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Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast, Episode 24
Reviews of old-school and new-school platformers.

September 22, 2008 - Welcome to the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast. Each week your IGN Nintendo Team – made up of Matt Casamassina, Mark Bozon, Craig Harris, and Daemon Hatfield get together to talk about all things Nintendo.

Big holiday reviews are starting to roll in, including Mega Man 9, Wario Land Shake It, and de Blob. We've also got the second half of our interview with Vicarious Visions concerning the next DS edition of Guitar Hero.

Download Here

Nintendo Voice Chat summary
September 22nd, 2008 Posted in DS, News, Wii, Written by Valay

Note: I haven’t posted the Guitar Hero interview because I do not have enough time. However, I believe the interview was only three or four minutes.

Mega Man 9
- Debate was going on about what score the graphics should get
- Matt thinks the graphics are outdated and kind of ugly, but it doesn’t affect the gameplay
- Craig/Bozon say it’s not a bad looking game, just a step back in technology
- Daemon doesn’t think the graphics are bad either
- Graphics score given was a 3
- In the swing of things, the whole breakdown doesn’t affect the scores as much as people think they do
- Talk about how cool the Mega Man 9 press kit is

Wario Land: Shake It!
- 8.4 review score
- Doesn’t run in true widescreen, Matt feels its almost a deal-breaker for him these days
- Still a quality product, controls are responsive
- Level design is great, a lot of variety
- Backdrops change a lot too, reminds Matt of the games he grew up with playing and loved
- Doesn’t have many gimmicks other
- You know where to go, you just have to figure out how to get there
- Bozon doesn’t like some of the backgrounds - such a small amount of parallax and foreground layers
- Can complete the stages in about 5 hours but you can keep (and will want to) come back to the stages
- Matt highly recommends the game, would pay $50 for it



de Blob
- Also an 8.4
- Giant puffy ball, kinda Kirbyish
- Roll through environments and splatter paint everywhere in monochromatic worlds
- Want to gain points and open up gateways
- There’s an overall countdown timer, secondary mission objectives
- It’s a very polished Wii third-party game
- Matt thinks they could have done more with this first game, like use the pointer
- Matt hopes people buys it, maybe the beginning of the franchise

Nintendo’s October conferences
- Press event, not public. Two events (Japan, North America).
- Usually means that if they’re doing these events at the same time they’ve got some kind of news/game/announcement that is big enough that it must be done internationally
- Joke that maybe it’s just Wii Music, but Matt believes Nintendo is now aware they need to appeal to the hardcore. Joking about how Wii Music at the conference would be a double slap in the face.
- Matt still thinks Wii Music will be there, but they’ll downplay it. Says maybe they’ll show off Disaster since it hasn’t been announced for North America yet.
- Matt isn’t too sure that Kid Icarus will be there
- Matt is optimistic because Iwata basically admitted that E3 was horrible. Believes maybe Disaster, The Conduit, Animal Crossing Fatal Frame will be at the conference. Don’t totally turn away the possibility of a new game announcement.
- Might be a good opportunity to give a solution to the storage problem since this is being done internationally
- Matt won’t really talk about Kid Icarus now since he hasn’t heard anything new. Bozon thinks maybe next year at GDC or something. (This is all speculation)
- This is preceding TGS, so it could be their “splash”
- Matt thinks it’s going to be a big event, he goes on record and says people should tune in that week, but he could be wrong

Wii Music
- Official release date on October 20
- Joke about burning Wii Music discs
- Little Big Planet comes out on the same day

Shaun White’s Snowboarding
- Daemon thinks it looks visually impressive
- He likes the game, the balance board controls feel good. Is a bit casual.
- Has multiplayer issue because everyone will want to use the balance board
- Looks better than Skate It because it’s stylized
- Wii version is taking more of a casual approach, but Craig says this isn’t a bad thing
- DS game was pretty good too
- Joke about how Cammie Dunaway should be a playable character

Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades
- Great track-listing
- Basically like the last game, just more of an update
- Bozon thinks the tracks are way better than the first game, Craig thinks there are some awful tracks

Ninjatown multiplayer
- Daemon says it’s a lot of fun
- Multiplayer much like single-player, want to win each wave
- Three multiplayer maps for single-cart multiplayer, 9 for multi-cart
- Comes out next month, should be on people’s radar

