N-E Café Podcast

[S.C.G]

N-E Café Episode 58 now available!

Now up on the main page.

- - - - -

Nice choice of games for the 2020 Awards, it was a lot more enjoyable than The Game Awards, and significantly less ad-ridden.

If you'd like a listener question for next week, this may or may not already tie into next weeks main topic but...

What game are you most looking forward to in 2021?

For me, it would have to be Monster Hunter Rise, aside from that, I don't see myself buying any other games, at this point in time.

Anyway, looking forward to the next episode, and I'll update this weeks episode with the YouTube embed, as soon as it's available.

[Londragon]

N-E Café [059] Nintendo to Shut Down on March 31st is now available from all good podcast providers.

Recorded on the 3rd of January, 2020.  

Episode 59 of the N-E Café has hosts Lee Davies and Nick Lone taking you through the most noteworthy Nintendo news, with a predictions filled show. What are Nintendo up to this year?  We have all the answers.

This is episode 59 of the N-E Café Podcast, an N-Europe Podcast. Enjoy!

⦁ Intro Music: Final Fantasy IX - Battle Theme

⦁ Introductions: 0:00:21

⦁ PodPals Vote: 0:02:50

⦁ Nintendo News: 0:05:25

⦁ Sales Data: 0:20:05

⦁ Download Delights: 0:27:08

⦁ Final Fantasy IX: 0:32:51

⦁ Receiving a Review Code: 0:43:13

⦁ 2021 Predictions: 0:45:38

⦁ Closing: 1:15:17

Can you guess what game the Transition Tunes come from?  If they ring a bell, get in touch with us, or if you have a Listener's Question you’d like us to discuss, contact us right here.

 

[WackerJr]

Some good choices for the PodPals game, so I’ll make sure to head to the other thread and cast a vote.

It’s always fun to hear predictions and speculation for the year ahead.  If I was looking for some hopeful and optimistic ideas for what’s to come this year from Nintendo I clearly would’ve come to the wrong place! 😂. To be fair I did enjoy it, and actually fear you both may be right on a fair few of those.  The ports suggestion especially.  As you said, which did make me chuckle, we actually know very little about what is actually due to come out this year, although this does help to make the predictions all the more enjoyable.

The talk of the Hollow Knight sequel has reminded me that I’ve got the original & really need to get around to playing it, so thanks!

Spoiler

I was so excited to see that I’d had chance to listen to it before anyone else had replied yet, but realise I don’t actually know it! Drat! At a guess I’ll go with Hollow Knight, but looking forward to seeing what answers the resident experts give! 😄

 

[Nicktendo]

Oh yeah, sorry for the garbage audio from my side this week. Recorded using the wrong microphone...

[Jonnas]

You posted the episode later than usual today. Hence, I only listened to it at the end of the day. Not too bad, since it was a short episode, albeit with a couple of big subjects:

• Final Fantasy IX Good to hear you're making steady progress, Nick. From your description, I take it you're near the Iifa Tree..? I'll be curious to hear more as you go (and hope you start the year with a relatively swift JRPG clear):
  • Zidane's motives for kidnapping the princess aren't immediately apparent, but they're explained a couple of towns later;
  • The slow transitions to random battles were like that in the PS1 version (notice that the beginning of the battle theme is timed to match it), and it's a relic from an era (or a console) with long loading times. It's a common complaint in for modern gamers, and I thought I heard this port has a way to speed it up..? I might be wrong on that, I thought it was one of the options from that minus button;
  • The rush of boss battles you described was surprising... but I have noticed this game places boss battles where you wouldn't expect them to be (most JRPG predictably put them at the end of dungeons, but FFIX plays a lot more with the concept). The part you're at has a couple of sudden ones in the middle of dungeons, so I think I see what you mean. Guess all I can advise is to keep characters in good health, just in case.
• Regarding 2021, I had a good time hearing to predictions, both the optimistic and pessimistic, the obvious and the outlandish. As for my own:
  • I predict a new Zelda title will be announced (likely a smaller one), and we'll get a tease of a new Fire Emblem game at some point. No Metroid Prime 4 news... but we'll get some other Metroid game regardless (either a smaller new game, or a collection). Kirby's going to get three games! We'll also see the revival of a dormant Nintendo series, likely Advance Wars. I'm looking forward to seeing this post in 12 months from now, see how off (or on) I was
  • The title I'm looking forward to in 2021 is Bravely Default II, believe it or not. First demo convinced me to finally play the first BD (which I had in my backlog for so long), which eventually saturated me with its length... then the second demo comes out, I expect to find it mild, but I end up falling in love all over again. So yeah, reasonably hyped (and I hope it's physical...).

