July-September 2016 Quarterly Review: Admintendo XV - Needs To Be Read Ten Million Times To Break Even

ZeroJones: Roll up, roll up! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to your Admintendo XV! With myself, ZeroJones, your Hostmaster General, we have my fellow Admintendonite, Jay! Say hello to everyone, Jay!

JayMoyles: Hello to everyone, Jay! Apologies - I'm in one of those moods this morning. Howdy all! As always, I'm ready and willing - and indeed, able - to talk about the wonderful world of video games!

What We Have Been Playing

ZeroJones: Then let's crack on! Wow, I have got to wean myself off these exclamation marks. Without further ado, let's talk about that wonderful world of video games with that time-honoured opening Admintendo question: what have you been playing? What have you been playing?

JayMoyles: Well, for the first time in a long time, I've found myself playing mainly multiplayer games, which is very unlike me as I'm usually into my lone wolf experiences.

I'm still on a Monster Hunter kick, as the summertime has been dominated by Monster Hunter Generations with the Monster Mash boys, and I've recently started Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. MH4U is more of a single player experience at the moment though, as the rest of the gang are still enjoying Generations. I've detailed my thoughts on MH4U on the forum in a bit more detail, even going as far to resurrect a year-old thread to do so.

Elsewhere, it's been law and multiplayer mayhem - or rather, Spirit of Justice and Overwatch. I've been steadily working my way through Spirit of Justice, and it's been a hell of a ride so far. The esteemed Matthew Castle said that it's the best Ace Attorney since Trials and Tribulations and based on the first three cases alone, I'm inclined to agree with him. I've reached the stalwart filler case so I have unfortunately stalled a little bit, but I shall power through and see this journey to its end.

Overwatch has been the most surprising experience for me - not that I didn't expect to enjoy it... I just didn't expect to get into it in the way that I did! I'm not a huge fan of multiplayer shooters, but the blend of the team-based mayhem and the great characters Blizzard have crafted is keeping me engaged with the game. I'd even go as far to say it's in contention for my game of the year so far... :O

But that's a wall of text from me gone by... over to you, Zero! Before you jump into what you've been playing, I was curious if you've ever dabbled in the world of Monster Hunter?

ZeroJones: That is the biggest one-person wall of text I've seen since Crumpy Andy infamously disappeared for what felt like ten minutes, typing, only to return with a monster (yes) block of wordage so large it made my eyes water. Anyway, to your question: when NGamer gave Monster Hunter Tri 89%, I got myself a copy. I didn't get into it initially, but after playing it again a few years later, I was ready to give it a go... and then something else came along to grab my excited-puppy-like attention and I haven't played it since. It sounds like the sort of thing I should really give a decent go with a monster-hunting team, much like those aforementioned Mash Boys.

JayMoyles: I aim to please. No, that's absolutely the case, I'd say. MH4U is a good starting point as it's renowned for having the best solo content in the series, but to get the most out of the game you really need a good hunting party to play through the later - and tougher - content. The game even separates the solo and multiplayer content, and whilst you can in theory play the multiplayer content by yourself, it's really tricky. I'd expect Monster Hunter to pop up on the NX in some form, so perhaps you can jump in again with the rest of the gang?

But that's in the future! What have you been playing in the here and now?

ZeroJones: Since the last Admintendo, I've had a few gaming projects. The best of them was that I've finally dispatched Tales Of The Abyss, the super-lengthy Bandai Namco Bandai 3DS RPG that I only ever played when there was nothing else to play. Other highlights include BoxBoxBoy!, which was a fine, if not outstanding, sequel to the wonderful BoxBoy!, Spirit Of Justice (whose fifth case I am on right now - so, so good) and Axiom Verge. I loved AV - clever, creepy, unsettling, well-structured. I can recommend it to all CastleMetroidvanialike fans out there. I've dabbled in many other things, but those are the main ones. Have you played Axiom Verge in some form, Jayseph?

JayMoyles: I have not, although I do have it ready to be downloaded on my PS4. I've heard very good things about it from The Jaster, and it's good to hear similar praise from yourself. It has been a while since I've played a Metroidvania - the last might have been Guacamelee, which was a fair while ago indeed - so I may jump on Axiom Verge in due course. My backlog is looking mighty big, though.

#firstworldproblems

ZeroJones: I know that pain! I've added about five games to the pile in recent times - and not short ones, either. *looks at Dragon Quest VII* Also, can I recommend powering through that fourth case in SoJ? Not only will it let you get to the fifth case, it'll also get us closer to doing that SoJ-cast our adoring public has inquired about.

JayMoyles: It's on my immediate to-do list! I've heard wonderful things about the final case in SoJ, so I'm keen to get to it. MH4U got its claws and fangs into me just as I hit case four, hence the immediate halt in progress. Very keen for another Ace Attorney cast though, so I shall lawyer up ASAP!

Forum Highlights

ZeroJones: I am lawyering as we speak. It's a whole lot of fun. Anyway, we should press on (the puns are coming thick and fast today... well, maybe just thick ). What have been your forum highlights over the past three-and-a-bit months?

JayMoyles: Well, I should start off by saying there have been a lot of threads I've loved reading, but I've not got around to actually participating in yet. :embarrassed:

ZeroJones: Your time will come, soldier.

JayMoyles: I'm mainly referring to our big Gamecube thread and Simply the Best - both excellent threads that have generated a lot of chat. I've just not got around to crafting a bumper post to join in with the conversation. What I did join in with though was the flurry of activity we had back at the start of September following the latest Nintendo Direct. It proved to me that the health of the forum is still directly - no pun intended - to the state of Nintendo. We'll expand on that later, but it was really good to see the level of chatter and a bit of excitement about Nintendo once again.

JayMoyles: Oh, and I've loved recording the GNamer Ace Attorney podcast specials too, natch.

ZeroJones: Yes! The podcasts have been massive fun - Ace Attorney is a great series and I've loved chatting with like-minded fans of it... well, nearly like-minded. As you rightly say, the GameCube and Simply The Best threads have been really good ones. I like how STB can be revitalised every so often, as well. That post-Direct chat, too... there were a fair few surprises in that Direct, even if some of them were reheated Wii U games (though, Poochy). I've also enjoyed rereading NGamer, which I am sorely behind on doing. It sort of doesn't feel like proper NGamer at the moment, though, without that Castle fella...

JayMoyles: That's another big forum project I need to jump on board with too. I had the first issue downloaded to read through, but then I bought a new laptop and I've not got around to redownloading it, as of yet. I wish there was a way to watch the early NGTV DVDs as part of our rereading series though. It'd be an interesting snapshot in the early days of the Wii, which were magic times to be a Nintendo fan... which leads nicely - or rather, not so nicely - into our next segment, I suppose.

NX, NX, Wherefore Art Thou, NX?

ZeroJones: You called it, Brother Jay - Nintendo are clearly winding down the Wii U in order to replace it with that 'NX' thing we keep hearing about, but not seeing. Why have we not had the NX reveal yet? It's supposed to be coming out in March...

JayMoyles: I know... I predicted the reveal to be at TGS last month, but nary a whisper was to be heard from Nintendo about the NX. The lack of any chat at all is getting me concerned we won't be seeing the NX in March at this rate. And Nintendo are sorely needing to get talking about the NX even if they're planning on delaying its release - as you quite rightly said, they're definitely winding down the Wii U. Besides Colour Splash, are there any other notable Wii U releases left this year?

ZeroJones: Not from Nintendo themselves - the £20 port of the first Darksiders game is coming, but that's all I can recall. If you've not got a 3DS, it's a sparse holiday season for the Nintendo fan. I quite agree with your good self: this inactivity just points to a delay of some kind. The thing is, whilst the Wii U flounders like a young Magikarp, there are two muscular home consoles out there with plenty of games to tempt even the most staunch of Nintendo fans away. I just don't get it. Show us the controller, maybe; or a game (that isn't BotW, natch). We need something - anything, almost.

JayMoyles: Yep - fortunately, I've still a few 3DS games in my backlog to tide me over, but without my PS4 I'd be left without a lot to play if I was just gaming solely on Nintendo. Although, I suppose there's mobile content coming up for Nintendo, but that's not the same as a fully fledged Nintendo experience. The inactivity has had a knock-on effect to the forum itself - as I said earlier, the fate of the forum is still tied into how well Nintendo is performing, and it's definitely shown in the start of October.

