The Slap Chop Episode

[fishbang]

The final show of the year is now available for all (http://ingamechat.net/audio/IGC20081231.mp3).

The freshly diminished crew of IGC are offering an unexpectedly long year-end extravaganza tonight. It’s a 2-hour show, which can either be halved and digested in parts for our brevity-loving listeners, or taken altogether if that happens to be your thing. We’re as far from having a distinct topic as ever, but with a lopsided number of hosts available we’ve chosen to rest some of our weight on the familiar crutch of year-end/new year game topics.

We are well pleased with the growth of our hobby of late, and we’re unanimous in our belief that 2009 will conspire to be as rich in gameplay as ‘08 was before it, or ‘07 before that. Though what may be most difficult to believe is how quickly it can all get started again, because the time for pre-ordering or ear-marking for spring titles is just around the corner. Our fingers are crossed that it’ll be worth the ride again.

[Ravenlock]

I would like to nominate Prince of Persia for "Riskiest Lack of Risks".

Still listening to the last hour of the episode, so that's all I've got to say for the moment. ;)

[Ravenlock]

Scott, I had to laugh - I was driving home in my car listening to the podcast and I heard the trepidation in your voice, and I said to myself "he's gonna bring up the Wii, and he's not going to remember a damn thing for it". By the time you said "I bet Ravenlock could help us with this" I was shouting "de Blob! de Blob, goddammit, remember it and say it!" ;)

It's okay. I just really like de Blob. It's a great piece of gaming.

It was an admittedly thin year for the Wii, but there were some bright spots. My picks would be:

- Smash Bros and Mario Kart, as foregone conclusions.
- Endless Ocean, mostly just for being different.
- No More Heroes, which was a January release so you can be forgiven for leaving it out, though you guys did talk about it.
- Pinball Hall of Fame Williams Collection, as discussed.
- Bully, which I never got to play in its original release.
- Okami, which I never did either, and I'm actually glad since it's apparently better on the Wii.
- Boom Blox, which Daniel never would have let you leave out, and is awesome.
- Some solid cross-platform stuff (Web of Shadows, Lego Indy & Batman, TR: Underworld, CoD: World at War, Force Unleashed actually being the best of all the platforms, etc).
- de Blob, the best platformer on the system besides Mario Galaxy, and a joy to play.
- Dokapon Kingdom, the craziest damn party game RPG ever. My brother in law, my wife and I played this for countless hours over the Christmas holiday. It's awesome, if you have a Wii and friends, get it.
- Rock Band 2, apparently, is really good on the Wii, though I don't have it yet.
- Shawn White Snowboarding: Road Trip, which controls really well on the balance board and makes for a totally different experience.
- And maybe Animal Crossing: City Folk, which I just picked up tonight and will be posting in the CoG thread about later.

So there's that. Not fantastic, but not abysmal either, and I have my PC to pacify me with Fallout 3. I wish I could put Quantum of Solace and Wii Music on that list... but I can't. :p In '09 so far I'm really looking forward to Murumasa: The Demon Blade, The Conduit and Tenchu, as well as maybe Mad World.

But seriously, man, after this and the Williams Pinball thing, it's clear that you just need to have me on the show once a month as your Nintendo correspondent, to tell you what's up. After all, things like Professor Layton and the new Castlevania probably deserved a mention in there, too. ;)

[TrackZero]

Scott, just FYI. I had Sixshot when I was a kid. ;) It was great.

[Spigot]

Endless Ocean, deBlob, No More Heroes and Boom Blox are all fantastic Wii games that came out in 2008 and I can't recommend them enough.

The biggest issue with the Wii this year is that there really wasn't anything of note after Mario Kart came out in, what, April or May? No wonder it seems like there was nothing on the system all year. Curse us gamers and our short term memory!

[Psykoboy2]

Scott, just FYI. I had Sixshot when I was a kid. ;) It was great.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Sixshot-g1.jpg

Ah those were the days.

At least he didn't turn into an Ape.

[Gerbs]

I'm sure if you guys wanted to play L4D co-op you could easily persuade any of us. Just send us a message on Live! We just gravitate towards versus because I think that's where most of the fun is.

[Shrinn]

It's also nice to be able to get 8 Coggers in one game of versus as opposed to 4 coggers in a game of co-op.

If any of you guys wanna hit some co-op up, add Sinfulbliss89 and throw me a message!