Drawn to Life SpongeBob
- The original sold very well
- Craig believes this version will sell much more than the original version because SpongeBob is in the game
- Presentation is a little iffy, no character voices - but still fun

C.O.R.E.
- Looks pretty good visually, ran smoothly
- Nothing original about it
- Has same issues as moon since there aren’t many enemies on screen
- When enemies get shot they don’t react
- No radar
- Might be okay, need to play more

Reader questions
- IGN Nintendo Team has had some concerns looking at trailers/screens of Disaster: Day of Crisis. Some parts of the game look fun, others not so much.
- Commodore 64 isn’t on NA VC yet probably because it was more popular in Europe. Bozon says he can’t name 5 games he’d want. Craig wants Atari 2600 games.
- Call of Duty for Wii is being held off for an event coming up soon. Nothing new on Renegade Kid’s title that can be shared, the company said it’s not the right time to show more yet. The Conduit’s publisher news any day now, IGN will hear first. Matt is guessing EA.
- Should Capcom release Mega Man X on the VC? Why not
- Favorite entry in the Wario Land franchise? Virtual Boy game - Bozon, Wario Land 2 - Daemon, Super Mario Land 3 (?) - Craig
- Away Shuffle Dungeon opinion - Daemon likes it a lot
- The World Ends With You sold around 270,000, good for a new IP.
- Should see some more coverage of Quantum of Solace soon
- Mega Man 9 on which console? Wii for Bozon since it looks muddy on the 360
- Matt and Craig like the new layout more. Matt says the ads aren’t bigger.
- Know anything about the new Spider-Man game for Wii? - No, but DS version is fun, Craig and Bozon both like it
- Wii Shop Channel is inefficient - Bozon thinks Nintendo won’t fix it, Matt wants a storage solution

Thanks NintendoEverything.com!

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

anxious for the wario, blob, mm9 and kirby talk

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

Is it still cool to say I hate this despite following it religiously?

 

[pakkit]

Is it still cool to say I hate this despite following it religiously?

That's old news, now you have to say how Matt Cass sounds like he doesn't want to be doing the podcast.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I hate this stupid fucking podcast. What a waste of time.

Spoiler

Yay Matt's finally back.

 

[rabhw]

Reader questions or no?

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

Won't listen. Need summary.

Spoiler

listening now actually

 

[Ydahs]

Won't listen. Need summary.

Spoiler

listening now actually

Good choice, I'll wait for the summary too.

Spoiler

summary please

 

[TunaLover]

I´ll wait the stupid summary too =/

It´s available in the banned site. It was boring and uninformative as always. =/

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I wish asking for a summary suffered the same consequence as "tl;dr". :/

 

[lsslave]

I wish asking for a summary suffered the sam consequence as "tl;dr". :/

Why? Some of us don't feel like listening to a podcast and would rather just see what was said. People get summaries of magazines, why should a podcast be any different?

 

[D-Pad]

Imma download and give it a listen, but to those waiting for a summary:

Nintendo Voice Chat summary
September 22nd, 2008 Posted in DS, News, Wii, Written by Valay

Note: I haven’t posted the Guitar Hero interview because I do not have enough time. However, I believe the interview was only three or four minutes.

Mega Man 9
- Debate was going on about what score the graphics should get
- Matt thinks the graphics are outdated and kind of ugly, but it doesn’t affect the gameplay
- Craig/Bozon say it’s not a bad looking game, just a step back in technology
- Daemon doesn’t think the graphics are bad either
- Graphics score given was a 3
- In the swing of things, the whole breakdown doesn’t affect the scores as much as people think they do
- Talk about how cool the Mega Man 9 press kit is

Wario Land: Shake It!
- 8.4 review score
- Doesn’t run in true widescreen, Matt feels its almost a deal-breaker for him these days
- Still a quality product, controls are responsive
- Level design is great, a lot of variety
- Backdrops change a lot too, reminds Matt of the games he grew up with playing and loved
- Doesn’t have many gimmicks other
- You know where to go, you just have to figure out how to get there
- Bozon doesn’t like some of the backgrounds - such a small amount of parallax and foreground layers
- Can complete the stages in about 5 hours but you can keep (and will want to) come back to the stages
- Matt highly recommends the game, would pay $50 for it



de Blob
- Also an 8.4
- Giant puffy ball, kinda Kirbyish
- Roll through environments and splatter paint everywhere in monochromatic worlds
- Want to gain points and open up gateways
- There’s an overall countdown timer, secondary mission objectives
- It’s a very polished Wii third-party game
- Matt thinks they could have done more with this first game, like use the pointer
- Matt hopes people buys it, maybe the beginning of the franchise

