KeithTheGeek

If it's a Goron, I'd want it to be Darunia. He can have the Megaton Hammer and Biggoron Sword as his weapons. Of course, his attacks would also involve rolling around.

People are missing the point here. Lucina's model was made as an alternate costume for Marth. He didn't want to add Chrom because they would have to do extra work to make Chrom unique from Marth and Ike for "another swordsman." Lucina, apparently, uses mostly the same statistics and animations as Marth does, so they were able to essentially copy+paste Marth into another slot and adjust the hitboxes as needed.

Basically, Lucina got lucky and doesn't take up nearly as much development time as Chrom would have. It's a way of offering another character without diverting resources from other, more unique characters like Robin. It does come off as hypocritical, but there's not much we can do about that. (Besides that, I actually kind of like clone characters...)

@ThatFlint When I voted OoT had more votes than TP, even not counting the 3D version...and if you add together both versions of the Wind Waker, that game is currently higher than TP also. I don't see the point in splitting the game up between versions, but eh....

I voted for the Wind Waker HD, although A Link Between Worlds is a CLOSE second. Those two games captured me in a way that only OoT can compare to. While I think ALBW has tighter gameplay, a game isn't just the gameplay...there's also other factors to consider, and WW is simply a gorgeous game, aesthetically and story-wise. It had more of an impact on me, I suppose.

I respect Mr. Sakurai in that he's one of the few real auteur game designers in the big leagues (i.e. not an indie developer), and he's responsible for bringing not one but two of my top 3 game series to life - Kirby and, of course, Smash Bros. I do, however, highly disagree with the direction Brawl took, and I'm somewhat worried about this game as a result.

To be perfectly clear, I do not hate Brawl. Brawl was a fun game, and one I regularly played up until a couple years ago when my interest in the competitive scene really took hold of me. But matters of game design are very important to me, and I believe that the designer only makes half of the game. It's up to the players, the community, to take part in designing that other half. It leads to wonderful things like speed runs and, yes, tournament play for games you wouldn't ever expect to see them in. It disappoints me to see a developer I respect take efforts to quash the community just because they took a game in a different direction than intended.

I don't think we should be specifically catered to, either. There's no real reason to do that when the competitive scene is still the minority... But I don't think he should be specifically removing things without suitable replacements, just so the game could have as low of a skill ceiling as possible. Wave dashing and L-canceling are not necessary techniques, and only serve to raise the barrier to entry. So why not simplify things some without cutting out the depth? Universally reduced landing lag and improved movement options, such as Melee-style dashes and momentum would suffice.

Additionally, it strikes me as odd that the one constant of the Smash Bros games is being tinkered with to the point that they've completely missed the point. That is, ledge grabbing and trumping. On grabbing the ledge, you have a short invincibility period. This is there to insure you aren't in a completely disadvantageous position, among other things. Yet here you are able to trump it anyways, regardless if you're still invincible or not. I'm entirely okay with reducing or even removing invincibility on multiple ledge grabs, as it reduces ledge camping, but I feel like this removes the ledge game entirely and makes it more difficult to secure knock outs. Time will tell, however, if this is a negative change...my gut says yes, but it could end up having interesting implications.

@Pika2346 Fox's aerial moves don't have that much lag to begin with. A character like Bowser or Ganondorf, however, will hit the ground and be unable to do anything for a couple seconds. More than enough time to be caught by a faster character.

And change isn't really a bad thing. I know of a few things I like and dislike about the new game from what I played of it, for example, that were changes from Brawl and Melee. It's when change is trying to stifle a certain style of play that it becomes an issue, on both ends of the spectrum.

@rjejr @Captain-Falcon To add on what you said, Amiibo spawns an AI controlled character that has custom sets and boosted stats. It could be interesting for fun battles but there's no way it could work in a tournament setting.

@vamkar What the landing lag means, as far as Smash Bros is concerned, is that you'll have a more difficult time following up on moves. In Smash 64 and Melee you could manually reduce landing lag so you could follow up with other attacks, in Brawl you couldn't. It's one of the many reasons Ganondorf is completely abysmal in Brawl.

No word on online play...I like the look of the new additions but that's really disappointing. I wonder if we'll eventually see a Wii U version with all of the bells and whistles?

