2P START! Live!: The Battle for Portability Edition
September 21st, 2009
In this episode, you’ll hear Tim and Ray’s strange portable gaming dilemma, Ray’s thoughts on Scribblenauts, Tim actually praising Sony, a play-reading of the previous comic, and the verdict on the Project Needlemouse trailer.
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Links Used In The Podcast
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Sweet! Am listening NOW!
…oh, and first. First is always important to put.
~ Obilink
It’s never important.
If you like DBZ enough to have it as an avatar – doesn’t that make you a fan of simplistic drivel?
Never judge a book by its cover
What’s this? Sony Praise? Gasp! Now I must download the podcast. Hopefully it’s praise for the PS3, and not something else that Sony has done.
A) Just got Scribblenauts myself and, yeah, it’s also one of the only reasons I’ve picked up my DS this year.
B) I may be fooling myself, but I don’t care; I am hyped for the new Sonic. Though, I must admit, I think the only reason this is the case is that there is no footage of the game. So perhaps, more accurately, I’m hyped for the next trailer.
C) Age and the need to post first and state as such are inversely related. Scientifically proven.
Given the opportunity I enjoy posting first and not mentioning it way more. Because then you feel so much more I dunno elegant or something (yes over a year later)
Great podcast as usual! I really missed it last week. The sony praise part was great. Also I’m glad to know that Ray isn’t excited for Sonic. Its nice to know that even the biggest sonic fans are catching on the garbage pile known as recent sonic games.
Nice podcast.
But it seems missing a segement where listeners call in?
WE GOT A TOPIC OF THE WEEK?
I don’t own a ipod by the way.
And my DS is a little big for carrying in pocket comfortablly
Nice Podcast Guys! This episode definitely payed off for not having one last week. There was some great discussions, and plenty of funny material. 🙂
Another great Podcast! Felt a bit surreal actually hearing my screenname on the show 😛
I know how it feels reusing old artwork; it does look a bit effortless but does take some work. I have my own little webcomic which is pretty much just recycled and re-posed vector character models lately (but it suits the needs), and it still takes me a few hours to get everything completely set up just right for each comic. Shaves an hour or two off from making new models, but still.
On that note, I also wanted to commend you guys on having a new comic up virtually every week (and a Podcast on top of it too). I never really thought of it this way until just now, but you guys are out in the professional workplace and such still doing the comics and Podcasts in your spare time, and I’m just in college, yet I struggle enough trying to get one comic out every few weeks. So, some overdue props to you, Tim and Ray 😀
And on a different note, I actually am a bit hyped for Needlemouse (which I’ll probably regret in due time) — I honestly haven’t really been hyped for a Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2 (arguably the best 3D Sonic game), and I just have a gut feeling that Sonic Team is doing something right for once now.
I’m not getting any images on the M4A version.
Don’t know what to tell you, other than I had double-checked the M4A file when it showed up in my iTunes and everything worked fine.
Well, I watched it on iTunes and it worked.
Had you downloaded it straight to your iPod from iTunes? I’ve found that you don’t get pictures when you do that, but downloading it to your computer and then syncing it works fine.
WOW…………great podcast guys! I have to say my fav part was the muiscal misfits, i love cave story and am looking forward to the cavestory on Wiiware.Cave Story is a all around great game short as it is,plus all the good music it has. Anyway,good job guys keep it up! 🙂
Awesome podcast again. The podcast image makes me think that Scribblenauts would make a good iPhone game, considering that im pretty sure the only buttons you use is the dpad, which is only used for scrolling anyway and could easily be replaced with something else. Also, for the Needlemouse silhouette, there was a Shadow version of it. Thanks for choosing my Misfit suggestion too!
Try “Vampire” and give him “Shotgun”. UNBEATABLE.
NO! I tried to put the picture of the Pikachu, but I accidentally put the Uncharted 2 boxart, and I was WAY above SuperSonicGoku. FAIL. -_-
Sun.
And here I had been trying to figure out what Uncharted 2 had to do with being built from the ground up….
