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Aeropodcast #188: One Save to Rule Them All

Joe Haygood — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 22:34:59 +0000

In the second half of our double header podcast post today, Fourhman and Haygood talk about the decision by Capcom to use a single save game that cannot be deleted, meaning that things unlocked will stay unlocked. Is it a big deal that only one person can unlock this stuff, or for this style of game it does not matter as much? We also talk about the idea that this is solely being done with this title to remove the option of trading in the game, as the game would in a sense, be broken for a future owner, as everything would be unlocked.

We also have a quick discussion on the idea of Wii U for people and if it can be successful as well as the recent Supreme Court decision on California’s violent video game law.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “Nobody Does Straight Gangsta’ Like Me” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below. Also make sure to review us on iTunes and now, the Zune Marketplace. If you have not yet, make sure to visit our Facebook Fan Page.

Aeropodcast #186: E3 Blowout Part One

Joe Haygood — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:26:01 +0000

Hello Aeropausians, we are back with a podcast after going dark for a few weeks. No, we have not gone away, and no, the podcast is not gone. It was more about this little event that happened called E3 Expo 2011. It took up a lot of time over the last few weeks, and while we thought about doing some podcasts on the go, it became obvious that we had way too much to write about to get the podcast up for the last few weeks.

That said, we cover a ton of ground in this podcast, with Haygood and Fourhman going over the things that they saw during E3 this year. We had looks at the three press conferences, as well as some of the company specific conferences for EA and Ubisoft. We also talk about a ton of games. So many in fact that we ran short on time to get it all in. Yes, even at almost two hours, we still have more to talk about so we will have a second wrap up show this week to cover the rest as well as put in some opinions on everything, including some best and worst items.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “I Returned for This?” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

Aeropodcast #185: A Case of the Mondays

Joe Haygood — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:21:07 +0000

This week on the Aeropodcast, we had big news – Stephen has returned for an episode. The bad news, is that Haygood was inexplicably unprepared for the greatness that is Stephen Munn, and botched up the outline by forgetting that a topic was needed. So we winged it and chatted about the events surrounding the replacement of Haygood’s card by Chase due to suspicious activity in a foreign land.

We also chatted about what we were playing, L.A. Noire some more, what Stephen has been up to and cats peeing on walls in anticipation of Fourhman visiting the Haygood Estate. Informational it may not be, but it is chock full of laughs.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “I Returned for This?” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

DS Lite bumped down to $99.99; Mario box art goes red

Joe Fourhman — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:26:46 +0000

Only Nintendo could send out a cheery press release that crows about five year old hardware getting a price drop, and seven year old games not.

The venerable DS Lite is now priced at $99.99. Not 2009′s DSi; that’s still $150. No, this is the 2006 DS version that I can’t even believe is still on store shelves. Clearly retailers need to blow out this stock to make room for more eager, waiting 3DS boxes.

Six Mario-centric DS titles are getting red packaging. That’s it. No announced price drop there, even though Super Mario 64DS was a 2004 DS launch title, and Mario Kart DS came out a year later. Both still sell for around $30. The other games on the Bloody Box Art Tuesday are New Super Mario Bros, Mario Party DS, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem.

To put this into perspective, when Super Mario 64DS was released, Kanye West was considered a “New Artist.”

The idea is to make those games “easier to find,” but with a combined sales upwards of 27 million units, I don’t think consumers have had trouble finding these games over the past seven years.

Nintendo DS Lite Suggested Retail Price Drops to $99.99 and Mario Games Go Red

Mario-Red Boxes Will Help Shoppers Identify Select Fan-Favorite Mario Games

REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The portable Nintendo DS™ Lite system is getting a new suggested retail price. Effective June 5, the system will be available at a suggested retail price of just $99.99 in the United States. The Nintendo DS family has become the best-selling video game system in history. More than 48.9 million systems in the Nintendo DS family have sold in the United States alone. Also in June, six Mario™ games for Nintendo DS will receive new red packaging, making it easier than ever for consumers to identify these hit titles in stores.

“From the moment it launched, Nintendo DS Lite hit a sweet spot for consumers in terms of value, experience and fun,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “This new price point will introduce Nintendo DS Lite to even more consumers, and the new red packaging will make it easy for them to find their favorite Mario titles.”

The six Mario games that will begin sporting the new Mario-red packaging in June are New Super Mario Bros.™, Mario Kart™ DS, Super Mario 64™ DS, Mario & Luigi™: Bowser’s Inside Story, Mario vs. Donkey Kong™: Mini-Land Mayhem! and Mario Party™ DS. These games represent some of the best-selling fan-favorite Nintendo DS games of all time, and demonstrate the well-known “evergreen” sales trend of Nintendo games. Their total U.S. sales through the end of April 2011 according to the NPD Group are as follows:

New Super Mario Bros.: more than 9.25 million units
Mario Kart DS: more than 7.40 million units
Super Mario 64 DS: more than 4.34 million units
Mario Party DS: more than 3.27 million units
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story: more than 1.98 million units
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!: more than 1.01 million units

Mario is one of the most beloved video game characters and the top video game franchise of all time. Thirty-one Mario games have topped sales of more than 1 million units since 1995, more than any other franchise. Through the end of March 2011, more than 262 million games in the core Super Mario™ series have sold worldwide.

