Jonah goes off on a virulent rant about NBA 2K20 and the decline of the series as a whole, while offering milder criticism of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. There’s no Gaming Flashbacks, but plenty of news.
The news items include:
Let us know what you think.
Double Dragon II: The Revenge, this is a sequel title to a game which arrived earlier on the NES as an arcade port, something pretty standard back in the day of arcades, and like it’s original port, has variations from the arcade.
The trick is, the variations are much less than that of the original (which might as well been it’s own version of the arcade game but sucky). I was a huge fan of the original Double Dragon title in the arcade and was met with extreme disappointment when I found out it was strictly single player on the NES console.
This game was 300% better than the disappointing Double Dragon release on the NES. Granted, the NES version was fun to play, in single-player, but I purchased it for the two-player nature of the arcade version so I could play the game with my friends. Double Dragon II, on the NES had finally restored my faith in Technos Japan and the american publisher Acclaim. They took a bad situation and made it much better in the second release, why they didn’t make the original multiplayer is beyond me.
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Paul and Jordan realize the brilliance of duct taping a flashlight to a gun barrel, while more Doctor Who fodder was recorded for a future outtakes episode. Jonah and Paul also express amazement there’s no Sugar Race racing based on the arcade title found in Wreck-It Ralph. Finally, the podcast eulogizes Roger Ebert.
The news for the week includes:
There’s also Listener Feedback, and the Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm contest is still open – a winner will be announced next week.
In an “unexpected” move, Ubisoft has opted to utilize the 1:1 accuracy of the Wii Motion Plus add-on device for the Wii remote in their next Red Steel sequel, currently called Red Steel 2. It may be most gamers consider this an unexpected move because they thought the series would be dead after the first launch title.
Red Steel was plagued with motion issues, making it a very unexceptable demonstration of the Wii control scheme. Luckily other titles arrived to show off how the controls were supposed to work; Ubisoft tried to make a hit FPS title using innovative control methods but came up a bit short.
This time, they’re hoping to redeem themselves by having the additional resolution of the new controller device, risking their reputation for a second time on Nintendo’s hardware.
“What was missing was the preciseness of the sabre,” Corre said of the first game, “and with this new device, I think it will change the experience.” (1up)
Although many gamers missed the first Red Steel experience because word about the horrid controls hit the streets quickly, this might be a chance to try the series one final time before giving up on it. In Ubisoft’s defense, the US market is very finicky about their first person shooters which helps explain higher reviews in Europe for the original title.
The games controls were tweaked after E3 2006 when people found it lack luster in performance and ability to mimick the users real moves when sword fighting. Ubisoft said it was because they received the Wii controller prototypes one month before the expo.
Will Ubisoft get the Wii Motion Plus in time to put out a highly polished game showing off Nintendo’s new hardware or will this be a second strike against the franchise? Only time will tell.
