When Super Smash Bros. 4 was set to launch for the the next generation of platforms, we hoped for the possibility of new fighters arriving in the form of DLC. We’ve wanted something like this since Brawl, however such a thing would not happen or just not be feasible. But with Smash 4, we’ve now been graced with four DLC fighters: Mewtwo, Lucas, Roy, and Ryu. And for the first time ever, Nintendo has opened the floodgates and is letting the entire world vote for their favorite characters to be added as a fighter to SSB4’s roster. The Smash Fighter Ballot had already concluded on Saturday, October 3rd, 2015. But figured I might as well share who I feel would be a great addition the Smash roster. So hit the jump to see who my picks are.
Last year, Nintendo skipped the traditional press conference in favor of doing a Nintendo Direct presentation. While the idea sound, their use of UStream’s service saw some viewers, including us, experiencing lag, skipping, and entire reveals just not airing. However this time they’ll be using Twitch as their main streaming service. Steam technicalities aside, Wii U sales haven’t been too hot for Nintendo since last E3. While there would be upticks when certain games released, sales would be back down to their previous levels. One of the heavy hitters, Mario Kart 8, saw sales of the Wii U increase in the U.S. and Europe, but now so much in Japan. On the 3Ds side, things are stronger than ever with games like Tomodachi Life, Bravely Default, and Shin Megami Tensei IV releasing on the handheld. But now it’s about the future. Who will be the next challenger for SSB4? What will X’s final name be? And when the hell will we finally see some Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem action?
Note: due to last year’s incident with Youtube’s Content ID system hitting us as we were streaming the Sony Conference on Hangouts On-Air, we’ll only be showing our ourselves as we watch the conference, without the conference feed itself. Sorry for the inconvenience.
In a move people may or may not have seen coming, Nintendo has announced that the Wii U version of Super Smash Bros. 4 will be playable via Gamecube controller adapter, revealed at the end of a trailer detailing the Smash Bros. Invitational tournament. Let’s talk about that first. The tournament will take place on June 10 in the Nokia Theatre and will go from 4:00PM – 6:30PM PST (7:00PM – 9:30PM EST). They’ll be streaming the tournament live through Twitch. The announcers for the tournament will be Wynton “Prog” Smith, Bobby “Scar” Scarnewman, and D’ron “D1” Maingrette. Geoff Keighley will be the host of the show. As for the rules, the character a player chooses will be the character they stick with for the whole tournament. Not all the characters revealed so far will be playable at the tournament. The matches will be a 4-player free-for-all, 4 stock, will run for 5 minutes, with top 2 advancing. For the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round, the items will be on. But for the grand finale, the items will be off. The last battle will take place on Battlefield and will be 1-on-1.
Ah ah. don’t read anything down here yet. Just play the video and listen. Listen to that music!
Since the revelation of David Wise coming back to compose for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, together with Kenji Yamato from the first DKCR game and the Metroid Prime series, we really haven’t heard much in the form of music. While we many, includingus, did play a bit of Tropical Freeze, they were in noisy venues. Not the best of places to really hear what anything has to offer in the form of music (unless the booths had headphones). But now we can hear the music better thanks to gameplay uploaded by Gamespot. First we have the savannah music, which sounds very much inspired by the likes of The Lion King.
The next, after the break, is the boss battle music.
A new 3D Mario platformer is upon us, and this time it’s taking after the 3DS outing. Super Mario 3D World expands on the foundation of the previous 3D Land game and adds two more characters in the fray, Peach and Toad. Mario is your standard character. Luigi can jump higher than his brother (with the trade-off being low traction). Peach can float for across the air a la Super Mario Bros. 2. And Toad can run faster that any other character. Gameplay can be done on both the TV and on the Gamepad’s screen.
Hit the jump to see gameplay of World 4-2 with James.
NYCC has come and gone, and we have some gameplay to show you. First up is the next chapter of the Donkey Kong Country Returns saga, Tropical Freeze. The Tikis are toast, but a new set of baddies has arrived and kicked DK out of his home. This time around The camera plays a bigger role, swerving around our heroes as they’re transported to the next section of a stage and not staying strictly 2D.
Gamepad control was not ready for this demo, so Wiimote+Nunchuk was the controller of choice. It played just like DKCR in this regard. Hit the jump to see some mine cart gameplay.
During a Nintendo Direct presentation earlier last week, we got so see more Super Mario 3D World gameplay, and a little more on what the Mario crew has to deal with this time (a bit more on that later). Along with the bell power-up that gives our heroes a catsuit, a cherry is introduced that multiplies them into two. Picking up another one during this time adds another copy. We also see Mario donning a Boomerang Bro suit, and the Tanooki Suit from Super Mario 3D Land makes a comeback. Some new carried power-ups are shown off, including one that fires red balls at enemies, disguises you as a Goomba, A baseball and a bomb, and a Piranha Plant pot that eats enemies. The graphics are also looking much prettier than the previous trailers, with lighting similar to Super Mario Galaxy in certain night-time situations.
And finally for the first time in Super Mario 3D World, we see Bowser. In a previous article, I expressed interest on what exactly Bowser has planned this time, and even wondered if he was in this game. Well, that second part is answered as he pops up at the beginning of the trailer. This time he’s taken a fairy hostage, suggesting that this fairy probably has a power that might suit Bowser’s plan to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Maybe he changed his tactics after realizing taking Peach to lure Mario isn’t working so well? Regardless, he’s back with a new plan, and donning a sweet ride to boot. Just look at that thing! We gotta see more of that car in future installments. Mario Kart 8 perhaps? Please add it to Mario Kart 8 Nintendo.
