Nintendo 64 in Japan with Danny Bivens, Zelda Tears of the Kingdom One Year Later, Animal Well

[00:00:01] Welcome to Tokyo Game Life, a Tokyo-based video game podcast focusing on Nintendo and

[00:00:13] gaming culture in Japan's capital. Your host Mono here to bring you a slice of gaming life

[00:00:18] from Tokyo. Today, returning guest Danny Bivens from the Famicast is back to chat about Nintendo

[00:00:24] 64 in Japan. You might know about its history in the West, but what about the Japanese side?

[00:00:30] We dig into Japan only in 64 games, the 64DD, exclusive hardware colors, and everything else

[00:00:36] under the sun as we explore the console's legacy in Japan. Danny also stays on as we chat about

[00:00:42] The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom one year later. Is it still good? Yes, but we get into a

[00:00:48] lot more than just that. And I take a look at Animal Well, the only metroidvania I know with

[00:00:53] a slinky. Let's start with the feature on the Nintendo 64 in Japan with Danny Bivens.

[00:00:59] Today's feature is about the Nintendo 64 in Japan. Nintendo followed up the incredibly popular

[00:01:11] Super Famicom with their first ever 3D console, and while you might know the story of how it

[00:01:15] fared in the West, today we're digging into the Nintendo 64's legacy in Japan. Joining me

[00:01:20] to chat all about it is a special guest. So guest, please introduce yourself. Hello,

[00:01:25] my name is Danny. I'm from a podcast website, YouTube channel called Famicast.

[00:01:29] Thanks for having me on today. Yes, welcome back to the podcast. Before we get into the unique

[00:01:35] elements of Nintendo 64 in Japan, I want to know a bit about your N64 history. Were you an N64

[00:01:41] kid? Absolutely. So my brothers and I, we got an N64 for Christmas in 1996. We got Mario,

[00:01:51] Super Mario 64 and Pilot Link 64. Before that, one of my friends, he got it. He must have

[00:01:57] got that launch because I remember playing it in like September, October of that year

[00:02:01] and just being absolutely blown away. Being a Nintendo fan anyways, it was just so cool to see

[00:02:08] Mario in 3D, just everything in 3D. It's just something that just blew my mind.

[00:02:12] Yeah, for me, Nintendo 64 wasn't my first console I owned, but that era was when I

[00:02:16] started to become cognizant of the gaming industry. Me too. I started to learn who

[00:02:20] developers were, when games were coming out, and this is when I really started to read gaming

[00:02:24] magazines and so forth. This is also when I learned about sales tax because I saved up

[00:02:29] $150 to buy an N64, but then I realized, oh, there's tax. It's actually more expensive.

[00:02:36] Fortunately, my parents spotted me like that extra $10.

[00:02:40] Ironically, I bought it in summer of 97, but I didn't own a game until Christmas of 97

[00:02:46] because I didn't have any money. So I just rented Super Mario 64 over and over again

[00:02:51] and things like that. Eventually, I did own games. I do have a ton of nostalgia for the Nintendo 64

[00:02:57] and I am a fan, so this will not be an N64 hate fest, but we will get into both the positive

[00:03:02] and the negative elements of Nintendo 64's lifespan in Japan. Let's start at square one,

[00:03:08] the launch. Nintendo 64 hit Japanese stores on June 23rd, 1996, so a few months before the

[00:03:14] U.S. date. Despite launching earlier in Japan, it actually had more launch titles than the U.S.

[00:03:20] The states only got Super Mario 64 and Pilot Wing 64, like you said, but Japan got one more game.

[00:03:25] Danny, do you have any clue on what that third game was?

[00:03:28] I think I do. Isn't it Morita Shogi?

[00:03:32] You are close. It is a Shogi game, but it's Saikyo Habu Shogi,

[00:03:37] which features Yoshiharu Habu on the cover who was a Shogi All-Star at the time.

[00:03:42] And it is actually the first game to use the controller pack. So is this game in your

[00:03:46] N64 collection? I'm going to turn around and look at my shelf.

[00:03:50] No, it is not. Yeah, that Morita Shogi, one of the other Shogi games of a handful that are out

[00:03:58] there. It's the only one that I have for a different reason. It's a very interesting

[00:04:02] cart. Maybe I'll touch on that in a little bit, but yeah, I don't have this one though.

[00:04:07] Yeah, one of the main reasons why I wanted to have you on is that you have a pretty

[00:04:09] impressive N64 collection, and I really want to dig into, I think, what is a fun element of

[00:04:15] Nintendo 64's life in Japan. Japan is exclusive to Nintendo 64 hardware and software.

[00:04:21] So let's start with the hardware. What would you say are some of the standout,

[00:04:24] Japan-only pieces of N64 hardware? I think the most obvious one is the Nintendo 64

[00:04:30] disc drive, 64DD. This is something that was going to be, at least at one point,

[00:04:35] going to be an integral part of the system. And if you don't know, this is a drive that

[00:04:40] attached to the bottom of the 64. If you look on the bottom of your 64, there's an EXD

[00:04:44] port that you can open up on most of the 64. Some of the models don't have that port,

[00:04:49] but a lot of them do. The idea was this thing connects to it. The carts, at one point they

[00:04:54] thought the cart size can't get any bigger. So we got to find a way to expand this cheaper.

[00:04:59] And not only that, you can have rewritable data and stuff like that on these discs

[00:05:04] and just basically more room to put stuff. So yeah, that's probably the most unique

[00:05:10] thing that came out here in Japan. Yeah, I think that's definitely the big one in terms of what's

[00:05:15] so different about Japanese N64s compared to the Western N64s. It is one of the more

[00:05:20] interesting pieces of hardware in Nintendo's history in general. And it was actually

[00:05:24] announced before the N64 came out, but it was frequently delayed. But Miyamoto and Itoi said

[00:05:30] that a lot of the plans they had for N64 games were based on the idea that the disc

[00:05:34] drive would be available day one. Like what you said, whatever couldn't be handled

[00:05:38] via the cart would be handled with the disc drive. And 60 games were announced,

[00:05:43] but eventually only 10 were released, with the rest moving to either just the cart

[00:05:47] or other platforms entirely. I think maybe the most famous example is Dragon Quest 7,

[00:05:52] which many assumed would come to the DD on its announcement, but instead it hit the PlayStation.

[00:05:57] So I want to get into some of the N64DD games. Since you actually own a N64DD,

[00:06:03] do you have any game recommendations or what are some of these standout titles for the DD?

[00:06:07] The best thing for the 64DD is the F-Zero X expansion kit. This game works in, you need

[00:06:14] to have a copy of F-Zero X and then you have a copy of this disc. And when they're both plugged

[00:06:19] into your system, you could have access to a couple of different things. The biggest deal here

[00:06:24] is that, well, you do get a couple of different courses and you actually have the ability

[00:06:28] to create your own courses too. It's a pretty robust editor as well. Like it was really cool

[00:06:35] to see that they could do this back in the N64 days. And yeah, it was really fun. Definitely

[00:06:41] the best part of the N64DD library. I mean, the only good thing about this is, you know,

[00:06:47] if you had a GameCube, basically a lot of those features that were in this expansion

[00:06:51] kit moved over to F-Zero GX on GameCube and it looked better too. It is interesting

[00:06:56] this is that a lot of the ideas that they had for the DD, it took kind of years for it

[00:07:00] to be realized. So it was kind of ahead of its time in a way. Yeah, I mean, I remember

[00:07:05] just thinking of all the possibilities like that cart and disc combo thing. That was like

[00:07:09] one idea of like how they can expand games, you know, other ways they can do it too is

[00:07:13] just with disc only games and then other things too, like plugging in Gameboys and stuff

[00:07:19] like that to the N64 to have some kind of functionality like that type of stuff. Some

[00:07:23] of this stuff, like some of this type of functionality is available. Like for example,

[00:07:28] there's the Mario Artist series of games that came out in the system, four different games,

[00:07:31] a paint studio, a talent studio, a polygon creator and oh my gosh, but there are four

[00:07:40] of them. And basically the idea here is as a creative studio type of a thing that you can

[00:07:44] create a lot of different things. Some of them you can hook up like your digital camera,

[00:07:48] there's like microphone stuff you can hook up Gameboy transfer pack for the 64 and do

[00:07:54] stuff with the Gameboy camera. Like there's a lot of really crazy stuff that you could do

[00:07:58] with some of this stuff if you had all the necessary parts.

[00:08:02] Right. The communication kit is the fourth Mario Artist. Not a really catchy name, but

[00:08:08] yeah, right. So yeah, it comes with a mouse. There's a special Nintendo 64 mouse with the

[00:08:13] N64 logo on it. Which do you think is better? The Super Famicom mouse or the

[00:08:17] Nintendo 64 mouse? I think the N64 mouse is more

[00:08:21] modern, if you will. I got some good memories with that old Super Nintendo mouse too.

[00:08:26] Yes. So going back to exclusive hardware. So we talked about the mouse. There are a lot

[00:08:32] of other things, especially the, I guess I would say maybe the colors are actually quite

[00:08:36] unique for Japan. Do you have any favorite Japan exclusive N64 hardware color?

[00:08:42] Yeah, I have. It's a two-tone console. Like the top of it is kind of like a

[00:08:47] translucent orange and then the bottom is black. And I believe that's a Dai, Dai limited

[00:08:54] edition or something like that. Yes. And I had just picked it up in 2010.

[00:08:59] It was a used shop for like 3000 yen. So at the time that was like 30 bucks.

[00:09:03] Yeah. It looks really awesome. It is like a Halloweeny type of N64 where it is like

[00:09:08] the classic skeleton orange on the top and on the bottom is just black.

[00:09:12] And I hear this being called the Daihawks N64 because I think the colors are supposed

[00:09:17] to be based off the Daihawks. Before the Daihawks became the Softbank

[00:09:21] Hawks, Dai was their team and I believe that the colors were instead of yellow and black,

[00:09:27] it was orange and black. So yeah, good call. Is this like a really rare N64? How much would

[00:09:32] you think would go for today? I think it's quite rare now. At the time

[00:09:36] I had no idea. Obviously I just picked it up because it's just, well, I just wanted a N64.

[00:09:40] I just moved back here to Japan, but I think they're quite pricey these days,

[00:09:43] especially if you want to get one with a box or something like that.

