PixlBit

I'm just curious, who's reports suggest that?

I mean, I've seen the video of the people at 1up (or somewhere) using the slide pad on Super Mario 64, but the reality was they didn't devote the same attention to smoothly rotating on the D-pad as they did with the slide pad, and the video seemed relatively misleading in that regard.

I'm not saying it won't offer improvements on diagonals in some 3D or 2D games, and Matt's example choice of Dynamite Headdy is a great example, but I don't know how vastly the slide pad will really change gameplay.

Alternatively, though, the DSLite D-pad really hurts my thumb after long periods of gameplay. I'm excited about the slide pad for lengthier DS games, just because I don't think the pain will be there, if that makes sense. Hooray!?

I'm gonna go on the forums and give you your stars back, Chris.

This already looks far better than that Naruto game I played on the Wii last year. Unique enemies and varied bosses help substantially, as well as real co-op. An original story can be a good thing or it can be a waste of time, depending on how original it is, and if there's somehow character development. Regardless, yeah, easily looks better than "Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles."

Uh oh. Playstation fan anonymous is really going to be upset about this one. I've only played Little Big Planet 2 once, at E3. I never played the first title. I watched a lot of videos, and was always impressed with the scale and schemes used in levels I saw, but I never felt like the game or user designed stages were fun. At E3, the stage design was absolutely miserable, with a rising stage and no simple, immediate method for a second, third, or fourth player to revive, it just didn't work.

Chris and I have a friend that's completely obsessed with this game and its predecessor. It's really a hit-or-miss title. I will say that the physics are the main turn-off for me. I don't like slow-motion movement, especially with jumping, it just doesn't feel right to me. If the game had a Mario-style engine, and didn't "worry" so much with doing so many things it can't do any of them well, I'd probably buy it and enjoy it.

Since I haven't played it, I won't rate it, but really, my reaction to Nick's score is that he's hit the point that lines up with my perception of the game. The points he hits in his review match up with my fears and predisposition of the game. I just can't see many people who value substance over style and flair enjoying this game. That's just my opinion, naturally, and there's many people that disagree with my opinion, but I don't see much substance in Little Big Planet 2 after the "Wow" of "I can make anything!" becomes the disappointment of "I can't make anything work well."

I'm loving the feature banner Nick made for this.

I know I used the "Notes" section of Joe and Mac 2's manual to write down codes. I'm pretty lame when it comes to "do-it-yourself" game guiding. I just went through a few caves in Pokemon White that needed flash to be able to save. No flash, no maps.

I love the sketches of Majora's Mask and the Nintendo 64 controller, though. Those are great.

As far as links for this episode go, you'll have to harass Stanton. He's the guy behind all of them. He can either post them on the forum himself, or someone who was there for the full thing can send me them and I'll add them to the forum thread with all our fact-based links and such.

I thought I'd mind not being able to choose who to attack, but that wasn't a big deal for me. The reality is, though, I stopped playing the game when I learned enemies level-up when you do. I don't enjoy that sort of thing most of the time, and didn't want to invest much time in a game with that kind of engine.

Three seem to hold my favor right now. An Ice-type that's shaped like Ice Cream, an ancient sea turtle that has a water/rock combo, and a cool crocodile with ground/dark typing. I'll probably be forming a team around these three at some point to battle casually online.

Sorry about the delay on this one, folks. It's just been a long week, as evidenced by the fact that I literally had to phone it in for this episode. I'm pretty surprised by the call quality over a 3G network, considering it was all through skype, still. The next half of the podcast should be posted on Monday, so tune in then for the exciting, dramatic conclusion.