The crowned knuckle is back, and in HD! Princess Peach of the Musroom Kingdom has been added to the roster of fighters in Super Smash Bros. 4. For Mario series representatives so far, we have four reps in total. Peach’s outfit remains the same as it was in Brawl, albeit in higher resolution than it was in that game. Her moves for the most part remain intact, though it looks like her Up Smash now has a ribbon, probably the same ribbon as the one from the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series. Her hips of steel make a comeback too, evident by Fox failure to handle such feats. Her character art is looking mighty fine too. Compared to her art in Brawl, the color here is a lot more vibrant.
Check out some screenshots of Peach after the break.
After one of Nintendo’s Direct Presentations earlier this summer, one of the smaller surprises of the broadcast was Super Mario 3D World‘s revelation of Peach as a playable character. While she’s been playable in other Mario games, like Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Party, and a couple of the RPG games, you don’t really see her taking center stage as a playable character in a straight-up platformer. Her first foray as a playable character started way back in our version of Super Mario Bros. 2. What she lacked in turnip-pulling strength, she made up for in her ability to float. In more recent times, she starred in her own game, Super Princess Peach, which flipped the script and put her in charge of the saving duty.
So now Peach is playable once again in a mainline Mario platformer. Awesome. But what about Bowser? What’s he scheming in all of this? Is he even involved in any of this? Let’s theorize on this a bit.
It is Lance’s Island in Super Smash Bros. 4! Today’s SSB4 update reveals Lance’s Island from Pilotwings. It’s unknown if this will be a full stage or just a backdrop to a larger, possibly Pilotwings-related stage.
Lance’s Island was the 3rd training course of the original Pilotwings on the SNES. The Hang Glider was introduced in this course, along with roundabout flying with the Light Plane. If there’s one thing I remember most about this course, it’s the chill-ass Hang Glider theme.
Now that you know where this stage comes from, don’t be like this guy and think it’s from Minecraft.
If there’s one missed opportunity (of many) on the Playstation side of the SSB/PSAS battle, it’s that Kevin Butler (or at least Kaz Hirai) wasn’t a playable character. With Nintendo, there are many popular personalities that make up the company we know today. Chief among them being Nintendo of America’s President, Reggie Fils-Aime. How cool/weird would it be to play as Reggie in the next Smash Bros.? Well, a Petition has surfaced asking for just that.
According to the petition, Twitter user taco_belmont asked the NoA president if he would be a playable character in SSB4. Reggie answered, “You have to ask that to Mr. Sakurai. He’s the producer of the game, it’s his game. But if he wants, my body is ready.” As of this writing, the petition has garnered 8,728 signatures. The petition writer hops to raise awareness by getting #ReggieForSmashBros trending. If he does make it in, here’s a suggestion for his Final Smash. Think about it Nintendo.
In their latest Nintendo Direct (Mini) presentation, Nintendo announced that the release of Earthbound had narrowed down to a specific date. That date: NOW! Yep, Nintendo has gone and released Earthbound to an unsuspecting public on the Wii U Virtual Console. On top of this, Nintendo has also made the original, larger than normal Player’s Guide available for viewing online. And yes, you can see the whole guide. You can view the guide right here. While it might look strange viewing it on a computer now, it’ll look just fine on a Wii U gamepad.
Earthbound was originally released on the SNES in 1995. Sadly, the game did poorly sales -wise despite a somewhat massive advertising campaign and positive critical reception. This lead to Nintendo not releasing anymore Earthbound material outside Japan, including the much requested Earthbound 2 (Mother 3) on the GBA. Interest grew for the game after Ness’ (and Lucas’) appearance in the Smash Bros. series, alongside the established cult following the game garnered. Due to its rarity and its absence on other platforms outside of the SNES, prices for the original game, both boxed and cart-only, would range from as low as $200 to as high as $1000. There’s even a website dedicated to getting Earthbound at a price you can afford.
Earthbound is now available on the Wii U Virtual Console for $9.99
As time goes on in the videogame industry, the Futuristic Racer genre continues to struggle. One of the granddaddies of the genre, F-ZERO, missed an entire generation since its inception on the SNES. Maybe with the Wii’s hardware, all we would’ve gotten was just another F-ZERO GX on our hands, i.e. not that much different (except for maybe an online component). But hey, looking towards the Wii U and its increased horsepower, maybe we might be zipping through the tracks in HD and with online multiplayer, right? Well not quite.
Upon seeing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze being revealed during in our live reaction video, I expressed hope that since we’re getting another DKC game, this means that many of the songs in the game will be remixes of the music in Diddy’s Kong Quest (like DKC and DKCR). Chief amongst these remixes would be Stickerbrush Symphony, the song many consider either the best song in DKC2, the best song in David Wise’s career, or the best videogame song of all time. Kenji Yamamoto did an excellent job remixing much of Wise’s work in Donkey Kong Country Returns, so I was wondering how he’ll handle a song such as that. It looks like I’ll be getting my answer as David Wise will be teaming up with Yamamoto to compose for Tropical Freeze.
We really haven’t heard much from Wise in the videogame scene. Last we heard of him, he was making remixes for fan albums at Overclocked ReMix. Any chance we get to talk about Wise on the podcast turns into one long trip down memory lane. To see Wise come back to the series that made him a household name amongst gamers is certainly a plus for this game.
Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Once again the micro-blogging platform rears its ugly head, potentially putting someone’s career on the line. EA Senior Engineer Bob Summerwill took to Twitter today to start a little mini rant against the Wii U. Speaking to Scott Hanselman, who simply asked a question, Summerwill took this opportunity to vent about some of the Wii U’s shortcomings, namely the lack of games on the console since the beginning of this year (though that could change). He kicked off his tirade with “The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360, poor online/store. Weird tablet. Nintendo are walking dead at this point.” The tweets have since been deleted. But IGN has screencaps of them for the public to see.
The Wired Fish Network 
