Epic ComiCast Episode 32: Nintendo 64

I came across this podcast a bit later than usual, but I thought I’d share it with you all. It’s the Epic ComiCast episode of the Nintendo 64. Now, the main focus of their podcast is comics, but they do generalise into overall geek culture at times.

I know that it’s a bit late considering that this episode came out in November, but I just came accross this since they just uploaded the video to their youtube channel. Note that the video below is just the trailer for the actual episode, not the episode itself. If you want to listen to the podcast in its entirety, you can find it on their website here: Epic ComiCast Episode 32: Nintendo 64.

ComiCast Episode 32

About the podcast

Well, for all of you N64 fans out there, I’ll just tell you upfront that they don’t really start talking about the Nintendo 64 until about ten minutes in, so if that’s what you’re after, I suggest skipping till that point.

When they finally do get around to talking about video games, they preface the Nintendo 64 with talk about previous consoles and the buildup to the Nintendo 64. Then afterwards they go on to discussing the hardware and various of the more popular games. A lot of what they talk about is the same stuff we’ve heard every time someone talks about these games, with a little bit of personal stories sprinkled here and there. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, I love me some stories so I’d recommend listening to this podcast just for that reason.

A few things of note

They do mention some things that I found Kind of interesting. When they were talking about Super Smash Bros, they talked about how it really brought the whole Nintendo universe together. When you played that game, you probably weren’t familiar with all the characters. So if you saw a character like Ness or Samus (which didn’t have games on the N64 besides SSB), you became familiar with them and it helped build up that unique Nintendo identity.

Another thing that they briefly mentioned was that they really miss getting games in boxes. Nowadays, most off-the-shelves games come in the typical DVD boxes so if you’re a kid now, a dvd box under a Christmas tree could be anything. When the GameCube came out, it was when I was buying most of my games with pocket money so I didn’t really realise this happened until now.

When they talk about Ocarina of Time, they mention that most games nowadays (particularly RPGs) have way too much content. A game like OOT can be completed 100% within a 24 hours if you know what you’re doing, much less if you use a guide or glitches. A game like Skyrim has so much content that it seems overwhelming to the point where it never feels ‘complete’. I think that this trend started with the rise of MMORPGs that have so much content and grind that their longevity is almost eternal.

Besides all that, they give a brief overview of the games that they remember playing back when the Nintendo 64 was in. The thing that really surprised me was the amount of games that they have memories of. I was pretty much stuck with the original 16 games, unless you count the occasional lend from a friend, so I find it strange when people talk about rentals since we never did that at my house, even for movies.

Those were the only things that triggered something in me,  but the whole podcast is still worth a listen for a few personal opinions on the popular N64 games. Again, you can have a listen/download by looking at it on the Epic Comicast website.