I wonder how many of the people criticizing the Musou games for being "easy button mashers" have played on difficulties beyond the easiest? I'm guilty of playing on easy/normal (whatever is the default, anyhow) although that's partially because these games can be cathartic fun. Supposedly they get a lot tougher and less mindless as you go up in difficulty, at least according to the fans, so I wouldn't fear too much if the game isn't giving you enough of a challenge.

These look...well, kinda ugly design-wise, but I may still pick one up just to have as backup. I intend to grab a couple official Nintendo controllers as well, of course, but having this as an option if I want it is always nice. Might see some use for PM, anyways, if I just want to sit comfortably away from the TV/play on my Wii U.

The face buttons on the Gamecube controller are fine, really. I actually rather like the layout because it's pretty simple to get a good feel of where the buttons are and which ones do what in the game. It was bad for the Wii VC, but that was more a matter of Nintendo not supporting custom control mappings over anything else.

The controller itself, of course, is incredibly comfortable to hold as well. And I prefer having the face buttons sitting over the right stick because it's generally more comfortable. The main reason I want to use it, though, is for Smash Bros- anything else is a bonus, quite frankly.

I'm of the opinion that something shouldn't be patched out of the game as long as it's not game breaking. And by game breaking, I mean actually breaking game, such as seriously glitching your game out and corrupting the save file - and even then I'm not really opposed to doing that either if you feel the need to.

Squashing anything in the game early on because it's an "exploit" or possibly unintentional is deliberately hindering the game's evolution and development over time. Little tricks like this one serve to help make the game more interesting over time and build on each other to make the later meta of the game sometimes completely different from the game at release.

I disagree with the notion that the game has to be one specific thing, or that any company should remove a feature or technique because it doesn't fit what was intended for the game. The developer is only half the experience, especially in a competitive-multiplayer game such as Mario Kart (and yes, if you are racing against other players, it's still a competitive game). The other half is informed by how the players react and interact with the game and each other, and I'd hate to see that stifled because some people don't like that. Besides that, the trick itself doesn't even seem that usable to begin with, all things considered.

I downloaded the first PetitComputer to my 3DS. Unfortunately I never really put in the time to learn it. I'll probably get the new version eventually and take a good look at the old one in the meantime.

@Haxonberik Different game feel. It's been a while since I've tried it but I'm honestly not a big fan of how Galaxy controls versus, for example, Sunshine. Galaxy's levels are also much linear than those present in SM64. The different controls and level design philosophy is NOT a bad thing, though, which is the key difference between him saying "I don't like it" and him outright saying it's a bad game.

Galaxy is infinitely more polished and has a better presentation than either of its predecessors, but I can still safely say I enjoyed Sunshine a lot more despite its flaws. For Siglemic, it's probably a similar sort of deal for Super Mario 64.

This really rubs me the wrong way. I don't like day 1 DLC when other companies do it, and I don't like it when Nintendo does it. As far as the argument that the game would cost extra if this stuff was packed in with the game... that's just silly. Stuff like this used to be there to begin with.

I'm not opposed to the idea of DLC, but this could be setting some bad precedents.

@jpfan1989 There was one more mini-game, and it boggles my mind that they left it off the list considering it was the best one on there!

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111112184222/kirby/en/images/c/ca/Checkerscreen.png

All three of the final canceled Kirby games that would eventually become Return To Dream Land (or Adventure Wii, if you prefer) would have been awesome, imo. I'm a huge Kirby fan, and occasionally I'll go back and watch that old GCN trailer again. Honestly, I think that one looked a bit more fun than RTDL is.

Of course, what really pains me is the loss of 3D Kirby. I've been kicking around a few ideas in my head for such a game for a while now, and when I saw that screenshot come up in an Iwata's Asks...man, that was painful. It looked exactly how I imagined it.

Storybook Kirby looks interesting also, but aside from the art style it lacks the inherent intrigue of a 3D Kirby or the fleshed out presentation of that older trailer. Still, though, I'm sure it would have been great.

@SCAR392 The very nature of Smash Bros means that realism is irrelevant. And it's certainly true that wave dashing itself isn't entirely necessary for the game to be competitive...but it helps. It opens up a whole world of options for the player that they otherwise wouldn't. Hopefully SSB4 has a similarly decent amount of options for the player to use.

