Nintendo Announcements at E3 2019

As you might be aware, there's a big gaming convention going on. I'm not going to go exhaustively into every announcement - I recommend checking out whatever your preferred gaming news site is, but I figured I'd mention some things that caught my eye from Nintendo.

Zelda:

First off, there was a tease for a sequel to Breath of the Wild. While I don't know if it will be the same mechanically, it does appear to be a new Zelda game with the same graphical style.

BotW is a game I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, I appreciate the sense of play and exploration, and the sweeping majesty of its game world. But I also think that its game world fell into a bit of a "samey-ness" trap that open-world games often suffer from. It's all well and good to go from deserts to forests to snowy mountains, but when every dungeon and shrine looks the same once you go underground, it kind of takes the fun out of it. Also, I think if every sword, bow, and shield had about ten times the durability, it might have felt less annoying to see them break.

I'll be very curious to see if they keep the survival/resource feel of the previous game or give us a more traditional Zelda experience.

Also, the remake of Link's Awakening will have a custom dungeon editor.

Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters:

As someone who very eagerly got the Smash Pass, I'm pretty happy to see two new fighters announced as DLC.

First, and to me, more exciting, is Banjo-Kazooie. This Bear with a Bird in his backpack debuted originally in Diddy Kong Racing, a game that took Donkey Kong's sidekick and then gave us a bunch of potential new IPs for Rareware back when Rare was one of the greatest video game studios. Among the roster, only Banjo and, hilariously, Conker (whose initial kid-friendly game was scrapped in favor of an irreverent one that was more Fritz than Felix) wound up getting their own 3D platformers.

Additionally, they'll be getting "The Hero," which represents the various protagonists of the prolific Dragon Quest series (which I think has been around as long as Final Fantasy but for some reason I've never talked with anyone who has ever played them.)

Mana Collection:

Secret of Mana holds a very special place in my heart - my oldest friend and I used to play in endlessly when we were in middle school, the only Squaresoft RPG that you could play co-op. Three of the games in the Mana series, including Secret of Mana, will be getting released as a collection, including one previously never released in America. Additionally, that unreleased game, now given an english title of Trials of Mana, is also getting a 3D remake coming next year.

Luigi's Mansion:

I've actually never played any of the Luigi's Mansion games, but there's a new one coming to the Switch. Cool! It apparently lets you turn into, at points, "Gooigi," which is a Luigi made of goo that can slime its way along walls and such.

Anyway, there's way more news even from Nintendo, but those are the highlights I'm most interested in.

Get that Piranha Plant!

Do you own Super Smash Bros. Ultimate?

Then you can get the Piranha Plant as a fighter when it releases next month!

But it's not automatic, so here's a PSA:

If you bought a physical copy of the game, you'll need to register it on the My Nintendo site.

If you got a digital version (like I did,) you're automatically registered.

In either case, check your email and you should find a code that you can enter into the Switch's eShop. Redeem it and you'll have the fighter when it comes out!

I think you only have until the end of the month to get the code, but you have until the end of June to enter it (though why wait?)

If you enter it now, the new fighter should be added when it goes live.

(I've also got the Smash pass, so I should be getting all the DLC fighters as they come out.)

Smash Bros. Ultimate

It's funny to think that 20 years ago (holy crap I am old) the original Super Smash Bros. was a kind of low-budget, experimental game. Two years later, on a new console and with graphics that were about a million times better, the first sequel, Smash Bros. Melee, really cemented the series as an every-generation mainstay of Nintendo's brand.

Since then, we've had Brawl, the split "for Wii U" and "for 3DS" entry, and now, Smash 5 or 6 depending on how you count the previous two wisely went with the very accurate "Ultimate" as its subtitle.

The premise this time around: Everything. Every single fighter they've ever had is in this, and possibly every stage (though I feel like there's a Metroid one from the last entry I don't see.) Even the N64 ones are there (ooh! Not the Starfox one, though that would be pretty redundant with the Starfox one from Melee.)

But every fighter is back. There has been a bit of shuffling: Charizard is now once again simply one third of the options the Pokemon Trainer uses and they've made Zelda and Shiek as well as Samus and Zero Suit Samus into separate fighters (a change that came last time, I believe.)

They've included all of Wii U's DLC fighters (including Cloud, one of my favorites - who ironically made his Nintendo debut with that game) as well as adding a few more. My best friend always felt it was a huge oversight that we never got Simon Belmont in there, and well, guess what? Also, we've wanted Ridley ever since seeing the cinematic intro for Melee. Now he's there. Also, King K. Rool!

