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Radio Free Nintendo | A Nintendo Podcast for Grownups

Kansoku

Member
The only scan I missed in Prime was the Ice Shriekbats. I was attacked as soon as I entered the room they were in, and I didn't even see what they were, so I never thought about scanning them. That was bullshit, but I don't think the rest of the game is so bad about it.
 

Tom_Cody

Member
I would love to hear the '100% Scans' topic expanded into a Listener Mail segment. Most modern Nintendo games feature some element of achievement systems (or however you want to describe them) and I would be interested in hearing how the RFN crew feels about this subject.

I have occasionally inadvertently ended up becoming my own worst by imposing rules on myself that developers never intended. Like, when playing modern Mario games I sometimes don't want to advance to the next world until I 100% the one that I'm on first, which can create a cycle where I end up replaying the same couple of levels over and over again instead of progressing through the games naturally. I used to get burned on on games by falling into this cycle, but now I deliberately try to focus on progressing through the main modes of games versus getting hung up on 100%ing extras during my first play-through.
 

leroidys

Member
I would just suggest that people shouldn't worry about 100%ing games, but for those whose OCD won't allow it, enjoy your private, self-inflicted hell :)
 

mrkgoo

Member
I would just suggest that people shouldn't worry about 100%ing games, but for those whose OCD won't allow it, enjoy your private, self-inflicted hell :)


I was going to comment, as sufferers of OCD can find it very debilitating. The symptoms are largely unwanted. Imagine any level of anxiety you might get from what ever causes YOU anxiety and then consider what if you get that feeling all the time from supposedly everyday activities or even just sinple actions.
 

silks

Member
I was going to comment, as sufferers of OCD can find it very debilitating. The symptoms are largely unwanted. Imagine any level of anxiety you might get from what ever causes YOU anxiety and then consider what if you get that feeling all the time from supposedly everyday activities or even just sinple actions.

This has nothing to do with OCD. It's a goal that the game sets for you, like a Platinum trophy. That's something that the developers intended; I'm not speedrunning the game or complaining about some metagame that I cooked up for myself. You don't hear me complaining about trying to 100% a Halo game because the criteria is evident during gameplay, with only the most obscure stuff requiring FAQ work, which I'm okay with. The scans in Metroid Prime are a huge, in-your-face part of gameplay, and to have them handled in such a vague and oftentimes punishing fashion is a real pain in the ass. Especially when the game goes out of its way to flesh out the lore of the series, inviting you to want to scan everything.

Unfortunately my segment went awry and the focus was on this drawback, making it sound like I didn't like the game. That's far from the case; it's one of my Top 5 games ever.
 
I would love to hear the '100% Scans' topic expanded into a Listener Mail segment. Most modern Nintendo games feature some element of achievement systems (or however you want to describe them) and I would be interested in hearing how the RFN crew feels about this subject.

So... write an email? :p

I agree that it's a ripe topic, and I have a lot to say about the OCD angle, but I'd rather do it live with the other guys.
 

mrkgoo

Member
This has nothing to do with OCD. It's a goal that the game sets for you, like a Platinum trophy. That's something that the developers intended; I'm not speedrunning the game or complaining about some metagame that I cooked up for myself. You don't hear me complaining about trying to 100% a Halo game because the criteria is evident during gameplay, with only the most obscure stuff requiring FAQ work, which I'm okay with. The scans in Metroid Prime are a huge, in-your-face part of gameplay, and to have them handled in such a vague and oftentimes punishing fashion is a real pain in the ass. Especially when the game goes out of its way to flesh out the lore of the series, inviting you to want to scan everything.

Unfortunately my segment went awry and the focus was on this drawback, making it sound like I didn't like the game. That's far from the case; it's one of my Top 5 games ever.

I have nothing against how people want to play. People should play however they want to. I just think the term "OCD" is thrown around a bit too loosely.