And, at least as far as I'm concerned, while Brawl being slower and floatier is an issue, it isn't the main problem with the game. It actively tries to punish players for taking the offensive (tripping) and overly rewards defensive play. Additionally, the game feels rather unresponsive. It has a buffer system that can make it entirely possible to accidentally input an action and have it get yourself punished, plus a legitimate flaw in a random input delay that is, if I recall correctly, around 2 to 5 frames- enough that it could mean the difference between appropriately reacting to your opponent and not being able to at all. I just can't find Brawl that fun to play anymore, although it's certainly okay if you do prefer Brawl to Melee. I'm not going to force you to play one or the other, anyways.

Gee, so much negativity. The only difference between an esport and sports in general is that sports include a great deal of athletic ability. But there's no more or less skill involved at playing games at a high level, be it competitive Smash Bros or something along the lines of a speed run. Both things require a deeper understanding of the game- esports, additionally, requires you to be able to anticipate what your opponent is going to do ahead of time and, if not that, then at least appropriately react to it.

And saying people have no life for doing what they love is laughable. The best players are easily raking in cash by doing what they do best. And, besides that, a whole lot of you come online every day to interact with this community because you love Nintendo that much. Wouldn't exactly be fair if I called you a bunch of no-lifers, would it? :/

I want to mention that I'm going to my first tournament this weekend (PM and Melee), that being Civil War VI in Virginia. Definitely expecting to get bodied, especially after watching some top level play last night and seeing how badly I'm outclassed...but I want to experience this, at least once. PM has easily been my most played game over the past year and the half, and it was something I've been playing on and off since the first public demo. I dunno if Vigilante is coming back to the comments or not, but I personally LOVE the game. I sure do miss Dedede's silly meteor smash on his forward smash though.

@Zombie_Barioth

You can revert back by simply taking out the SD card before you boot up Brawl next time.

It makes me sad when people say 3D World isn't a "real" 3D Mario game. I mean, yeah, it doesn't play the same as the others but...it's still 3D. And a platformer. I thought 3D World was incredible in fact, it's my favorite Mario game at the moment.

That said...I'd love to see a proper follow up to Sunshine, or one of the Galaxys. Surely they have ideas for that style of Mario game that have been stewing on the back burner, eh?

Doesn't really surprise me to see a lot of anti-modding sentiment in these comments. Though I do feel using the word "fixing" in the title was a bad choice and bound to stir up trouble here.

I love PM. I play PM just about every day. And the reason why is because I loved Brawl, but I wanted Brawl to be so much more. And I got so much more with PM. It's to the point where Brawl is nearly unplayable for me now. Besides, I don't want to play Melee. I don't want to play Brawl. I want to play Project M. Telling me to go play Melee, or worse, being one of those people who think competitive Melee is the same as Street Fighter....that just shows how ignorant you are and unwilling to see the other side.

For the record, I don't care if you like Brawl. Brawl was good. That's your own personal preference...and that's fine. But please don't go hating on the people who wanted to take that in a new direction. That's the reason why the fandom is this divisive in the first place.

Had enough spare coins for SMW (after doing some of those surveys I'm not good at keeping up with...) so went ahead and got that. Still have it on the SNES, but at the moment I don't have access to a working SNES, so you know...

Why should the new games look this way? I mean, it's Star Fox. The two most popular games in that series aren't exactly free from goofiness. And these paintings, while good, are a little...too stubby looking. Goofy for an entirely different reason, basically.

I like how this stage looks but I'm a bit worried we're going to get too many of these stages that scroll or otherwise have some sort of obtrusive gimmick. They're fun every now and then, but I'd also like some more stages along the lines of Battlefield. Or really, the 64 Dream Land stage- it HAS a hazard, but it doesn't completely change the flow of the match.

I suppose it all comes down on how you view it. I personally think it's entirely possible to still respect women (and men, depending on circumstance) while enjoying media that objectifies them. It's the same debate over violent media- just because you might enjoy blowing someone's brains out in GTA doesn't mean you'll go out and do the same for real. Likewise, whatever crude reasons you have for playing a game like this one doesn't mean you'll go out and treat a woman like an object.