So yeah, good start to the year

EDIT: Right, the transition tunes

Spoiler

I don't recognize it at all I figure it might be Hollow Knight, but WackerJr already guessed that... so... Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is my long-shot guess

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by Jonnas

[S.C.G]

N-E Café Episode 59 now available!

Now up on the main page.

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I enjoyed listening to your 2021 predictions for Nintendo, and great choice for the title "Nintendo to Shut Down on March 31st" because what with all of the games which may well be going off-sale again on that day, and the lack of many other titles coming out aside from Monster Hunter Rise (I know there are more, I just can't think of any right now) then you could well believe it... though I suspect it's probably a financial year thing, and Nintendo are probably playing it cautiously.

I've updated this episode and the previous two with the YouTube links, so everything is up to date again, and I look forward to next weeks episode.

[Londragon]

 

N-E Café [060] On the Hunt is now available at all good podcast providers.

 

Recorded on the 10th of January, 2020.  

Episode 60 of the N-E Café has hosts Lee Davies and Nick Lone taking you through the most noteworthy Nintendo news, with a Big Topic filled full of the delights of tracking down majestic beasts, and slaying them. Join us on the hunt!

This is episode 60 of the N-E Café Podcast, an N-Europe Podcast. Enjoy!

⦁ Intro Music: NiGHTS into Dreams - Spring Valley

⦁ Introductions: 0:00:29

⦁ Nintendo News: 0:03:50

⦁ Sales Data: 0:22:12

⦁ Download Delights: 0:25:22

⦁ PodPals Vote: 0:34:40

⦁ Animal Crossing, 2K21 PGA, Nights Into Dreams: 0:37:25

⦁ The Hong Kong Massacre: 0:47:49

⦁ GAME GIVEAWAY: 1:03:07

⦁ On the Hunt: 1:05:37

⦁ Closing: 1:26:30

Can you guess what game the Transition Tunes come from?  If they ring a bell, get in touch with us, or if you have a Listener's Question you’d like us to discuss, contact us right here.

https://soundcloud.com/user-424245610/n-e-cafe-060-on-the-hunt

Had to display as a link as the new upload is not displaying properly, weird.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Londragon
Fix an editing issue in the episode, all done.

[Londragon]

Game Giveaway

We have acquired a European Switch eShop code for The Hong Kong Massacre  from the publishers of that game, UntoldTales.

This is currently running at our NECafe Twitter account, found by searching for @NECafe2.

You can win yourself a copy by doing the following;

Follow Us on Twitter, @NECafe2

Like and Retweet the Competition Tweet

Tag a Friend that would be interested in our Giveaway, and/or Podcast

We will draw the winner on the 23rd of January, and announce that lucky chosen winner on our 62nd Podcast, recorded on the 24th of January, and available from all good podcast providers on Tuesday, the 26th of January.

Watch out for that Tweet at our Twitter account, and good luck.

 

[Jonnas]

Woke up earlier and listened to most of the episode already, but all I'll say for now is that I think there might be an editing/timing error during one of the transition tunes (the one before monster hunter), as there's a few silent seconda, and then the music plays over Lee's first words.

As for the tune itself:

Spoiler

That's Vince McMahon's theme, so... WWF No Mercy

It's one of two WWF games you mentioned, so I'll be peeved if it's actually the other one

 

[Nicktendo]

44 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Woke up earlier and listened to most of the episode already, but all I'll say for now is that I think there might be an editing/timing error during one of the transition tunes (the one before monster hunter), as there's a few silent seconda, and then the music plays over Lee's first words.

As for the tune itself:

  TT guess (Reveal hidden contents)

That's Vince McMahon's theme, so... WWF No Mercy

It's one of two WWF games you mentioned, so I'll be peeved if it's actually the other one

 

Thanks for noticing that, I made a late edit and forgot to shift it along. I'll get it fixed and re-uploaded.

Spoiler

Correct! I was in two minds as to which track to include, the actual WWE version of the song or the N64 Midi disaster. I think I chose wisely. 

 

[Jonnas]

Right, since I'm not into Monster Hunter, I only have a couple of things to say:

• Poor diplomatic language aside, the Microsoft execs had a point about Nintendo's hardware, if they were thinking about the N64 (and in 2000, they probably were). But the Gamecube ran games much better than the PS2 (the loading times in particular were noticeably faster on the Cube, with no discernible loss of texture quality, if any). Plus, the poster games for the GCN during launch period were stuff like Fox McCloud's fur, or Pikmin's tiny armies, which looked plenty impressive on their own. It's ironic the MS executives said that on the cusp of that generation, the one where Xbox and Gamecube ended pretty much on the same sales tier, despite the obvious power difference;
• Wrestling Empire sounds great! It'll go on my wishlist for sure, but what will decide it for me is if the Wrestler Creation is robust or not. I'd love to go bonkers with it, add anybody from Kurt Angle to Spider-Man.

[Hero-of-Time]

I doubt Microsoft teaming up with Nintendo or Sega would have made any difference to the PS2 sales. That thing was an absolute beast throughout the whole generation. The DVD player, along with killer 3rd party exclusives, meant that the other two really didn't stand a chance. I mean, what did the Xbox and Cube do combined? About 40 million? The PS2 sits on around 150 million. It just seem to hit all the right notes at the right time, pretty much like the PS4 has done, and I doubt the competition could have done anything to stop it.

The Japanaese numbers for the Switch are to be expected at this point. Nintendo pretty much own Japan now, mainly due to home console gaming fast becoming a thing of past over there. If you aren't a handheld device then you aren't really going to succeed. The PS4 numbers dropped like a brick over there and I can't see the PS5 doing anything substantial either, at least when compared to what they used to sell. I think it's why Sony are essentially pulling away from that market because they know they can't compete with just a home console. It's a big reason why Colin from Sacred Symbols keeps saying that Sony should make another handheld device. If you want to play in the Japanese market then that's exactly what's needed.

Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy are still to this day the best wrestling games ever made. The career mode on No Mercy was fantastic. There were so many routes to take and storylines to see. It's sad what has become of wrestling games now and the brand in general. It's not all bad though. AEW seems to be going from strength to strength and their game that's in development is being created with idea of copying what No Mercy brought to the table in terms of both content and gameplay. Certainly one to keep an eye on.

i watched a trailer for Wrestling Empire a while back now and it looked horrendous.  

I think the thing to remember about NiGHTS is that it's really a high score chasing game. It's all about doing combos, finding the best path through a stage and racking up the points before the time runs out. It's a game I didn't really appreciate fully when I played it back in the day. I loved the music and colourful graphics but I played it as if I was just trying to go from start to finish and I didn't get a lot out of it at the time. I'm pretty sure the latter stages locked unless you achieve a certain grade on the stages before them but that maybe me just misremembering the game.

[S.C.G]

N-E Café Episode 60 now available!

Now up on the main page.

- - - - -

It was great to hear some more impressions on Monster Hunter Rise, and being that it's the game and topic of the moment, I thought it would be fitting if the banner reflected this, though I realised that we have already had a banner showing some art from the game, so instead, I've taken the monster icon art (from Monster Hunter World, as it happens) which shows two monsters which I'm pretty certain are in the game, and either way, I think it looks nice as banner art.

The competition should being in a few more viewers potentially, plus it's good to have a giveaway when we can, I also had a message back from our contact who gave us the codes, they were very grateful for the review, the fact that the code was being used as a giveaway, and that they've been kept informed of this, so good news all round.