I agree that it sucks that they make scanning so obfuscated at parts - it's a reason why I never bothered 100%ing it.
 

leroidys

Member

I was going to comment, as sufferers of OCD can find it very debilitating. The symptoms are largely unwanted. Imagine any level of anxiety you might get from what ever causes YOU anxiety and then consider what if you get that feeling all the time from supposedly everyday activities or even just sinple actions.

Give me a break. I was referring to a specific persons experience in a specific part of the program. Good lord.
 

OMG Aero

Member
At least if they make a new Metroid Prime there's a solution to the scanning thing that I'm sure Jon would love, they could make amiibos of each scan.
You find out too late you missed a scan that you can't get again? Just go out and buy an amiibo of that door you forgot to scan and when you touch it to the gamepad it's recorded in your logbook!
 

silks

Member
At least if they make a new Metroid Prime there's a solution to the scanning thing that I'm sure Jon would love, they could make amiibos of each scan.
You find out too late you missed a scan that you can't get again? Just go out and buy an amiibo of that door you forgot to scan and when you touch it to the gamepad it's recorded in your logbook!

This made me laugh out loud. Touche. It's too logical not to happen!
 

Zornica

Banned
I don't understand why you are so negative on the voice chat thing. I'd expect that at least one of you had played MH3GU or CoD by now.... (online ofc)
 
Give me a break. I was referring to a specific persons experience in a specific part of the program. Good lord.
:p

The issue has personally affected my enjoyment of games in the past (clinically diagnosed with OCD by two different psychologists, wooo look at my mental disability street cred), but my drive-by link to a wikipedia article wasn't very conducive to good conversation. And it's not necessary anyway - I'm sure you meant no malice by it!

Needless to say it was a godsend when Arkham Asylum began its (quite frankly insane) impact on the industry, including its popularization of in-game mini-maps or the like for collectables.
 

Crimm

Member
I don't understand why you are so negative on the voice chat thing. I'd expect that at least one of you had played MH3GU or CoD by now.... (online ofc)

Neither of which are Nintendo games.

Undeniably using voice chat in the Nintendo game that does - Smash Bros. - is a poor experience hobbled by implementation and audio quality.
 
Started playing Pokémon TGC. It's pretty much exactly what it says on the box. Strange that I never knew that the rules were this complicated. When the TGC was big in Australia, I was already a teenager, so my only exposure to it was overhearing ten year olds playing it wrong on the school bus.

Back then, it seemed to me that it consisted of kids pulling out random cards and the "high" card won, so a holofoil Charizard beat everything. Not sure if I ever figured out what they thought energy cards were for. I'd be surprised if even a tenth of the kids who collected the cards even knew how to play.

Is it true this is a simplified version of Magic The Gathering? Now that seems like it'd have a cruel difficulty curve.
 
Just got the Water Medal. Are all the "gyms" this short? Seems to me like they wouldn't need to be as populated as the mainline games' gyms on account of matches taking so long.

The flow of the matches is interesting. It seems like the way to win big matches at the moment is to have your first Pokémon be a screener / delayed while you build up a power 'Mon in the background. There's a bit of long term thinking mixed in with praying you draw the right set of cards.
 

Zornica

Banned
Neither of which are Nintendo games.

Undeniably using voice chat in the Nintendo game that does - Smash Bros. - is a poor experience hobbled by implementation and audio quality.

while that's true, I don't think that voice chat was ever a priority to them during smash development. It surely was an afterthought, and that's how it ended up.

I merely mentioned cod and mh3gu because I see them as proof of concept. clearly those games rely on voice chat, and it shows.

what I'm trying to say is that, if nintendo feels like the game needs voice chat, than there is nothing stopping them from implementing it in a satisfactory manner.

Just got the Water Medal. Are all the "gyms" this short? Seems to me like they wouldn't need to be as populated as the mainline games' gyms on account of matches taking so long.