[00:09:46] I'm not quite sure how much they go for, probably like $100 or more or something like that. That's

[00:09:50] just off the top of my head. I was looking at something about that months ago, but it's kind

[00:09:54] of left me at this point. Yeah. Anecdotally, I did see one in box

[00:09:58] at Beep in Akihabara and it was about $300. And this was maybe two or so years ago. So

[00:10:03] I think it's probably even more expensive. Oh yeah. I can see that.

[00:10:07] But I did see on your Twitter, you posted a picture of this and I thought, whoa,

[00:10:10] that looks awesome in person. So I'm very jealous of your Daihawks N64.

[00:10:15] Right place at the right time, man. Yes. The N64 I have in Japan, I have the gold N64,

[00:10:21] which I believe in the West, it was only sold in a bundle maybe with a Star Wars Episode 1 Racer

[00:10:26] or like Toys R Us exclusive or something like that. But in Japan you could just buy a gold

[00:10:30] one and it looks quite awesome. Yeah. I've been tempted to buy that one,

[00:10:34] man. Cause I mean, I had the gold controller in the States. Like I got it from a friend.

[00:10:38] That was like a pre-order bonus with maybe it was with Ocarina of Time or something. And

[00:10:42] I eventually got it from my friend. But I remember seeing pictures of that gold N64.

[00:10:47] I've never seen one in person, but yeah, it looks super sharp.

[00:10:51] Oh yeah. Definitely yes. And I would say, yeah, out of all the Nintendo hardware,

[00:10:56] they're probably just the biggest gap in terms of Japan and the West with the special

[00:11:00] editions and unique colors of the N64. And actually ironically, the West did get some things

[00:11:05] Japan didn't get, which is going to be a trend as we get more into the episode and

[00:11:09] talk about the software. In terms of colors, Japan did not get a lot of the iconic,

[00:11:14] fantastic N64s. There's no jungle green, no ice blue, no fire orange or watermelon red in Japan.

[00:11:22] It did get some sort of other variations. Like there is a translucent blue N64 in Japan,

[00:11:28] but the bottom is clear instead of blue, which is kind of odd that it's like half and

[00:11:34] half. Japan also did not get the Poke Maniac in 64, which was an Australia only special

[00:11:40] Pokemon in 64, which is quite strange. I never heard about this until I did research for this

[00:11:46] episode. And also Japan did not get the North American blue Pikachu in 64. Japan's blue is

[00:11:52] slightly lighter. So it is technically different hardware, but if you just saw the blue Japanese

[00:11:58] N64, you would think, oh, that's the same one as in the West, but they are slightly

[00:12:02] different shades of blue. And Japan also has an orange Pikachu in 64. Do you own any of the

[00:12:08] Pikachu in 64? I do not. I think even when I was shopping around for just consoles,

[00:12:14] like that was a little bit too expensive. I mean, I just got, like I said, I got the

[00:12:17] Daihawks one just on a whim because I just wanted an N64 and I was back here.

[00:12:22] And then maybe in like 2018, I just wanted a boxed N64. This is a general box one.

[00:12:27] And I found one online for cheap and just picked it up. But yeah, I was looking at some of the other

[00:12:33] special ones, but it was kind of expensive. And I was like, I just want to see the basic

[00:12:36] one. I'll get those other ones later. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a big Pokemon fan,

[00:12:40] but even the Pikachu in 64 is a bit too gaudy for even me. It's hard to describe.

[00:12:45] It's not like so kitschy that it's cool. It just looks like kind of like a Fisher

[00:12:49] Price toy. Yeah. Yeah. It's there if you want it. That's the best way to put it.

[00:12:55] So let's get into software. While N64 doesn't have a huge library of games,

[00:12:59] only 198 games came out in Japan. It does have several notable exclusive titles.

[00:13:05] What are some Japan only N64 titles that people should check out?

[00:13:08] There are quite a few that I really like. I mean, one that some people might not realize

[00:13:13] is Animal Crossing actually got its start on the N64. And while I think the version

[00:13:19] that is on the N64, it's a lot less fully featured than the GameCube game. It's still an interesting

[00:13:25] curiosity just to kind of see where the series came from because like I said, there are some

[00:13:30] things in that version of the game that are just completely different than any other version.

[00:13:34] Like for example, the Wishing Well, it's not the Wishing Well, it's a shrine. There are a

[00:13:39] lot of really interesting differences between the versions. Yeah. There are some exclusive

[00:13:44] items that are only in the N64 version. Like it never came out to the GameCube edition and

[00:13:49] some of the holidays are different. And ironically, there's no museum. So Blathers and Co. are not

[00:13:54] in the game. Pretty weird to think about. There's an Animal Crossing game without a museum,

[00:14:00] which is really hard to think about. So yeah, that kind of makes you think

[00:14:03] like what am I collecting all this stuff for? But I mean, if you didn't have that frame

[00:14:07] of reference, it wouldn't have mattered. Are there any other titles that stand out

[00:14:11] for the N64 in Japan? Yeah, absolutely. Believe it or not, too. Some of you guys out there

[00:14:16] may or may not know this. There's a Dance Dance Revolution game on the N64. There's

[00:14:20] a dance mat that you can get as well. This is called Dance Dance Revolution Disney Dancing Museum.

[00:14:26] Yeah, I have this. I found it boxed with the dance mat. Relatively cheap. And yeah,

[00:14:36] the song list is kind of not that great. I guess if you're really into Disney,

[00:14:40] maybe you'll like it. I didn't even recognize like half of the songs, but it was just cool to have

[00:14:44] a DDR game on the system. And you don't have to play with the dance pad. You can just play

[00:14:48] with the controller. I just did that. I got out the dance pad and I was like,

[00:14:52] you know, I don't feel like breaking a sweat. I'm just kind of mashing these buttons here

[00:14:56] and that'd be a lot easier. But yeah, a couple other games that I'm a big fan of as well,

[00:15:01] Virtual Pro Wrestling. There are two Virtual Pro Wrestling titles on the N64 that are Japan

[00:15:07] exclusive. The first one is kind of like a reskin of WCW versus NWO World Tour, which came out

[00:15:15] everywhere, but it's slightly different. Like they added a couple of different features.

[00:15:19] Like for example, in the game after that in the west of WCW, NWO Revenge,

[00:15:25] they added a scoring system and on-screen referees and stuff. They had some of these

[00:15:30] elements in this Japanese version of the game because it came out in between. It's like a

[00:15:34] weird in-between release. So it's kind of like an enhanced version of that game of World Tour

[00:15:39] essentially. But the second one in that lineup of games, Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, that's considered

[00:15:46] to be one of the best wrestling games of all time. That's up for debate. But gameplay wise,

[00:15:52] it's absolutely fantastic. If you liked those, I, you know, grapple based wrestling games from

[00:15:58] the N64. It's something that you should definitely have on your radar if you don't already own

[00:16:03] the thing. For me, in terms of Japan only in 64 games, I always jumped to Rakuga Kids,

[00:16:08] which is a very visually striking 2D fighter from Konami where all the characters look like kids

[00:16:13] drawings. It comes from Rakugaki, which is graffiti, but they aren't really graffiti style.

[00:16:19] They're mostly like crayon kids drawings. This is a title I just really hope that they

[00:16:23] throw on NSO one day out of the blue because it is kind of at least worth playing to check

[00:16:28] out all the really crazy animations. And in terms of sheer quality, like you said,

[00:16:33] I really like Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 from AKI, the developers of No Mercy and all the N64

[00:16:39] wrestling games. It is an amazing time capsule of 90s Japanese wrestling. And

[00:16:45] it's like an alternative version of No Mercy. So you can kind of think of it like that.

[00:16:49] And of course, Animal Crossing, which came out only a few months before the GameCube version

[00:16:54] is just an enhanced port of the N64 version. But there's a bunch of other stuff added to it.

[00:17:00] But it is a really fun. It's like a good collector's piece, I think, even if you don't

[00:17:03] plan on playing it, it's fun to just put on your shelf. It has a really cool looking box.

[00:17:08] And it's just like, okay, this is where it all began, is the N64 version.

[00:17:12] And if you want to get crazy with the two, because there are actually two variants of the

[00:17:15] game, one that comes with the memory card and one that doesn't. But yeah,

[00:17:18] if you want to get crazy with variants, that's where it gets a little bit dangerous.

[00:17:21] If you're rich, then go for it, I guess. And Mono, one interesting thing about

[00:17:25] Rokugakids, actually, it did apparently get a release in Europe.

[00:17:28] S0n3r0p1 Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm very US centric. So I'm thinking, oh,

[00:17:31] in Denver came out. Yeah, that's very strange that why didn't come out in America then?

[00:17:35] What we were missing out. We didn't get Gururin or Rokugakids, what's going on?

[00:17:39] Or Doshin the Giant? Yeah, what's going on? So

[00:17:42] J0n3r0 To be fair, Doshin the Giant is not really a good game. So I don't think

[00:17:45] we're missing out on much. S0n3r0p1

[00:17:48] That's another like just throw it on NSO type of game that I'm really looking forward to.

[00:17:51] They got to put it up there eventually, they're going to run out of games one day.

[00:17:54] Exactly. We'll get Rokugakids before we know it. There's actually quite a lot of

[00:17:58] N64 titles that Japan did not get. It didn't get a lot of hardware that America got. But

[00:18:02] also, there are many games that Japan never got. And I think the most notable ones are

[00:18:06] Pokemon Puzzle League, which was developed by NST, Nintendo Software Technology. But it is

[00:18:13] Intelligent Systems unreleased Penodapon 64. And Dr. Mario 64, which was developed by

[00:18:19] Nintendo R&D1. But that did get a GameCube release. So it is weird that these

[00:18:24] iconic Nintendo franchises, Mario and Pokemon, did not come out in Japan.

[00:18:30] I don't really know the reasoning. I guess because for Puzzle League, since it uses a

[00:18:35] lot of the anime style, and uses a lot of the English voice acting for the anime,

[00:18:40] maybe there's some licensing thing or like Intelligent Systems was just like,

[00:18:45] oh, we don't want to release Penodapon in Japan again or something. But it is strange that there's

[00:18:50] an American exclusive Pokemon game that a lot of people don't realize. And another big title

[00:18:55] that never hit Japan, of course, was WWF No Mercy. But they did get Virtual Pro Wrestling 2.

[00:19:01] And sadly, Superman 64 never came out in Japan. Do you think Japan missed out by not

[00:19:06] getting Superman 64? Absolutely. I mean, the pinnacle of oh, wait a second.

