Radio Free Nintendo began in 2006 as the official podcast of Planet Gamecube (now Nintendo World Report) and originally hosted by Mike Sklens and Evan Burchfield, later joined by Karl Castaneda and Jonathan Metts. In 2008, the podcast launched its "second season" under the direction of Metts, Greg Leahy, James Jones and Jon Lindemann and continued to refine its style into the best podcast you're probably not listening to. Guillaume Veillete took over the main editing role in 2012 as Greg stepped away, only for Greg to return as a participant in 2015 following Jonny's semi-retirement from the show.
Although it is a 4 guys over Skype podcast, the audio quality is amazing thanks to the 16-hour weekends of Greg and Guillaume. It's also one of the few gaming podcasts that uses the .aac format if getting it through iTunes, which means chapter art and (most importantly) easy skipping to particular segments.
The typical show will have at least some of the following:
New Business - Discussion of new games being played by the hosts. All major Nintendo releases are mentioned, as well as major releases on other consoles.
Now Playing - Quick rundown of NWR content. Or, random rap music. Largely retired.
Feature Discussion - A longer analysis of a major news story in gaming or a look back at a particular genre/system. Examples of the former include the Gaming Bucket List, the N64 at 15, the best of the SNES and Operation Rainfall.
Retroactive - The hosts and members of the NintendoWorldReport forums vote on and play through a game of Nintendo's past - or Sega/Hudson's, if it was released on Virtual Console. These discussions are long, informative, and usually end up coalescing around RPGs if given the option. This feature began in 2009.
The list of games previously discussed:
(There are also retrospective episodes for Ocarina of Time (non-numbered, available here) and Super Metroid (142, available here) but these fall outside of the Retroactive banner.)
Listener Mail - When in doubt, let the listeners decide your topics. These can range from "What game would you recommend" to "What's every Nintendo development studio doing" and everything in between. Even when questions about the perceived self-loathing and hatred of Nintendo by fans and media respectively comes up, it's handled with a quiet dignity and understanding of the situation. Shorter bursts of email are common as the "(Lords of) Thunder Round". The address is [email protected]
---
THE HOSTS
James Jones @NWR_James
- Full time podcast host, former reviewer/podcast editor
- Turns the snark up to about 14 for the podcast, is the curmudgeon despite being the youngest of the regular 4
- Plays a lot of RPGs, on both sides of the West/East debate
- Most likely to declare someone wrong by default
- Likes: Ogre Battle 64, Gust Bellows, business-ass-business
- Dislikes: Everything. But especially rougelikes, King of Clubs, and competitive Smash.
Jon Lindemann @MrDiamondJ
- NWR Director Emeritus (served as director from 2009 - 2011)
- More likely to play a shooter of the "dudebro" variety
- Expatriate Canadian, living in California by way of Boston
- Has an immense pile of games that are not only unplayed but unopened, frequently special editions. Led to the declaration of "Lindemann Syndrome" on a podcast late in 2010
- Likes: Busting James's balls, rapping, cat helmets, NHL '94, tub time with handhelds
- Dislikes: Zelda II ("it can eat a dick")
Guillaume Veillette @GuillaumeNWR
- Editor from May 2012 onwards
- Previous experience hosting the NegativeWorld podcast
- Born and raised in Montreal, Canada and taught himself English with assistance of Final Fantasy Legend II and a French-English dictionary
- Plays a significant amount of co-op with regular guest Karen
- Likes: Platformers, retro games, poutine with bacon and onions
- Dislikes: US/Quebec lockout on preorders, bad audio, Majora's Mask
Greg Leahy (No official social media presence)
- Podcast editor 2009-2012, former NWR reviewer
- Despite being in the UK, prefers his football American style - specifically, the Buffalo Bills (the poor guy)
- Has access to a Japanese Wii and frequently imports, as well as providing a look as to what's on the Japanese Virtual Console on occasion
- Has no less than 5 Twitter accounts vying for supremacy, although none are legit
- Likes: Shooters of the R-Type/Treasure varieties, platformers
- Dislikes: Bill Belicheck, bad audio
Host Emeritus:
Dr. Jonathan Metts @jonnymetts
- Longtime Planet Gamecube site director/reviewer. Officially current site historian.
- Yes, he has a doctorate. No, he's not that kind of doctor (he's an aerospace engineer when he's not podcasting)
- Last spotted working for Elon Musk in some capacity, which has limited his appearances
- Has all platforms in addition to his Nintendo hardware
- Likes: Metroid, Illusion of Gaia
- Dislikes: Super Ghouls and Ghosts ("This game can go f**k itself")
Frequent guest hosts:
- Michael "TYP" Cole - Host of Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition, most common fill-in, impression of Wario is frighteningly accurate
- Billy "Plan B" Berghammer - Founder of Planet N2000 -> Planet Gamecube -> NWR, now an employee of the Treehouse so hasn't appeared recently (either by choice or fiat)
- Syrenne McNulty - independent game dev/Wisconsin based game reviewer, tends to bring Japanese imports and yuri visual novels to the show
---
The show also has an annual tradition of hosting a live podcast telethon with the funds going to Child's Play. Big names come out - 2011's featuring appearances from Jeff Cannata, Mark MacDonald and our own sprsk. And a few hours in, bombs start dropping - like when it was revealed that Battlefield was going to be a Gamecube game.
2010 Telethon Recordings
2011 Telethon Recordings
2012 Telethon Recordings
2013 Telethon Recordings
2014 Telethon Recordings
2015 Telethon Recordings
2016 Telethon Recordings
2017 Telethon Recordings
---
Podcast Milestones:
100 (the early days of RFN, 3.5 hours)
150 (best of the first 150 mixed into a discussion of RFN history)
200 (massive DS retrospective)
250 (behind-the-scenes tales and a massive call-in segment.)
300 (Wii retrospective, 5+ hours)
350 (Includes a long set of tales from the editing room while Jonny's caught in a flash flood)
400 (Recorded live in Colorado. 3+ hours, lots of games.
500 (Long questionaire about the podcast's history)
600 (Punch-Out series Retroactive, live show)
---
SISTER SHOWS
The Famicast - Previously bonus content on the RFN feed, now an independent show with its own Patreon. A Nintendo show hosted by four guys that live in Japan.
Connectivity - Formerly known as the Newscast before a late 2011 reboot, covers news of the week and more featured topic discussion. Also known to randomly break into Jeopardy games on little provocation - such as in their 2012 PAX East panel.
Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition - For most of the early 2000s, a regular site feature of Planet Gamecube was Radio Trivia, in which site staff would play a few songs from a Nintendo game and challenge you to guess the game. In 2006, a podcast was kicked off that, like clockwork, discusses 5 games per episode. No prizes, but enlightening discussion of game music both classic and modern.
Box Office Poison - Four former RFN hosts (Jonny, Mike Sklens, Stan Ferguson and Karl Castenada) along with friend Jonathan Rind discuss films both quality and otherwise. For an example of the former .there's Contact and for the latter, well, they've talked about the Super Mario Bros movie and Caligula.
---
OTHER LINKS
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn - RFN main page
feed://www.nintendoworldreport.com/podcast/mp3feed.xml - MP3 feed
feed://www.nintendoworldreport.com/podcast/feed.xml - AAC feed
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=156274672 - iTunes
http://www.facebook.com/RadioFreeNintendo - RFN Facebook page
http://www.twitter.com/Nintendo_NWR - NWR Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/rfnpodcast - RFN's official Twitter
http://ninwr.spreadshirt.com/ - The Radio Free Nintendo T-Shirt
Last edited:
