Welcome to my vantage point on Gamespot. This is where I post up my thoughts on games or, on occasion, other things not game-related. Games have been my whole life so when a game I want is announced I make sure to keep it in my sights. So read on for my insight!

I've gotten into anime as well but most of the time my anime blogs will be on MyAnimeList. If you want to follow me on MAL, my username is Smashking.

• 17Jun 13

  The Super Smash Bros. Guessing Game

  Konnichi wa, minna-san!

  So, we were just shown the next Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. Yes, those are the titles of the two games. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for 3DS. A little boring but it's simple and to the point. We know 12 characters so far: Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Pikachu, Samus, Fox, Bowser, Pit, Villager, Megaman, and Wii Fit Trainer. But, this is always where the fun of Super Smash Bros. begins: Guessing who's going to appear next. Smash fans, myself included, like to fantasize about which characters should be in the next Super Smash Bros. game. If they don't make it, that's ok, there's always next time And, although I wouldn't be all that happy, there's always DLC. As the name-throwing begins, I would like to put my two cents in on who we should see and who we won't see.

  The original 12 characters from the first game should be back. We already know 8 of 12 are back already but Luigi, Jigglypuff, Captain Falcon, and Ness were absent from the trailer. I can't imagine Nintendo getting rid of them now so I'm going to assume they'll be back. As for characters from Brawl...

  Going in alphabetical order here. I don't know if Diddy Kong will return or not but we're getting another Donkey Kong Country game so he could be back. Either that, or pave the way for Dixie Kong who will also be in the next DKC.

  Falco and Wolf could both be dropped since they're both fairly similar to Fox, especially Falco. To add a unique character, put in Krystal and her staff.

  Ganondorf, if he does come back, I would like to see him be different that Captain Falcon. They did change him slightly in Brawl, but he's still not too different than Captain Falcon. Let him use his sword or something. And speaking of swords, if they don't put in Ganondorf, maybe they can put in Ghirahim from Skyward Sword. He's only been in one game but he had quite the impact. Also, I don't know if we'll see the return of Toon Link/Young Link or not. They're basically the same as adult Link but they just don't hit as hard. But Nintendo always alternates between using adult Link and Toon/Young Link so he's a big part of the Zelda canon.

  Ice Climbers... I don't know if they'll be back or not. They do provide a unique twist to the game; playing as two characters simultaneously, but I don't know too many people who are good with the Ice Climbers. Besides, they've only been in one game and the original Ice Climbers was a launch game for the NES. Sorry Popo and Nana, but I think we can do without you.

  I don't see Ike returning to represent Fire Emblem. I can see Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening replacing him though. Ike and Chrom are basically the same guy so it wouldn't be too hard to switch them around. Plus, there are hints of Arena Ferox from Fire Emblem Awakening being a stage in the next game. Since we're on Fire Emblem, Marth will probably be back but I would like to see an alternate costume of his, that uses the Marth from Fire Emblem Awakening.

  King Dedede probably won't return, as with Meta Knight. If they do bring them back, they need to fix the two of them.

  As much as I would like to see Lucario back, I don't know if they'll keep him. Same goes for the Pokemon Trainer. The only thing is, I don't know who will replace them. There aren't any 6th-gen Pokemon (X/Y) that would fit in a fighting game just yet, and I don't want any Pokemon from the last generation. Maybe Mewtwo can return, but as his old self. Not as that weird, ponytailed one.

  I don't know if Lucas will be back or not, but if he does return, expect a ton of Mother 3 requests from fans for Nintendo to bring it over. After all, when fans caused such a huge stink for Earthbound, Nintendo listened and brought it over much to our grateful relief.

  Two characters that I really don't want back are Mr. Game and Watch and R.O.B. Do you know anyone who regulary uses those two? I don't. I thought they were fairly pointless additions to the Brawl line-up.

  Olimar from the Pikmin series is not in Pikmin 3. So I'm not sure if his return in the next Super Smash Bros will be guaranteed or not. But I still think Pikmin will have a representative. So it might be the captian of the squad in Pikmin 3, Charlie, who might be in the next game, or it could be the whole crew of Alph, Brittany, and Charlie. That would be some serious micro-management for a fighting game.

  I'm going to bet that both Princess Peach and Princess Zelda will be back. I see no reason to exclude the two of them.

  Wario will probably be back since he was a pretty fun character to play in Brawl and that atomic fart is awesome.