The flow of the matches is interesting. It seems like the way to win big matches at the moment is to have your first Pokémon be a screener / delayed while you build up a power 'Mon in the background. There's a bit of long term thinking mixed in with praying you draw the right set of cards.

It's been way too long since I last played this... but I remember it being quite long and quite hard too. Although that might also be because I never really figured out how to build a good team back then. Like those kids on the school bus, it was mostly style over substance (and mewtwo really sucks in this game).
If you are good at coin tossing, Kangaskhan is the best.
 
I have no idea what I'm doing either. There were a few times where I thought "I'm utterly hosed. I did not plan this well at all" but somehow managed to pull back from the brink thanks to some lucky coin tosses.

I just realised there are multiple versions of some of the cards. Like there's two versions of Vaporeon? That's just confusing.
 

Zornica

Banned
speaking of lucky coin tosses, those are not luck based. actually it's pretty easy to manipulate the outcome in your favour by pressing at the right time.
just press the button when you're on this frame:
coinmjusj.png


after a little practice it should work 100% of the time
the only thing I managed to master back then...
 

Ondore

Member
A little Pokemon to get everyone in the mood for the TCG this week.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/39635/episode-417-anything-but-sonic
Episode 417 "Anything But Sonic" said:
Jon needed this week off, so we asked our good buddy (and birthday boy) Michael "TYP" Cole to step in, as he often does. Our guest kicked off New Business with impressions of Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition on the Wii U. Guillaume follows with another independently-developed Wii U game, the brand new Blek. Jonny takes the indie attention to 3DS with an update on Moon Chronicles, which is finally complete with all remaining episodes. Then, for something completely different, James checks out the long-running and completely insane (Tecmo's) Deception series on PS3. We had some time to go back around, so TYP catches up to Pokemon Y after a long break from that franchise. Gui tries the Zelda-like, comedy-adventure Ittle Dew for Wii U, and Jonny recounts his star-studded trip to the D.I.C.E. Awards in Las Vegas.

Listener Mail is always a good survey of the topics you want to hear about, and this week's sample covers some familiar topics from new angles. First up is the ever-popular Virtual Console speculation, this time focused on how this feature could manifest on the New Nintendo 3DS (XL). We also consider Nintendo's true level of interest in the eSports tournament scene, and we try to help a Smash Bros. newcomer find a new fighter to call his favorite. Please keep the show varied and interesting by telling us what you'd like to hear about in the next email segment!

The next RetroActive discussion has officially begun! We hope many of you will play along with us and post your questions and comments about Pokemon: The Trading Card Game (GBC/3DS) right here in the NWR Forums. We'll take some of the best posts and use them in the upcoming podcast feature. It's also a great place to seek and offer help in the game, or just see what other people think about this odd little game-of-the-game-of-the-game.

Time: 1'55"22
Downloads: MP3 | AAC
The new streak: Starts next week
 

Tripon

Member
Edge Guarding is basically trying to deny your opponent trying to get back onto the stage. Depending on the game in the series, it can be done in different ways.
 

sörine

Banned
If you've been watching the Homebrew threads, you'd know the regular "old" 3DS has more than enough horsepower for full SNES emulation. Probably GBA as well. The reason we don't have 3DS VC of either platform really isn't a hardware limit one.

Also nearly all SNES games scale perfectly well to 3DS resolution. The "high res" mode on SNES was almost never used, and when it was it ended up being for things like menus or stills.
 
My instincts were saying that the last Fire Emblem for Super Famicom used the high resolution mode, but I held my tongue without any proof in the moment. I do remember that it used a huge cartridge for the time.
 

Tomohawk

Member
Hearing Jonny talk about pokemon, made me realize that Pokemon brings out a horrifying part of all of us. Catching pokemon just for the sake of it and then leaving them to live out their days in a box is crazy. It would be cool if in future installments, they had a farm like the DS digimon game(don't remember which one), so you can rest easy knowing your pokemon are still having fun without you.

