The 3DS and DS have such huge libraries as well as the fact that many games are still being released for it, Ever Oasis is a 2017 game and also Lady Layton: The Millionaire Ariadone Conspiracy is slated for release after NX.

EnnerAugust 07, 2016

I came for the siren.


I stayed for the Battle Cats.

KDR_11kAugust 08, 2016

The problem with the idea of the base station giving the NX more power when docked than when portable is that it essentially splits it into two systems for game development purposes. So any game made for the NX would be a cross platform game targeting both the mobile and the desktop NX (unless it's allowed to create games that cannot be played mobile?).


You can imagine what that means: Games need to be made with either two different graphics settings, target the lowest common denominator (i.e. ignore all the extra power that the base gives) or just stutter when played on the go (the Hyrule Warriors Legends solution to supporting two platforms of different power). And the difference would be huge if a portable-only version was cheaper than the dual purpose one, after all removing a docking port while adding a battery and screen doesn't exactly lower costs. It might be possible to offer a cheaper home-only version that lacks the screen, battery and whatever else a portable might need, like the Vita TV.


A smaller screen (lower resolution) doesn't save THAT much power, especially the CPU would have to remain the same or the gameplay would need to change between the home and mobile modes and the GPU couldn't save much beyond fillrate. You'd need to make a second, lower spec set of graphics (admittedly cheaper than making a second game but still very, very expensive) to really use both modes fully and most cross-platform games don't bother with that.

zalmuteAugust 08, 2016

Great Episode Guys!

LemonadeAugust 09, 2016

I think Bit Trip Runner 2 is worthy of a physical release. I have already bought it twice, (360, then Wii U because it was delayed here in Australia), I would buy an eShop Selects physical release too.

KDR_11kAugust 09, 2016

Oh and regarding physical releases for online-only indie games, there are multiple publishers doing that with PC indies in Europe, I presume there's a lot of people not willing or able to buy games online.

nickmitchAugust 09, 2016

It is always a treat to listen to Jon talk about playing Pokemon.

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterAugust 17, 2016

So yeah here's about how my setup works. I figure it's worth sharing because I have a fairly decent setup for just a PS2 and a Wii U that are booked up on there.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqGRj-bWcAEqLcW.jpg:large

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqGRknXWYAAOcDb.jpg:large


Let's start with the TV itself. On the back of the TV there are 3 different connections (outside of the cable deal) going. However all three of these connections are actually running to the same device. An audio receiver with 5 HDMI ports, Two sets for Component cables, and Three inputs for composite.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqGRlhBWcAA3TVA.jpg:large

Now one of the composite inputs is taken up by a VCR but that's fine because the VCR has two composite inputs of it's own I can use. Not even joking.

Oh and the whole thing uses an old set of Bose surround sound speakers for sound. On the one hand I'm pretty sure that Subwoofer died out years ago, on the other hand I decided to play the Zelda 25th anniversary CD on the PS2 because I've never tested the CD player on a PS2 and for a set of speakers that are well over 15 years old it sounds absolutely heavenly on there.

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