Idle Thumbs 110: The Thing That You Needed To Say

[Henroid]

I wish there didn't have to be a stigma or shame when it comes to liking Nintendo games. Like fucking whatever, who cares. Not to suggest anyone here / on the podcast had that going on, it's just my observation of Nintendo fans / non-fans these days.

[Dez]

I felt the same about the Nintendo direct. As someone who's kinda ignored most of the Wii/DSi era, at lot of the stuff they showed looked really fun, specifically Mario 3D World (+ Cats). Even Smash Bros has me a bit hooked. I feel Villager and Wii Fit lady are the perfect tone for the original game's concept (What if Link could punch Pikachu). When they started adding Dr. Mario, Sonic, and niche Fire Emblem characters it just got weird. Even the Megaman reveal was hilarious since it's so loyal to the NES aesthetic. I caught myself grinning multiple times throughout the video. Maybe Nintendo's on the rise again?

[BigJKO]

[thestalkinghead]

I wish there didn't have to be a stigma or shame when it comes to liking Nintendo games. Like fucking whatever, who cares. Not to suggest anyone here / on the podcast had that going on, it's just my observation of Nintendo fans / non-fans these days.

i don't think there is a stigma attached to liking nintendo games, but there is one attached to being a nintendo fanboy (as with all fanboys) and anyway if you're afraid of stigmas maybe video games aren't the hobby for you

[Henroid]

Speaking of Nintendo,

 

[melmer]

You just blow my mind wide open talking about what people choose to change in their fantasy alternate histories

 

Didn't register it at the time, but the newly announced PS4 game the Order 1886 is an alternate reality steam punk London with laser guns and shit, but no black people

 

 

Surely the wise cracking heavy character who carries the mini gun should be a black guy, and he should have a mohawk and be afraid of flying

[Argobot]

But 1886 has a rad lady character, so there's that at least. So is 1886 the year that game is theoretically set in? If so, I'm surprised that they didn't go with 1888, because then Jack the Ripper could have been in the game (probably as a super werewolf).

 

But speaking of lady video game characters, I'm a little embarrassed over how enthusiastic my reaction to the Princess being a playable character in a main Mario game was. I'm excited about a game that I will never play, on a console that I will never own, because the developers decided to make the easiest step toward being move inclusive. But the fact that the last time Peach was a playable character in a Mario game was in 1988, the same year I was born, holds more significance to me than it probably should.

[melmer]

But 1886 has a rad lady character, so there's that at least.

 

And an old dude, so not sexist or ageist at all

 

Although they all seem very stereotypical, Why not make the older team member also a woman, or make the heavy character a woman. Woman always seemed to be the sniper in a bikini top (hello MGS 5) or the agile thief

 

In fact the game with the least stereotypical gender classes that i can think of is Dragons Crown (i'm just trolling)

[melmer]

Also, Whos Princess Peach? Are they one and the same. Is Peach like the European name for her and Toadstool American 

 

REASEARCH HAT ON

 

(named Princess Toadstool in the English translations of the early games)

 

So Jake is just showing he's an old man

[Justin Leego]

I enjoyed the post-episode confession regarding the ongoing (imagined?) war between Giant Bomb and Idle Thumbs.

 

Yes definitely this. My cast queued straight into one of the E3 Bombcasts which made it sound like the GB opening theme was in fact the Thumbs closing theme. Which was totally sweet, rad and / or baller (depending on which site you adhere to the most).

 

Also the Jake's Favorite FX In Detail segment was certainly one of my most appreciated Thumb moments so far.

[CaptainFish]

Oh, for the Nintendo stuff, I thought it was kinda funny that Jake noticed the uniqueness of a return of playable Peach in a Mario adventure, but also wanted to, uh, downplay it's importance.  That was the first that I heard of her being playable, and I think it's awesome. I always thought it was weird that she wasn't available as one of the multiplayer characters in the 4 player NSMB games, or if not her, at least Daisy.

[SecretAsianMan]

Also, Whos Princess Peach? Are they one and the same. Is Peach like the European name for her and Toadstool American 

 

REASEARCH HAT ON

 

(named Princess Toadstool in the English translations of the early games)

 

So Jake is just showing he's an old man

 

I always thought her name was Peach Toadstool.  The letter from the beginning of Mario 64 is from Princess Toadstool and then she signs it Peach as well.

 

[Argobot]

I didn't see it as a downplay, more of an admission that it's a weird thing to get overly excited about, because it's something Nintendo should have been doing for years. 

[melmer]

Is Jake equally as excited for Megaman in Smash Bros? (i recently listened to the first couple of idle thumbs episodes and the man clearly has the hots for small robot boys, who doesn't)

 

[melmer]

(named Princess Toadstool in the English translations of the early games)

 

I wonder if the guy who renamed the princess for the English translation was a sleazy bag, as referring to a lady as a peach means something quite different everywhere other than Marioland (for example, i think of juicy bums)

[BigJKO]

The great thing about Peach is that, like in Super Mario Bros. 2, she's not just a reskin of the Mario character but one with her own set of abilities and strengths. I like it when games do that. Too many times I've been bummed out by seemingly cool alternative characters, who turn out to be just the regular character in new clothing.