  Now of course, there's characters I would like to see in the next game from Nintendo. There's two characters in particular: Isaac from the Golden Sun series, and Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles, that I want to see in the next game. Both games deserve more recognition than what they've been given. Another character I would like to see is Starfy from The Legendary Starfy games. He's a little bit like Kirby but he's different in his own ways too.

  Now onto the big topic that has Super Smash Bros. fans drooling: third-party characters. When Megaman was announced for this next game in the series, it was unexpected but also very exciting. We've been waiting for the return of the Blue Bomber in some way this console generation and the fact that he's in Super Smash Bros. is huge. So if Megaman can make it in, Smash fans figured anyone can. So ideas are being thrown left and right about what third-party characters should be in the game. As much as I like the fact that they're giving third-party characters a spot in the sun, I also don't want too many third-party characters taking away from Super Smash Bros. identity. The whole point of Super Smash Bros. is that it's a Nintendo cross-over. Too many third-party characters is one of the many reasons why I didn't like Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale.

  That being said, I would like to see a maximum of three third-party characters. Any more than that is really pushing it. We already have Megaman so that's one spot. I would like to see Sonic back especially after Sega and Nintendo's recent partnership. I don't really want Snake back for the next Super Smash Bros. He was cool in Brawl, but he didn't fit in very well. Using real weapons? It kind of took away from the mood of the game. Although Sakurai stated that Namco Bandai characters would not get any priority in the next game, although Namco Bandai is assisting with the development, I still would like to see a Namco Bandai character. There's so many characters they could put in from their series. The Tales games, Tekken, Soul Calibur etc. Just those three series alone must have over 150 characters combined. And it would be easy to put those characters in Super Smash Bros. since they all involve fighting.

  Well, that's my two cents (or 5 here in Canada since pennies are no longer in print here ) for what I would like for the next Super Smash Bros. If all of these come true then I will be truly happy. But if they don't, that's ok, all I need is my Super Smash Bros. at the end of the day. This series is what truly cemented me as a Nintendo fan so any additions to the series is welcome.

  Mata ato de!

  • Posted Jun 17, 2013 8:28 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 14Jun 13

  My Final E3 Thoughts

  Konnichi wa, minna-san!

  E3 has come to an end and in my opinion, this is one of the better E3's we've had in a long time. There were so many game reveals, series revivals, and fan enthusiasm. The Big 3 did well across the board unlike in previous years. All of them made strong cases to pick up their consoles: Microsft with a number of exclusives, Sony with the PS4 price tag, and Nintendo with more of their first-party goodness. Third-parties stepped it up with a number of reveals, expected and unexpected. Overall, just a great E3. We need to see this kind of stuff more often!

  Microsoft actually had a decent conference this year. Usually, what's lacking at Microsoft's conferences are games that we actually care about. Actually, what I mean by that is exclusive games we would actually care about. Sure it's great to see third-party stuff at their conferences but what about the games that would make me want to get a 360 or care about it? One of my points is that Microsoft should show us these exclusive games that they teased us about back at the Xbox One reveal. I figured they would only show maybe three or four. Instead we got eight, not including sequels to their already existing exclusive franchises with Forza 5 and Halo 5. In fact, I think Microsoft nailed every point I knew they had to make to be successful except talk about the Xbox One's issues like DRM, used games, always online etc. They also didn't do any of the things I knew they had to avoid so because of that, I was happy with the conference. But then...

  Sony takes the stage. They start off a little slow, but then Tetsuya Nomura comes up on video and shows us Final Fantasy Versus XIII (now Final Fantasy XV) and Kingdom Hearts III. Once they brought those big guns out onto the stage, there was no stopping Sony. While they didn't announce a whole lot of exclusive games (FF XV and KH 3 will be on Xbox One), they did put on a great show with what they had. The price point of the PS4 was the most surprising part of their show: $399.99. That's ridiculously low for what's in the system. I'm sure they're planning on getting that money back by having everyone pay for PS+ in order to play online. Yeah... even Sony is doing that pay for online crap now. And there will be DRM too. And then there's good guy Nintendo who doesn't have any of that stuff that gamers are hating on. Speaking of Nintendo...