I put the YouTube link in straight away this time, I even listened on there instead of on Soundcloud this week, and I'm looking forward to next weeks episode.

[Londragon]

N-E Café [061] The Return of Mr. Moffett is now live at all good podcast providers.  Don't forget to give us a review, and a rating at your podcast provider.  Let the algorithms do their work for us.

 

Recorded on the 17th of January, 2020.  

Episode 61 of the N-E Café has returning regular Gregory Moffett, joined by Lee Davies and Nick Lone, who take you through the most noteworthy Nintendo news, with a Big Topic filled full of catching up with Greg, and the death of Directs.  Join us for a laugh!

This is episode 61 of the N-E Café Podcast, an N-Europe Podcast. Enjoy!

⦁ Intro Music: Super Mario 3D World - Chainlink Charge

⦁ Introductions: 0:00:30

⦁ Nintendo News: 0:04:13

⦁ Sales Data: 0:18:04

⦁ Download Delights: 0:27:32

⦁ PodPals Results: 0:34:58

⦁ Snake Pass: 0:38:14

⦁ Grindstone, Pro Controlling Origins: 0:47:45

⦁ Part Time UFO, Luigi’s Mansion 3: 1:01:39

⦁ GAME GIVEAWAY: 1:09:54

⦁ Greg’s Top 5 in 2020: 1:11:38

⦁ Greg’s 2021 Predictions: 1:24:53

⦁ The Death of Directs: 1:32:11

⦁ Closing: 1:50:30

Can you guess what game the Transition Tunes come from?  If they ring a bell, get in touch with us, or if you have a Listener's Question you’d like us to discuss, contact us right here.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

I've not listened to the full episode yet but figure I'll get my thoughts down on the things I've heard so far.

• Like Nick, I think the removal of the lower price point on the eShop is a good thing. I was happy when I read about last week and while I don't think it's a big enough move to curb these types of game appearing on the eShop, it's certainly a step in the right direction.
• I was gutted reading about the removal of the My Nintendo 3DS/Wii U discounts and think the whole thing has been handled pretty badly. I would have liked an announcement about it happening and maybe even one big last sale to say goodbye to the service. What really annoys me is that appears we won't be getting a Switch equivalent. It's once again a case of something being taken away but not replaced by anything.
• Happy to hear Nick enjoyed both Part Time UFO and Luigi's Mansion 3. PTU was one of my favourite games from last year and proved that you don't need a high end console to make a fun game. If the gameplay idea is good, then that's all that's needed. Sadly, I don't think the game sold that well. You'll certainly get loads more hours out of the game if going for the achievements. I'm still missing one of them and I doubt I'll be able to unlock it.   As for LM3, easily one of the best Switch games and it highlights just why Nintendo were right to add NLG to their family of developers.
• Add me to the list of people who didn't get on with Snake Pass. I found it far too fiddly to be fun. To be fair, I don't think I gave it a much of a chance. I think I bought it at a time when I was wanting to play other games and so quickly dropped it when it didn't gel with me straight away.

I look forward to hearing Greg's list while on my lunch break. Did he even enjoy 5 games last year? Has he ever enjoyed 5 games?  

[Hero-of-Time]

• Greg, I think Pokemon Snap on the N64/Wii U is still worth playing today. It would offer a good taste of what's on offer with the Switch version. I played it when it was released on the Wii U and the game still held up really well. It's a short but sweet game, with levels only being 5-10 mins long. Oh, and I'm pretty sure the game wasn't a budget release on the N64. I don't think it was the likes of £60-£70 but it was certainly in the £40-£50 range. I remember being very cheesed off having bought it at Woolworths on release and finishing it the same day.  
• Yeah, I think big Directs as we knew them are done at this point. Last year I think Nintendo were forced to abandon them due to lack of content but actually found that a tweet or a quick video on YouTube worked just as well, if not better. Games were able to have their own spotlight and the news was spread out much more. I can't see why they would return to them when they are getting the same or better returns but with less effort. Best thing about the death of Directs was the death of the Direct speculation thread on Era. That thing was ridiculous and people's crazy expectations were never met.