[00:19:12] I mean, hey, just for the lulz, I mean, I think it would have been great maybe then I can

[00:19:15] actually go and pick up a copy for really cheap just from the shop or something here.

[00:19:20] I've only played that game like literally at some game shop about 20 years ago. I'm

[00:19:24] glad that's all I played. I still kind of want to try it again now to see if

[00:19:29] it's as bad as I remember. I do wonder if it came out in Japan,

[00:19:32] would it be some sort of iconic like Kusugei? Kusugei listeners, if you don't know,

[00:19:37] just means like crappy games. And there is a subculture of people who really like these

[00:19:41] types of games. So I think it would definitely enter the Kusugei pantheon if it came out in

[00:19:45] Japan. No, absolutely. And so I want to go back to the distrive a little bit. We talked

[00:19:51] about that. You know, there's a lot of problems with its delay. It didn't come out

[00:19:56] when it wanted to and it didn't really live up to its potential. And I want to get into

[00:20:00] more about the reception of Nintendo 64 in Japan. Of course, Famicom, super popular,

[00:20:05] Super Famicom, also super popular. Nintendo 64 definitely did not reach the heights into those

[00:20:10] previous two consoles. Both in the West, but especially in Japan. Do you think that Nintendo

[00:20:14] 64 reception in Japan would have been different if the DD came out day one or was bundled

[00:20:20] with the N64 at launch? Good question. I mean, I think it would have been well,

[00:20:28] with always kind of like the promise of the DD on the horizon, it just kind of like left

[00:20:32] gamers kind of confused and developers and stuff like that too. Like, well, are we going to do

[00:20:36] this or not? I think it could have made it a little bit more clear what they're trying to do.

[00:20:41] But like, I think if they were going to do that, they would have had to like bundle them

[00:20:44] together because then I think you'd obviously alienate too many people. But at the same

[00:20:47] time, then it would just shoot up the price of the system. It's interesting. It's like,

[00:20:51] what would Nintendo be willing to sell this thing for? Would this still be in the realm

[00:20:55] of what people are willing to pay? In terms of like what it could do, I think it could

[00:21:01] have been enticing as long as Nintendo explained it well enough and fans knew what it could do.

[00:21:08] So yeah, it is kind of echoed a little bit with the Connect that was bundled with the

[00:21:13] Xbox One. A lot of people did not like that. But I think the disc drive was a bit more

[00:21:17] integral to the core gameplay experience. But that is a hard proposition for gamers where

[00:21:22] it's like, okay, you need this extra thing if you want to get the most out of it. But we are

[00:21:27] selling it separately, but oh, maybe we shouldn't sell it separately. So

[00:21:31] I think it would have been better if it was one device, like not even detachable or anything

[00:21:36] like that. Just one huge, I guess, like Leviathan of a machine. So I guess we can

[00:21:43] get into some of the more bummer elements about N64 in Japan. Obviously not a huge hit.

[00:21:47] It was crushed by PlayStation sales wise, and even the Saturn outsold N64 in Japan.

[00:21:52] N64 is at 5.54 million while Saturn is at 5.7 million. But my excuse is always,

[00:21:59] oh, the Saturn was on the market for a longer period of time and launched first,

[00:22:02] but numbers are numbers. Why do you think Japan was not responsive to the N64?

[00:22:07] Probably price. Some of the games are probably a lot more expensive. I know some of the retail

[00:22:14] pricing for N64 games, but I'm not super familiar with what was on PlayStation. But

[00:22:19] I would assume it would probably be quite a bit cheaper price and then big companies like Square

[00:22:24] Enix and not playing ball with Nintendo that generation. I think that was a big one for

[00:22:31] Japan. Yeah, I think the reasons why it didn't hit as big as Japan are pretty similar to the

[00:22:35] ones about why PlayStation beat it in the West. But maybe the lack of RPGs was far more

[00:22:39] detrimental in the Japanese market. Do you think if at least Square didn't jump ship,

[00:22:44] N64 would have been equal to PlayStation or was it kind of a lost cause from day one?

[00:22:50] I think if they had a big supporter like that with some kind of big franchises,

[00:22:54] that could have really changed the trajectory of how things would have went. It would have

[00:23:00] been kind of interesting to see what an N64 developed Final Fantasy 7 would have looked

[00:23:05] like. Yeah, wow, that would be really interesting to see some alternate reality of that.

[00:23:12] I really do think that it would have kind of changed things quite a bit.

[00:23:15] I don't know if Nintendo would have come out on top generation, but I think they probably

[00:23:19] would have done a lot better if they had at least one or two companies to have that kind

[00:23:25] of support, at least here in Japan. Ironically, one good thing about Nintendo

[00:23:31] 64 not doing well in Japan is that actually retro game collecting for Nintendo 64 is a bit

[00:23:35] more accessible than a lot of other consoles. You can easily buy Nintendo 64 games in Japan

[00:23:42] for like, I think under a thousand yen, many titles I see quite cheap. So if you are a

[00:23:48] Nintendo 64 collector in Japan, I guess that is a silver lining about, oh, it didn't do so

[00:23:52] well. So there's not a whole lot of demand for N64 games in Japan. So you can pick them

[00:23:58] up quite cheap now. Sure. But while it wasn't a huge success in Japan, it did have several

[00:24:02] games that sold well enough into the millions at least. And I have in front of me the 50

[00:24:06] best selling N64 games in Japan. Danny, any guess on what the best selling Nintendo 64

[00:24:12] game in Japan is? I'd say off the top of my head, it'd probably be either like Mario 64

[00:24:17] or Mario Kart. Like those type of games always seem like they move units. So it is

[00:24:23] Mario Kart 64 at 2.24 million copies sold. I think Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 2.24 million

[00:24:31] copies during our talk. But nevertheless, it was the best selling N64 game. Do you have any

[00:24:37] other guesses on titles in the top 10? I'll give you a hint. One is Japan exclusive.

[00:24:42] Oh, okay. I think I know. So hold on a second. Would it be the Pokemon Stadium

[00:24:49] game? Because like, you know, Mono, as I'm sure you know, and maybe some of you guys out there

[00:24:54] too. Like, there were three versions of Pokemon Stadium that came out in Japan, one of which

[00:24:59] did not come out in the West. And it's got to be that one then. It's got to be the first

[00:25:03] Pokemon Stadium. The first Pokemon Stadium that is Japan exclusive because it only had like 60

[00:25:10] or so Pokemon in the game. And it wasn't actually that well reviewed, but it did sell

[00:25:13] like crazy. It is the fifth best selling game in Japan. And the only Japan exclusive title

[00:25:19] in the top 10. So I can go ahead and read off the top 10 here. So 10 Kirby 64, 9 Mario Party 2,

[00:25:28] 8 Mario Tennis, 7 Donkey Kong 64, 6 Pokemon Stadium Gold and Silver or two in the West,

[00:25:36] 5 Pokemon Stadium 1 but not R1 which is there too. It's hard to explain. But it's the very,

[00:25:44] very first Pokemon Stadium that's Japan only. 4 The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time,

[00:25:49] 3 Super Mario 64 which I'm a bit surprised. I thought that would be an easy lock for number

[00:25:53] one. Number two Super Smash Brothers really high up there and one Mario Kart 64. Now I

[00:26:00] told you I have the top 50 games. So Danny, what do you think is the 50th best selling

[00:26:05] in 64 game in Japan? I'll give you a hint. It's a Western developed title and it is

[00:26:10] pretty good. At least I think so. I was gonna say Shadows of the Empire, but I'm like, wait a

[00:26:15] second that kind of a good game, but there are some parts of it that are not good.

[00:26:19] I think this is game is better than Shadows of the Empire, but you are in the neighborhood.

[00:26:22] I'll give you that hint. Okay. Star Wars Episode One Racer? Yes. Star Wars Episode One Racer.

[00:26:27] Wow. Okay. 87,000 copies sold is the 50th best selling Nintendo 64 game. It actually

[00:26:33] does have a kind of a cool cover, the Japanese version because it has Anakin on it

[00:26:37] and then it has like the flags, the pod racers, I guess. So it is quite colorful and it really

[00:26:42] does stand out and it is on the Switch. So listeners, if you haven't played it,

[00:26:45] you can check it out quite easily. Yes. Oh, before we wrap up, let's get to talking

[00:26:50] about box art. Do you have any favorite Japanese box art for the N64? Yeah, absolutely.

[00:26:55] The Ocarina of Time box art in Japan. It's really cool. Perfect Dark is also a really

[00:27:00] cool one too. There is a lady sitting on a sofa and it's red and black. The aesthetic is really

[00:27:09] cool. Like Mono just said, the Episode One box is pretty interesting too. Yeah, I think those

[00:27:15] are probably my favorites just off the top of my head. Yeah, the Perfect Dark box is really

[00:27:19] awesome. It does look like it's a film almost. Very artistic. Also Excitebike also has this

[00:27:25] really stark red and black cover, which is pretty cool. And yeah, Smash Brothers has the

[00:27:31] more comic style. I guess the American version also has the same art style,

[00:27:34] but it looks more like a comic page, the Japanese version. And also, I guess we didn't mention

[00:27:39] this, is that one of the key differences between America and Japan, the N64 games,

[00:27:44] they come in vertical boxes in Japan like the Super Famicom did as opposed to the

[00:27:49] horizontal ones. Do you have a preference? Are you a vertical guy or horizontal guy?

[00:27:54] I really don't have a preference with that. I think the better thing about the Japanese box art

[00:27:58] is that it doesn't seem like Nintendo gave the companies any limits to what they can do. Like,

[00:28:03] all of the box art is pretty open to do whatever they want. Like as opposed to the

[00:28:07] West, especially Europe, it's like you got to put it inside of this predetermined area. You

[00:28:14] have like a space for like two screenshots on the back or whatever. But yeah, the Japanese

[00:28:18] box art is completely up to the publisher, whatever they want to do. So that's why I think

[00:28:23] we can see so many cool different types of box art. So it was just like almost no limitations

[00:28:29] on what they could do. Yeah. And it's not in a frame like the Western box art. It just has

[00:28:34] a very small N64 logo in the corner and the rest of the box is just the art, which looks

[00:28:39] really, really nice. What about the hardware box art? Are you a fan of that style?

[00:28:44] I am. Because it's quite different than the Western one because like what the Japanese

[00:28:48] one is, it's like a stylized version of the system and kind of like these like purple

[00:28:53] and blues and stuff like that. And like they for all of their hardware for the N64,

[00:28:58] the controllers, controller packs, all that type of stuff, they kind of reuse this aesthetic,

[00:29:03] kind of like what they do in the West because it's a picture of the console on

[00:29:07] the N64 box in the West. It's a picture of the rumble. It's a picture of the expansion.