For more information about Nintendo DS Lite, visit http://www.nintendo.com/ds.

Aeropodcast #184: Macho Man Diffuses the Rapture

Joe Haygood — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:39:09 +0000

The Aeropodcast is a bit late this week, but we were still recovering from Rapture burnout. As you can see, we have pictures of the real reason the Rapture was denied, and we can chalk it up to a great American icon that was lost to us. He apparently gave his own life ot save the rest of us.

In all seriousness, we had a random sort of week, as news is sporatic at best with the lead up to E3, but Haygood did get to see the new Sonic Generations and Mario vs. Sonic London Olympics 2012 at a Sega event, and we dive into the intricacies of L.A. Noire, and why reading people can be a pain in the ass. No spoiler talk however. Finally we talk about the PSN Welcome Back program and some of the items that you will be able to grab for free. For those like Haygood that had multiple accounts, laugh at Fourhman as he will only be able to select two while the rest of us will get all through said accounts.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “No Rapture = More Singstar” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #267 (May 2011)

Joe Fourhman — Sat, 21 May 2011 15:30:15 +0000

We’re still hard into 3DS mode, with two big articles on upcoming games. Plus, 999 gets some love. It’s time to consider your position on visual novels and read-a-long!

Issue #267, May 2011
featuring The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (3DS), Tales of the Abyss (3DS), Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors (DS), Legend of Zelda SNES Era

Nintendo Power calls it “the first must-have 3DS game,” probably making a couple other big name launch window releases more than a little sad. It’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it earns that accolade on the strength of being one of the best-reviewed games of all time.

Although we’ve seen Ocarina re-releases before, there was no escaping that fugly low-polygon look of the N64 classic. With this new 3DS edition, Nintendo is adding some effects, some detailing, and some sorely needed controls cleanup to give the game a modern touch. On the visual front, the Link model has been smoothed out, and interior areas have been re-designed to make the open-world game look more like an actual world instead of a bunch of sparsely decorated rooms. But what I’m most interested in is the updated control scheme, particularly when it comes to inventory management.

One of the charms of the DS family’s lower screen is the ability to provide HUDs without clutter and touchscreen access to tools and options. Ocarina 3DS will let you select weapons and choose Ocarina tunes without having to dig through menus. In fact, the Ocarina itself never needs to be equipped in the old button-mapped style, thus freeing up one of your quick-access buttons for another item. (And you now have four assignable item keys, 1UP from the N64′s three yellow arrow buttons.)

Nintendo has also added gyroscopic controls for the first-person parts of the game – looking around, arrow-aiming, etc – and, of course, the optional 3D effect.

Ocarina 3DS will include the Master Quest second adventure, which was originally a 64DD project. Master Quest was only available in America as a preorder bonus for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, so that might the rare remix that makes the 3DS extra-special for Zelda fans.

Ocarina 3DS is in stores June 19.

What, a Wii game?

Aside from price drops and budget-priced collections, Wii news has been scarce as good reviews for Conduit 2. This issue, NP mentions Pandora’s Tower, an action-RPG collaboration between Nintendo and Ganbarion. I’m sure you’ve never heard of Ganbarion… NP lists their resume as One Piece: Unlimited Adventure and Jump Super Stars.

Described as a combination of elements from Ys and Castlevania, Pandora’s Tower has no set Western release at this time. I’d guess this game will fall down the memory hole as Nintendo of America relies on Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and some low-key casual titles to prop up the Wii’s final year of support.

But look at these screens!

I could get behind a boss fight with Steampunk Swamp Thing!

999: The game that should be sold in bookstores.

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors writer/director Kotaro Uchikoshi says his games need to reach a wider audience.

“…I believe visual-novel games don’t belong in a game store, but in a bookstore – although that might bother some of the game stores who like to sell my games, so perhaps I should rephrase it: games stores can certainly sell visual novels, but they should also be sold in bookstores. The visual-novel genre should not be fighting againsgt major RPG/action-adventure games that developers spend billions of dollars on.”

Man has a point. Games like 999 and Hotel Dusk can get lost on the racks, particularly when multiple games from different genres all field anime-inspired box art.

Top scoring Wii review: Virtua Tennis 4, 8.0 (all scores out of 10)
Top scoring 3DS review: Dead or Alive Dimensions, 9.0
Top scoring DS review: LEGO Battles: Ninjago 7.5
Lowest rated Wii review: Rio, 4.0
Lowest rated 3DS review: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D, 5.5
Lowest rated DS review: Rio, 5.5

Some other big name release scores: Thor: God of Thunder was given a 5.5 on Wii and 6.0 on DS. And on 3DS, SpongeBob SquigglePants got a 7.5, Rabbids Travel in Time 3D hit 6.5, and Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion received a 7.0.

It’s sort of the point. – This month’s poll reveals that only an eight of 3DS owners turn of the 3D effect all the way off.