[Jonnas]

• I tried Wrestling Empire demo too. Very rough. I don't mind the 32/64-bit jank, but the lack of music and good sound effects, the fact that finishers have no impact (I legitimately couldn't tell if I successfully hit mine or not), and how I just couldn't pin my opponent despite him being beat to a pulp... There's a lot to fix there.
• Add me to the list of 3DS players saddened by the discount removal. That was a good way to encourage checking less known games.
• Snake Pass sounds fun, though Greg made it sound like level design is repetitive. I'm still a fair few months away from playing it myself
• I think Lee's praise for Grindstone finally pushed me into adding it to the wishlist
• The smaller Directs often get to delve more into a game or series, since they assume whoever's watching is their target audience (e.g.: the Monster Hunter Direct, Sakurai's newcomer videos, even the Fire Emblem 1 announcement had more meat to it than if it had been part of a bigger Direct). I don't think you need to cancel the "big" Directs entirely for that though, I'm fine if Nintendo choose to limit those exclusively to events like E3.

I can't recognise the Transition Tunes at all, but...

Spoiler

Streets of Rage 4

I mean, I'm getting Mega Drive vibes, 007 vibes, modern game vibes... I figure SoR4 fits

 

[S.C.G]

N-E Café Episode 61 now available!

Now up on the main page.

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Welcome back @nekunando it's great to hear you back on the podcast, I enjoyed hearing about your favourite games of last year, personally, I'd struggle to mention five different games. Nice to hear that @Nicktendo has cleared both Part-Time UFO and Luigi's Mansion 3, the latter, I would like to return to, the former, I haven't purchased yet, and @Londragon really sells Grindstone as an interesting mashup of Puzzle and RPG, the last time I heard that same combination of genres, was in Puzzle Quest a few years back, which I enjoyed at the time.

Directs have definitely had their day, or at least, in their previous iteration... the smaller presentations, spread out through the year will likely be how Nintendo wants to play it now, especially if they are trying to spread content out as much as possible throughout the year, even the presentations from third-parties are stretched out, just look at the last Monster Hunter Rise presentation, there was a short video, and they must have re-used the footage a good few times from that clip. It turns out they didn't need much more than that, not with the announcement of the demo as well, but it's clear to see how the focus has shifted for these presentations.

YouTube link is in the article, the upload of the article and me getting around to listening coincided again this week, I'll be listening to it on YT now, as that works a lot better, but at least the Soundcloud link is always in every article, though YouTube is clearly the default archive now for all episodes.

Nice work all round, and it'll be nice to see who wins that game code for The Hong Kong Massacre.

[Londragon]

N-E Café [062] Long Shot is now available at all those wonderful Podcast Providers.  Tell others about us by reviewing and rating our podcast at your podcast provider of choice.  Thanks.

Recorded on the 24th of January, 2020.  

Episode 62 of the N-E Café has regular hosts Lee Davies and Nick Lone giving you all the biggest and most noteworthy Nintendo news, and their recently played FPS games. Join us for the fun!

This is episode 62 of the N-E Café Podcast, an N-Europe Podcast. Enjoy!

⦁ Intro Music: Borderlands 2 - Short Change Hero

⦁ Introductions: 0:00:30

⦁ Nintendo News: 0:06:15

⦁ Sales Data: 0:25:01

⦁ Download Delights: 0:29:40

⦁ PodPals Plea: 0:40:05

⦁ Borderlands 2: GOTY Edition: 0:41:10

⦁ GAME GIVEAWAY Winner: 0:52:73

⦁ Doom (2016): 0:54:30

⦁ Closing: 1:11:57

Can you guess what game the Transition Tunes come from?  If they ring a bell, get in touch with us, or if you have a Listener's Question you’d like us to discuss, contact us right here.

 

[Jonnas]

Heard it at a slower pace this week:

• Heaven's Vault is coming to Switch? Hell yeah, that game looks super intriguing;
• I'll look to try the demos for both Balan Wonderland and Dead Cells (free trial, but whatever). I'm personally not too interested in either, but a demo is a demo;

I'm not the biggest fan of FPSes, so... That's pretty much it

I have no idea about the Transition Tunes, but...

