[Review] Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Reviews | 66 Comments
System: Wii U
Release date: November 20, 2015
Developer: Camelot
Publisher Nintendo
Author: Austin
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is a game that lacks guidance when you start it up; it’s a mish mash of menu options, and they don’t tell you which icon to try first. But where Smash Bros. uses a lack of direction to overwhelm– like Charlie entering Wonka’s entirely edible room– Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash feels a lot less excited about its own content. Even the game can’t be bothered to show you around.
“Well, here’s all this stuff I guess.”
What should I do first?
“Uhhhh…”
More: Camelot, highlight, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, top
Here’s a Podcast – Episode 124! (Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters)
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 6 Comments
A late, late episode of Here’s a Podcast as a weary Austin tries to find the time to edit this dang thing. He didn’t really succeed this week, but the episode is here anyway, without chapters, but still with all the gaming goodness that your grandma grabbed from McGrady’s Grape Gastle.
Games discussed this week: Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Axiom Verge, Xenoblade Chronicles, Fantasy Life.
Listener Questions Mail Topics: Favorite game soundtracks, the future of the Mother franchise, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and more.
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Here’s a Podcast – Episode 123! (Solar Striker)
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 0 comments
No weird audio problems for this show, and nobody died this week so it’s back to form for us. Laura is in town though, so we’re recording in the same room like old times again. I did quite like listener mail this episode though so that’s good. Here are your chapters:
Intro Shenanigans
0:00 – Intros, talking about John Cena
6:45 – Game of the week: Solar Striker!
What we played
10:19 – Casual Splats for Austin (Splatoon)
16:33 – Bring me back to Tomodachi Life
24:37 – Earthbound Beginnings, but mathematical anecdotes soon follow and poop talk
28:50 – Actual Earthbound Beginnings
37:39 – Kingdom Farts for Austin
Shenanigans II
50:50 – Lazy freetures
52:47 – Donkey Konga music break.
54:15 – Tales from the Crypt with Jack
Listener Questions Mail
59:57 – Miiverse Vulgarity
1:01:45 – False Perception of Cynicism with regard to roller coasters
1:07:05 – Playing games while donating blood plasma
1:11:35 – Any Sony game suggestions for a new PS3 owner?
1:15:20 – Can Metroid ever be a big-event game?
1:21:40 – Book club talk from fans yay
1:24:55 – Should other mediums (books, movies, etc) use frustration to create a sense of adventure like games do?
1:31:26 – Should we do an Iwata book club?
Shenanigans Finale
1:32:35 – Villain of the Week: Alex Rodriguez
1:33:33 – Solar Striker QUIZ
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Here’s a Podcast – Episode 122 (Radar Mission)
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 0 comments
What a week. As you might expect, our podcast this week includes quite a healthy amount of reflection on the life of Satoru Iwata in the form of six “Iwata Bits” featuring quotes and anecdotes about the beloved CEO and some of our personal thoughts about him, but we also manage to keep on with some normal happenings as well. Enjoy.
Opening Shenanigans
4:32 – Iwata Bit #1, “The early years”
6:49 – GOTW – Radar Mission
9:59 – Iwata Bit #2, “My personal Superman”
16:14 – Balloon Fight Remix music break
What we played
18)1 – Jack dedicates his time to Earthbound Beginnings
31:53 – Austin joins the Order of Ecclesia
42:40 – Jack read Geoff Keighley’s book.
48:58 – Iwata Bit #3, “Nintendo is for kids?”
50:10 – Kirby’s Adventure Music Break
Shenanigans Redux
51:18 – Iwata Bit #4, “Iwata Balboa”
52:37 – Our personal appreciations of Iwata
Listener Questions Mail
59:38 – Need for Speed Most Wanted a platformer?
1:05:50 – Custom characters vs. pre-made characters
1:12:28 – Splatoon does allow for something.
1:13:54 – Breath of Fire recommendation.
1:16:52 – Book club recommendations.
1:22:45 – Buster needs to stop hating Majora’s Mask.
1:26:35 – Sometimes, a podcast is all you need.
Ending Shenanigans
1:29:32 – Iwata Bit #5, “Iwata saves Pokémon”
1:32:00 – Radar Mission quiz
1:33:58 – Iwata Bit #6, “A unique CEO”
1:34:57 – The End.
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Here’s a Podcast – Episode 121! (F-1 Race)
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 4 Comments
I do not know what the hell happened to this episode, but the audio is an absolute mess, and for that I apologize. You’ll notice Laura’s audio cutting in and out, her microphone quality was totally mangled, and there are a few weird snags here and there. It’s still listenable, but it’s not perfect and there are some awkward spots here and there. In any case, here are the chapters for this week:
Chapters today:
Opening Shenanigans
00:00 – Intros, greetings, hello
02:54 – Game of the week: F-1 Race!
What we played
06:14 – Jack tests his nostalgia for Super Mario Sunshine.
21:40 – Laura is a Mojave Monster in Fallout: New Vegas.
37:01 – Austin says Star Fox: Assault is like a sneeze on a wall.
Shenanigans II
51:18 – Freetures
55:14 – Star Fox Zero music break.
55:49 – Question of the day: How would you like to walk 600 feet?
58:00 – SMTxFE music break.