Everybody thank Popeye. – You might remember Nintendo’s oddball licensed arcade/NES game Popeye… turns out, Shigeru Miyamoto wanted Popeye to be his first star, but when Nintendo could not immediately get the Sailor Man’s license, he turned around and created Donkey Kong. The Sailor Man’s arcade adventure had to wait.

3D came late in the game. – 3DS producer Hideki Konno says the 3DS was in the works for two and a half years. The 3D screen did not become part of the design until halfway through development!

“Even over cheap headphones.” – Capcom is working on a 3DS game that uses 3D audio as you explore a “Mysterious Mansion.”

Ten Kirbys! – Nintendo and HAL are putting together a new Kirby game that splits the pink hero into ten smaller puffs. Kirby really has become a test ground for bizarre new ideas, hasn’t he?

Next month in Nintendo Power… Sonic turns 20!

Aeropodcast #183: Portal 2 Spoilercast

Joe Haygood — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:41:27 +0000

This week, Fourhman and Haygood decided that it was time to discuss the big release of April, by disecting the ins and outs of Portal 2. We talk about plot points, what we thought of the puzzles, the voice acting and the weird stuff that started to come about midway through the game. Also, find out if we towed the line that most reviewers have taken with the game, or if we felt it was a bit overrated.

We also had our weekly, “What the Hell’s Up with PSN?” segment, with the missed deadline as of Tuesday and if it is affecting the userbase. NOTE: PSN did come up over the weekend after this discussion.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “PSN IS BACK ON BITCHEZ” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

Aeropodcast #182: IGN Heart 1Up

Joe Haygood — Thu, 12 May 2011 18:37:58 +0000

This week on the Aeropodcast, Fourhman and Haygood talk all about the recent buyout of UGO by IGN. With the buyout, IGN snaps up UGO’s most prized possesion, 1up, and gains several other lifestyle websites that they probably don’t care much about. Our discussion focuses on what we think will happen with the merger, how it affects the news industry, and whether 1up will actually survive the final merger down the road.

Also,we have a ton of Facebook answers to a multitude of questions that were posted over the week, so big ups to our fans over at Facebook for making this week’s community corner fantastic. Also, Haygood talks about his latest lunch pasttime – reading account suspension posts at Xbox.com.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “I Just Bought IGN and all I got was this lousy podcast” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

Aeropodcast #181: PSN Falls Down the Portal Hole

Joe Haygood — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:15:50 +0000

This week on the Aeropodcast, we peer into the mystery that is Portal 2 to discuss the new Portal 2 app that showed up on the iTunes App Store. We discuss the idea of putting extended news coverage of a high profile story and compiling it into an app that is sold in a store. Can something like this kill legitimate news as we know it or is it just a great companion piece to the news that is out and about on the web and on shelves in magazine.

We also continue with the PSN outage theme, talking about how much this outage could be costing Sony and the complete lack of information that is coming out of Sony corporate offices regarding the data theft and the stability of the network. Note, we did record this podcast before we heard the Sony press conference regarding the outage and how it would respond to the fans lack of network connectivity during this outage. Our Facebook Question fo the Week also looks at the discussion from our fans about this outage.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “At Least Hulu is on the Xbox 360 Now” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

Ones to Watch: Nintendo releases for May 2011

Joe Fourhman — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:01:17 +0000

Clearly not a lot of meat this month as we ride into the wilds of E3 ’11. Movie tie-ins, more of the 3DS pile-on, and a couple TV shows taking on Nintendo greats.

May 3
Thor: God of Thunder (Wii, DS) – Everything I read says the DS version is one to watch, based on the legacy of developer WayForward. And the Wii version… is the Wii version.

May 10
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (Wii, DS, 3DS) – Very reliable stuff, geared towards kids, families and super-fans of the franchise in question. By this point, I feel like Travellers Tales has ironed out much of the technical weirdness that bugged the series… now I just want them to work on the cutscene writing. I’m tired of seeing every game include serious characters suddenly, comically breakdancing.

Virtua Tennis 4 (Wii) – SEGA considered promoting this one with a sexy commercial with Virtua Fighter’s Jacky in a thong.

Dream Trigger 3D (3DS) – Could be an interesting early 3DS puzzle game, although if the DS history is any indicator, launch window puzzle games eventually become $5 downloadable games.

May 17
SpongeBob SquigglePants (3DS) – SpongeBob does WarioWare in 3D!

May 24
Kung Fu Panda 2 – uDraw (Wii) – It is interesting to see the uDraw slowly develop into its own sub-brand under the Wii heading. I think we’re already at the point where the third-party uDraw peripheral has more support than Nintendo’s own Balance Board.

Dead or Alive Dimensions (3DS) – I like this one more than last month’s Street Fighter IV 3D… and I think we’re all still waiting for the inevitable SAMUS PLAYABLE announcement.

Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion (3DS) – So somebody made a Smash Bros with two decades worth of Cartoon Network characters, most of which are no longer regularly seen on TV. Huh.

May 31
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II (3DS) – Another fighting game on 3DS! I’m beginning to think we’re seeing so many fighters on 3DS because they’re sort of easy to make in 3D, like a Dreamworks movie.