I'm not a huge fan of podcasts, and it looks like the last time I blogged about one was about the Power Pros Podcast, way back in 2018. I've been an avid watcher of the official Nintendo YouTube series Nintendo Minute since it first started in 2013, and it was a regular Friday ritual to watch the latest episode every week. I know I wasn't the only one who was really bummed out when it ended in December of last year.

Thankfully, the two hosts, Kit and Krysta, didn't completely let such a good thing die, and they've left Nintendo and have started up The Kit and Krysta Podcast and The Kit and Krysta Show. In both cases the content has expanded to include non-Nintendo games, and it's refreshing that the two are able to speak more freely without the corporate filter. The Show is most similar to Nintendo Minute and has similarly goofy antics, but the Podcast is a really meaty endeavor that run more than an hour and a half weekly. In it the duo share some behind the scenes stories of their time working for Nintendo of America's marketing team, give their take on some recent headlines, and discuss what they're currently playing, and they also work in some Nintendo Minute-like segments.

Kit and Krysta have started a Patreon subscription with various tiers available that I've been happy to join to support their content-making. In an early episode of their podcast the two joked about their show being the feel-good podcast of the year, but it really is comfort viewing. They're very personable hosts and their friendly rapport is genuine, as is their love of all things gaming, and their new content really does feel like their previous work but even better. It's hard to believe they're already on episode 15, and even though they're still evolving their content, everything has been wholly enjoyable so far and I can only see their output improving. If you liked Nintendo Minute, their new work is an easy recommendation, and this is a good time to check them out if you hadn't heard of them before. Definitely looking forward to continuing to enjoy their work for many more years to come, hopefully!

A few months ago I wrote a bit about Pokémon Unite, the Pokémon spin on MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games. At that time I'd mentioned that I'd previously dabbled in the juggernaut, League of Legends, and the free to play Smite, but I've been digging deeper into the latter to get a better sense of what it's all about and to see if it might be worth me spending more time with.

Smite does have a different feel from other MOBAs that I've played because of the "behind the shoulder" camera angle, where you control your character like in a 3rd person action game rather than from a top-down perspective. I was also drawn to the range of deities from all types of world mythologies, and although I stuck with the tutorial character, Neith, I did enjoy trying out some of the other characters as well. The game had three main modes available from the start. I spent most of my time on the 3v3 mode which only has one lane and which seemed more newbie friendly. Sometimes it took ages to get matched with a group, but once the game was underway everything ran smoothly. It's not too hard to pick up each character's moveset, although I'm sure I'm missing the finer points in terms of teamwork and strategizing. Neith in particular is a ranged character so I got way more assists than KOs, but I didn't mind that.

I dabbled in the other main modes, but I found them to be less interesting. The arena mode is 5v5, but it's in a wide open space with no lanes, which felt like a big "every person for themselves" brawl without much strategy involved. The main 5v5 mode has the usual 3 lane format, but I found these matches to be rather too long for my limited time (and attention span).

The game offers a "Welcome Pass" for new players, and working your way through all twelve levels will unlock three gods and a "Pick your own god" chest. I'm a little lost as to which god I should unlock, so I'm going to save mine for after I've had a chance to try some others out. Although I had a decent amount of fun with the game, the whole genre still doesn't really grab me (probably because I'm playing it solo most of the time), so I'm setting the game aside for now. I did find someone to play some games with me and we may play again together in the future, but otherwise I'm probably not going to sink that much more time into it. I am more curious now about the developer, Hi-Rez Studios', Overwatch alternative, Paladins, which I've also given a cursory look at but haven't really spent much time with. I'll probably give that a go next time I want to check out another well-regarded F2P game.

This will be a short post as I fully recognize that this is the fourth dancing game I've written about in three months, hahaha. As I continue my quest to play every single Just Dance game, I hit up the third and final of the artist-specific games, ABBA You Can Dance for Wii. I was assuming that this game was only released in Europe, but it turns out I was completely wrong on that and it was actually released in NA and EU at the same time (November of 2011).

The game has pretty much nothing in the way of surprises for the Just Dance vet, although they do incorporate a fair number of music videos in the background, a karaoke mode (which as usual I didn't try), and I think probably more four-person dances than the average Just Dance game. There's also this weird "mini musical" mode where you can play six of their only songs in a sequence with a sort of Grease-like aesthetic. Not sure what that's about, but I guess I didn't mind the change of pace. I also noticed that the four-person dances don't display the pictograms, which was a bit odd but not a big issue.

I was able to 4* all the songs and pick up a fair few 5* ratings along the way, and there were a number of ABBA songs that I hadn't been familiar with. In general the songs are enjoyable, although a lot are very disco feeling, which is not my favorite genre. I wouldn't say I've become a huge ABBA fan and some of the songs were a little perplexing from a more contemporary US perspective, but there's a good range and the choreographies are typical of the series, and thus pretty solid and fun. I definitely don't feel the need to spend more time with the game at the moment, but I had fun with it and this would still be a good game to play with friends who are fans of the group.

I'd tried out Ninja JaJaMaru-kun on Nintendo Switch Online not that long ago, and somehow I was expecting Mappy-Land, another NSO title, to be a similar Japanese-only arcade-type of game. I think somewhere in my head I must have been mixing it up with the original Mappy game, although I don't think I've ever really played that game much. Maybe I'd seen it on some Namco compilation? Anyway, Mappy-Land was actually released on NES in the US, so I was wrong on both counts.

Mappy is to Mappy-Land a bit like the original arcade Mario Bros. is to Super Mario Bros. in that it's much more evolved, both graphically and in terms of the gameplay. In the original Mappy it seems like there's not a lot of variety as you play as the eponymous Mappy and bounce off of trampolines, recover stolen treasure, and avoid the cats. There aren't a lot of options in how you can avoid the cats, and that's one of the best things that Mappy-Land improves upon. In Mappy-Land you still have the same basic premise, but there's variety in the stages and you can now collect usable items that distract the cats, such as a waggling wand toy or a bouncing fish, and these prove to be extremely useful (although sometimes a little difficult to use). In the original there were only very basic environmental mechanisms for eliminating the enemies (namely, two different types of doors), but in Mappy-Land each stage has its own unique environmental items, such as rolling balls, canons, or high bars that you spin on. These also greatly add to the fun and balance of the game.

The first stages go by quickly and are easy to beat, but the game gets progressively harder. The game has four sets of eight stages, and although the locales repeat, the layouts are all different and contribute to the increasing difficulty. There are two different types of stages mixed into the set of eight, one where you climb on vines and navigate moving trampolines for part of the stage (which just ends up being awkward, frustrating, and annoying) and another that has you using balloons to soar the skies and defeat ghosts with the help of a ray gun. There are also extra parts to some of the stages mixed in periodically that extend a playthrough where you have to collect an item, such as a train ticket or a cross, to complete the stage, and these extra parts increase as you progress through the game. The third and fourth sets of eight get really difficult and basically require memorization of the stage layout and careful use of your items, but a built-in level select keeps frustration low, and having the save states of Nintendo Switch Online is a much-appreciated modern convenience.

In terms of the gameplay Mappy-Land is pretty solid and fun, but it's really the graphics, music, and "theme and fun" that elevate it and make the game a memorable experience. From a modern perspective most people would probably feel like the game is pretty basic, but it's a polished title for its time (it was released in Japan in 1986) and as a fan of retro games I quite enjoyed it. It doesn't look like the series really caught on in the US, although it seems like there have been some other Japanese-only sequels over the years. Anyway, I'm definitely going to have to go back and try the original now at some point anyway.