  Nintendo, I'm sure of it, got the least attention this year. I suppose it was only natural since the Wii U isn't nearly as popular as PS4 and Xbox One. Or rather, Nintendo isn't as popular as Sony and Microsoft. It's like high school when it comes to the Big 3. Two rival gangs, Sony and Microsoft going head-head against each other. They go around recruiting people with the promise of awesome looking games and bragging rights to all their friends. And then in the corner is nerdy and geeky Nintendo, who no one wants to associate with despite them being more friendly than Sony and Microsoft. But enough with the analogies. Nintendo in lieu of their regular press conference, had a Nintendo Direct on the day they usually have their press conference. Overall, I think the Nintendo fans were a little disappointed with the Nintendo Direct despite the fact that we saw Super Smash Bros. I think the Nintendo Direct was just lacking in surprises. The only real surprise game was Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and even that was disappointing, especially after learning that Retro Studios is the developer. Retro promised us a "game that everyone wants us to make." I'm pretty sure the majority of Nintendo fans didn't want Retro working on another Donkey Kong Country game. They did do a great job reviving the Donkey Kong Country series with Donkey Kong Country Returns but it would be nice if they could move on to something else. Megaman appearing in Super Smash Bros. was an awesome surprise that I'm sure nobody had a problem with. Megaman appearing in Super Smash Bros is great, but I don't want Super Smash Bros to turn into a third-party fest. Otherwise that would ruin what makes Super Smash Bros, Super Smash Bros.

  On that note, third-party companies also put on a great show. Square Enix put on the best show in my opinion. I mean, Final Fantasy Versus XIII returns and the reveal of Kingdom Hearts III? As a RPG fan, and while I'm not a big fan of both series, I know how much this means to Square Enix fans. These were two of the most requested games of this console generation when it came to RPGs. EA also got me excited with the announcement that they are indeed making Star Wars Battlefront. I absolutely loved the Battlefront series on consoles so I'm really excited for its return. I just hope that EA does not mess it up. I know that they published the first two Battlefront games too, but their business practices have changed a lot since the last generation. They also announced Mirror's Edge 2 which is another heavily requested game by fans of the first game. I personally haven't played Mirror's Edge, but from what I've seen of it, it looks really cool.

  E3 overall was exciting this year especially after last year which was ridiculously boring. Everything is looking good for next-gen as we "officially" get started (I still maintain next-gen started last year with Wii U's release). Sony and Microsoft couldn't convince me to pick up their systems right away but that's all right. I would like to hold on to my money for now. And Nintendo has a steady Wii U fall line-up staring in August with Pikmin 3. Then they release one big game a month until 2014.

  August = Pikmin 3

  September = The Wonderful 101

  October = Zelda Wind Waker HD

  November = Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

  December = Super Mario 3D World

  I'm going back to school in the fall so I likely won't be able to blow through all of these games all at once. And then there's the 3DS games. I'm going to be a happy Nintendo fan for a while.But of course, I'll be watching the progress of the PS4 and Xbox One from my store. Speaking of which, I went to work last night to work my store's midnight launch for The Last of Us and I took a quick peek at our pre-order list. We're already at 43 PS4 pre-orders and 6 Xbox One pre-orders. Gee, I wonder who's winning? We'll see what Sony and Microsoft can do next year to convince me to become an early adopter.

  Mata ato de!

  • Posted Jun 14, 2013 12:34 pm GMT
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• 12Jun 13

  Nintendo's "E3 Experience"...

  Konnichi wa, minna-san...

  So I just got back from Toronto after going to attend Nintendo's "E3 Experience" which was hosted at Best Buy. I went with three of my friends and it was a good thing I did. We went early (4 1/2 hours before it started) just in case there was a line-up for it but there wasn't so we messed around downtown Toronto until about a hour and a half to the start time. With an hour left to go, a lot of people started to arrive for the event. With nothing else to do, me and my friends just chatted with the other people that were there. That's something I love about Nintendo fans. We're all really friendly towards each other and the vast number of Nintendo experiences gives us a lot to talk about. With half an hour left to go, the Nintendo reps arrived and began setting up. They passed around 3DS's for us to play which had games like Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Speaking of which, it was my first time playing an Animal Crossing game. It seems like a lot of fun, running around, collecting bugs, going fishing and shopping etc. The only problem I have with Animal Crossing is that it runs off the real life clock. What if I'm busy in real life at the time I need to do something in Animal Crossing? What then? I MAY pick up the game later, just to see what all the hubbub is about.