Ultimate doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it has definitely polished things to a bright sheen. The fact that there are over 70 fighters (and more coming with DLC!) means that, yes, you'll have to search through piles of Fire Emblem heroes you've never heard of when selecting your fighter (one of them is voiced by Matthew Mercer, though, so that's fun!) but the main philosophy of this entry in the series (and I think the franchise itself) is "the more the merrier," and it works quite nicely that way.

Like Brawl, Ultimate's adventure mode is ludicrous, and like 4's Smash Tour, it introduces a ton of new mechanics. But thankfully, they've streamlined unlocking fighters. You begin with only the first 8 fighters you started with in the original game (not even the four unlockable ones) and as you play, every ten minutes a new fighter will challenge you (waiting for you to finish whatever mode you're in the middle of.) The only downside is that you might feel hesitant to try out fighters you're less comfortable with in case you get a challenge after that match. If you fail one of these challenges, you'll actually be able to get rematches in the Games and More menu (there's a little symbol of a... gate, I think?) though losing a rematch will require you to play a bit more before that fighter pops up again. I think Cloud took me three tries to get.

One cool thing is that Classic Mode now has a set of fights built around a theme for each individual fighter. For example, Samus is sent after various space-based characters. Some characters will face alternate final bosses instead of Master Hand or Crazy Hand: for example, Link fights Ganon (not just Ganondorf, but fully-powered evil pig-god Ganon.)

Another feature I really like is that you can set up your Smashes (standard fights) to have "Stage Morph," where periodically the stage shifts between two selected arenas. Also, if you want a Final Destination or Battlefield-level simple stage but want more visual variety, all stages now have those modes.

And naturally, along with new fighters we have new stages and music. There's a Gerudo Valley stage with an awesome flamenco guitar version of the Gerudo Valley theme.

If you're a fan of the franchise, you'll want this version. It's got essentially everything you liked from previous games and more. And it's on the Switch, so you can take it with you!

Simon Belmont, Richter, and King K. Rool Announced for Smash Bros. Ultimate

A reminder to me that I've got to get one of those Nintendo Switches, there have actually been a couple of character announcements recently that are pretty cool.

First off, in addition to every single character they've ever had in a Smash Bros. game (including both Young Link and Toon Link, for example,) we're also getting some new folks.

Simon Belmont, original protagonist of the Castlevania series, was always something of a surprising omission when they started going outside of 1st and 2nd party characters. Well, the badass vampire-hunter is joining the fray, along with Richter, one of Simon's descendants. (It's unclear if he'll be a clone fighter or have unique abilities.)

Additionally, King K. Rool, the original bad guy from the SNES Donkey Kong Country games (though he dropped King and became Captain and then Doctor in the 2nd and 3rd ones, respectively,) will be joining the list of heavies along with Ridley from Metroid (who was announced earlier.)

I love that Nintendo is going all out insanity for this iteration of the Smash Bros. series. It has always been a game (that is almost - Jesus Christ - 20 years old now) where restraint is kind of anathema to the whole concept.

Smash Bros. Ultimate

There are so many big announcements coming out of E3 that I don't know I can do them all justice here, but as a fan since the original on the N64, I've got to talk Smash Bros.

Smash Bros. Ultimate is the game that's going to finally get me to stop procrastinating and get a Nintendo Switch (I always intended to, but given that I've had my PS4 for like two years (maybe 3?) and have only a couple games for it, I'm hesitant to shell out for consoles these days (it feels as if they're coming faster these days, but I think it's actually just that I'm getting older and five years feels a lot shorter than it once did.)

So what's the deal with Smash Bros. Ultimate?

The biggest thing is: every single character that has ever been in a Smash Bros. game is coming back.

Yes, that means Snake, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Young Link, Toon Link, Cloud, Ryu, Roy... I'm saying that it's seriously everyone.

Everyone.

Smash has always been a more-the-merrier kind of game, and now that will mean a roster that's pushing 60 fighters.

It's not all old ones though. Remember in the intro to Melee how we saw Samus fighting Ridley?

Bam: we're getting Ridley!

We're also getting Daisy, Luigi's Peach equivalent.

Which means that the actress who plays the main character of the new Star Wars movies is now fully represented by Smash Bros. characters.

Anyway...

It looks like they're simplifying some Final Smashes - notably the Landmaster is gone, replaced with a bombardment of Arwings. As someone who's not really concerned about the eSports angle, I'm more of a fan of "the crazier the better" for this game, so I worry a bit about homogenization.

I'll be very curious to see how many stages the game has - I love all the fighters, but environments are also very important.

Cloud Strife, Bayonetta, and Corrin from FIre Emblem Coming to Smash Bros.