[00:29:12] So they're consistent in both regions, but I think the Japanese side is a little bit more stylistic.

[00:29:18] Yeah. It almost looks like a neon kind of image to it where it's like the background is black,

[00:29:23] but the outline are these really bright colors. It looks really awesome. And yeah,

[00:29:27] like you said, it is pretty much the exact same framing of the devices,

[00:29:32] but it has like a much more artistic look to it. So before we wrap up, what would

[00:29:37] you say is the legacy of the Nintendo 64 in Japan? Failure. No, wait a second.

[00:29:42] Now, I mean, I think just like in the West, it's still full of some really great games that

[00:29:49] a lot of people here did enjoy, but lack of support, lack of RPGs is a big deal

[00:29:56] of why it did not do well. Yeah. So much time between releases and stuff as well. Yeah.

[00:30:02] Just a lot of missed opportunities. Expensive games could really do it too. So like

[00:30:07] I think people do have good memories of it, but just not as much as they do about the PlayStation.

[00:30:11] Did you pick up any of that Nintendo 64 merch that was released by Nintendo Tokyo?

[00:30:16] Yeah. You bet. You bet I did. I got a couple of mugs. I got some stickers.

[00:30:20] I'm not going to use. They're put away safely.

[00:30:24] Did you get the controller coaster? No, I didn't, but I got a t-shirt that has just

[00:30:30] like the N64 Japanese box art on it. Oh, nice.

[00:30:34] Yeah. I was like, Hey, cool. Let's do this. So yeah. How about you, man? Did you pick up any

[00:30:38] of that stuff? I have a mug. That's the number one thing I wanted. My wife keeps getting onto me

[00:30:42] about having too many mugs. That is like a really easy, because I have so much stuff

[00:30:47] that I really don't need at all. So I try to be as practical as I can.

[00:30:50] Sure. Well, a mug, you need to drink, don't you? Right. But now I have like two

[00:30:55] Pokemon mugs and two Kirby mugs and like N64 mug. And it's getting, I don't drink that

[00:30:59] much. I don't use that many mugs, but it is a fun thing to buy.

[00:31:03] All I was going to say was an easy excuse, you're thirsty, but I guess we can't do that.

[00:31:08] All right. Well, that was our look at Nintendo 64's impact on the Japanese gaming world.

[00:31:12] Some good, some bad, but the N64 lives on in all of our hearts and of course on

[00:31:16] Nintendo Switch Online. Now, Danny, you're going to stay with me as we chat about

[00:31:20] the one year anniversary of The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

[00:31:30] All right. This episode's game section is dedicated to celebrating, critiquing, analyzing,

[00:31:33] discussing whatever you want to say about the one year anniversary of The Legend of Zelda Tears

[00:31:38] of the Kingdom. The hype has died down, the dust has settled. So let's take a look at one

[00:31:42] of the biggest Nintendo releases ever now that it has been in our hands for a full year.

[00:31:47] So Danny, what were your immediate impressions of Tears of the Kingdom when you rolled credits?

[00:31:52] Wow. I think was the first thing I thought. I didn't come close to like 100%ing the game,

[00:31:58] but just everything about the story and I spent like 130 hours or something like that with the

[00:32:05] game. I mean, you know, as you know, man, like the older we get more responsibilities and stuff,

[00:32:10] it's harder to spend that kind of time with the game. So like anytime I spend that much

[00:32:15] time with the game and you finally see those credits, it's kind of like a weird feeling.

[00:32:19] I really love the game. That's why I played it as long as I did. It was pretty satisfying.

[00:32:24] Do you still feel the same way today? Or are you a bit more critical of the game? Or

[00:32:27] maybe even your appreciation of the game has grown? Or how would you describe your feelings

[00:32:31] onto the kingdom one year later? I think having some time to step back,

[00:32:36] that can be good for games. You can kind of reset what was kind of brought on by just the

[00:32:41] hype. But I think even stepping back and thinking about it right now, yeah, I still

[00:32:45] think it is a really super solid entry into the Zelda franchise and pretty amazing follow

[00:32:53] up to something like Breath of the Wild, which had already knocked it out of the park

[00:32:56] with being so good. And then for Nintendo to come back and make something that is even better,

[00:33:03] I couldn't believe that they could do it and they did it. So like that's kind of like where

[00:33:07] I'm at now. I still believe that it's a fantastic game. I don't think my opinion has

[00:33:11] really changed too much. Yeah, I've actually been playing it recently. I cleaned up some

[00:33:15] things I didn't do when I put the game down last year. I finally did some of those coliseums

[00:33:20] and I got the Royal Guard glider and it does take a second to remember what button does

[00:33:24] what. Sure. But I just love being immersed in that world. And I think like you, I was a little

[00:33:29] skeptical about the game when it came out because I thought there's no way it's going to

[00:33:32] touch Breath of the Wild. But to me, it definitely has surpassed it. What about you Danny? Would

[00:33:38] you rank tears over Breath of the Wild? I think so. It's just, it basically is Breath

[00:33:43] of the Wild and then some. So like just with that alone, I think that's something.

[00:33:49] It is like a very bold decision to take the same world and just build upon it. I think maybe it

[00:33:56] sounds weird, but it would be easier to just kind of like, okay, let's make a new world

[00:33:59] and let's do the same thing again. But to be forced to use what you've already built

[00:34:03] and use it in a different way, I think is a lot more challenging.

[00:34:06] So I mean, it's even different than, you know, back to the N64 talk.

[00:34:11] It's different than what you would have found with the jump from Ocarina of Time to Majora's

[00:34:15] Mask. They use a similar, if not identical engine, but the world that is in Majora's

[00:34:21] Mask versus the world that is in Ocarina of Time is different. You know, Termania versus Hyrule.

[00:34:26] You could at least freshen things up for gamers so they won't maybe potentially complain

[00:34:30] and be like, this is the same as before because you could make that argument about

[00:34:36] Tears of the Kingdom. I think it's a ridiculous argument to make because there's so much more

[00:34:40] to it. But yeah, it would have probably been easier for Nintendo to do something brand new,

[00:34:45] but pretty cool of them just to stick with this and then find ways to make it different.

[00:34:50] Yeah, I definitely get some of the criticisms about that. Obviously everything was completely

[00:34:55] new in Breath of the Wild. Even the smallest details about what button does what,

[00:34:59] how you control Link, every single gameplay mechanic was brand new. But in Tears of the

[00:35:04] Kingdom, many gameplay mechanics from Breath of the Wild move over and small things like

[00:35:08] the lazalfos being essentially chameleons. When I first saw that in Breath of the Wild,

[00:35:13] it really blew my mind. I thought, oh wow, that's such an interesting take on this enemy.

[00:35:17] But in terms of the Kingdoms, they're just as lazalfos again.

[00:35:20] Do you think Tears was hurt at all by reusing a lot of the elements from the first game?

[00:35:24] I don't think so. I think it kind of gave Nintendo a little bit more time to

[00:35:28] work on their engine too. So yeah, there are some issues with the game performance wise

[00:35:34] and stuff like that. That happens with aging hardware, but considering the scope of

[00:35:39] Tears of the Kingdom, I'm still impressed with what they were able to do.

[00:35:43] I think it's a kind of game that it's not going for like photo realism. So

[00:35:47] I think with that type of stuff, that type of style is a lot easier to go back to over time.

[00:35:50] It's something that'll hold up over time as opposed to something that's going to

[00:35:54] try to look like super realistic. Yeah, I think the idea of let's take the

[00:35:59] same game world and just add new mechanics onto it is a very Nintendo-esque philosophy.

[00:36:04] The predictable thing is like, okay, let's make another Breath of the Wild-esque world,

[00:36:08] but it doesn't take place in Hyrule and it's just a new world and the same kind of

[00:36:12] gameplay concepts are there. But here they really focused on, it's okay to reuse some elements

[00:36:17] like the same enemies and a lot of the same landscape, but the way you're going to interact

[00:36:21] with it is totally different. That is kind of Nintendo's philosophy for their hardware,

[00:36:26] if you think about it. The Switch's big hook is not, oh, look at the power,

[00:36:31] how can you interact with games in a new way? And Tears of the Kingdom is like,

[00:36:35] that's the same philosophy. You have the same world, but you're going to interact with it

[00:36:39] in completely new ways. So what are your overall thoughts on the new powers like Ultra Hand

[00:36:44] and Ascension? Where are they used to their maximum potential? Honestly, before the game

[00:36:49] came out, I remember seeing some of the trailers where you first start seeing these

[00:36:53] powers. I remember especially there was like a breakdown where Aonuma was breaking down,

[00:36:59] building things and stuff. And at that point, I was not impressed. I was actually kind of

[00:37:04] disappointed and thought, I think I'm going to hate this. Giving it a chance,

[00:37:10] there are a lot of cool things that you can do. I think building is probably my least

[00:37:13] favorite thing to do. Ascension can be a really cool one and you can actually use it in a lot

[00:37:19] of different situations. For example, there was one time I was flying in a shrine,

[00:37:24] I had to fly some kind of a device towards this platform. I missed the platform,

[00:37:29] but then I thought in my head, it was like, Hey, I'm going under the platform. I get to use

[00:37:33] Ascension and then just go right there and still be fine. So there are some ways for you to

[00:37:40] make use of some of these powers. And even with the building and stuff like that too,

[00:37:44] it's even if you're an idiot when it comes to that stuff like myself,

[00:37:48] you still can figure out puzzles by just brute forcing things sometimes. Like they want you

[00:37:53] to make a boat. It's like, I'm just going to make a bridge instead or something like that.

[00:37:59] Overall, I do like the powers and like you said, it really kind of shows that Nintendo

[00:38:05] wasn't just making something that is exactly the same gameplay wise and just changing

[00:38:10] the story a little bit. Like no, they literally change how the game plays

[00:38:14] in these very specific ways. And I think that they're pretty fun.

[00:38:19] Yeah. I'm a big fan of the new powers. I do miss some of the older ones,

[00:38:22] like the stasis that was just so useful in battle, but these there's much more gameplay

[00:38:26] variety and things you can do. And Ultra Hand especially, first of all, I just love the name

[00:38:30] Ultra Hand because it is such a callback to their original toy. Only Nintendo can do this

[00:38:34] because they've been in business so long. They can do just fun throwbacks like this.