Yeah, I saw that picture and just thought, “I don’t get it.”
All I can say is “Oops”. Awesome podcast btw, the best in a while.
Okay, so most of my notes are about Scribblenauts:
Okay, for one the game is quite enjoyable. I bought it along with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, and I don’t think I could possibly stress how much more I like MUA2 in comparison to Scribblenauts. There are very specific uses for a lot of the items in Scribblenauts. For example, in the level where you have to jump start a car, summoning a mechanic does absolutely nothing. Also, too many of the puzzles can be solved by attaching a rope to a flying object such as a pegasus or dropping heated plasma on enemies. The people that tried to stump the game at E3 and such seriously failed. Tazer is not in the game, and that’s just one example. I’ve also glitched through walls multiple times, and have gotten the starite like that before. The game decided that when it wants to close something off, it’s going to close it off, whether you place an anvil or wall there or not. It’s a good game, but it has too many issues IMO. I’d personally switch the critic scores for MUA2 and Scribblenauts.
As for the other notes, just generally…I hate hearing about the iPhone, but meh, that’s probably just me.
And uh…Rouge.
“Taser” is copyrighted. Stun gun works, though.
Ah yes. My bad. However, there are very few options and ways to knock someone out. Virus and Tranquilizer Dart were the only things I could think of as everything else will kill the character in question. Sandman came to mind to put them to sleep but that wasn’t in the game either. I’m pretty sure there were other words that weren’t in, but I can’t think of them at the moment.
I know what you mean about the Sonic Cycle, Sonic Retro has gotten so sick of ifif you MENTION it, you get banned from their forum. I seem to be the only one who is not amused, I’ll keep an eye on it, but I’m not selling my future first born children to buy it.
Thanks for picking my artwork for the Comment of the week. That should be used as a future Podcast splash page. 😉
I’ve yet to pick up Scribblenauts, and I think I’m gonna wait for a sale/discount. It definitely looks good, but I don’t have much time right now so I’ll wait for a more-open time in my life.
‘sniff’ Song praise always brings a tear to my eye.
I enjoyed both comics. The Lace one won by a bit, but I think its the re-used artwork that doesn’t quite make Tim’s Take Part 2 the same stellar-ness of the Lace comic.
I think I would prefer Pikachu in a Sombrero instead of a Sonic game. But it is the actual Sonic game logo. It just looks weird in silhouette form.
Well, it was a teaser trailer. It could also be a reverse pyschology where a bad trailer turns into a great game instead of vice versa. And while everyone says “the cycle, oh no, the cycle” think about Sonic Rush. The most recent 2D Sonic games. They’ve been very solid. And now that we’re getting a 2D Sonic game, I think it will be good. We’ve never been through the Sonic cycle with a 2D one (as far as I know).
Random PSA at the end. But ok. Will do
I agree entirely with Ray’s opinion on Scribblenauts. I enjoy playing it, the puzzles can be fun and challenging, but it’s simply not captivating to me. Something that I really hate are the controls, probably my one complaint about the game, because occasionally you’ll be trying to move an object and Maxwell will come racing across the level, or, if not, get stuck running around trying to hop on a ledge or something.
Another problem that I’ve encountered are numerous glitches when gluing or tying things…I tied two crates together and they started flying around the level. I tied two posts together, and they sank into the level. I hopped on a Pegasus and tried to fly over a tornado, and ended up getting turned upside down for the level and knocking the tornado over.
Yeah, that tornado level was kind of annoying. My end result ending up with God unintentionally shrinking everything included the tornado.
“I hopped on a Pegasus and tried to fly over a tornado, and ended up getting turned upside down for the level and knocking the tornado over.”
“My end result ending up with God unintentionally shrinking everything included the tornado.”
These in-game descriptions are so bizarre, it really makes me want to play the game. You knocked over a tornado?
I just ran back and forth until I went through the tornado… Then I summoned an otter to carry to the starite, just because I felt that not summoning anything was kind of cheating.