Today saw the last Nintendo Direct dedicated to Smash Bros. and with it, I believe, the final additional fighters available as Downloadable Content for the Wii U/3DS version of the game.

This latest iteration of Smash Bros. was already the largest so far, and we've seen some exciting new characters (and old ones) added as DLC.

Cloud is obviously one of the most iconic video game characters of all time, despite starring in only one game (though there was a spin-off and an animated film, and a high-profile remake coming soon.) He's the main character of Final Fantasy VII, which is probably the most popular entry in the series.

Bayonetta is the star of a somewhat younger series of action games, a witch who can manipulate time and fights with four guns - one in each hand and one on each foot.

Corrin... I have no idea who Corrin is. Nintendo seems to like to push Fire Emblem characters almost as much as Pokemon.

Anyway, Cloud and his associated Midgar stage will be available tonight, while it appears that Bayonetta is getting her own stage some time later.

With this being the last Nintendo Direct, it might mean that these will be the final additions to the lineup. My response? "Snake? Snake! SNNNAAAAAKKKKEEE!"

Despite the existence of some high-profile Wii U titles in the works and the fact that the Wii U is only a couple years old, Nintendo has already started talking about their next console, currently codenamed as the NX. Granted, talking about it doesn't mean that it's coming out anytime soon. The Xbox One and PS4 are only about a year old at this point, so I don't think we're racing toward the next generation just yet (especially given how long the PS3 and Xbox 360 generations lasted,) so I wonder if Nintendo is trying to beef up their specs to handle the kind of games that Sony and Microsoft's consoles can.

Anyway, Smash Bros. has become one of the big Nintendo franchises that kind of has to have an entry for each console. If the NX comes out any time soon (meaning the next three years,) it's likely we'll see another Smash Bros. as well.

Cloud Coming to Smash Bros.

I was a huge fan of the SNES-era Squaresoft, playing games like Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VI (released as III in the states, but all the cool kids know it's the sixth game, and Square corrected the numerical discrepancy after that one.)

But for us Nintendo die-hards, the 64-bit era (32-bit? I think this was the generation where "bits" started to break down) marked the abandonment of Nintendo by Squaresoft (now Square Enix, Enix having been a similar company behind games like the Illusion of Gaia.)

Anywho, while most people I know consider VI to be the greatest of the FF games, it's hard to argue that any of those games has been as popular as VII (and to be fair, those people I know will generally consider VII a close second.)

Anyway, VII was released on the Playstation instead of the N64, and I believe all main-franchise Final Fantasy games since have not been released for Nintendo platforms (though some off-shoots have, including Final Fantasy Tactics, which is supposedly great.)

But Cloud, and other characters from VII have become very big names - which is honestly kind of unusual for Final Fantasy, as each game is often self-contained (though they've been pushing for more direct sequels in recent years.)

But now, for the first time, Cloud Strife will be available on Nintendo, and as a Smash Bros. character!

This is actually very appropriate, as Smash Bros. has always been a place for famous video game characters. Nintendo seems to be getting better at the whole licensing thing, and I really hope Snake will make a return, as he was the one character cut from the previous Brawl line-up if I recall correctly.

I like that Nintendo has been releasing DLC, and I really like that they've been pricing things reasonably. I'm pretty happy to get any new characters or stages for Smash Bros, and Cloud will definitely be among them.

Cloud comes with a new Midgar stage that appears to have different Espers show up to alter the battlefield.

Ryu's Unique Style in Smash Bros.

Ryu is the first character, I think, to actually come from a fighting game (one could make an argument for Little Mac,) and it's exciting to see that Nintendo is thinking outside the box with his design.

Fighting games are all about subtle nuances of control that can have profound effects on the way the character plays. Street Fighter, the arcade game and on the Sega Genesis, used six buttons in contrast with Nintendo's standard four, so they've had to come up with a way to open up more moves.

Essentially, holding down the A button while making attacks for varying amounts of time will change which attack you make. Quick taps will allow you to make rapid, weaker attacks, while holding the button down will make for slower, more powerful ones.

But beyond that, a lot of his special attacks have alternate inputs. Your standard B I believe will do a Hadouken (and I believe the power and speed of this depends on length of button press as well,) but you can also achieve this attack by doing down, down-forward, forward and then A.

Performing these special moves with the more complicated controls will result in a more potent attack.

Additionally, Ryu's Final Smash will change depending on whether you're in melee range of an enemy or not. In melee range, it will be a super-powered version of his... and forgive me if I spell this wrong... Shoryoken. At a distance, it becomes a super-powered Hadouken that works a bit like Mario's Final Smash.

Ryu's stage is fairly simplistic, but will likely be popular with more hardcore players.