Also for the smash tutorial talk I wish you guys went to task on Sakurai. He talks so much about appealing to the casual smash player, but then he goes in and puts a video tutorial in the game, instead of a physical one. No casual player wants to watch a video memorize everything its told them and go try it out. I've jumped into a bunch of newcomer streams and seen people get mad because they dont know how to do smash attacks to kill people or up-b to recover. Sometimes his decisions just confuse the f out of me.

For the Apex discussion its kind of sad to think that the heads of nintendo see the competitive community as nothing more then a way to make a few extra bucks, though its probably correct. I remember reading something by one of the melee community figure heads, where he talks about Street Fighter's Ono and how he would jump into crowds of his fans, while at the E3 invitational the smashers were told to avoid contact with Sakurai. At least Bill Trinen stayed up till 3am to watch melee grand finals at Apex. He seemed to be really know the scene.
 

Tomohawk

Member
I spent so long trying to come up with a question for BOP 100, its already out, I'm gonna have to redo my Q for the next episode.
 
speaking of lucky coin tosses, those are not luck based. actually it's pretty easy to manipulate the outcome in your favour by pressing at the right time.
just press the button when you're on this frame:
coinmjusj.png


after a little practice it should work 100% of the time
the only thing I managed to master back then...
Just an update, but I've been grinding some of the same opponents for booster packs and decided to do a little practice on this technique using save states, but I can never get the outcome to change. To be fair, I have the reflexes of a particularly lethargic sloth, but I'm starting to think that this might be another of those Pokémon myths like how holding Down on the D-pad when throwing a pokéball in the mainline game supposedly influences the rate of capture.

Interestingly, it seems as though the outcome of coin tosses is determined by an algorithm that's independent of everything else ahead of time. If you have a multi coin toss attack like Fury Swipes and get H H T as the result of your coin tosses, then reload a save state from the beginning of your turn and do something else that triggers a coin toss (like use a pokéball trainer card), the outcome of your tosses is always the same. This means that if instead of just attacking, you used the pokéball card, then attacked, you'd get H for the pokéball card, then H T for the first two Fury Swipes.

Basically, the outcome of your coin tosses is determined ahead of time such that you're always going to get the same results in the same order. I haven't worked out whether your opponents' coin tosses are factored into the algorithm or if that's running on its own.
 

Formless

Member
I remember reading something by one of the melee community figure heads, where he talks about Street Fighter's Ono and how he would jump into crowds of his fans, while at the E3 invitational the smashers were told to avoid contact with Sakurai. At least Bill Trinen stayed up till 3am to watch melee grand finals at Apex. He seemed to be really know the scene.

Bands that don't crowdsurf all corporate confirmed
 
Just read the NWR thread on the Pokémon TGC and there's some good tips there for beginners. I stumbled upon the usefulness of Scyther and Energy Removal by myself, but I didn't ever pay attention to zero cost switching or Gust of Wind.

That'll be good to know as I keep getting slaughtered by this one kid in the Fire Club who apparently has no fire Pokémon.

EDIT : The save state at victory tip is also good for getting useful cards
 

Spades

Member
Well, I tried the podcast a few weeks ago and now I'm a new subscriber on iTunes. Their content is great and somehow they manage to make a podcast recorded remotely sound very good. Each of the presenters has a great personality
apart from Guillaume - sorry but whilst the guy does an excellent job of editing the show, his monotone voice almost slips me into a coma every time he talks
and they all clearly know their stuff.

Really enjoyable listen on the whole. Oh, and James Jones rocks - he's exactly the type of person you need on a podcast panel to liven up any conversation.
 
Well, I tried the podcast a few weeks ago and now I'm a new subscriber on iTunes. Their content is great and somehow they manage to make a podcast recorded remotely sound very good. Each of the presenters has a great personality
apart from Guillaume - sorry but whilst the guy does an excellent job of editing the show, his monotone voice almost slips me into a coma every time he talks
and they all clearly know their stuff.