Nintendo’s October conferences
- Press event, not public. Two events (Japan, North America).
- Usually means that if they’re doing these events at the same time they’ve got some kind of news/game/announcement that is big enough that it must be done internationally
- Joke that maybe it’s just Wii Music, but Matt believes Nintendo is now aware they need to appeal to the hardcore. Joking about how Wii Music at the conference would be a double slap in the face.
- Matt still thinks Wii Music will be there, but they’ll downplay it. Says maybe they’ll show off Disaster since it hasn’t been announced for North America yet.
- Matt isn’t too sure that Kid Icarus will be there
- Matt is optimistic because Iwata basically admitted that E3 was horrible. Believes maybe Disaster, The Conduit, Animal Crossing Fatal Frame will be at the conference. Don’t totally turn away the possibility of a new game announcement.
- Might be a good opportunity to give a solution to the storage problem since this is being done internationally
- Matt won’t really talk about Kid Icarus now since he hasn’t heard anything new. Bozon thinks maybe next year at GDC or something. (This is all speculation)
- This is preceding TGS, so it could be their “splash”
- Matt thinks it’s going to be a big event, he goes on record and says people should tune in that week, but he could be wrong

Wii Music
- Official release date on October 20
- Joke about burning Wii Music discs
- Little Big Planet comes out on the same day

Shaun White’s Snowboarding
- Daemon thinks it looks visually impressive
- He likes the game, the balance board controls feel good. Is a bit casual.
- Has multiplayer issue because everyone will want to use the balance board
- Looks better than Skate It because it’s stylized
- Wii version is taking more of a casual approach, but Craig says this isn’t a bad thing
- DS game was pretty good too
- Joke about how Cammie Dunaway should be a playable character

Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades
- Great track-listing
- Basically like the last game, just more of an update
- Bozon thinks the tracks are way better than the first game, Craig thinks there are some awful tracks

Ninjatown multiplayer
- Daemon says it’s a lot of fun
- Multiplayer much like single-player, want to win each wave
- Three multiplayer maps for single-cart multiplayer, 9 for multi-cart
- Comes out next month, should be on people’s radar

Drawn to Life SpongeBob
- The original sold very well
- Craig believes this version will sell much more than the original version because SpongeBob is in the game
- Presentation is a little iffy, no character voices - but still fun

C.O.R.E.
- Looks pretty good visually, ran smoothly
- Nothing original about it
- Has same issues as moon since there aren’t many enemies on screen
- When enemies get shot they don’t react
- No radar
- Might be okay, need to play more

Reader questions
- IGN Nintendo Team has had some concerns looking at trailers/screens of Disaster: Day of Crisis. Some parts of the game look fun, others not so much.
- Commodore 64 isn’t on NA VC yet probably because it was more popular in Europe. Bozon says he can’t name 5 games he’d want. Craig wants Atari 2600 games.
- Call of Duty for Wii is being held off for an event coming up soon. Nothing new on Renegade Kid’s title that can be shared, the company said it’s not the right time to show more yet. The Conduit’s publisher news any day now, IGN will hear first. Matt is guessing EA.
- Should Capcom release Mega Man X on the VC? Why not
- Favorite entry in the Wario Land franchise? Virtual Boy game - Bozon, Wario Land 2 - Daemon, Super Mario Land 3 (?) - Craig
- Away Shuffle Dungeon opinion - Daemon likes it a lot
- The World Ends With You sold around 270,000, good for a new IP.
- Should see some more coverage of Quantum of Solace soon
- Mega Man 9 on which console? Wii for Bozon since it looks muddy on the 360
- Matt and Craig like the new layout more. Matt says the ads aren’t bigger.
- Know anything about the new Spider-Man game for Wii? - No, but DS version is fun, Craig and Bozon both like it
- Wii Shop Channel is inefficient - Bozon thinks Nintendo won’t fix it, Matt wants a storage solution

 

[Man God]

I can sort of understand the reasoning here.