58:56 – Book club, moving advice, etc.
Listener questions mail
1:03:09 – Using Splatoon’s girl characters for marketing, other questions about female characters, etc
1:11:57 – Do you have more fun with games if you stay up to date on news?
1:20:21 – How long should a game be? (“It depends”)
1:27:11 – A nice email from a nice person.
1:30:56 – Briefly touching on E3 2015.
Ending Shenanigans
1:37:16 – Nonsense time.
1:38:37 – F-1 Race QUIZ
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More: E3 2015, highlight, podcast, Star Fox, Super Mario Sunshine
Here’s a Podcast – Episode 120! (Balloon Kid)
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 3 Comments
E3 2015 has come and gone. This is our E3-themed podcast where we were all really tired. I’m still tired so this is all I’m going to write on this post.
Chapters today:
Opening Shenanigans
00:00 – Intros, welcomings, etc
03:41 – Picture of the day
04:54 – Game of the week: Balloon Kid!
Other stuff
08:49 – E3 2015! Our gut reactions.
55:30 – Our secret E3 2015 predictions. How’d we do?
Ending Shenanigans
1:10:04 – Balloon Kid quiz + ending
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More: highlight
GAME OF THE MONTH – Xenoblade Chronicles
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Game of the Month | 15 Comments
Edit2: I’m sorry Brian. I’ve caused a fuss and it’s all my fault. To everyone just joining us: Don’t worry. Everything is okay. I definitely didn’t accidentally brand this post with the wrong game, cause a kerfuffle, and then fix my mistake like a ninja. Direct your complaints to this Twitter account.
Edit: Due to site reader grumpiness, I’ve changed the image and title to better reflect the fact that GOTM really has to do with a whole franchise, developer, etc, rather than just one game. If you’re unclear on what GOTM is for NintendoEverything, check out this post!
It’s E3 month which means it’s actually probably a silly idea to even have Game of the Month, but since we’ll inevitably hear more about Xenoblade Chronicles X at the show (and maybe a North American Disaster: Day of Crisis localization– fingers crossed) it fits pretty well. All month long we’ll have articles about the Xenoblade series, its developer, the older games the developer made, and various other things relating to Monolith Soft and large Japanese robots. Stay tuned for our first article this weekend!
And don’t worry– we’ll have E3 articles too.
~Austin
More: highlight, Monolith Soft, top, Xenoblade, Xenoblade Chronicles X
Here’s a Podcast – Episode 119! (Alleyway)
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 10 Comments
The fun is finally over: All of our podcast crewmembers are now separated and doing the podcast remotely over Skype, which means a return to a more “normal” show for you.
Chapters today:
Opening Shenanigans
00:35 – Greetings
02:18 – Nature Valley bars are waaaay too crumbly.
06:15 – Picture of the Day
07:00 – Game of the Week: Alleyway!
What We Played
11:37 – Austin has an inkling to be a squid. (Splatoon)
29:27 – Jack goes bananas and murders someone. (Donkey Kong 64)
37:27 – Laura burns herself at the stake. (Layton vs. Phoenix Wright)
40:14 – Layton vs. Wright spoiler skip point.
Secondary Shenanigans
46:55 – Question of the Week – Playing games alone or with friends?
48:18 – Freetures
50:00 – Fun facts! Nindie Bundle + Splatoon music.
51:38 – Splatoon music break.
Listener Questions Mail
53:18 – Expectations, evangelism, and egregious behavior.
1:01:28 – Random questions for Austin
1:05:00 – The evolution of boss designs from unary state to binary state. (new terminology alert!!)
1:13:24 – Splatoon solving shooter stealth problems.
Ending Shenanigans
1:16:32 – Why we acted so weird
1:17:43 – Alleyway Quiz and Goodbyes
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[Review] Splatoon
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Reviews, Videos | 9 Comments
Splatoon is officially launching in just a matter of minutes, so we’re giving this one final bump!
Finally we’ve come upon the day when Splatoon reviews are allowed to be posted. Here’s a 15 minute video with a whole lot of what I thought about the game; would you believe me if I said this was edited down from a thirty minute video? I could seriously make a 60 minute video about this game honestly. Maybe I will someday.
Our complete video review is below. Hit the break for the summary, recommendation, and rating.
Do you have any further questions about Splatoon?
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Site updates, Wii U | 10 Comments
Hello. Everyone. (say this like Iwata does in the Nintendo Directs)
Nintendo was very kind to send us a pre-release build of Splatoon for review, and Brian and I wanted to try and get some video content about the game up before its release in a couple weeks. We were going to do a simple Q&A about the game, but since GameXplain already covered a ton of the more common desired information (as comprehensively and eloquently as they always do), we thought we’d ask first: is there anything more detailed you want to ask about the game? How mechanics interplay? How it feels to only have two maps in rotation? Something very specific about online play or whatever?
If you’ve got anything you want to ask, post a comment below, send us an email with the subject “Splatoon Question”, or tweet at us with the tweet beginning with “Splatoon Q:”.
Thanks everyone! We’ll look at the questions soon and decide if there’s reason enough for our own Splatoon Q&A video. Either way, we’ll have a video review when the embargo lifts and more video content before launch as well.
~Austin