Must. Summon. God. And. Pegasus. And Stun Gun. And. Otter.
Too many things…. Brain exploding! 😀
Oh, and I got past the tornado by using wings and flying up into the upside down pit thing (Great name, I know.) and waiting until the tornado was to the left, then flying down and getting the Starite. Took a few tries though.
I put a black hole in the middle of the tornado….
Controls suck and when I die not because I failed on figuring things out, but because the controls suck, I lose a vast majority of interest in whatever game.
You put to words everything I’ve been thinking, Kyzin. In addition, why does Maxwell always stand in front of every object I’m trying to select?
I used another tornado and put it on where the original tornad can hit it to test my luck.
Then VRMMMM… The star just blown right into my hand.
In addition, why can you select Maxwell? That serves absolutely no purpose other to annoy you when you are trying to select something near him.
Selecting Maxwell just does stuff if you are near a switch or have an object in hand.
My tried and true methond of bringing stuff to me is to tie a rope to an otter and lure it to me with fish. I have solved many puzzles that require me to bring something to me So I don’t have to control “Drunken Crontrols Maxwell” that much
It’s an amazing thing to just experiment with, but it is a bit frustrating that they’ve achieved what seemed impossibly ambitious with the scope of the word list and then failed so utterly on the basics of the control scheme.
A PC version where you can have the whole level on screen at once, type without leaving the game and control maxwell with the keyboard would be incredible. WASD and mouse could really sort out the DS problems (which would have been much better in the first place if they’d just used the d-pad for movement).
I still love the flawed DS version though. I had to get a patient to a hospital on top of a mountain. I pulled out a shrink ray, zapped him, summoned a bag to stuff him inside and then gave myself wings to fly us both to the top. The creativity you can bring to bear on a puzzle is astonishing.
That is one of the millions of puzzles that can be solved by strapping a rope to a pegasus and attaching the rope to the objective. It even worked with getting a bus out of a lake. Pegasus are strong apparently…
Oh man! The podcast is back! That was the worst week, let me tell ya…
I think Sonic Team just looked at Mega Man 9 and wanted in on that. Which is a mentality I’ve grown to expect from them…
It’s good to hear you’re still on your toes about this, Ray. That’s always the smart thing to do when Sonic Team’s involved.
Awesome podcast guys. I couldn’t stop laughing at Pikachu in a sombrero. Those trailer people at Sega know exactly what they are doing, and it makes me not want to trust them, I must say.
I think that the project needle mouse (which is a terrible name) trailer is supposed to be a teaser trailer. Teaser trailers never say or show anything significant. They are the very definition of an empty promise.
“needlemouse” is a rough translation of the word “Hari Nezumi” wich is more commonly translated as “hedgehog” (I think)
Needlemouse is retro, man! It was Sonic’s pre-release name.
It’s basically the Sonic equivalent of calling a new Mario game “Project Jumpman”.
Here is the difference between “Project Jumpman” and “Project Needle mouse.” Mario is cool enough to make a name like jumpman cool. Sonic is not cool enough to make needle mouse cool. It sounds like a marketing gimmick when it comes from sonic team.
When I became a “Grave riser” I mentioned my frustration with those Sega “hype reels”. They always generate the hype, but the promises are always broken. We need to be skeptical. They have lied to us so many times before. Sonic fans are fairly passionate, and I’m as guilty as the next guy of being swept away by the promises of excellent sonic games.
I wish the days of the Dreamcast type development would come back. They had a lot of talent doing whatever craziness popped into their heads. The result was nutty things like Floigon Bros, Jet Grind Radio, but also quality games within established genres like competing with EA Sports, Sonic Adventure 2, Virtual On, and Skies of Arcadia.
I hope I don’t sound like I’m repeating myself, but considering the trend of digital distribution games I think Sega has some room to experiment again. Get crazy, do something new or old, but do something GOOD. We’ll buy it!
I like how Ray suggests people who would have crazily believed the gaming success of Apple “need to go to prison.”
