Lloyd Hannesson host of WiiSpot, DS:Life and Touch of Gaming gives a rundown of his gaming podcasts and tells iuwii.com why Apple may have the upper hand in the emerging portable gaming war.
What games are you currently playing?
Lloyd Hannesson: I’m currently working my way through Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Rhythm Heaven and am greatly enjoying each one for different reasons.
What upcoming DS and Wii games are you most excited about and why?
LH: On the Wii I can’t wait for the Conduit. I’ve been following this title since seeing the teaser, and I can’t wait to see how a real FPS plays on the Wii. That’s if it doesn’t turn out to be a big disappointment. I’m also looking forward to Wii motion Plus to see what it does for games like Wii Sports Resort and Tiger Woods Golf. On the DS, most of the big 2009 titles I was looking forward to have already hit. The teaser for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks looked good, but there is no telling when it will actually hit the DS.
When asked about the growth and popularity of iPhone and iPod Touch gaming, Nintendo doesn’t seem to be too concerned about competing with Apple. Do you think Nintendo is being naive?
LH: I do think they are being naive, but that is traditionally how Nintendo operates. The App Store on the iPhone not only allows one to conveniently buy games wherever they are, but Apple made it easy. No fumbling for credit cards when you realize that your Nintendo Points are gone. The number of innovative indy developed games is amazing. Nintendo should be encouraging the independent devs, not stifling them like they did to Bob’s Game etc. I hope Nintendo can make some positive adjustments with the introduction of DSiWare, but I’m not holding my breath. Also, don’t get me started on how insane of an idea
friend codes were.
The next big industry event is E3, which takes place in June. What would you love to see Nintendo announce?
LH: I’m holding out hope for an announcement of a new Mario and Zelda game for the Wii. Twilight Princess was destined to be a gamecube game, so I’m eager to see what a Wii specific Zelda will look and play like. Mario Galaxy was amazing on so many levels, but I would even love another Super Paper Mario game. There is always room on my game shelf for a good platformer.
For those who don’t know about your podcasts, DS:Life and Wii Spot, can you tell us a little bit about each of them and why you started podcasting?
LH: Sure! I actually started podcasting in early 2005 with the now slumbering PSP Podcast. As far as I can tell I was one of the first game related podcasts, and enjoyed every second of it. The PSP Podcast was still going strong, but I felt myself playing other consoles more and more, and the show was starting to stagnate a little. Fast forward to E3 2006 and I got together with the hosts of the Nerdblurb podcast, Edgar Furse and Steven Dupuis, to do an E3 wrapup. We had so much fun doing that show that the DS:Life Podcast was born in July of 2006. Shortly after the release of the Wii I decided to start up the WiiSpot as well, since I was spending almost as much time talking about that console on the DS:Life as the DS.
I host both the DS:Life and WiiSpot with my co-host Edgar Furse. We talk about all of the latest blockbusters, and try to spend time talking about some of the lesser known releases too. We try to hit on all the big news items and throw in a review or two. The shows are actually done over Skype since we live in very different parts of the continent (Edgar in LA, I’m in Winnipeg, CANADA) so we’ve had to settle on the fact that doing a true weekly show would be next to impossible. We try to get both the WiiSpot and DS:Life out 3 times a month.
Doing mainly Nintendo focused shows I try to keep my podcasts somewhat family friendly. I have two children now, and would like to have them listen to the old shows sometime 
From fan email I know that there are actually a number of families that listen to the shows together to find out about new games that they can play. It’s been fun connecting with a diverse listener base through email, forum posts or audio comments.
Podcast has been a very rewarding experience for me. It’s a great hobby to have, and one I hope to keep doing for quite some time to come!
Thanks for the interview, it was fun! Hope your readers can find some
value in hearing from a video game podcaster
Check out Lloyd’s video game podcasts WiiSpot, DS:Life, and Touch of Gaming. You can also follow him on Twitter:http://twitter.com/dasme.
1 response so far ↓
1 carmen // Apr 9, 2009 at 9:12 am
Thanks Lloyd for the great interview! You are so right about how easy Apple makes it for a consumer to purchase games. Nintendo needs to take notice…
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