Episode 171: Holiday Break

The holidays are always a busy time, and sometimes it’s nice to just take a break and listen to a couple guys talk about Nintendo. Those holidays, by the way, are Pokemon Day and Mario Day. And in this Random Nintendo Podcast episode sandwiched between them, we discuss both, along with the Switch’s first anniversary and three trends we noticed over the past year. We also highlight upcoming eShop games worth keeping an eye on, plus share impressions of Sky Force Reloaded, Xeodrifter, and HAL Laboratory’s first-ever mobile game, Part Time UFO.

How was your first year with the Switch? Let us know in the comments below and we may highlight it next episode. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play Music, or your podcasting app of choice. You can also follow us on Twitter @RandomNintendo.

As always, we’ve included links below for more information on the news and games discussed in this episode. Each link also lists a time stamp to easily locate the segments that most interest you. Enjoy! 

News

• [0:02] Have a Happy Pokémon Day! (Pokemon.com)
• [0:03] Pikachu Talk skill brings adorable Pokemon voice to Echo, Google Home (SlashGear)
• [0:09] Report: Fire Emblem Heroes pulled in nearly $300M during first year (Gamasutra)
• [0:10] Super Mario to Star at Bloomingdale’s This Spring (WWD)
• [0:17] Nintendo Switch Is Resetting Play Times After One Year (GameSpot)
• [0:20] January NPD 2018: Monster Hunter even slays beasts like Call of Duty and PUBG (VentureBeat)
• [0:24] Why Ubisoft Is Obsessed With ‘Games As A Service’ (Kotaku)
• [0:32] Doom gets motion controls on the Nintendo Switch (Polygon)
• [0:46] Mario Odyssey Players Are Breaking The New Balloon Mode (Kotaku)
• [0:52] Payday 2 on Nintendo Switch is an old build, over 8 months behind PC (VG247)
• [0:59] Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy for Switch Coming West (IGN)
• [1:02] ‘Mega Man Legacy Collection’ is headed to Nintendo Switch May 22 (Engadget)
• [1:06] How Switch’s success is impacting devs in the game porting biz (Gamasutra)
• [1:12] Nintendo Adds User Reviews, Immediately Pulls Them (Kotaku)
• [1:18] Discussion: eShop Games to Watch

Games

• [0:07] Pokemon Go (Official Site)
• [0:32] DOOM (Official Site)
• [0:46] Super Mario Odyssey (Official Site)
• [0:52] Payday 2 (Official Site)
• [0:59] Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy (IGN Game Page)
• [1:02] Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 (Official Site)
• [1:19] Manticore: Galaxy on Fire (Nintendo.com Game Page)
• [1:23] Trailblazers (Official Site)
• [1:27] Demascus Gear: Operation Tokyo (Nintendo.com Game Page)
• [1:29] Away: Journey to the Unexpected (Official Site)
• [1:33] Castle of Heart (Nintendo.com Game Page)
• [1:37] A Normal Lost Phone (Nintendo.com Game Page)
• [1:40] Metropolis Lux: Obscura (Nintendo.com Game Page)
• [1:43] The Long Reach (Official Site)
• [1:49] Sky Force Reloaded (Nintendo.com Game Page)
• [1:55] Xeodrifter (Nintendo.com Game Page)
• [2:04] Part Time UFO (Official Site)