Nintendo Okie

With the 100th podcast behind us, we have started preparations for the 100th Go Round.  As a side effect, my house was full of people.  After things calmed down, Tony, Micah and I recorded the podcast in the same room together; a podcast Triforce not seen since episode 78.  You can expect to hear such hits as; EA and the Online Pass, Oklahoma tax laws and GameStop can die in a fire.  Tune in, download and listen with your ears.

episode-102
Starring – Tony, Micah, Shelby
Run time – 1:52:45

How many emails do you send a day?  Could you spare one for us?  Send it to podcast@nintendo-okie.com.  The forums have been a happening place lately, you should check things out.  You better not forget about to upcoming 100th Go Round either.  Here is our YouTube channel so you can be ready.  We also have a Facebook group and a Twitter thingy.

How can I say this nicely?  I’m kind of OCD about keeping my house clean.  I dust every week, I keep clutter off the tables, yada yada yada.  Even though it’s my house, people still give me a hard time about keeping things clean.  I find it odd that guests in my house would criticize my house keeping practices but whatever.  So I want to know your opinion, dear reader, on a very important topic.  Do you use coasters?  I have wood floors and several wood tables so I don’t want water rings all over the place.  I used to remind people to use coasters but most have learned the drill by now.  Still, every now and then someone set a drink down without using a coaster.  Anymore I just walk over to them and hand them a coaster without saying a word.  It’s usually an awkward moment and I’m not really sure why.  So, do you use coasters, readers?  Please vote in the poll below for the option that best describes you coaster practices. Read more…

We have a lot of fun doing the Go Rounds.  We probably enjoy watching them more than anyone else as we quote lines from Go Rounds often.  With Go Round 100 coming up in a few weeks, we have been talking about our favorite Go Round moments.  Will decided he would make a video of some of the greatest moments in Go Round history.  Here’s where you come in.  If you have some favorite Go Round moments we want to know about them so we can include them in the upcoming video.  Just leave a comment to this post with the name of the game, a time stamp and a description of what you think is funny.  Will needs time to edit the video so make sure you leave your comments before February 19th.  Go Round 100 is going to be big, folks.  Just you wait and see.

The internet scares me sometimes.  Not just that but people frighten me too.  I don’t know where some people get all their free time.  Like I said to Tony the other day, “leave monkeys in a room long enough and you’ll get Shakespeare.”   Anyway, somebody dug through the ESRB listings (which is like 875 pages by the way) and found two Game Gear games have been rated for the 3DS.  I think this finally means we will see some GG games on the Virtual Console.  The two games are Sonic The Hedgehog: Triple Trouble and Shinobi.  I haven’t played either of these games so I have no idea what to expect.  I only have a few Game Gear gam… wait… do I have Triple Trouble?  *checks iPhone* Huh, I guess I do.  Funny how I don’t remember a single thing about it.  That’s probably not a good sign.

I’m looking forward to the Vita.  I think it has a lot to offer, plus it will eventually have a new version of Persona 4.  I’m a sucker; that’s all the excuse I need to buy one.  However, if you aren’t a pushover like me, you may want to play a Vita before you surrender your cash.  Well, if you can stand going into GameStop (the last one I was in reeked of BO *gag*) then you can touch the new life that is Sony’s Vita.  Try the handy link below to find a Vita demo station near you.  You may want to take a clothespin… and some hand sanitizer just in case.  I read some Best Buy locations are getting Vita demos too.  Best of luck out there.

Vita Demo Locator

Below is the opening move for the arcade edition of Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena.  It doesn’t show a whole lot, there’s no gameplay, there isnt a lot of character animations… it’s just an attraction video for an arcade machine.  Maybe it’s not the greatest thing in the world but I don’t care.  Have I mentioned how much I want this game yet?  Just in case I haven’t, I really want this game now!  Chie can kick tanks!

Perhaps it’s due to my fondness of Metroid but I am a fan of women protagonists in video games.  My obsession with Samus is well documented at this point, so y’all get that.  What you probably don’t know is I always choose to play as a female character when given the choice.  When given the ability to create a character, I will recreate Samus; again, documented.  For some reason, I always gravitate to female characters in fighting games.  You could argue that it’s simply my fondness for the fairer gender but I attribute it to something else.  It’s because I like the idea that women can save the world too.  I’m not going to get into the societal issues of equality between men and women.  That’s far too complex an issue for me.  However, I am wondering how something I see as functional others claim as degrading.

In Resident Evil 5, Jill Valentine goes M.I.A. and is presumed dead.  Spoiler warning by the way but it turns out she is alive and her mind is being controlled by Wesker.   Now while you could delve into the premise that a man is controlling a women and another man has to save her, I’m not going to.  Again, that’s a little more complex than I want to get right now.  What I am focused on is Jill’s outfit; her Battle Suit.  It’s a skin-tight outfit that looks kind of like a wet suit.  I imagine it’s supposed to have some special temperature regulating and armor capabilities, but when most people look at it they just see a skin tight suit.  Some will argue Jill’s attire is inappropriate and sexist against women.  I don’t see it that way.  Yes, the outfit does show off her feminine figure but she is an assassin for crying out loud; you can’t put her in a sweater vest, it just wouldn’t fit the situation.  Read more…

I had no idea what to expect when we picked Taz-Mania for this week’s Go Round.  Turns out this game is pretty bad.  There is really nothing to do and the game never tells you anything.  Will and I end up talking about Looney Tunes.  It’s weird.

After the blowout celebration that was episode 100 we considered just ending the podcast. It would have been a good one to go out on but we decided to record another one. Did we make the right choice? You decide. This week we are joined by Shannon and he delivers his magical bargain sense live on the show. We talk about some games and some news and we laugh a lot. It’s been 100 episodes, you should know all this by now.

episode-101
Starring – Tony, Micah, Shannon, Shelby
Run time – 1:25:39

If you want to talk to us, send an email to podcast@nintendo-okie.com. Feel free to follow us on Twitter for some updates on the site. We have some chats going on over at Facebook as well as our forum. If you have 15 minutes to kill, maybe you should check out our YouTube channel.

I’ve had a lot of spare time these last few months.  Not having a job will do that to you.  I mentioned on the Okie Cast a few weeks ago (episode 99 or so) how I realized I had owned my copy of Metroid for 23 years; all but six years of my life.  That’s a long time if you ask me.  Back in 1988, nobody could have known how important video games would be to me later in life.  I have had several friends throughout my life that helped contribute to my love of video games but the biggest thank you has to go to my parents.

My parents didn’t have a lot of money while I was growing up.  Regardless, they still bought my brother and I an NES when I was six years old.  I don’t remember if the NES was planned or if we got it because I had broke my left arm in two places on the school playground earlier that day.  Oddly, I learned to play Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt with a cast reaching from my knuckles to above my elbow.  We started playing NES every waking moment we could.  This caused a bit of a conflict since Mom and Dad wanted to watch TV.  It didn’t take long until they got sick of watching us play Mario, Metroid and Duck Hunt so they bought a second TV.  A second TV!  And they put it in my room!  Two TVs isn’t a big deal these days but holy cow did we think we were awesome.  Read more…