Saying we should boycott the game is silly. It's up to the consumer to do their research and decide for themselves whether they feel the game crosses the line. For my part, I think it's immature and a bit cheeky, and I'll probably never buy the game, but it's not because I like or dislike the art. It'd be based on if the game was interesting enough to actually be worth playing.

I'd also like to point out that the poll options are silly, as well. It's entirely possible to think the game doesn't look appealing and still think it isn't sexist. It almost seems as if you're trying to force a certain idea onto us- that male gamers can't help but find the game pleasing because of its well-endowed cast of characters.

@Luigifan141 Evo specifically probably won't run Project M because it's the biggest fish out there, and Nintendo still has final say over what shows up. Melee had the support of thousands of fans but a comparatively niche mod might not. Basically, it's about staying on Nintendo's good side.

And unless they update the Wii U to support wired controllers, I don't think we'll be seeing big SSB4 tournaments. Wireless interference is a real issue and even just the local lounge at my college had enough interference to cause dropped inputs for a wiimote-nunchuck player. Imagine now hundreds of Wii U's set up in the same room, along with the countless number of cell phones, laptops, etc. It'd be a nightmare.

The pulled out screen shot shows how much of a mess Lumiose city is. There's no real landmark in the city itself since every building, besides the Prism Tower, is a mirror of the building on the other half of the city. Add on top of that a terrible camera (yeah, looked good in the trailer, but it's awful for navigating the city) and something that felt big for big's sake...it's just an annoying city. But I guess I prefer it here because of the pulled out look and because you won't actually have to NAVIGATE the city.

We haven't had any Pokemon stage yet that hasn't been man-made, have we? Even Spear Pillar, as worn down as it is, was still a monument built by people. If they want to do something interesting with stages changing layout/appearance like the 3DS Animal Crossing stage, they could always set a level in Twist Mountain and have varying levels of snowfall to represent Gen 5's season feature. Also, I hope we get a good amount of past Pokemon music- there are a lot of great songs that have STILL not been properly represented yet in Smash.

I'm not terribly interested in another collection, although it'd be nice if it were to happen. I would, however, be down for digital versions of the two arcade games (that were on the anniversary collection disc) and the two Legends games as well.

Personally I prefer 3D World and Sunshine, but 64 still packs a lot of classic charm and is a joy just to see in motion. I had to chuckle since they specified "non-Valve" game.

I'm fine with touchscreens, but it really depends on how they're used. I like the menu implementation in Pokemon, particularly the menu that's always there in HG/SS, and having a map on the screen for the Wind Waker was nice if only because it was simple to see where I needed to go and to change my course based on that. But it's certainly entirely possible to make the screen too intrusive on the gameplay if you're asking us to watch the tv and the gamepad at the same time...I think if you're going to make a touch-screen heavy game, the whole "two screen" business really won't work out that well, will it? Using another DS example, Kirby Canvas Curse would be quite difficult to actually play if, aside from drawing on the touch screen, you also had to keep an eye on the top screen and work with additional button prompts. Doubly so for the Wii U since there's a greater disconnect.

At the end of the day though I'm quite happy with the gamepad and it's been pretty convenient when I do play with my Wii U. I certainly don't want to see it go away, but it's understandable if someone else doesn't like it.

@Azooooz Just because a character was bad doesn't mean they have to stay bad. Tier positions fluctuate between releases- Jigglypuff is considered to be a bad character in 64 and Brawl, but is very good in Melee. Surely Mewtwo could be buffed as well? Not to mention that Mewtwo also had a very unique feel to him, and being grapple focused would be fine with me. It'd certainly be more than some other characters have, anyways.

But either way, I'm fine with Lucario being back. I just wish he didn't have the aura mechanic. There's other ways you could make Lucario unique without relying on a comeback mechanic...it's fine for casual play and stuff and can even be very hype in such situations, but for more serious matches? It's kinda lame.

Most stories you see about Nintendo shutting things down are related to Youtube. It's not necessarily because it's legal for them to do (although I believe it might be), but because of how Youtube's policies work. It's really easy for companies to send out copyright claims against channels and suffer no repercussions, aside from maybe bad PR, while the channel owners have to work hard to even get the claims removed- all the while this is hurting a proper source of income for some of these guys.