Having said that, I am still excited about what's to come. The BotW trailer continues to give me goosebumps every time I watch it, and I may just dip into the Treehouse content I actively avoided at E3 to replenish my hype reservoirs. Let me love you more Nintendo - give me more news!

A question I have for you sir - our very own Balladeer decided to take a plunge into unexplored waters and buy himself a PS3 to tide himself over in these sparse months for Nintendo. Has the temptation to do the same hit yourself yet or are you going to stay the course?

ZeroJones: Yes, is the short answer. The long answer is as follows: I decided about a year ago that if I were going to get another machine, it'd be a gaming PC (or something capable of running Steam well, at least). There isn't really the space - or, being honest, the inclination - to get a PS4One. My current laptop is about 472 in PC years, so I'd need to upgrade it. Saving for a wedding means that's not going to happen any time soon, so I suppose I'm forced to stay the course. I have my iPhone and a Tesco hudl for Android games, but other than that, it's Nintendo all the way for this guy. That's why I'm gagging and begging for some NX knowledge from The Big N themselves.

JayMoyles: And a gaming PC is a pricey move, and with a wedding being even pricier I don't think that'll be happening any time soon indeed! I suppose there are a fair few mobile ports of bigger experiences out there - you really need to go back to FFVII - but I'd personally rather play those on a handheld or home console.

So in short, if by some miracle you're reading this Miyamoto - give us something on the NX please. Something other than a release window and BotW, that is.

ZeroJones: Hey, I read a rumour on Nintendo Life that Capcom may be acting on something we said in our second AA Podcast, so you never know...

JayMoyles: And you'll have to listen to find out what we said, readers! #cheapplug

ZeroJones: It is a good 'cast, I reckon - I listened back yesterday whilst I was waiting for my camera to charge, and there were some laughs. Also, the iOS FFVII really winds me up. There's no concession to the dip in, dip out nature of mobile gaming by having a save anywhere button - it's not good enough. On the other hand, as soon as I've beaten Super Hexagon - the mobile game I'm concentrating on at the moment - I will reluctantly return to it... you did mention Nintendo mobile games, though, and I am excited for Super Mario Run. If it's got the proper Nintendo magic, it could be a game-changer.

JayMoyles: I am dubious about Super Mario Run, but considering Pokémon Go took the world by storm, it could indeed be a game-changer once more. I'd trade a hundred Super Mario Runs for a shred of NX news, though.

ZeroJones: I can only agree with that. SMR will be nothing like a full Mario game but, as my favourite franchise out there, I'll take anything I can get. Especially when I can play it whilst eating a veggie burger.

JayMoyles: One handed gaming - the future is now! And before somebody misconstrues that last sentence, we should probably wrap things up.

ZeroJones: I am resisting what I call my gag reflex here, but you are right! It's time to sign off on Admintendo XV - we hope that by the time XVI comes around, we're at least able to talk about the NX... anyway, thank you for reading, and we'll see you some other time for forum fun, frolics and, er... Fennekins? Yeah, definitely time to go!

JayMoyles: With jokes like those, who needs the NX? Thanks for reading folks, and we shall see you all on the forum. Not you though... you know who you are. Bye for now!

ZeroJones: Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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Outtakes And Other Stuff

JayMoyles: How is one this morning?

ZeroJones: I was at the shop about an hour ago and your English clone was in the queue ahead of me. It was uncanny.

JayMoyles: Oh? Maybe it was actually my twin... *X-Files theme plays*

ZeroJones: Doo doo doo-doo doo doo...

To answer the actual question, I'm well. Bit hungry, maybe.

---------------------------------------------------

*within fractions of a second*

JayMoyles: And that's a wrap!

ZeroJones: And that's the Golden Wrap on ATXV!

ZeroJones: Hah!

JayMoyles: Wahey!

JayMoyles: Who's doing the edit this time around? I'm a bit busy for the rest of the afternoon, but I've nothing planned this evening or for most of tomorrow, so I could do it if you'd like?

ZeroJones: I've got nothing on at the moment - in terms of activities, you understand - so I'm happy to edit away.

Overwatch GOTY? Someone may have said that months ago

I have no opinion either way but my GOTY so far is Kirby Planet Robobot. No offence to the game but I hope something better crops up...

