ON THIS EPISODE: Still no Jack and Aysha’s out of town, which means it’s the first even Laura and Austin podcast! What we played? The duo square off about Tomodachi Life getting boring, Shovel Knight being wonderful, and Fallout: New Vegas actually having kind of good storytelling.

PLUS: A new mini-bookclub has been announced. The options? Minish Cap, A Link to the Past, Another World, Stick it to the Man, and Attack of the Friday Monsters! Make your case for which one we should all play and discuss in the comments.

AND: Listener mail about Suda51, “boring” games, and why nobody ever talks about bad game soundtracks in reviews rounds out the end of the show, as usual.

This Week’s Podcast Crew: Austin and Laura

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More: highlight, podcast, Shovel Knight, Tomodachi Life

Being a developer that works with Nintendo has, in the past, been considered something of a novelty for independent companies. Before WiiWare existed on Wii there wasn’t much of a way to get your game published on a Nintendo platform without a “proper” publisher, and even with Nintendo’s digital offerings on Wii and DSi things remained relatively closed off.

Now, with Wii U and 3DS, game development is open and independent developers have brought out masses of titles to the two platforms. But what’s it like to work with Nintendo? Is there any hint of their shielded past nowadays, or have things loosened up so much that such a past is indistinguishable?

“Willing to help” seems to be the common theme across all three of our entries in this week’s ‘Developer Musings’ series. Of course, there does seem to be some of that traditional red tape still involved– head past the break for comments from Dakko Dakko (Scram Kitty), Ludosity (Ittle Dew), and Nyamyam (Tengami).

(Unsure as to what Developer Musings is about? Check out our first entry here for an explanation.)

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More: highlight, indie, Joel Nyström, Phil Tossel, Rhodri Broadbent, top

More: Bandai Namco, Japan, SF Dotabata Party!!

The Wii U and 3DS eShops will be affected by maintenance on Monday. Between 4 PM ET and 8 PM ET (1 PM PT and 5 PM PT), both stores will be inaccessible, as will the Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop.

We’ll also mention quickly that all of Nintendo’s online shops have been experiencing issues since 5:59 PM ET / 3:59 PM PT. The company is working on the situation and hopes to have all services completely restored soon.

Source

More: maintenance

More: Bear Box Media, indie, Internal Invasion

Earlier this month, Nintendo launched something called “Nintendo News” on its Japanese website. Think of it as a weekly online magazine in a way.

The latest issue, posted a few days ago, features some comments from Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma who reflected on the series. Aonuma spoke in one part about how discovering treasure is one of Zelda’s most enjoyable aspects.

On the topic of finding things when you go on an adventure, Aonuma said:

My son is in elementary school, and he asked, “What is so fun about Zelda anyway?” I tell him, “Finding treasure is the most fun!” Even if it is only one rupee inside the treasure chest, I think (laughs). Whenever you find a treasure chest, there is always a “Yes! I found it!”-sense of accomplishment, and when you open it, it is just so fun to hear. To discover a new item, I think I find pleasure in both the surprise and the opening.

More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, The Legend of Zelda

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More: Activision, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark

Seems like this is purely a cosmetic change. When wearing the Daisy costume, Bayonetta acts very much like she does when wearing the Peach outfit.

Thanks to Shashwat Pant for the tip.

More: Bayonetta, PlatinumGames

More: Activision, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark