I enjoyed the cast, nice job guys. Lefty... please fix your mic for next time. TML, I can listen to you for hours as the excitement in your voice is astonishing :)

Great input though, especially TML and TSA. Look forward to the next ones.

Awesome first Podcast. I found it exciting to listen to the whole way through.

Mases, the thing was that it sounded fine over skype so we didn't notice anything at first. The problem was the recording from audacity. I'm trying to fix it, I may just go out and buy a new mic.

I personally don't think that ST even would appeal to casual gamers.

I think that Nintendo is trying to stratel the fence a little too much. I Nate said, guys who might play CoD or something usually think that Zelda or Mario or the Wii are all jokes, but I don't even think that someone like a mom who doesn't play video games would get far, let alone like it.

Nintendo needs to focus on the Zelda crowd of Hardcore gamers. Not just trying to spread it around the audiences like they are with other games. Some games just can't be for people of all ages.

Hrm... I think you messed up the editing of the YouTube version. None of the parts start where the last part left off.

I don't agree with any of you guys about the story. Like Cody said, there needs to be a balance. Also, most people don't get into franchises for the story, they get into it for the gameplay. So while the current fans want an on-going blow of cutscenes, people who get brought into it would care far more about the gameplay. I personally think Twilight Princess had too much story, and I don't mind the way Spirit Tracks handled its story at all. It put the story infront, and then it let the gameplay speak for itself all through-out. Sure, it keeps the story simple. You'd be surprised how many people like that, and it makes the gameplay stand out much better so people don't get start getting bored.

Gameplay>>>>>Story.

Also, as someone stated, alot of people use "hardcore" differently. Spirit Tracks has casual graphics, but its honestly not meant for casual gamers. Why do we even use casual and harcore for difficulty? Lets just say weak and strong gamers. The difficulty constantly rises, so people intending to actually finish the game need to be about intermediately skilled. Weak gamers can probably make it past the first two dungeons before they start getting intimidated and getting stuck, assuming they didn't get stuck at the bell puzzle in the ice temple of course.

Spirit Tracks appeals to gamers. It appeals to weak gamers, and it appeals to somewhat strong gamers looking for a decent challenge, at least for the second half of the game. It may be easy for a while, but it keeps getting harder and harder, so its safe to say that Spirit Tracks is just generally a moderately difficult game. It appeals to people looking for a good game. End of story. =)

Assuming they don't have trouble with the Lokomo duets. Anyway, sorry for my wall-of-text here. It was nice listening to all of your opinions, though I think some of you should concentrate on the bigger issues Zelda has been having before you start getting nit-picky with things like story and music.