You're going to be a delight on the GOTYcast

Ah how wonderful to see the words of Admintendo gracing this site again! I'll have more to say on it later, but there's just one point I feel strongly about and wanted to touch on now.


This is the second place that I've seen talk about how the Wii U's protracted death and Nintendo's silence about the NX has contributed to the dearth of talk on the forum - the first being Cappuccino's post in the NX thread, natch.  And you can't deny that.  In what is either a Nintendo forum or a forum brought together by Nintendo, depending on who you ask, the lack of a Ninty home console is going to hit us pretty hard.

I would, however, like to draw your attention to the forum stats.  In the nine-and-a-bit days of this month, four people have made more than five posts a day.  I'm up past seven.  Two of those, myself and Zero, barely glance at Nontendo (and in Zero's case it sounds like that will continue for a while).  Five posts a day is by no means overwhelming traffic, but nor is it dead.  If ten people post five times a day, that's a healthy forum considering the circumstances (season, console deaths, us being small anyway).

And this is without any big events or Directs so far this month - obviously we had one in October, inspiring a day in which myself and Jay both passed 25 posts.  Nor was it so long ago that Zero said that I'd gone 'new thread crazy'.

There is stuff to talk about.

A lot of it might be silly topics, like my zoo thread, or looking back at retro stuff, like - well, the entire Retro sub-forum.  Those were some of the best bits of NGamer and its relatives.  When creativity came to the fore to make up for the lack of #content.  Why look down on them now?

I won't say "stop yer moanin'", Chuckle Brothers-style, because moaning is #content and creates content indirectly (like this post) and there's no doubt that we could do with a post boost right now.  But when you've finished moaning, why not go and contribute to a retro thread?  Ask a question?  Answer Meet the Admin. Team, which I think has about four replies thus far?  You can moan about the lack of stuff, or/and create some stuff so that there isn't a lack any more.


Also my GotY thus far is either Bravely Second or AA6, both phenomenal games that would shine proudly in any year, with the PokéCelestials to come.

Another good read lads - quite brief this time, I thought? That may just be owing to the two-man format, though.

masofdas wrote:

You're going to be a delight on the GOTYcast

I thinked a thought about this, actually. I was thinking, rather than doing a normal GOTY podcast that means we list the same games as everyone else on Earth, we could do our GWPOTY; Games We Played of the Year. So we're not just covering games that launched in 2016, but ones we played for the first time. Just opens it up to some more interesting chatter. Plus, we'll probably cover most candidates for the typical GOTY chat on gintendo.co.uk

Jay I'll be uploading NGamer DVDs in the coming months. I have the first 16 or so, but Issues 1 and 2 don't have any commentary so they are a strange watch.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Another good read lads - quite brief this time, I thought? That may just be owing to the two-man format, though.

masofdas wrote:

You're going to be a delight on the GOTYcast

I thinked a thought about this, actually. I was thinking, rather than doing a normal GOTY podcast that means we list the same games as everyone else on Earth, we could do our GWPOTY; Games We Played of the Year. So we're not just covering games that launched in 2016, but ones we played for the first time. Just opens it up to some more interesting chatter. Plus, we'll probably cover most candidates for the typical GOTY chat on gintendo.co.uk

In terms of length, I'd say it's no shorter than other Admintendos. We were still chatting for a good hour and a half, all told. Maybe it was down to us having a few walls of texts in there rather than a back and forth discussion.

gjones wrote:

Jay I'll be uploading NGamer DVDs in the coming months. I have the first 16 or so, but Issues 1 and 2 don't have any commentary so they are a strange watch.

You legend! Very keen to rewatch those.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Another good read lads - quite brief this time, I thought? That may just be owing to the two-man format, though.

masofdas wrote:

You're going to be a delight on the GOTYcast

I thinked a thought about this, actually. I was thinking, rather than doing a normal GOTY podcast that means we list the same games as everyone else on Earth, we could do our GWPOTY; Games We Played of the Year. So we're not just covering games that launched in 2016, but ones we played for the first time. Just opens it up to some more interesting chatter. Plus, we'll probably cover most candidates for the typical GOTY chat on gintendo.co.uk

That sounds rather good the best we played on the cast, goty each on the forum and likely we will of some sort of goty on pod that it all could be very different.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Another good read lads - quite brief this time, I thought? That may just be owing to the two-man format, though.

masofdas wrote:

You're going to be a delight on the GOTYcast

I thinked a thought about this, actually. I was thinking, rather than doing a normal GOTY podcast that means we list the same games as everyone else on Earth, we could do our GWPOTY; Games We Played of the Year. So we're not just covering games that launched in 2016, but ones we played for the first time. Just opens it up to some more interesting chatter. Plus, we'll probably cover most candidates for the typical GOTY chat on gintendo.co.uk

That sounds fun & I might want in on that.

---

Great read chaps! Also seeing Jay trying to convert more GNamer forumites into Monster Hunter makes me burst with pride.   Oh I remember Stu actually got MH4U earlier in the year, wonder how he's getting on with it? (Reminder: Bother Stu on twitter more)

masofdas wrote:

You're going to be a delight on the GOTYcast

Thanks! There are still a few more games to play (and I have played ones that listeners might find more interesting than Planet Robobot, ya cheeky scamp) and, if Drunka's (really rather good) idea comes to fruition, I can open it up a bit more (Majora's Mask, for example).

Drunkalilly wrote:

Another good read lads - quite brief this time, I thought? That may just be owing to the two-man format, though.

Maybe? As Jay says, we were in the recording studio for an hour and a half... We'll just have to see what Admintendo XVI brings us, which will hopefully feature exactly what the NX is amongst its topics.

gjones wrote:

Jay I'll be uploading NGamer DVDs in the coming months. I have the first 16 or so, but Issues 1 and 2 don't have any commentary so they are a strange watch.

Aces! Very much looking forward to this.

ZeroJones wrote:

masofdas wrote:

You're going to be a delight on the GOTYcast

Thanks! There are still a few more games to play (and I have played ones that listeners might find more interesting than Planet Robobot, ya cheeky scamp) and, if Drunka's (really rather good) idea comes to fruition, I can open it up a bit more (Majora's Mask, for example).

Sure is a good idea, I may be the boring one as I've only played 2016 games in 2016 that I can think off part from Peace Walker which I don't think will be in my Top 5 due to the PSPs controls and not played enough of it either.

I reckon if I played the HD version with proper analog controls, I could talk about it more.

HD remasters could make peoples Top 5 as I think Jas played Dishonoured for the first time this year.

The_Jaster wrote:

[
Great read chaps! Also seeing Jay trying to convert more GNamer forumites into Monster Hunter makes me burst with pride.  

It's really quite surprising that the series has passed me by for as long as it has. I wish I'd jumped in to MH4U at launch, but when you guys eventually return to the game, it'll be golden.

Right, finally, in a position where I can feedback on this properly! Great #content once again chaps.


Hope you've managed to get back onto case 4 since this went up Jayseph, for exactly the reasons Zero gives. And case 4 is at least short.

Ah yes, the Great Wall of Andyman. I remember it (or waiting for it) well. (wipes away nostalgic tear)

I've got to get back onto AV some day, it sits relatively unplayed on my Wii U, waiting for me to give it a good seeing-to. Sadly I can't see that happening soon.

Still got a GC tally-up to do... It'll probably happen some time after Jay gets his games in order. The post-Direct chat, StB, and AA podcast recordings have all been highlights of my forum-reading time as well. A lowlight has been the low take-up on Pokédix - a shame, because from my view it's the most fun forum game we've had since Who's That Pokémon. You don't even need to know or like Pokémon to take part!

Anything on the NX would be grand - but as said elsewhere, I'm beyond worried that Nintendo will botch its reveal utterly.

My playthrough of Axiom Verge reminded me of SteamWorld Dig, in many ways. My first few hours of SWD were spent thinking "Why does everyone like this? It's rubbish"... but I couldn't stop playing. After about three hours, I was hooked. AV was very much the same: it takes a little while to get going, but once you've found a couple of good weapons and smashed through a few of the gear gates, it's top stuff.

I was thinking the other day about the GameCube thread and its lost impetus. It's a shame because when it was alive, it was brilliant.

I do plan to get my Gamecube post up... that'll resurrect the thread, hopefully.

As for Pokédix, I was enjoying that thread! Hmm... thread necromancer Jay might be out and about tonight.