And I think the price is good for what it is. Sure, you can find some critical analysis online...but this is a full-length book, and $4.99 is a fairly good price for something that might be good to refer back to in the future. And I think it's a good idea to support these sorts of things, anyways, because game design as an art form is in its infancy...and you don't really see much, if at all, proper critical breakdown of games beyond the standard reviews and occasional retrospective. But that's just my take on it, at least.

@DerpSandwich Why would Nintendo bother stopping it? For one, Wario Land 4 isn't even available for sale right now, so no worries about any (however unlikely) brand damage occurring. Also, critical dissertations such as this one don't really infringe on copyright. It's all fair use, and it has to be that way for anyone to make a living off being a critic. Otherwise we wouldn't have film criticism and game reviews to look to.

Anyways, when this first came up, I was mildly interested. But $4.99 is a shockingly good price for this, and $7.99 wouldn't be that bad either, to be honest. I might have to catch this while it's still on sale. Should be an interesting read.

More like keeping Meta Knight in check. He practically defined planking in Brawl.

The comment regarding "grab controls" essentially refers to how characters would have slower get up, roll, and ledge attack animations above 100%. The invincibility comment is also fairly straightforward, though he makes no comment on whether you'll have more or less invincibility as your percent goes up...I'm assuming more, since they're making the changes to 100% animations.

But, I don't know how drastically this will affect ledges. It was already possible to snatch the ledge before a recovering player in past games. I'm assuming this will just let you grab the ledge after a player's invincibility time has run down, but I could be wrong. If so, though, why not just hit the ledge grabber with a strong meteor? I guess this is something I'll have to see in action to get a better grasp on how it works.

I think it's pretty interesting that his comments on what is a fairly inconsequential part of the game (particularly for a multiplayer platform fighter/party game) has received such a negative response from the community. Could probably open some interesting discussions on game design from that.

For my part, I think there has to be some miscommunication going around...whether it is intentional on Sakurai's part or not. The youtube excuse IS a fairly flimsy one. I'm inclined to believe it's more about rewarding the player. They're still making the detailed character intros for some pretty eye-candy, but cutscenes as a reward hasn't been a thing since the N64/PSX era. And since we aren't getting a story mode on the scale of the SSE, the other use of cutscenes - to tell a story - is completely functionless as well. I'd like to think he's more concerned about tighter gameplay, both in multiplayer and single player. So here's hoping that whatever substitute we do get plays better than the SSE, because this time it won't have a story to act as a crutch.

I saw a pot above mentioning the game's memory. SSE did in fact take up a large swath of space on the disc...but it's hardly the reason we had as many cut characters in Brawl as we did. The file themselves for characters are fairly miniscule, and along with the rest of the actual game could easily fit onto a disc with around 3 GBs or so of space without the cutscenes taking room. What the SSE DID eat up was time. We probably could've gotten another character, such as Mewtwo, had they had the time to work on it.

For this news though, I don't really care. I think Melee in general was a tighter game, and that includes the single player modes. Classic mode was more randomized and booted faster than Brawl, Event mode had more interesting events...and I definitely preferred the shorter Adventure mode to SSE's bloated, meandering pace. I would be quite happy with a return to Melee's style of a single player mode, with or without cutscenes.

Aw yes! Dedede is my main in Brawl, and he's always been my favorite Kirby character. I was expecting him to return but it's nice finally seeing him in these screen shots.

I said it already, but I don't have anyone, friends or family, nearby that'll play Mario with me. Usually if we're playing locally we go with Smash Bros or Call of Duty. That's why I want online. And, the thing is, this wouldn't be as bad if they hadn't basically said "we can do it, but we won't." At least give us an excuse that makes some sense. Did they run into serious lag? That would be understandable. Did they actually rush the game out for release? Slightly less so, but still something I can get.

To people saying that we should suck it up or that we don't always get what we want- yes, that's technically true. But that does NOT invalidate any criticisms we may have with the game because of this lack of online play.

I know precisely zero people locally that'd be willing to play Mario with me. My oldest brother hasn't played Mario in years, my older brother dislikes multiplayer Mario, and good luck getting my parents near a game that isn't Solitare or Bejeweled. And yet, I know at least two other people online who I regular chat with that have the game AND want to play multiplayer, but we can't because they're in another state and country. So you're telling me I need to go buy a plane ticket just to play some multiplayer Mario? That's just plain nuts, man.

