The new Super Smash Bros. games are implementing a ranking system known as “Global Smash Power”. Whereas everyone competes for the top spot in most games, the Wii U and 3DS fighter is more about showing you how far you are from the bottom.
Masahiro Sakurai spoke about Global Smash Power a bit in his weekly Famitsu column. Here’s what the Super Smash Bros. director had to say:
“You could call it a ‘reverse ranking.’ It counts how far you are from the bottom instead of how far you are from the top. It’s simple, but in solves a lot of the problems with conventional ranking systems!”
“By calling [your rank] ‘power,’ it makes it fun to see the number rise.”
“I believe it’s a very versatile system, but what do you think? It’s not just about encouraging competition.”
On its official English website, Level-5 posted a press release about shipping over one million copies of Youkai Watch in Japan. It comes with a disappointing – yet unsurprising – disclaimer pertaining to a potential western release.
Level-5 notes that, at this time, there are no plans to make the game available outside of Japan. The game “will be announced separately if considered for a Western release,” the company added.
Level-5’s message in full states:
There are no plans for release outside of Japan at this time and will be announced separately if considered for a Western release. All titles and project names are tentative English names.
This week’s issue of Famitsu contains the announcement for The Great Ace Attorney. As part of the “reveal”, series creator and director Shu Takumi and producer Shintaro Kojima shared a few words about the game.
Here’s a roundup of what was shared, courtesy of Siliconera:
Takumi on what kind of character Ryuunosuke Naruhodo is…
“Well, the two keywords are ‘Meiji Period’ and ‘Phoenix’s ancestor’ so you might be able to get an idea from that.”
Kojima on new heroine Susato Mikotoba…
“She’s basically the type of person that she appears to be. Pretty much a graceful Japanese woman, a proper girl who does everything the proper way.”
Takumi on whether or not Susato will be taking care of Ryuunosuke in such a manner…
“The Wrights will be Wrights. I’ve barely met these characters myself, so I can’t exactly say too much about them. I think that we’ll get a better understanding as we go on with production. Some characters show up more while writing the scenario, sometimes when they speak their lines, so we’re kind of waiting for that as we write, for now.”
– Current challenge is getting the proper Japanese dialect and expressions right
– During the Meiji Period, it was a time where there was a lot of focus of jumping into the “new world” of westernization
– Occupations such as lawyers were a new thing at the time
– One thing they’re being careful of, is not to lose the balance of words and expressions that might be either too old-fashioned or too modern for the era
Takumi on whether The Great Ace Attorney’s game flow will be similar to past games of the series…
“I can’t say anything about that for now. However, the image and feel behind its play will be quite different from all the other Ace Attorney games up until now.”
– Will be showing screens/info in the near future
Message for the fans…
Takumi: “It’s been a while since I’ve participated in making a new Ace Attorney game, and things are a little different from the earlier days; however, as usual, I’ll be doing my best and putting all my effort into it, so that this one [The Great Ace Attorney] won’t lose to the past games I’ve worked on.”
Kojima: “While it’s not a main-numbered Ace Attorney title, it’s the start of a new series called The Great Ace Attorney. I believe that it’s becoming something that can show that it’s not simply just a derivative title. We can’t say too much about it for the time being, but we’ll be revealing more on the characters and their backgrounds next time, which we hope you all can look forward to. It’s really becoming something that gives us high expectations for, so please look forward to it!”
Watch Dogs has taken multiple years of development to come to fruition. Finally though, the game is almost complete.
Many expect Ubisoft to eventually come out with a sequel to Watch Dogs given the amount of resources put into the current game. But if there is a follow up, it won’t take nearly as much time to develop.
Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin told Eurogamer:
“Right now there is no such thing as a Watch Dogs 2. It’s certainly not going to be the same amount of time if we ever embark on such a journey. A big part of it was defining whatever Watch Dogs is. Once you have that starting point, then what becomes interesting is what players want more of – what comes next?
“Especially with the delay we have just been really concentrating on getting it [the original Watch Dogs] launched. After that we’ll see where it goes – I think Ubisoft is showing more and more that they’re willing to take the time for it to be right.
“I think we’re in a pretty good shape. I certainly like the idea of going deeper in the thematics – the hyperconnectivity and hacking in an entire city, controlling a city, monitoring everyone. There’s stuff we discovered by making Watch Dogs that are interesting to pursue. But it’s up to players. [And] for me right now – it’s vacation.”
If you’ve been keeping up with the indie scene over the past few years, then the name “Bob’s Game” should sound familiar. Creator Robert Pelloni hoped to bring the game to the DS as an indie developer, but was ultimately rejected by Nintendo. Pelloni ended up holding a “protest”, took his campaign to Nintendo World, and things ultimately got out of hand before dying down.
Here we are a few years later… and Bob’s Game has returned. Pelloni has created a $10,000 Kickstarter campaign that even includes a Wii U and 3DS stretch goal ($75,000).
You can check out the Kickstarter page here.
