Gooooooo Switchpod!

Looks like for the time being you'll have to get your Episode #117 fix by downloading it directly, since Switchpod seems to think that using 350MB of your storage exceeds the 500MB limit. Hmmmm. I'll keep trying to upload it every day until they let me, but in the mean time you'll just have to get it the old fashioned way.

Click here to download Episode #117

Because of a few last-minute circumstances, John didn't make it to Studio 5 to record, so we decided to postpone the sports topic until he can come back for #118. We figured that since Wii Croquet hasn't come out yet, and WWE:Wii just isn't up to snuff, we'd hold off until our real sports aficionado can be here for the show. I'll try to poke and prod John to get some sports-related questions up here too for you guys to answer, but in the mean time, sit back and listen to Drew and I reminice about our favorite peripherals of yesteryear.

-Phil
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Fighters, Back to Your Corners

Ok, everyone, lets all step back and take a deep breath. Obviously, we tackled a subject that, in some way or another, envokes a lot of emotion; so lets reevaluate here. First of all, John has always been very opinionated and blunt. This is one of the things I have always liked about him. Direct and to the point. The listeners, as varied as you all are (and I used to be one of you) are just as strong in opinion and, to your credit, defensive towards each other. On top of all that, we all (I think) live in the good ol' USA. Land of the free, home of the brave, and dominant in, as of this posting, 102 different Olympic events and counting. This also means that we all are entitled to our thoughts and opinions, no matter how much they may annoy others of us. Yay USA.
Now, this has the ability to start firestorms of debate. Good, we (as in the ITC staff) love debate. We love our listeners and we love their varying opinions. By all means, keep them coming. In the mean time, lets not forget what keeps us coming back to host and what keeps you guys listening: the games. We don't expect any or all of you to swing over to our opinions about anything. Heck, we don't expect ourselves to agree with on everything.
So, let's make a deal; you guys keep coming back, and so will we. All of us. (I think). And as Phil said before, keep writing in. We want to hear from you. Besides, the next show is about sports games. You know, Madden, Top Spin, Mario vs Sonic @ the Olympics, Smackdown vs Raw. Ok, the last one is sports ENTERTAINMENT, but I say it still counts. Anyway, be be prepaired for a good show. We are.

Game On,

Drew
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Hold on Tim, Don't Kill Us!

Tim, please don't give up on us while you suffer through the second half of Episode #116. We all have our opinions and yours is clearly different than ours, but let's not let that get in the way of our wonderful relationship, shall we? We respect you as a dedicated listener and will always welcome your comments to the show.

Yours truly,

Inside The Console

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The second half of our rant on Nintendo is up and available for your listening pleasure(?), and it's kind of brutal. I want to take a moment to sort of defend our standpoint with some of what we talk about on the show, but at the same time I am absolutely opening this up for discussion, as we want to hear you opinions and counter-points.

We aren't judging Nintendo as a company based on their press conference at E3, we're not that dense. We are judging Nintendo on their current lineup of software, as well as their oddball performance this generation. The Wii is different, and nobody can ignore that. Yes, it is definitely a capable gaming platform (we've never said that it isn't) but Nintendo is putting so much focus on areas outside of really good gaming. There have been killers, such as Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 and several others, but there has also been a tidal wave of "causal" party-games and non-games that we have never seen historically.

The question isn't so much "Is this a bad thing?", but more like "Is Nintendo side-stepping too far this time?" As Tim Sundberg said in his comments on last post, Nintendo has always been a little different and somewhat secretive. We don't have a problem with that, but it seems like, as a whole, the Wii was this great idea to change the face of gaming forever and really put Nintendo back on the charts but the plan was never really finalized. We think that Nintendo and third-parties have been distracted by the (over-cliched) money-printing capabilities of the box that they aren't focusing the true potential of the Wii squarely on new, innovative, and above all, standout gaming experiences.

Why is there only one or two games that play as well as Metroid Prime 3? Why did we get a GameCube-ported Zelda? Why was there nothing so Wii-exclusive to Mario Galaxy's gameplay that to remove it would have rendered the game unplayable? Where is StarFox, F-Zero, and Pikmin? These are all legitimate questions, and none of us are saying that Nintendo won't deliver on these in the years to come, but our biggest question right now is simply "What the heck are they doing now?"

So bear with us, give the show a listen, and please let us know what you think of all this in the comments. We really, honestly do appreciate hearing from you guys even (and sometimes especially) when you call us out on things that we say which you completley disagree with. We'll see you all next time.

-Phil
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Requiem For Nintendo

You can now download the first half of our "Requiem For Nintendo" episode, where we basically go over Nintendo's E3 press conference from last month (sorry Tim) and talk about how severely disappointed we were with what we saw. Even for me, who is a self-acknowledged fanboy of the company, really doesn't see what's left to hold onto at this point. It kinda sucks. We talk about how their biggest showing was the toddler-perfect Wii Music, and the fact that, unless we missed something, the logo for GTA: Chinatown Wars was the only third-party game shown the entire time.

Correction Notice:
Shaun White Snowboarding is an Ubisoft title. If there are other third-party games we missed, please let us know in the comments.

Let us know what you think about the whole ordeal in the comments below. We've heard from some of you, but we would always like to hear from more. Nintendo has a wonderfully strong history with some of the most-recognized figures and titles in gaming, and now it seems, with only slight exaggeration, they're only interested in printing themselves more money with the Wii and have forgotten about their last twenty-five or so years. Or maybe we're wrong and we missed something? Please, do tell...

Also before I get outta here, John turned a whopping twenty-six years old on the 12th, soaring right on past the quarter-century mark. So happy birthday John! Here's to the $1,600 or so you'll be spending on your Madden subscription before you hit the big five-oh and do this all over again. *clinky*

-Phil
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