Looking at the best partners across the Mario franchise
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in Features, General Nintendo | 0 comments
Today, we’re looking at all of Mario’s partners – not just from the Paper Mario series, but from almost every game in the entire franchise.
Over the years, Mario has been accompanied by many different partners – some of whom haven’t appeared since their initial debut. At the time of writing, the greater Mario franchise is in something of a transitional period. We do have Mario & Luigi: Brothership coming up, but beyond that everything is presumably being saved for Nintendo’s next console. That means it’s as good a time as any to review all of Mario’s partners and ask: which is your favorite?
Examining Splatoon 3, two years later
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in Features, Switch | 0 comments
At the time of writing, Splatoon 3’s Grand Festival is less than a month away. Though technically not quite confirmed to be the last Splatfest, it’s at least heavily implied to be. If that winds up being the case, then it’ll be the end of Splatoon 3’s two-year content cycle. There’s a lot to talk about with this game, and with its end potentially approaching, we figured it’d be a good time to take a look at everything Splatoon 3 has had to offer over the past few years – as well as some ways the series can improve with a potential Splatoon 4.
More: highlight, Splatoon 3, top
7 Star Dragonite guide for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in Guides, Switch | 0 comments
The 7 Star Dragonite Tera Raid Battle event for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is now live, and it lasts until September 1. This time around, Dragonite is running Tera Normal, which means you should expect to see lots and lots of Extreme Speed attacks (and it also means you might want to bring a Ghost-type, or at least a Pokemon that resists Normal-type attacks). You have plenty of time to prepare yourself with one of the Dragonite counters we’ve listed here.
More: Game Freak, Pokemon Scarlet, Pokemon Violet
Top 5 saddest Nintendo endings of all time
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in 3DS, Features, General Nintendo, Switch | 0 comments
Today, we’re going over five of the saddest Nintendo endings of all time. As an important note, we’re only covering endings for games we’ve played, so if you can think of one that’s not on the list, feel free to share it with us in the comments down below.
For the most part, Nintendo is known for producing happy, feel-good games. Things like Mario and Kirby come to mind most here – just about all of their games end with a dramatic final boss fight, but a happy ending for the characters and world otherwise. That being said, some Nintendo games aren’t all kittens and rainbows at the end. Though far and few between, some of Nintendo’s sadder endings hit hard – and we’ve included five of the saddest Nintendo endings right here. Spoilers ahead!
Examining Pokemon X and Y’s lost story via an old leak
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in 3DS, Features | 0 comments
Today, we’re looking at a Pokemon X and Y leak from March 2014 that contained cut story elements that wound up reused in subsequent games.
Pokemon X and Y were the first main series game in full 3D. All of the characters, environments, and the Pokemon themselves were fully modeled and animated for the first time ever, which marked a big leap forward for the series. Despite this giant leap in technology, though, X and Y aren’t exactly the most loved Pokemon games (though they do have their fair share of dedicated fans). In a strange way, X and Y are something of an anomaly. Generation 6 is the only generation that didn’t have a third version game, for instance – there was never a Pokemon Z or a Pokemon X2 or Y2. In fact, Zygarde had new forms introduced to it in Pokemon Sun and Moon, a completely separate generation. So what happened here?
In March 2014, a user going by the name “XYSider” posted a giant leak on 4chan discussing story points and mechanics that wound up cut from the final game due to time constraints. This leak is absolutely huge in terms of size, so we’re not writing today on the assumption that it’s all true. That being said, for being posted in March 2014, a few elements from this leak wound up coming true in some way or another in future games. So today, we’re taking a look at every part of this leak and examining all of the things that came to fruition – either coincidentally or because maybe it was real – in Pokemon games that came after X and Y.
More: Game Freak, highlight, Pokemon X, Pokemon Y, top
Zelda: Majora’s Mask N64 vs. 3DS – examining which is better
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in 3DS, Features, General Nintendo | 0 comments
We’re taking a bit of time to reflect on the Zelda: Majora’s Mask N64 vs. 3DS debate to think about the pros and cons of each version.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is often regarded as one of the better (if not one of the best) games in the series. This is despite how heavily it borrows assets from Ocarina of Time – it fashions old assets into new characters with set routines and believable reactions to the tragedies that occur in the game. That being said, the two versions of the game available right now, N64 and 3DS, provide different experiences. There isn’t a consensus on which version of the game is objectively better, however. Today, we’re going to discuss the differences between Majora’s Mask N64 vs 3DS and ask you the question: which one do you like better?
The history of the “free update” model in Switch games
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in Features, General Nintendo, Switch | 0 comments
Today, we’re going over the history of the “free update” business model of certain first-party games released for Switch.
Free updates and DLC weren’t quite as common for Nintendo games back in the Wii U and 3DS era. Company culture changes aside, one possible reason for this is that those consoles could only store so much extra data and updates for their games (with Super Smash Bros. pushing the limits of this restriction). Needless to say, things have sort of changed during the Switch era. Free updates have gone from a nice bonus to… something else, we’ll say. Here are some of the most prominent examples of Switch games that relied on a free update content cycle, and what these updates added to each game.
Worst Shiny Pokemon of all time
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in Features, General Nintendo, Switch | 0 comments
Following our recent list of the best Shiny Pokemon of all time, we’ve put together a list of the absolute worst Shiny Pokemon of all time. When you look at a big list of every Shiny Pokemon, you’ll notice that there are many more average or poor ones than good ones. This is especially prevalent in some of the earlier generations. It’s rumored that Shiny Pokemon colors were originally determined via an algorithm, but we couldn’t actually find any confirmation of this – maybe the developers just got better at picking colors as the years went by. In any case, we’ve looked through every single Shiny Pokemon and included some of the very worst ones here.
Cutting the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster in half
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in Features, General Nintendo | 0 comments
At the time of writing, we’re kind of in a dull spot for the Super Smash Bros. series. Ultimate’s DLC ended several years ago, cementing that title as the franchise’s definitive entry. We’re left wondering – what’s next for Smash? An enhanced port that retains all of the characters plus a few new ones, or a complete reboot with fewer characters? No one knows what’s next, but just for the fun of it, we’re going to speculate on which characters are most likely to stay or leave for Smash’s next entry.
Revamping Kirby’s moveset in Super Smash Bros.
Posted on 6 months ago by Ethan in Features, General Nintendo | 0 comments
If you’re familiar with developer talk centered around Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, you might recall game director Masahiro Sakurai saying that Kirby is one of the most challenging fighters to develop – especially in Smash Bros. games with DLC characters. This is because Kirby has a unique neutral special for every single character, and each one gives him a unique hat to wear. Given that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has well over seventy characters, that means over 80 unique hats for Kirby were needed – plus seventy “Kirby-ified” versions of the corresponding moves.
At the time of writing, we’re not sure what the next Super Smash Bros. game will look like. Will it be a port of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the next hardware with even more characters? Or will it be sort of a soft reboot of the franchise with fewer characters, but new movesets for the returning ones? Whichever the case may be, we’ve come up with a new Copy Ability system for Kirby that would most likely make developing his character easier while remaining true to his series.