@Morph I was just about to post the same thing, regarding the camera. NintendoLand has already shown facecam is possible. There's no real reason why, instead of rendering the game screen a second time, the GamePad couldn't instead be showing a video feed of your friend's reaction while playing the game. Add on that it also has a microphone and speakers, you could get a reasonable enough multiplayer experience with another person.

This issue is simply frustrating for me, because I know at least 3 other people I'd love to play Mario with....but they live in other states and countries. We skype pretty much daily, but so far our interactions as far as gaming goes has been limited to Smash Bros and Pokemon, with some Mario Kart on the side. And most people I know probably wouldn't care for Mario, or simply don't want to do multiplayer for it. :/

@Einherjar

Colosseum and XD actually had every Pokemon on the disc (XD even had Bonsly and an additional model for Shadow Lugia). The Pokemon pool was restricted not because of graphics but because of a conscious gameplay decision...whether that was the right choice or not remains up to you of course, but I personally enjoyed those game's take on the Pokemon gameplay. It was a different experience from the handheld games, and a lot of Colosseum's flaws were ironed out in the sequel. Now if only we could get that different story mode with a game that had all of Stadium's features.

@Bliquid- I think the point he was getting at was expanded on with the DLC/microtransactions part. There's a certain expectation that smart phone apps hit a very small price point, possibly even free, and then earn revenue through microtransactions. You don't have to follow that trend of course, and Pokemon is a big enough brand where they could probably get away with it, but I feel like he's concerned with not damaging the brand by placing it on smartphones because of that expectation.

@Bulby Unless you're really stingy with your money during the first part of the game 12000 Pokedollars can be a bit hard to build up. Plus, Quick Balls usually don't show up in shops until later on in the game anyways.

12 Quick Balls is almost a little game breaking to have at the start, because they can capture many Pokemon easily, and most early route Pokemon are a guaranteed capture with Quick Ball. Although I would hoard them just in case of a shiny encounter.

Eh? The original launch was supposed to be September? Could've sworn all the dates I've seen were always listed as "Winter," albeit with a 2013 tucked away behind it. I don't think I've ever seen a September date for the game, unless they bumped it up some and then delayed it again. Oh well, I was expecting a Winter date anyways.

Yay, a new Kirby game! Been wanting to play one on the 3DS for a while now.

I wouldn't call the sprites "gorgeous." Functional? Yes, entirely so. Everything's crisp enough so you can tell what exactly you are jumping on. It is, however, poor even by NES standards, and I feel part of the reason people avoid criticizing the visuals too much is because of years and years of these familiar sprites being pounded into our heads. See...pretty much any Mario reference in the later years, including in the Paper Mario games, some sports games, Smash Bros. I do admit I find the sprites charming, though.

I do think the game holds up remarkably well in terms of the game feel, though. The only thing that holds me back from absolutely adoring it is the lack of a save feature. You can have a game that's more difficult than the original Super Mario Bros. but be more tolerable to play because you can save the game and return to it later if a particular level is giving you trouble. I suppose the save states can let you do that, but it feels kind of cheap.

Hahah, oh man, I was considering getting Bulbasaur when I heard about the original rumor, but...Mega Charizard. Charizard was already my favorite starter and Pokemon in general, this really just decided for me which starter I'm gonna get in Y. It'll compliment my Froakie well also.

While I agree with Inafune that an artist should be allowed to work within their styles and what they're comfortable, this project does stray rather close to being a complete copy of Mega Man. It's common for artists to have common themes, design, etc. across their work (like Akira Toriyama, for example), but this character and his game is pretty much explicitly designed to be a new Mega Man that doesn't require Capcom's approval. It wouldn't be the first time someone has done something like this - Walt Disney made Mickey Mouse in response to losing his character Oswald - but it sort of rubs me the wrong way here.

That being said, I'm interested to see where this project goes. I like what they've shown so far, and I hope everything works out for the best with him.

Ah man, another art contest. Problem is I'm likely to be goofing around in my free time, playing games or something. Perhaps I can knock something out before the 11th, then.