  It was around the 20 minute to go mark when I noticed that the Nintendo reps were just grouping around the single Wii U unit at the Best Buy. I thought to myself: "No way there's just going to be this one unit." Boy was I wrong. I then began thinking: "How the heck is Nintendo going to do this? There's 4 game demos, about a hundred people, and one unit. They can't be serious; having all of us play on this one Wii U." But it was true. After I found that out, I resigned myself to the fact that unless I was willing to stick around for 2+ hours just to get another shot at the games, I would have to pick only one. And with my condition, there was no way that was going to happen. I was already starting to feel the effects of not resting at home about an hour before the event started.

  So the order went like this: They lined up everyone by whatever game they wanted to play. Each group would only get 7 minutes per game. They alternated games every 7 minutes. So first was Super Mario 3D World, followed by Mario Kart 8, then Wind Waker HD, and finally Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. So, since Super Mario 3D World was the only 4-player game (apparently the Mario Kart 8 demo was only 2 players, Wind Waker is one of course, and Donkey Kong Country was two) and there was me and my three friends, the natural choice was Super Mario 3D World.

  Super Mario 3D World definitely has the feel of Super Mario 3D Land. Now that's a very good thing. I absolutely LOVED Super Mario 3D Land and I'm not even a big Mario fan. Multiplayer in Super Mario 3D World works a whole lot better than New Super Mario Bros. U. Since you can move in 3 dimensions, you don't get in each others' way as often which means the game will be more about teamwork instead of being a total troll to your friends. Admit it, we've all been trolls in that game at some point or another. We were able to play 2 levels from the game in the time we were allotted. Both levels featured the new cat suit and let me tell you right now: that cat suit is awesome. Being able to climb on walls whenever you want really helps with the vertical levels. It was a little too good since I kept getting ahead of my friends since they lost theirs because they suck at Mario games. If you liked Super Mario 3D Land, I can guarantee you'll like this game. And for those of you who don't know Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World's format, it's basically a 2D Mario-designed game, but with 3D Mario gameplay. So there will be Worlds and each world will have their own levels like most 2D Mario games. Except the levels are in 3D.

  So after we were done, we debated lining up for a chance at Mario Kart 8, but we decided against it. But before we left, I wanted a chance to at least see the games in action so we stuck around. Apparently the Nintendo reps had no problem with us staying in the waiting area while we watched. Mario Kart 8 looks visually stunning. Actually there's something I want to point out for all the games I saw. The lighting effects for all of these games look really good. It's as if Nintendo has captured the feeling of the sun and placed it in their games. Anyway back to the games.

  Mario Kart 8 stays true to the standard Mario Kart formula and throws a bunch of elements from past games in as well. 12-player races, and motorcycles are back from Mario Kart Wii, coin-collecting from the handheld games and Super Mario Kart, as well as the transforming vehicles from Mario Kart 7. Something new to this game is the new ways you can travel around the track. Taking a hint from Super Mario Galaxy, you can now magnetically stick to the track as the track goes upside-down and you can also travel along the walls of certain tracks. This gives you an alternative to the trap-laden roads later on in the race. Snaking also appears to be back but I sincerely hope it's not as broken as it was in Mario Kart DS. However I am glad to see this kind of turbo-boosting back. I didn't like the new way of simply turning sharper to build up your boost faster. As an old-school Mario Kart player, I'm used to rocking the analog stick left and right to charge my boost faster.

  Zelda Wind Waker HD is pretty much what the title is. There's not a whole lot to say about this but it was the source of nostalgia for a lot of the gathered fans. One of the players was struggling with the exploration and the game's veterans began yelling out what to do next. As expected, the inventory screen is handled with the Wii U Gamepad so there was no need to pause the game to go into the menu. Nintendo has shown a couple of gameplay changes to the game but for the most part it's the same game as before.

  Last was Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Perhaps I'm still a little disappointed over the fact that Retro made this game so I didn't like the look of it as much. I mean, we're basically getting two Donkey Kong Country games this year: Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It's just like last year when we got two New Super Mario Bros games: New Super Mario Bros. 2, and New Super Mario Bros. U. It's overload you know? I mean from a gameplay perspective it looks like a lot of fun but I've already gotten my Donkey Kong fix this year so I'm not interested in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze right now.

  I really hope other Best Buys were not like this since this was really disappointing. How can they only use one Wii U? At least have 4, one for each game. I don't know who was in charge of this debacle but I want to just punch them right now. Best Buy for not providing the space? Or Nintendo for underestimating the demand for something like this? The only good thing about this entire thing was the atmosphere. Everyone was more or less enjoying themselves even if they weren't playing. Anyway, that was really it for my day.

  Mata ato de.

  • Posted Jun 12, 2013 9:56 pm GMT
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