You know, the new 2D Project Needlemouse could be a sequel to Sonic 3D Blast! Or it’s spiritual predecessor/creepy uncle at the family reunion, Sonic Labyrinth. Oh by the way, I’m gonna go ahead and RISE FROM MY GRAVE. Cause’ I’ve been commenting for a couple of months, and I had no idea I had to declare myself undead. I’ve been a fan since, well, I’m not sure, but before Ray’s art was shiny. The humor and details are awesome. My favorite is the Layton one. Keep it up!
PS: I chose this user name when I was 10, and I’m too stubborn to change it.
Wow, I wasn’t aware that not rising from my grave was such a terrible crime. I love the DS because I can carry it around along with my phone (I have big pockets) It’s a lot nicer than the old gray block gameboys that I used to carry around. The Zelda games could not be played just when you had time at home.
Scribblenauts officially broken:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=955689&topic=51505358
Also, when will new shirts arrive???
First off, awesome podcast guys! I loved the audio drama version of the webcomic and the discussions were really fun to listen to. Also, Super Buck Jazz is one of my all-time favorite remixes so great choice there, Ray!
I have a possible contender for a future Black Doom Award. Chck out this website first, and then I’ll explain why I think it’s a contender:
http://www.stfj.net/art/2009/loselose/
Besides the obvious question of why would anyone want to download a game that could damage your computer, the question the game makers propose on the site just seems ridiculous to me: “Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon and awarded for using it, that doing so is right?” Um, because maybe that’s the way many video games are designed? There’s not much point in playing a FPS if you’re just going to sit there and not attack anyone. In most games, if you don’t play it the way it was designed, you’re not going to make much progress and you’re probably going to feel like you’re wasting your time. There’s certainly a place to debate the amount of violence in video games, but a game like this where the only way to win is to not play it seems pointless to me.
Sorry, kinda a long rant for the comments board. You can move it to the forums if you like, but when I read about this, it just screamed “Black Doom” to me.
This is really stupid. Definitely black doom material. In fact, this is so stupid that I kind of doubt that it is legitimate. Seems like a case of Poe’s law to me.
I thought that was quite a clever games-as-art piece to be honest. Like art it’s open to interpretation, but to me it’s quite a clever take on the time wasting nature of simple games. I certainly could have written a book or two in the time that I’ve spent on pointless little web games, so a game that actually holds my work ransom to me while I’m playing it is quite a clever way of hammering that home.
And when you lose the game deletes itself, so you download it and have to make a decision between this pointless little game and your work with every shot.
Of course nobody is going to play it (outside of a virtual machine anyway) but it doesn’t need to be played to make it’s point, or to make you think.
It’s modern art in game form, something that we’re seeing a bit of in the indie PC scene. Something to applaud, rather than Black Doom.
I haven’t commented in ages but I just had to being a long time Sonic fan.
To add to the Pikachu in a sombrero picture, if you look very closely, it looks like Sonic is wearing a witches hat, and that his hand is a broomstick. Another storybook where Sonic is witch or wizard perhaps? I would not be at all suprised!
Wow, I hadn’t expected to rise from my grave on a podcast, let alone last week’s podcast, but the background music from the Black Doom caught my ear.
Count Bleck’s castle! I played through Super Paper Mario a couple of weeks ago, and I really dug the music. I’m dying to know Ray, did you download that tune from somewhere? It would be great to be able to put the soundtrack on my iPhone 😛
Oh, almost forgot — I threw this edit together not long after hearing Ray mention it in the Podcast, but never got around to sharing it till now for some reason 😛
I should make a Pixel vision fan game that is “inspired by one of my favourite games”
Glad to see Cave Story made it as a musical misfit, and I’m even happier to see the return of the 2P Start Live! end theme
Still sad that the comic is over. And 2P Live too….
when you were talking about scribblenauts and you were saying about having fun but not able to pick up your ds.i feel the same with that but i feel the same also with super mario galaxy 2,why?!
i feel bad and need help