[00:38:39] And yeah, Ultra Hand, I think a lot of the genius of Ultra Hand is not solely

[00:38:43] on how it works. Obviously it works really well. And it's very intuitive about how

[00:38:47] you can just put things together. If you think about how many things do I need to stick

[00:38:50] together to solve a puzzle? The maximum amount of items is probably three. So you don't need

[00:38:55] to get super complicated. So for those who are thinking like, oh, I'm not creative. I can't build

[00:39:00] a Fortnite level house or something in Tears of the Kingdom. You really don't need to because

[00:39:04] a lot of the puzzles can be done, which is like here's part A, part B, part C,

[00:39:09] stick them together and you're done. But if you want to put part D, E, F, G,

[00:39:13] et cetera, you can go ahead and do that. So I think a lot of the genius is that

[00:39:17] it's so flexible, but the game is not so increasingly difficult where you need to

[00:39:24] have some sort of 12 build combo that you need to master in order to get the most out of it.

[00:39:28] And dude, like you said with Addison things, you know, holding up the signs and stuff like

[00:39:32] that. Like sometimes when you figure it out, even if it looks like absolute trash, you're

[00:39:37] like, man, I'm a genius. If you look at my screenshot or video clip or something, you'd be

[00:39:42] like, wow, this guy's an idiot, but he still got it. And I think that's the thing about like,

[00:39:47] especially with the building. It's like, yeah, there are a lot of different ways you can go

[00:39:51] about stuff and none of it's wrong. It's just a matter of like, can you do it? Can you clear

[00:39:55] like what they're trying to get you to go through? And that's fun. And like I said,

[00:40:00] again, you feel a sense of accomplishment after doing that too. Yeah. And the fuse,

[00:40:04] I think fuse was a really good counterpoint to a lot of people's complaints about the weapons

[00:40:08] breaking because it was such a good idea about, okay, if weapons break, you can just kind of

[00:40:13] forge a new weapon together. And there's so many different combinations you can make

[00:40:18] a lot of really fun, silly ones like the mushroom can bounce enemies away. I didn't really

[00:40:22] feel like I was running out of weapons compared to Breath of the Wild. I'm not a

[00:40:26] weapon durability hater. I thought it worked really well in Breath of the Wild. But I

[00:40:29] think, okay, it works even better in Tears of the Kingdom. And all of the weapons you make

[00:40:34] are really cool looking. The Azoni weapons, they look awesome with like the green and the gold.

[00:40:38] So it's really fun to make those. And yeah, auto build, which is really a godsend that really

[00:40:44] helps with a lot of the traversal or you don't have to like make everything from scratch.

[00:40:49] So that's also a really great idea. Did you make the hover bike?

[00:40:54] I didn't have the patience to do it. Oh, really? Yeah. Like in how I traverse the

[00:40:58] game too is usually just get to high point and just jump and parasail or use the horse.

[00:41:04] But most of it was just parasailing. And I realized, especially after talking to

[00:41:09] as like, you know, I'm about like at that point, I was like 100 hours in and one of

[00:41:12] my friends is like, Hey, why don't you make the hover bike? He's like, well, I'm like,

[00:41:16] I wasn't anywhere close to done. Like, isn't like 100% in the game. Let's take a look,

[00:41:20] man, I got to like move on. Yeah, the hover bike super, super useful.

[00:41:24] I really only used it for the depths because of course it's like is dark and you can't see

[00:41:28] anything. So just like flying from the light routes, that was how I navigated the depths.

[00:41:32] I didn't really use it so much on the ground or the air. I just think there's, you know,

[00:41:37] there's an advantage to being on the physical ground. Right. And I think because I played so

[00:41:41] much Breath of the Wild. So there's a lot of times where I'm just, I'm still like climbing

[00:41:45] up the mountain and like trying to think about, okay, where can I get my footing?

[00:41:49] But then I realized, oh, I could just kind of fly up here, can't I? But old habits kind

[00:41:53] of die hard. I do like the hover bike for like the depths exploration and the sky,

[00:41:58] I guess, depending on your battery, the hover bike, you know, it won't get you as far as

[00:42:01] you think it can. So I never thought it was like a broken mechanic. It is really useful in this

[00:42:07] one specific area, but otherwise, yeah, it's still a lot of freedom in terms of what you

[00:42:11] can build and what you can make. All right. The story, it has one. Did the plot of Tears

[00:42:16] of the Kingdom meet your expectations after Breath of the Wild? I think so. I mean,

[00:42:20] with Zelda games, I think the whole point of a Zelda game isn't necessarily a story that's

[00:42:26] mainly the gameplay. I think that's what people could go in playing a Zelda game for.

[00:42:32] Even with that said, I did think that the story here was fine. It's not like

[00:42:36] groundbreaking or anything like that, but there were some pretty cool elements to it that I

[00:42:40] would think kind of things were kind of shocking that happened throughout. But yeah,

[00:42:46] I was overall satisfied. My expectations were pretty low. So yeah, I quite like the

[00:42:50] premise where I guess, quote unquote, spoilers. If you haven't played this game after one year,

[00:42:54] turn off the podcast and go play it right now. But some spoilers, I did like the time travel

[00:42:58] element where Zelda fulfills her own destiny. I was kind of blown away that they did emphasize

[00:43:05] the Zonai, which in terms of the Zelda fandom or Zelda theorist, the Zonai mentions in

[00:43:11] Breath of the Wild. That was a thing a lot of people hooked onto. And if you just type in

[00:43:15] Zonai in YouTube, there's just hour long videos of Zonai breakdowns and explanations and whatnot.

[00:43:22] But they really went all in on the Zonai in this game. You see the Zonai, you learn a lot more

[00:43:27] about their customs and their culture and history. So I was pretty shocked that they

[00:43:31] focused on them at all. But again, there's still so many questions you have about them,

[00:43:36] because there's only two of them like what happened to them. And also when you go into

[00:43:41] the depths, you have even more questions about, OK, what are like who built this? How? When? Where?

[00:43:48] Why? Right. So there's definitely a lot of mysteries that are not solved. So I think

[00:43:54] maybe some people might be frustrated with that. But I think that's also the point where

[00:43:57] they don't want to give you all the answers. Sure. What do you think about, I guess,

[00:44:01] as a continuation from Breath of the Wild? Do you think it was a good idea to kind of maybe

[00:44:04] have a hard cut from the story events of Breath of the Wild? Or do you think they

[00:44:08] could have built upon it more? I mean, they probably could have. It's probably smarter to

[00:44:14] do what they did, honestly. Yeah, Tears of the Kingdom is almost sort of alternate telling

[00:44:18] of Breath of the Wild. If you think about it, a lot of the elements are the same in terms

[00:44:22] of there's an ancient evil. There's a bunch of goop everywhere, which again, what the

[00:44:28] goop is differently named compared to the previous group. There is a different gameplay

[00:44:32] mechanic, but it is weird that nobody said, hey, this is like the goop from from years ago.

[00:44:38] Isn't that weird? And also nobody really made a big strong connection between Calamity Ganon

[00:44:43] and Ganondorf. Zelda says this is a weird name once. Yeah, there's no stronger connection there.

[00:44:50] They made it so you don't need to play Breath of the Wild to understand the story.

[00:44:53] Yeah. But if you did, it is kind of weird that they kind of just dropped everything

[00:44:57] from Breath of the Wild and are sort of retelling same type of story, which new

[00:45:02] characters, why not? And like you said, too, because it's harder and harder to maybe

[00:45:07] as a game company to expect someone to have played something in your library, especially

[00:45:13] at that point it had been six years. Right. Yeah. I mean, elementary school kids go from

[00:45:18] being a little kid to like almost being in junior high school or something. So

[00:45:21] it's smarter than to make something open enough where you don't have to

[00:45:25] worry about knowing what happened in the past game. It kind of sucks for more hardcore

[00:45:29] fans that want to have some kind of interconnected story. Yeah. I think that's

[00:45:33] a big criticism about a lot of the hardcore fans that, OK, well, a lot of the questions from

[00:45:38] Breath of the Wild were not answered like what happened to all the Sheikah technology and

[00:45:41] whatnot. But I do understand that Nintendo is trying to pitch this to brand new people.

[00:45:46] And there are some references, of course, to what happened in Breath of the Wild, but

[00:45:50] they're not as strong as maybe they could be. But I do understand

[00:45:54] they want us to start from scratch in some way. Even I go back to Sega,

[00:45:58] they did change Kiryu as the protagonist in the Yakuza games because there were just so many,

[00:46:04] I guess now, like a dragon games. They're like, OK, people can't jump into the five or six. We

[00:46:09] need to make a hard cut and give it a new protagonist. So I do understand that thinking.

[00:46:14] Is there any element of Tears of the Kingdom that you think is underappreciated or something

[00:46:18] the game does that people don't give it enough credit for? Yeah, good question. Yeah. I mean,

[00:46:24] I would say the depth or something like that, the Skylands. It does seem to me like a lot

[00:46:28] of people. I think people generally kind of enjoy or maybe are afraid of the depths,

[00:46:35] which is fine. I am too. But I don't hear a lot of people talking about the Sky Islands.

[00:46:40] I thought it was kind of an interesting place in the game. It's quite bare compared to the

[00:46:46] regular ground and maybe compared to depths with like things that are out there. But I

[00:46:50] think there's some really interesting things that can be found in the sky. I think maybe

[00:46:55] that's a little bit underappreciated. I don't know. That's kind of what it seems like to me.

[00:46:59] Is it the best part of the game? No, but it seems like it's something that a lot of people

[00:47:03] overlook. Yeah, I am a big fan of the Sky Islands as well because there are three different

[00:47:09] sort of gameplay loops that all sort of again tied together. The Sky Islands, they're mostly

[00:47:13] focused on puzzles compared to the other parts. So you're thinking about, OK, there's puzzles

[00:47:18] on each individual island, but also navigating from one island to the next is also kind of

[00:47:23] a puzzle within itself because you have to think about what you need to build, how you need to go

[00:47:27] there. The ground, of course, is more for adventuring and questing, and the depths are for

[00:47:33] kind of more challenging gameplay elements and also farming materials. They're all tied together.

[00:47:39] For example, like the sky, you collect the Sun Bloom or the items and you collect the

[00:47:43] Zonai devices to help you build things. And then on the ground, you can find the things that make

[00:47:48] you light up the depths and then you can use your Zonai devices on the ground to help you.