Spoiler

Skyrim

The tunes sounded kind of medieval

 

[WackerJr]

Looking forward to the Zelda discussion in future weeks. My favourite gaming series so it’ll be interesting to hear your thoughts.

So the Balan Wonderland is out. I’m looking forward to giving it a try, with the background of the developers. I’m fully expecting it to be either really good or just really disappointing.

Spoiler

I don’t recognise them... Dead Cells is my guess, if nothing else to give you a greater number of guesses this week!

 

[S.C.G]

N-E Café Episode 62 now available!

Now up on the main page.

- - - - -

Great podcast, you did well to dig up any news this week, very slow week in general. I didn't know about the second Monster Hunter Rise demo though, it'll be interesting to check that out.

I like the N-E Café Excerpts you've been putting up on your channel Lee, an excellent idea there, and it makes the content go that much further.

It was enjoyable hearing about Lee's excursion into Borderlands 2, I played the game years back on the Xbox 360, but haven't been back since, though I remember the appeal of the game at the time, it was fun. Interesting to hear about the single player of Doom there, Nick. I had wondered if the solo campaign was solid all the way through or not, it seems like it's still probably worth playing, though I'll temper my expectations if I decide to go back to it, going by how by the numbers the final section seems to be.

Thanks for putting up the YouTube version of the podcast, Dennis. I've put it in the article as the embed.

I didn't get around to listening until late last night, I usually promote the podcast a bit earlier in the week, at least it's up there before the next one.

A decent amount of talk relating to Borderlands and Doom, so I thought it was only fitting to have the single-eyed Cacodemon on one side, and the single-lens Claptrap on the other.

 

[Londragon]

 

N-E Café [063] Cut Short is now available at all good podcast providers.  An extra long episode, and a promise of Zelda talk, was fulfilled by us, but due to scheduling problems for next week's episode, we decided to split a 3 hour long behemoth into 2.  So, this week News and our Recent Games.  Next week our Zelda deep dive retrospective.

 

Recorded on the 31st of January, 2020.  

Episode 63 of the N-E Café has regular hosts Lee Davies, Gregory Moffett and Nick Lone giving you all the biggest and most noteworthy Nintendo news, and their most recently played games. Join us for the fun!

This is episode 63 of the N-E Café Podcast, an N-Europe Podcast. Enjoy!

⦁ Intro Music: Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening - Overworld

⦁ Introductions: 0:00:26

⦁ Nintendo News: 0:03:13

⦁ Sales Data: 0:38:29

⦁ Download Delights: 0:41:26

⦁ PodPals Plea: 0:48:21

⦁ Super Mario Galaxy, DKC2: 0:49:26

⦁ Super Mario Galaxy 2, Gran Turismo Sport, A Short Hike, Resident Evil Demo: 0:55:03

⦁ The Hong Kong Massacre, Dead Cells, Link’s Awakening, Monster Hunter Rise, Borderlands 2 Tiny Tina’s DLC: 1:12:35

⦁ Apology & Closing: 1:22:17

Can you guess what game the Transition Tunes come from?  If they ring a bell, get in touch with us, or if you have a Listener's Question you’d like us to discuss, contact us right here.

 

[Jonnas]

Still fairly early on the episode, but my Transition Tune guess for now is:

Spoiler

007 Goldenye

I'm likely wrong, but the one tune I heard sounds like it fits

 

[Jonnas]

After listening to the rest, I retract my previous guess. It's clear the other tunes can't be 007!

Spoiler

Bayonetta 2

Haven't played it, but Moon River gave it away. I know the last tune usually isn't part of the transition, but this seems to be an exceptional ending to an N-E Café episode. Plus, the other tunes were vaguely familiar, like I heard them somewhere before. Likely Smash Bros.

As for the rest of the topics... I actually don't have much to say, though I think Nick made a great point about how Mario Galaxy is stronger in the "Obstacle Course" type of levels, while the open spaces aren't that fun to explore. Galaxy is a game that's not too often criticised, but I think that's absolutely true.