[thestalkinghead]

her floating ability made her my favorite

[MDuez]

Regarding Chris's description to stepping away from The Swapper and crossword puzzles and finding that his brain has "rearranged" itself, one might find

extremely interesting.

[Jake]

I didn't see it as a downplay, more of an admission that it's a weird thing to get overly excited about, because it's something Nintendo should have been doing for years.

This is why my reaction is weird on the cast. The imagery of Mario and Peach fighting side by side using classic mainline Mario moves, together on the same screen, was shockingly moving to me to see. It felt profound. But that was being strangled to death by the other voice in my head which was screaming "they've been making these since you were 8 and now you're 32 why did it take them until now to do this what the fuckkk :("

[UltimateHurl]

E3 this year was strangely cold, quite happy that Thumbs didn't get caught up in the sort of hype that can be the bread and butter of some discussions. Interesting to see that, under cover of being 'not as bad as Microsoft', Sony are implementing charging for multiplayer, which was a downside of Xbox Live this generation. If I was coming back to console gaming (I am not) I'd see that as a minor disadvantage they will see no bad press for because of Microsoft ... being a company who want to put a microphone in my living room and who have allegedly being sharing data with a secret data-mining program. 

 

Still reeling from the announcement of the WiiFit avatar as a playable Smash Bros character. 

 

 

I love this.

 

Edit: and Peach (Toadstool to me) fighting side-by-side Mario is really cool. I was interested to hear she had gotten her own game, but never really explored, glad she is incorporated more fully as a character in the main Mario line.

Edited June 13, 2013 by UltimateHurl

[tegan]

Hey Jake, if you buy a Wii U now, you can check out sweet developer updates every day on Miiverse.

[Twig]

I wish there didn't have to be a stigma or shame when it comes to liking Nintendo games. Like fucking whatever, who cares. Not to suggest anyone here / on the podcast had that going on, it's just my observation of Nintendo fans / non-fans these days.

Yeah, I don't have any kind of shame about my Nintendo love, but it's really hard to defend it sometimes when I then turn around and complain about FPS all being the same manshootemups or JRPGs not having really evolved for many many years or whatever. Nintendo doesn't change, no matter how many wacky new inputs they develop. And I wish they would. It makes me a hypocrite! Blergh.

[Argobot]

This is why my reaction is weird on the cast. The imagery of Mario and Peach fighting side by side using classic mainline Mario moves, together on the same screen, was shockingly moving to me to see. It felt profound. But that was being strangled to death by the other voice in my head which was screaming "they've been making these since you were 8 and now you're 32 why did it take them until now to do this what the fuckkk :("

 

It all kind of reminds me of this one scene in this movie:

 

[sclpls]

I agree with a lot of what was said with regards to historical games, but I think these issues get kind of complicated by how ignorant people are of actual history. For example, I've read a lot of complaints about how in the new Company of Heroes 2 the Soviet tank units have a female voice when you select them, and that the idea of female combatants in WWII is ridiculous and PC. However the Red Army actually had many female soldiers, and they were often tank drivers. Similarly, we have records of female and African-American fighter pilots in WWI, even if they were extremely rare.

 

Ace Patrol isn't a particularly deep simulation to begin with. The campaigns for the four sides are basically identical, and the only detailed realism in the game has to do with the specs of the various planes. All things considered, I don't find the inclusion of African-American and women pilots in Ace Patrol the least bit off putting, quite the contrary, I found the inclusion to be a very nice touch. Often, history is more complicated than any game can really hope to capture, and far more nuanced than most gamers might realize.

[Zeusthecat]

I'm reading the cast right now and just wanted to comment on the "excitement over Sony maintaining the status quo" remark.

 

I look at the new consoles the same way as I have with every other console iteration. Up until the current generation I think the majority of people got excited over new consoles simply for the fact that they would have better graphics and games that would be capable of doing more things. In a sense, every console up until now has maintained the status quo in regards to how games are played. We get a few new features here and there like the ability to play DVDs, the ability to play games online and the ability to stream Netflix but those have been supplemental to the core gaming experience.

 

Once again we are getting new consoles that will potentially allow for games to do more things in addition to some cool new features. For that reason I am excited just as I have been for every new console that has released. But I will admit that my excitement was heightened this time around because the status quo is being maintained by Sony. I see a shift towards always online as an impediment to playing games in many cases and was almost certain that it was inevitable from both Sony and Microsoft. I guess it's kind of like never being excited about bad shit not happening in life and then being really excited when you think something bad is going to happen and it doesn't.