Most articles that are TL: DR'd take at most a few minutes to read even by the slowest reader.

These podcasts...take more than that by quite a bit.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Just seems lazy to me that you want the info but don't want to listen.

Boz says he wish there was a "Graphics Tech/Graphic Style" split so he could give tech a 2 and style a 10. I agree with his reasonings behind the graphics score, actually.

 

[EktorPR]

Mega Man 9 looks "muddy" on the 360?! How can that be possible? :lol

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

"Wario Land: Shake It!

- Doesn’t run in true widescreen, Matt feels its almost a deal-breaker for him these days"

god Matt, shut the hell up

 

[RumblingRosco]

Nintendo’s October conferences
- Press event, not public. Two events (Japan, North America).
- Usually means that if they’re doing these events at the same time they’ve got some kind of news/game/announcement that is big enough that it must be done internationally
- Joke that maybe it’s just Wii Music, but Matt believes Nintendo is now aware they need to appeal to the hardcore. Joking about how Wii Music at the conference would be a double slap in the face.
- Matt still thinks Wii Music will be there, but they’ll downplay it. Says maybe they’ll show off Disaster since it hasn’t been announced for North America yet.
- Matt isn’t too sure that Kid Icarus will be there
- Matt is optimistic because Iwata basically admitted that E3 was horrible. Believes maybe Disaster, The Conduit, Animal Crossing Fatal Frame will be at the conference. Don’t totally turn away the possibility of a new game announcement.
- Might be a good opportunity to give a solution to the storage problem since this is being done internationally
- Matt won’t really talk about Kid Icarus now since he hasn’t heard anything new. Bozon thinks maybe next year at GDC or something. (This is all speculation)
- This is preceding TGS, so it could be their “splash”
- Matt thinks it’s going to be a big event, he goes on record and says people should tune in that week, but he could be wrong

Summary:

"Usually, some stuff might maybe happen, we believe, though it is speculation. We aren't too sure, we think."

 

[grandjedi6]

The World Ends With You sold around 270,000, good for a new IP

:O

 

[ThatObviousUser]

"Wario Land: Shake It!

- Doesn’t run in true widescreen, Matt feels its almost a deal-breaker for him these days"

god Matt, shut the hell up

You didn't listen to the podcast did you?

This is another reason I hate summaries, so much is lost yet people base entire opinions on them.

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

:O

great number but I'm not surprised, game's been constantly sold out the weeks after release

 

[Baconbitz]

I'd don't get why there talking about MM9 graphics. Isn't it supposed to be that way?

 

[DanteFox]

Wario Land: Shake It!
- 8.4 review score
- Doesn’t run in true widescreen, Matt feels its almost a deal-breaker for him these days

wah wah wah. That's all I hear

 

[ThatObviousUser]

wah wah wah. That's all I hear

No, that's all you're reading. >_>

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

You didn't listen to the podcast did you?

This is another reason I hate summaries, so much is lost yet people base entire opinions on them.

please, tell me what's the truth behind Matt's words

 

[ThatObviousUser]

please, tell me what's the truth behind Matt's words

He said it's almost a dealbreaker and initially it put him off to the title, but realized as he played that the game really has a great amount of quality put into it and he scored it accordingly (uh, 8.4 if you've forgotten.) You get a totally different feel for what he says if you actually listen to the podcast.

 

[Aaron Strife]

I like using pictures

- The World Ends With You sold around 270,000, good for a new IP.

- Doesn’t run in true widescreen, Matt feels its almost a deal-breaker for him these days

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

He said it's almost a dealbreaker and initially it put him off to the title, but realized as he played that the game really has a great amount of quality put into it and he scored it accordingly (uh, 8.4 if you've forgotten.)

thank you.
that's a shit summary then, since it doesn't even focus on the most important thing

and no I played the game and it's that good, and you certainly wont feel the lack of widescreen. That's why I took Matt's words as bullshit

 

[jeremy1456]

thank you.
that's a shit summary then, since it doesn't even focus on the most important thing

and no I played the game and it's that good, and you certainly wont feel the lack of widescreen. That's why I took Matt's words as bullshit

Stop being lazy then and listen to the podcast. The fact that you read the summary shows that you're interested in what they have to say.

 

[ivysaur12]

TWEWY sold 270k? Really?

 

[The Hermit]

Summary:

"Usually, some stuff might maybe happen, we believe, though it is speculation. We aren't too sure, we think."