Really enjoyable listen on the whole. Oh, and James Jones rocks - he's exactly the type of person you need on a podcast panel to liven up any conversation.
Guillaume is awesome. His voice and personality fit in perfectly with the overall balance of the show, and he has done a tremendous job of filling in the lofty hole left by Greg's departure. Monotone my ass - I could listen to his soothing dulcet tones all day.

<3 ya Gui

I also finally took a break from Majora to download Pokemon TCG... and then I went right back to Termina before starting it. Baby steps, I suppose.
 

Weetrick

Member
Well, I tried the podcast a few weeks ago and now I'm a new subscriber on iTunes. Their content is great and somehow they manage to make a podcast recorded remotely sound very good. Each of the presenters has a great personality
apart from Guillaume - sorry but whilst the guy does an excellent job of editing the show, his monotone voice almost slips me into a coma every time he talks
and they all clearly know their stuff.

Really enjoyable listen on the whole. Oh, and James Jones rocks - he's exactly the type of person you need on a podcast panel to liven up any conversation.

Gui, you should do the entire next episode mimicking James.
 

Tom_Cody

Member
Well, I tried the podcast a few weeks ago and now I'm a new subscriber on iTunes. Their content is great and somehow they manage to make a podcast recorded remotely sound very good. Each of the presenters has a great personality
apart from Guillaume - sorry but whilst the guy does an excellent job of editing the show, his monotone voice almost slips me into a coma every time he talks
and they all clearly know their stuff.

Really enjoyable listen on the whole. Oh, and James Jones rocks - he's exactly the type of person you need on a podcast panel to liven up any conversation.
What a weird comment. Guillaume is a central component of the show!
 

OMG Aero

Member
To answer Jonny's question about mega evolution, there are reasons to not use it or wait before using it, but they only really come up if you play online with other people since the single player mode in Pokemon is relatively easy and doesn't really require strategies outside of hitting type weaknesses.
Sometimes when a Pokemon mega evolves it will change type or ability so there are cases when mega evolving would actually make you weak against the opponent when your normal form is neutral to it, or it might be better to save your mega evolution for later in the fight.
To use Jonny's shark torpedo as an example, Sharpedo's normal form can have an ability that raises its speed every turn but when it mega evolves it loses this ability in favour of one that raises the attack power of any bite move. Since you can't reverse a mega evolution mid-battle, you typically want to fight with Sharpedo in its normal form for a bit so it builds up speed then you mega evolve so its attack goes up and it still has the extra speed it built up in its normal form.
 

sörine

Banned
My instincts were saying that the last Fire Emblem for Super Famicom used the high resolution mode, but I held my tongue without any proof in the moment. I do remember that it used a huge cartridge for the time.
Googling it seems only 5 SFC/SNES games ever used the high res modes and 4 of those were exclusively for menus: Seiken Densetsu 2-3 used 512x224 (western releases of Secret of Mana didn't though) while Ranma 1/2: Chounai Gekitou Hen and Power Drive used 512 x 448. The only SNES game to use higher than 240p for actual gameplay was RPM Racing, which severely limited it's color palette as a result.

Basically 3DS resolution would be fine for anything you'd probably want to play.
 
In Pokémon TGC, I reordered my deck to incorporate some of the tips from the NWR thread. And a good thing too, since I was getting trounced by minor opponents at times.

As a beginner it's hard to know whether or not a card is good just by glancing at it because you're so overwhelmed with choices, so for long time, I thought Kangaskhan wasn't worth it because of the high energy cost of its damaging attack.

Does anyone know how to get Murray the Psychic Club master to duel you?
 

Somnid

Member
To add to the mega evolution stuff, you can only mega-evolve one pokemon per battle so you may want to see what your opponent plays before you decide. Also it requires a hold item and you might find it beneficial to use a different item. In general if you have a mega evolution you will probably use it though.
 
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