Episode 539: Two Plus Hours

The previous week’s episode had too many technical issues to post, so this week’s episode overcompensates by being over two hours long. The Gaming Flashback this week is none other than 2009’s Minecraft, which is still going strong well into 2019.

This week’s news includes:

  • Microsoft explains Xbox Game Pass for PC, selling games on Steam (from GameWatcher)
  • The Avengers game is being revealed at E3 2019
  • Super Mario Maker 2‘s lack of costumes and online matchmaking with friends upsets fans
  • Wolfenstein: Youngblood to feature ray-tracing technology

All this and Listener Feedback.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Episode 231: Plus One PaulEpisode 231: Plus One Paul

Paul has some angry comments, Jonah has some angry comments, while Jordan just chuckles and makes a Freudian mistake. In between complaints, the Gaming Flashback looks at the Amiga classic Syndicate, and the following news items:

  • The Lund Report: August 2011 NPD
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 PC controversy rages
  • THQ: Next-gen consoles will be discless
  • Quantic Dreams claims they lost 10M euro on used games
  • 3DS sales jump 260% following price drop
  • Syndicate reboot finally confirmed and unveiled by EA

Finally, the Question of the Week: What was the most disappointing remake or reboot of a game you’ve played? All that and Reader Feedback, too.

Mega Man 9 – Actual Teaser FootageMega Man 9 – Actual Teaser Footage

Here is the first teaser footage, badly encoded with tons of words overlying the action but you get the idea. It’s total 8-bit retro feel with classic NES style sound effects. This instantly rockets you back to your youth in front of the cartridged based square box of an entertainment system.

Is this going to have lasting appeal? Will development shops open up to re-create the retro style gaming platforms on new hardware? This WiiWare title should do well considering it is new content created using the old virtual console NES look and feel. If gamers are eating up classics this should do extremely well.

Or, is this effort a total waste of time. Mega Man fans should fall in love as Mega Man 9 is like going 80’s style..

Wii Sports Resort and Wii Motion PlusWii Sports Resort and Wii Motion Plus

Nintendo plans to capitalize on the monumental success of Wii Sports by doing what they do best, building a hot game with an accessory backing its success. The new Wii Sports Resort will be a mini-game set like Wii Sports and Wii Play but with a beach setting and games like frisbee.

Frisbee? How can the Wii motion controller handle a Frisbee toss? Wii Motion Plus of course! We believe they’ll be packing the game in with the Wii Motion Plus to add more value to the purchase. Honestly, this adds more value to the accessory as a driving force to make sales and increase margins. Game accessories are a great way for Nintendo to profit, consider the pack in game marketing material.

As Wii Play has shown us, historically, gamers want the accessory and the bundled game is just icing on the proverbial cake. Wii Play, as a game, was lacking in many ways and would be, as a stand alone product, a definite must-not-have title. But, considering the amount of Wii controllers sold, this allows Wii Play to show up high on best games sold month over month.

Wii Sports Resort takes this to a new level by using the term “Wii Sports” in the game, allowing the masses to flock to the store to get anything that can reproduce the fun of the original title. Nobody knows, yet, if it will reproduce the same fun factor but the accessory is neat.

(Thanks, joystiq)