The DLC for Smash Bros is actually available right now, but the store is experiencing a bit of an overload, so I'm holding off.

Two Rs Might be Coming to Smash Bros.

I'm still sort of getting used to this idea of Nintendo entering the era of DLC, but when it comes to adding new fighters to Smash Bros, I can't think of a better feature (though I still haven't downloaded Mewtwo.)

This is all rumors, so take it with a grain of salt, but the leaked videos I've seen look very believable, so I'm inclined to think these are probably truly coming.

The first I'll mention is an old favorite - Roy from Fire Emblem.

Roy was a smaller, slower, but more powerful version of Marth in Melee. In Brawl, Ike basically took his place, and personally I always preferred Ike, but we'll have to see how Roy works.

I'm hoping we get a pretty significant reworking of his abilities, because Wii U Smash (I kind of wish they'd gone to the thesaurus again) already has Lucina, who is another Marth clone. I wasn't crazy about how Fox, Falco, and Wolf were all nearly identical in Brawl, and I don't know if we need three versions of Marth. Still, since he hasn't been seen since Melee (which, Jesus, came out fourteen years ago) it'll be nice to have the guy back.

The other R guy is Ryu, from Street Fighter. Now, confession time, I've never actually played Street Fighter, even though I know it's, like, the most popular fighting game there is (well, maybe Mortal Kombat is up there too.) But to be honest I was never all that into fighting games before Smash Bros, which is such a different take on the genre that it could almost be called its own thing.

Anyway, unless I'm mistaken and about to be burned alive by the collective scorn of the internet, Ryu has the famous hadouken move, and is certainly a video game icon, which is a big prerequisite for Smash Bros (well, unless you're already a Nintendo IP. I mean, has anyone ever heard of Dark Pit?)

I'd really hope for them to be able to bring back some missing classics. I'm sad not to see Snake this time around, and it's a damned crime that Ice Climbers are nowhere to be seen.

Anyway, it looks like Ryu will be coming with his own stage, which is good. I don't know what the actual count is, but I feel like the latest Smash has fewer original stages than previous games - like almost half are old-school stages. I'm totally happy with having the old-school stages, mind you, but I'd like to see more original settings (off the top of my head, how about a Maridia Metroid stage with rising and falling water levels, a Dark World Zelda Stage on top of a collapsing Pyramid of Power, or a Mine Cart-based Donkey Kong stage.)

Smash Bros Wii U Out November 21st

Yes, I know! A non-WoW article! I often vacillate between whether this should be a WoW-specific blog or a more general gaming blog, but WoW is the sort of game that constantly has news popping up about it and its systems and lore are so complex that I can find a lot of things to say about it.

But Smash Bros Wii U is coming out a week after Warlords, which I think means I'm going to be a caveman for a while starting in mid-November.

Smash Bros 3DS came out already, but I've never been much of a mobile gamer (never had a Gameboy or its successors) so I was really waiting for the console version to arrive.

Smash Bros Wii U will see a whole lot of new characters (though a lot seem to be from Fire Emblem, which I've never played.) As far as I can tell, the only characters I don't believe are returning are Snake (which sucks, but I can understand there begin complicated licensing issues involved) and Ice Climbers, which is just a damn shame because why the hell not?

On the plus side, we're getting Megaman, Pac-Man, and even the freaking Duck Hunt Dog, who I don't think has actually been in any games since Duck Hunt, but is unquestionably a part of the classic Nintendo legacy. We're also getting Little Mac, the star of Punch-Out, another golden-oldie. Unfortunately, especially given the apparent absence of Snake, I'm not holding out much hope for fellow Konami alumnus Simon Belmont, from the Castlevania games, which one of my best friends has been yearning to play in Smash Bros. for years. Personally I wouldn't mind some classic Squaresoft characters to join in as well, like Frog from Chrono Trigger or Tera from Final Fantasy VI, but I don't really know what's going on with SquareEnix and Nintendo these days, especially regarding the Final Fantasy series.

Apparently there's some add-on you can get for the Wii U that allows you to use the Gamecube controller, which is pretty enticing. I'll have to weigh that against the cost of the Wii U's pro controllers. Currently I just have my tablet-controller and a couple old Wii controllers. The tablet should be ok, but it is a little on the heavy side.

While I don't know if we can ever hope to get a Pyramid of Power stage (the final boss area in Link to the Past, where you fight Ganon in his most secure stronghold in the Dark World,) but I sure hope we get an epic, awesome new Dark World Theme orchestration. There's not much on the website about stages, so I'm eager to see what they've got.

And after a week of Draenor, I'm sure it'll be nice to get some more action-oriented gaming done and then maybe take a break for a shower and some sleep some time in December.