[00:47:53] And then when you get to the depths, you find Zonite, which helps you upgrade your battery,

[00:47:57] which helps you build better and bigger devices, which again you can use in the depths.

[00:48:02] So they all kind of blend together. You constantly need to go back and forth

[00:48:05] to get the most out of the experience and to, quote unquote, level up link to his

[00:48:09] maximum potential. So I thought it was really creative about how they did that.

[00:48:13] And yeah, I really love the sky islands. I love the aesthetic, as you know, Danny,

[00:48:17] the ginkgo trees in Japan and fall, the yellow leaf trees. I think that's such a really

[00:48:22] striking look to have. And I love the music on the sky islands. And just like the idea of

[00:48:28] that, if you want to go from island A to island B, if you fall, that's it. You fell.

[00:48:34] So you've got to really think about it. I do like that consequence of,

[00:48:37] of course, the shrine's up there so you can walk to there. But there are some spots where

[00:48:41] it's like, you better nail this or you're done. It's like, I'm trying to go to a shrine and I

[00:48:45] literally just fell off onto the, oh my God, I've had stuff like that happen.

[00:48:49] It can be kind of frustrating, but still fun at the same time.

[00:48:52] Yeah. And I thought a lot of the puzzles were really creative about how they work.

[00:48:55] And there's so many just crazy things you can find in the sky.

[00:48:59] I always go back to like the big ball. Yeah. Those are just like, you know,

[00:49:03] what's in there? What is that? And when you go inside, it's like this really unique

[00:49:06] fun puzzle that you can do. A lot of the puzzles are so huge in scope. I remember one of the

[00:49:11] ball puzzles, you've got to launch something out of the ball onto the island and you're just like,

[00:49:16] I really hope I line this up correctly. Otherwise this crystal is just going to

[00:49:21] plummet to the depths of the earth, but it's really satisfying when you nail it.

[00:49:25] So yeah, I'm a big sky Island fan. It looks so beautiful when you see like the sunset

[00:49:29] and everything. And going back to another underappreciated element of the game,

[00:49:34] it's really amazing how it runs on the switch. This in terms of square footage,

[00:49:39] I kind of wonder is this the biggest open world game ever? Maybe like Minecraft is technically

[00:49:44] bigger. Like a progen map is like technically bigger in terms of square footage. But

[00:49:49] in terms of something that's handcrafted, I think this has got to be number one. And

[00:49:54] this is running on a switch, which is like iPhone 12 level hardware. So, and I recently

[00:50:00] played a Baldur's Gate three, which is not an open world game, but it is a huge epic sprawling

[00:50:06] game. And that's great game. But there's a lot of bugs in there. There's quests that are broken.

[00:50:12] There's glitches, there's mechanics or abilities that don't work. But in terms of the kingdom,

[00:50:18] I've had any glitches or any game breaking things or anything that impeded my gameplay,

[00:50:25] even though there's so many crazy physics, mechanics, ideas all jammed together in this game.

[00:50:30] Yeah, no, I completely agree. I will say sometimes there are some hiccups depending on where you go

[00:50:36] on the game world. But it's nothing like you see in a lot of other open world games where things

[00:50:40] are just completely broken. I mean, Nintendo, it's just a little bit different whenever they

[00:50:45] make games, especially on this scale. It seems like there haven't been, I can't think of

[00:50:49] any huge games like this that they've made that have had any big swings and misses or

[00:50:54] some kind of game breaking bugs. I mean, they're usually pretty good about making sure

[00:51:00] that type of stuff doesn't ship with their big games. There's probably some exceptions to this,

[00:51:04] I think generally speaking. Yeah. It's crazy to think how big this freaking world is and then

[00:51:09] just how smoothly you can go within it and not have something be broken. It's pretty crazy to

[00:51:16] think about. Nintendo has been putting the game back to the spotlight recently with

[00:51:20] Merch Collabs in Japan. Have you had a chance to check out the new merch at Nintendo Tokyo

[00:51:24] or the shirts at Uniqlo? I was at Nintendo Osaka last week. I hadn't been to Osaka in like 10

[00:51:32] years. That was a fun trip, went to Universal Studios Japan, Super Nintendo World and

[00:51:38] Nintendo Osaka. My wife was kind enough to let me snoop around in there for a little bit.

[00:51:43] Yeah, I did see a lot of Zelda stuff there, all of it. Something that I didn't realize was

[00:51:49] new. I just remember thinking like, wow, I haven't seen this. Yeah, I have not made it to Uniqlo

[00:51:54] for the Kingdom shirts yet. I do want to get at least one of those. So we'll see how it goes.

[00:52:00] Yeah, they pretty much shadow dropped new merch. Nintendo Tokyo and Osaka in Kyoto,

[00:52:05] there's now a bunch of new Tears of the Kingdom merch that is on sale right now.

[00:52:08] And I'm like, whoa! And it was announced Friday and I went Saturday to Nintendo Tokyo.

[00:52:13] And yeah, they have all that stuff laid out there. I think the coolest thing is the Glider

[00:52:17] rug. I wanted to buy this, but my wife said don't buy it. So I didn't. But I did pick up a shirt,

[00:52:22] like the button up shirt, which is really cool because it has the geoglyph patterns on it.

[00:52:27] It's subtle, but also if you know, you know.

[00:52:29] The black one?

[00:52:30] Yeah, the black one. I got one of the secret stones. It's like a pin badge. It's a blind

[00:52:36] box. I got the wind secret stone, which is probably the most useful one out of all the

[00:52:41] ones in the game. And yeah, I went to Uniqlo as well. I got two new shirts. So it

[00:52:45] is really fun to see that Nintendo is for their one year anniversary. It's just like,

[00:52:49] remember Tears of the Kingdom? Here's a bunch of stuff. And now that people have played it,

[00:52:53] you get into more really fun spoiler types of things where yeah, they're selling the secret

[00:52:58] stones. They're selling a key chain of the pillar or the sign that Addison is holding.

[00:53:02] Yeah. Other cool things like that. These are real deep cuts into the World of Tears of

[00:53:06] the Kingdom. What do you think the game's legacy is going to be say 10 years from now?

[00:53:12] Well, I think visually speaking it's still going to hold up. It's not a realistic style. So I think

[00:53:16] that's the thing that will hold up. I think also hold up because of just the scale of what

[00:53:20] it's trying to do. Not just necessarily the world, but even this is stuff with the physics

[00:53:25] with all the powers and like all that type of stuff. It's not something that a lot

[00:53:28] of developers try and it seems like Nintendo went out on a whim and tried it and it worked

[00:53:34] and it was still fun to play. I think this is going to be something that's going to be

[00:53:37] looked back on fondly.

[00:53:38] Yeah, I definitely agree. And I think it will even be more unique as time passes because

[00:53:42] unlike Breath of the Wild, I don't see a whole lot of people copying the mechanics of Tears of

[00:53:47] the Kingdom in their game. Is Ubisoft going to put Ultra Hand in the next Assassin's Creed

[00:53:52] or whatever? I don't think so. That seems like such a hard thing to implement. So I

[00:53:56] think a lot of developers would be like, let's just not put that in there. Or even something

[00:54:00] like Ascension. Think of all the debug work that went into making sure Ascension worked.

[00:54:05] I think a lot of the mechanics will be very singular compared to games 10 years from now.

[00:54:10] There'll be things you can do in Tears of the Kingdom now that you can't do in other

[00:54:14] games years and years from now. So I think the legacy of Tears of the Kingdom will be

[00:54:19] more and more positive as time passes on because like Breath of the Wild, there have

[00:54:23] been Breath of the Wild clones, but nobody did it as well. And it really did open up a

[00:54:27] new kind of gameplay philosophy in terms of what you can do in open world games.

[00:54:31] It has been copied and built upon since then. Tears of the Kingdom, yeah, it's hard to build

[00:54:36] upon it. But I think it will be very unique years from now. So Danny, final question.

[00:54:42] How on earth are they going to top this game with the next Zelda title?

[00:54:46] Oh my God. Yeah, that's always the question. That was the same question with

[00:54:50] Breath of the Wild. Right? Like how did they get to top this? And then they did it.

[00:54:54] But yeah, it's going to be crazy to think about, man, because obviously the next Zelda

[00:54:59] is likely going to be on the next iteration of the Switch. Like, I mean, obviously one thing

[00:55:05] they could do is if it's a resolution bump, you know, 4K, but like that's not exciting.

[00:55:09] I mean, yeah, it's great to have a higher resolution, better graphics and all that

[00:55:12] type of stuff. But like, if they go back to just a higher visual fidelity, but like

[00:55:18] less gameplay. Yeah, it's going to be tough to top this one, man. I really don't know

[00:55:22] what they can do, but I think there's enough crazy people at Nintendo who that have a lot

[00:55:27] of interesting ideas that if any developer on the planet can do it, it's definitely them.

[00:55:32] Yeah, I remember in a Famitsu interview with I think Aonuma and Fujibayashi, the director,

[00:55:36] the interviewer just say, oh, you know, where do you go from here? And they're like,

[00:55:39] oh, don't worry, we have a ton of ideas about Zelda. I'm like, oh, that's,

[00:55:43] that's a very bold thing to say after you just put out Chios is the Kingdom.

[00:55:46] Right. And I remember when Breath of the Wild came out, I was thinking about what they

[00:55:49] could do for a sequel. I was thinking, oh, they should put like caves in the next

[00:55:54] Zelda game. That would be really fun to have the open world game with caves.

[00:55:57] Well, not only did they do that, they went far, far beyond just caves.

[00:56:01] You nailed it. They had depths, caves, same thing.

[00:56:04] Yeah. It's like what a hundred something caves in the game that's not even in the

[00:56:09] county of the depths and the wells. I love the wells. That's such a,

[00:56:13] you don't need to put that in the game at all, but they just did it and there's 60 of

[00:56:16] them. They're all fun to go through. So yeah, I'm very small brain compared to the geniuses

[00:56:21] at Nintendo. I would have been happy with just here's Breath of the Wild with caves,

[00:56:24] but they went far, far beyond that. Well, those are our thoughts on Chios is the Kingdom

[00:56:29] one year later. Listeners, if you haven't played it yet, check it out. I promise it's still worth

[00:56:33] playing. So Danny, thank you so much for joining me for not just one, but two whole

[00:56:37] segments. Where can people find you? So you can find me a couple of different

[00:56:42] places. If you want to follow me personally, like individually, you can follow me at Danny

[00:56:46] Biv, D-A-N-N-Y-B-I-V that's both on Twitter and blue sky. I'm also editor and host of a podcast

[00:56:54] in Japan here called the FamiCast. You can find us at thefamicast.com that's the FamiCast

[00:57:00] F-A-M-I-C-A-S-T.com. You can find us on YouTube also the same on Twitter and blue sky.