Pretty much... I can´t believe I actually bought that Kid Icarus crap...

 

[markatisu]

TWEWY sold 270k? Really?

Yup, more of those slow burning titles that nobody ever sees on the NPD charts

Its too bad we cant get more DS numbers, I would like to see what Professor Layton and Final Fantasy CC Ring of Fates sold

 

[John Harker]

Yup, more of those slow burning titles that nobody ever sees on the NPD charts

Its too bad we cant get more DS numbers, I would like to see what Professor Layton and Final Fantasy CC Ring of Fates sold

Must have sold close to 600k WW then!

Good success for the best handheld game ever!!
(I can't even tell you why I feel that way, but I kind of meant it a bit)

 

[DayShallCome]

TWEWY sold 270k? Really?

Yeah, there was some discussion about this type of thing in the last NPD thread (although not about TWEWY specifically). It's just so hard these days to get a real idea of how most games are doing when we only get top 10.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

muddy on 360? poor amirox

 

[donny2112]

- The World Ends With You sold around 270,000, good for a new IP.

Do they specifically say that this is a NPD number?

While I'd like to believe that every sales number they quote comes from NPD, they have looked up numbers on VG Chartz during the podcasts before. The VG Chartz number is almost exactly that, so either 1) VG Chartz got lucky, 2) VG Chartz has already updated their database with the NPD number in the podcast, or 3) IGN got the number off of VG Chartz' website.

Who was the actual person to quote that number? Matt seems to be the most current on NPD numbers of the group.

 

[Crescendo170]

I like using pictures

Listen to the goddamn podcast.

Plea to users of NeoGAF; don't believe everything you read on the internet. Research before you comment. Read past the thread-title. Thanks.

 

[farnham]

Do they specifically say that this is a NPD number?

While I'd like to believe that every sales number they quote comes from NPD, they have looked up numbers on VG Chartz during the podcasts before. The VG Chartz number is almost exactly that, so either 1) VG Chartz got lucky, 2) VG Chartz has already updated their database with the NPD number in the podcast, or 3) IGN got the number off of VG Chartz' website.

Who was the actual person to quote that number? Matt seems to be the most current on NPD numbers of the group.

IGN has full NPD numbers because they bought the access

they cant announce those numbers because those are usually under NDA but they can get permission on specific titles

 

[jibblypop]

Matt seemed too quick to call stylized graphics ugly. I think he really doesn't understand the premise of Megaman 9 as much as he claims to. Like he kept saying that it was cool (but ugly) and nice (but terrible) on and on. They should have put NA for graphics instead of 3 because 3 implies a failure in the graphics department but it's obviously a huge success for the goal of the game.

 

[Gbeav]

What percentage of Wii games are released on widescreen?

 

[markatisu]

Do they specifically say that this is a NPD number?

Who was the actual person to quote that number? Matt seems to be the most current on NPD numbers of the group.

I would have to listen again but I was pretty sure Matt was the one talking about sale, and he uses NPD (I cannot remember any specific podcasts where he used VG Chartz from the last 2 years)

What percentage of Wii games are released on widescreen?

I am unsure of the actual %, but a large majority of them do now. It was not that way in the 1st year of the console though.

Mario Party 8 and Wario Land Shake It are just odd to not have WS, I know on MP8 it was just laziness as Hudson who developed it wanted to get it out there (its also one of the reasons a lot of mini games have poor controls), but Wario Land has been in the works for some time

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

EA possibly publishing the conduit is big news. I would especially like it if they polished it up a bit before release.

What percentage of Wii games are released on widescreen?

I'd say about 80+, though I can't speak for shovelware. Looking at the games I have, only 4 (HoTD, Trauma Centre Wii, and Ghost Squad, there's one i'm forgetting though) aren't in Widescreen and two of those have an excuse. (I have about 28 games for reference).

edit: I was wrong. I only own 3 games with no widescreen, out of 31 games total.

 

[donny2112]

(I cannot remember any specific podcasts where he used VG Chartz from the last 2 years)

They were looking up Chibi-Robo sales. They were all trying to guess, and Craig (I'm pretty sure it was him) went to VGC to find the total. It was a Wii-k in Review, but I'm not sure which one.

I can't recall Matt directly referencing VGC numbers before, though.