[00:57:08] And yeah, I think that about covers it for me. Oh, and you know,

[00:57:12] I'm taking, well, maybe I didn't mention this. Gosh, I can't even remember, but I've written a piece

[00:57:17] for a book called Ultimate Nintendo Guide to the N64 Library. I wrote a piece about the 64DD

[00:57:23] there. This book isn't out yet. It's coming out soon. If you're interested in that type of

[00:57:27] stuff, like, hey, yo, check it out. If not, hey, it's cool. Yeah, definitely. FamiCast is my

[00:57:32] go-to if I want to check out the new updates on Power Pros and what's happening there. So

[00:57:37] I really appreciate you putting forth the effort there. Yeah, we got you covered there.

[00:57:41] So the links to everything will be in the podcast description. So listeners, check it out.

[00:57:44] Danny Bivens once again, thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me, man.

[00:57:49] I do have one more game to talk about, Animal Well from Billy Basso. Though the publisher is

[00:57:53] the one who's been getting most of the press. It's the first game from video game Dunkey's

[00:57:57] publishing company, Big Mode. If you don't know who Dunkey is, he's quite a famous

[00:58:01] YouTuber and a lot of people were skeptical when Dunkey started his publishing company,

[00:58:06] especially since he kind of pitched it as, hey, just tell me your game and I might help you make

[00:58:10] it. But obviously, it was much, much smarter to just push a game that was close to being done.

[00:58:15] So Animal Well came out, got rave reviews, and I decided to pick it up since people were

[00:58:20] saying it's an early game of the year contender and one of the best Metroidvanias

[00:58:24] ever. I rolled credits and while I'm not quite convinced it's in the upper pantheon

[00:58:29] of Metroidvanias, it is a very good game with a lot of clever puzzles and fun items.

[00:58:34] The premise is as simple as can be. You're a little curby looking guy and you're apparently

[00:58:38] in some sort of well with animals. In pure Metroidvania fashion, you explore one huge map,

[00:58:44] find items to help you solve puzzles, and then traverse said map and have a couple of battles

[00:58:48] along the way. What sets Animal Well apart from a lot of other Metroidvanias is that it's not

[00:58:54] combat focused at all. There are enemies, but you get rid of them by either running away

[00:58:58] or distracting them. There are certainly some intense encounters, including a few chase

[00:59:02] segments, but you're likely not going to be resetting over and over again because you can't

[00:59:06] get past some enemy. In lieu of combat there are dozens and dozens of puzzles. Many of the

[00:59:12] puzzles are mechanically simple like just pressing a button to unlock a door or hitting switches

[00:59:16] or raising platforms, but they will absolutely force you to think carefully about the layout

[00:59:20] of the area and your moveset. I'm quite impressed that the game really just has a handful

[00:59:25] of puzzle types, but manages to integrate the map layout into the puzzle so well that

[00:59:30] it never feels like you are repeating puzzles or just hitting things mindlessly.

[00:59:34] It's a Metroidvania, so yes, some puzzles can't be solved without getting the appropriate item.

[00:59:39] There is a day tears of the kingdom level of freedom here. There's one solution and you just

[00:59:43] do it. But the items do have a little bit of freedom in how you use them, and all of the

[00:59:47] ones in the game are very fun to use and are very clever conceptually. They are a bit free

[00:59:51] form in their use as well. Many are directional or let you use them in multiple ways. There

[00:59:56] are some secret items too, some you might not come across in your playthrough or some that

[01:00:00] are exclusive to the post game. But all the ones I got my hand on nailed the feeling of being

[01:00:04] confused once you got it, but then being amazed once you started using it. The game also has

[01:00:09] a good mix of puzzles that force you to use multiple items. It's often not apparent what

[01:00:14] item you need to use to solve certain puzzles and you're constantly learning what each item

[01:00:18] can and cannot do. Animal World lets you experiment with them in creative ways and you

[01:00:22] can see the breadth of each item when you're solving the often head scratching puzzles.

[01:00:26] I really enjoyed the emphasis on puzzles over the combat. One reason I don't really gel with a lot

[01:00:30] of thevania part of Metroidvania is that the combat can be a little clunky or frustrating,

[01:00:35] especially when you think about stats and weaknesses and whatnot.

[01:00:39] One Metroidvania I think is super underrated is the Strider reboot from about a decade or so

[01:00:43] ago because it was so focused on speed and pretty much every enemy died in just one hit.

[01:00:49] Animal World says, let's just excise all combat together and focus on brain twisters

[01:00:54] and some light twitch platforming. Nothing too crazy in terms of needing good reflexes,

[01:00:58] but there are several puzzles where you need to hit a switch then quickly move to

[01:01:02] another part of the area and do something else. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned this

[01:01:05] yet, but one of the standout elements of the game is the evocative and moody art style.

[01:01:10] Since the game takes place in a well, many areas are quite dark,

[01:01:13] but they're often illuminated by neon plants or other objects in the background.

[01:01:17] The contrast between the often black backgrounds and the bright objects on the screen

[01:01:21] sets a really unique mood. It also has a pixel art style that can be incredibly

[01:01:25] detailed or minimalistic depending on what it portrays.

[01:01:29] The soundtrack is equally as atmospheric along with some intense tunes during some of the more

[01:01:33] frightening moments of the game. It's not a horror game, but there is a mysterious and

[01:01:38] kind of oppressive atmosphere throughout your adventure. If I had to throw out some

[01:01:41] criticisms, there are a few chase sequences in the game where a big monster is after you

[01:01:45] and you need to go to a particular part of the map or solve some puzzle.

[01:01:49] These are frustrating, I can't lie. I don't think how you beat these segments is particularly

[01:01:54] interesting either. You really just keep doing what you've been doing, but now there's

[01:01:57] something that could easily kill you. The penalty for death isn't really anything though,

[01:02:01] you just warp back to the last save point. And the game is quite generous in having

[01:02:05] some puzzles register as being complete even if you die after finishing them,

[01:02:08] but before saving. So except for a few very rare instances, you won't be needing to redo

[01:02:13] puzzles you've already completed. Also, I suppose this is not a criticism of the game,

[01:02:17] but instead of one about hype, I do think it's a very good game. But the way some people have

[01:02:22] been talking about it makes me wonder if we've been playing the same game. So many people are

[01:02:27] saying go into it completely blind, don't look up anything. Which I really don't get.

[01:02:32] It is a fairly standard Metroidvania in terms of the flow of the game. It doesn't

[01:02:36] really have a major twist on the conventions or suddenly reframes what you're doing.

[01:02:40] Now the game does have some ARG elements and meta elements, which is what the postgame seems to

[01:02:45] focus on. For me, I'm not really into those types of things. Yes, I am aware that the

[01:02:50] background of this part of the map actually has a secret Morse code that you can deduce or

[01:02:55] whatever. But I rolled credits, had a good time, and I'm done with the game. It takes

[01:02:59] about seven-ish hours to roll credits, which is pretty standard Metroidvania length.

[01:03:04] The ARG is there if you really want it though. Another big part of the postgame is

[01:03:08] collecting eggs, which are hidden throughout the game. They are worth getting, especially

[01:03:12] since a certain number of them are tied to optional items, but I never felt the impetuous

[01:03:16] to get all the eggs. That's just me though. I can maybe see some people rolling credits and

[01:03:20] then thinking, I got a dig into every little secret this game is hiding. But if you're not

[01:03:24] into that at all, Animal Well is still a very good Metroidvania with a stellar art style,

[01:03:29] a focus on smart puzzles, and it's filled with cool items to play around with.

[01:03:33] Can't say you'll be disappointed if you're into the genre. And if you're not that into

[01:03:36] the genre, you might like this one more than the others due to the de-emphasis on the combat.

[01:03:42] And there's a bunch of meta ARG stuff there if that's your jam.

[01:03:45] Does it reveal that the main character is actually related to Kirby? If so,

[01:03:49] maybe I should get into it then. That's it for games, now for some news.

[01:03:59] I think it would be easier to talk about what didn't happen these past two weeks,

[01:04:03] but clearly the biggest news item of the week, the month, the year, maybe the decade for Nintendo

[01:04:08] fans is that Nintendo has finally confirmed information about a successor to the Nintendo

[01:04:13] Switch. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa jumped on Twitter to tweet out the following.

[01:04:18] This is Furukawa, president of Nintendo. We will make an announcement about the successor

[01:04:22] to the Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years

[01:04:26] since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015.

[01:04:30] We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup

[01:04:34] for the later half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo

[01:04:38] Switch successor during this presentation. A lot to pull from this. For one, as stated here

[01:04:44] and clarified by the Q&A, Nintendo is going with the phrase successor to Nintendo Switch

[01:04:48] to describe the new system. All the rumors and links point to this thing being nearly

[01:04:52] the exact same form factor as the existing Switch, so calling it a successor makes a

[01:04:57] lot of sense. Before Switch was revealed, Nintendo described it as a new hardware with

[01:05:01] a brand new concept and going even further back, Wii U was described as a system to succeed Wii.

[01:05:08] So the terminology is definitely closer to the Wii U than the Switch, which is a little concerning

[01:05:13] if you just compare it like that, but even then, Wii U wasn't just a straight power

[01:05:18] upgrade to the Wii, which is what many assume the Switch 2 is going to be. I am still

[01:05:23] wondering if Switch 2 will have any notable hook or immediate thing you see that makes

[01:05:27] you realize, hey, this is markedly different from the Switch. Nintendo has a very tough

[01:05:32] hill to climb in differentiating Switch 2 from the original and also convincing casual gamers

[01:05:36] to make the leap to the new hardware. But then again, Sony hasn't had any trouble convincing

[01:05:40] people to jump from PS4 to PS5 despite some thin early years when it came to the software.

[01:05:46] But then again, part two, a lot of people come to PlayStation for the power,

[01:05:50] so they expect and want a straight power upgrade, while I think people want Nintendo

[01:05:54] to innovate a bit more when it comes to how you experience the games.

[01:05:58] But then again, part three, I think consumers, especially casual gamers,

[01:06:03] are a bit more adept in understanding the need to upgrade hardware.

[01:06:06] When Wii U came out, we were on what, the iPhone 5? I think at that time many smartphone

[01:06:12] users probably had just bought one smartphone ever in their entire life. My first was iPhone

[01:06:17] 4, and it took a few years before I realized, okay, every X years I need to replace it.

[01:06:22] Maybe I am overthinking it, and the question of I already have a Switch, why do I need a new one

[01:06:26] is not that prevalent among casual gamers. Another point of interest is that Futukawa states

[01:06:31] that it will be announced this fiscal year, emphasis on the fiscal part of that sentence.

[01:06:36] This means the announcement is anywhere from two seconds from now to March 31st, 2025. So no

[01:06:42] guarantee it will be this year, but if it is a holiday 2025 item, a March 2025 announcement

[01:06:48] isn't out of the question. But if they want to launch it like the Switch in early March,

[01:06:53] it would have to be announced later this year with a launch early next year.

[01:06:57] So we were going to be playing the waiting game for a few months,

[01:07:00] and they specifically said that the June Direct, which hey was also announced in this,

[01:07:04] won't have any Switch 2 info. This is all tied in with their latest financial report,

[01:07:08] so let's get into that. Switch has now sold 141 million units worldwide, and they expect to sell

[01:07:14] 13.5 million this fiscal year. This is pretty lofty considering they sold about 15 million last

[01:07:20] fiscal year, so this year's drop isn't expected to be significant. Now I'm not sure if you

[01:07:25] remember what last year had, but it had a brand new Zelda game, Pikmin 4, a brand new

[01:07:30] 2D Mario, and oh Nintendo in general was boosted thanks to the Mario movie. So they

[01:07:36] had the perfect hand to play with, but this year the first half titles have been very niche

[01:07:40] or spin-offs. I have heard people theorize a price cut, but I think that's a stretch.

[01:07:46] They've gone so long without one and when Switch 2 comes out, having such a huge price

[01:07:50] disparity between 1 and 2 might be a little off putting. I do wonder what they could possibly

[01:07:54] have for 2024 that moves hardware. A new Mario Party game is rumored, which yeah will sell

[01:08:00] well, but I don't think people will buy a Switch for it. Prime 4, again this is not a

[01:08:05] huge system seller. The biggest game on the horizon is Pokemon Legends ZA, but that will

[01:08:09] launch Q1 2025 at the earliest. If they really want to wrangle up some casual gamers who haven't

[01:08:15] jumped on the Switch yet, maybe a brand new Tomodachi Life with the emphasis of hey this

[01:08:19] is kind of like Animal Crossing could be a big hit. For games that did come out, Mario

[01:08:23] vs. DK sold 1.12 million with Princess Peach Showtime hitting 1.22 million. That last number

[01:08:30] is especially impressive considering it was only out for about a week before the financial

[01:08:34] quarter wrapped up. If it can leg its way to 2 or dare I say 3 million, safe to say that it's

[01:08:39] a big hit for Goodfeel. On Pikmin Watch, Pikmin 4 has sold 3.48 million which is great,

[01:08:45] but I am still hoping it can leg it out to 5 million. 4 million seems pretty safe,

[01:08:49] but 5 would bring it to the next level. It has been selling incredibly well in Japan,

[01:08:54] so like Splatoon, it might just be one of those franchises that is very Japan-centric.

[01:08:58] But I think for the next Pikmin and Splatoon game, they might want to make a big swing to

[01:09:02] more popular overseas. Tears of the Kingdom is at 20.61 million and its legs haven't been that

[01:09:09] great compared to Breath of the Wild. Just this past quarter, Tears sold 330k,

[01:09:14] but Breath of the Wild sold 240k. That's pretty absurd considering you'd think that

[01:09:19] a lot of people would just jump into Tears first, but maybe people jumped in with Tears

[01:09:23] and are going backwards? Or do they still feel the need to beat Breath of the Wild before

[01:09:28] they even play Tears of the Kingdom? Obviously, Tears wasn't going to immediately outsell

[01:09:32] Breath of the Wild. It had a 6-year head start, was pretty much a cultural phenomenon in the

[01:09:37] gaming sphere, and Tears just being a straight sequel might have turned some people off.

[01:09:42] But if every Zelda from here on out sells 20 million copies,

[01:09:46] I don't think Nintendo will be too stressed.

[01:09:49] There are some franchises where one game will always be the best-selling title.

[01:09:53] Do you know the best-selling Pokemon game? It's Red and Blue. Yes,

[01:09:57] Pokemon has never topped those first games in terms of sales.

[01:10:01] But I think I'd still consider the Pokemon franchise to be a fairly successful one,

[01:10:05] even though it's never topped the sales of those original games.

[01:10:08] But I do imagine this is going to be a trend with the Switch 2 era.

[01:10:12] I don't see Mario Kart 9 outselling 8 or the next Animal Crossing outselling New Horizons.

[01:10:18] So get ready for a lot of discourse around that for the next, oh, maybe decade or so.

[01:10:23] But you know what game will sell 20 million copies?

[01:10:25] Nintendo World Championship's NES Edition coming July 18th.

[01:10:29] It has the subtitle Famicom Sekai Taikai or Famicom World Tournament in Japan.

[01:10:34] This is in the vein of the NES Remix games,

[01:10:37] where there are several fixed challenges for classic NES games.

[01:10:41] Honestly, the game didn't put me on the edge of my seat.

[01:10:44] It's there for those who are into speedrunning and score challenges.

[01:10:48] I still might pick it up, but I don't know.

[01:10:51] I think an even crazier NES remix,

[01:10:53] or if it had SNES and N64 games or something, would be way more enticing.

[01:10:58] This is called NES Edition, so is SNES Edition coming?

[01:11:02] DS Edition?

[01:11:03] Virtual Boy Edition?

[01:11:05] Nintendo hasn't announced the dev,

[01:11:07] but someone at Indie Zero did retweet the announcement,

[01:11:09] so I assume they are handling it like they did NES Remix.

[01:11:13] Also going back to Zelda for a bit,

[01:11:15] we got some big announcements including the Tears of the Kingdom Masterworks book

[01:11:18] is coming August 30th in Japan.

[01:11:21] This is the big art book for the game similar to the ones we've seen in the past for Zelda.

[01:11:25] They showed off some promo pages including a lot of art with Rauru and Sonya,

[01:11:29] plus concept hairstyles for Zelda.

[01:11:31] These are always fun to flip through,

[01:11:32] so hardcore Zelda fans might want to make an effort to check it out.

[01:11:35] Also the OST which includes 9 CDs and 344 songs will hit on July 31st.

[01:11:41] It will come with a cool Master Sword pedestal USB drive.

[01:11:45] Box Set looks fantastic and will sell you back 19,800 yen,

[01:11:49] which I think is about 4 US dollars thanks to the yen depreciation.

[01:11:53] But maybe you should save your money since Bandai has announced that they will put out

[01:11:56] a replica Master Sword for 22,000 yen.

[01:11:59] This is as life sized as can be, 105 cm long,

[01:12:02] and you can press a button to make it play some sound effects.

[01:12:06] Pre-orders are available now with a release in September.

[01:12:09] I'm not going to buy this thing, but I do want to hold it.

[01:12:12] NSO is also back this time with new Game Boy titles, Super Mario Land,

[01:12:17] Alleyway, Baseball, and in Japan, The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls.

[01:12:21] Those first three games were launch games,

[01:12:23] so it makes sense for them to finally return for the Game Boy's 35th anniversary this year.

[01:12:28] But the Japan exclusive game is one I've already talked about on the podcast,

[01:12:31] though ironically called it For the Frog the Bell Tolls,

[01:12:34] which was a popular English translation,

[01:12:37] but according to Smash the name is The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls.

[01:12:41] We gotta go with that.

[01:12:42] Go back and listen to that episode if you want my in-depth thoughts.

[01:12:46] Just go down to your podcast app or search for Frog on Tokogamelife.com.

[01:12:50] I tried out a bit of Super Mario Land, which is not an amazing game,

[01:12:53] but it is impressive that four years after Super Mario Bros.,

[01:12:57] there is a portable Mario platformer.

[01:12:59] And of course, it's got great music.

[01:13:02] Another Nintendo announcement, X aka Twitter,

[01:13:04] will no longer be connected to your Nintendo Switch as of June 11th.

[01:13:08] This means you will not be able to directly post images through the Switch onto Twitter,

[01:13:12] and also the Splatoon 3 graffiti you make won't automatically go to Twitter either.

[01:13:16] Nintendo is the last across the finish line when it comes to removing X integration,

[01:13:20] as Sony and Microsoft removed it a while ago.

[01:13:22] I'm honestly surprised Nintendo held out that long,

[01:13:25] but Twitter is extremely popular in Japan,

[01:13:27] and it's more integrated into specific games like Splatoon 3,

[01:13:30] so maybe it took more time to transition.

[01:13:33] If you're wondering why all the major platform owners are removing X integration,

[01:13:36] well, they are now charging tens of thousands of dollars per month for API access,

[01:13:41] so you know, why pay it?

[01:13:43] You can still post images and videos to your games to social media, including Twitter,

[01:13:47] if you send them to your smartphone via a QR code you can scan.

[01:13:51] A bit cumbersome, but I've always done this,

[01:13:54] since I prefer typing messages on my phone than on the Switch.

[01:13:57] Last bit of news, Dragon Quest and Grand Theft have a new collab.

[01:14:00] This is actually their fifth collab,

[01:14:02] and they've introduced over a dozen new items.

[01:14:04] Perhaps the standout for me is the Slime button-up shirt and the Slime Knight socks.

[01:14:08] Grand Theft is a great Japanese clothing brand if you're into t-shirts,

[01:14:12] so definitely check out their online store.

[01:14:14] Whew, that's a lot of news.

[01:14:16] And that'll be all for the episode.

[01:14:18] Thanks as always for listening.

[01:14:20] Be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast on your favorite app.

[01:14:23] Leave a five star review as well, it really helps with visibility.

[01:14:26] This podcast is also available on YouTube, so like and subscribe there as well.

[01:14:30] I'm on Twitter, Threads, Blue Sky, Instagram.

[01:14:32] Just search for Tokyo Game Life or find the links in the podcast description.

[01:14:36] If you like the podcast, be sure to share with your friends and on social media.

[01:14:39] If there's anything you want to talk about or cover, don't be shy,

[01:14:42] just message me on Twitter.

[01:14:44] The next episode will be on June 2nd.

[01:14:46] See you next time.

[01:14:47] Matane!