Posted on 8 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in Reviews, Wii U | 19 Comments

System: Wii U
Release date: September 11, 2015
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher Nintendo

Author: Dennis

Since his debut in the 80’s, Nintendo’s famous plumber has spawned a plethora of games, touching upon nearly every genre and delivering smiles to people all over the world. Shigeru Miyamoto’s excellence in game design and character creation is one that’s been seminal and is responsible for copious amounts of developers’ paths to where they are today.

Until Super Mario 64, most mainline Super Mario games had been side-scrolling platformers. With its addictive gameplay and unique design, Mario went on to become one of the gaming world’s most unique and well known characters in gaming history. Mario has become an iconic character known globally even to those unfamiliar with the medium. With countless ROM hacks for the various Super Mario titles from the original to 3 to World plaguing the internet for years, now you can design your own Mario levels seamlessly with the Wii U GamePad easily, and the possibilities are endless.

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More: highlight, Super Mario Maker, top

Posted on 8 years ago by Travis(@nintentravis) in Features, Wii U | 8 Comments

Leading up to Super Mario Maker’s release on Sept. 11th, we’re highlighting some of the coolest, most creative, or just plain ridiculous levels users have created so far. In this episode, we check out the level “A Mushroom’s Life 1” from Dennis in Germany, who chronicles the adventures of a single mushroom as it makes its way from a question block to your heart.

If you have any suggestions for levels we should play let us know in the comments and we’ll check it out!

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates, Wii U | 3 Comments

Update: Bumped to the top. Archived version is below!

Travis will be kicking off our second Super Mario Maker live stream shortly. Things should begin at 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT, and it will last for about an hour.

You can watch the stream as it happens below. An archive should be available soon after assuming nothing goes wrong!

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Just a Chat | 4 Comments

Lots of important Nintendo news has come in over the past few days, including the announcement of the standard New 3DS for North America, Shovel Knight amiibo, and Xenoblade Chronicles X Special Edition. Daan and I talk about it all in this week’s episode of Just a Chat!

Stuff:

Brian’s Twitter
Daan’s Twitter

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Posted on 8 years ago by Travis(@nintentravis) in Features, Videos, Wii U | 6 Comments

Leading up to Super Mario Maker’s release on Sept. 11th, we’re highlighting some of the coolest, most creative, or just plain ridiculous levels users have created so far. In this episode, we check out the level “Winners don’t do shrooms” from Kocobe in France, who flips the idea of mushrooms being a friend of Mario’s on its head.

Let us know in the comments below if you have suggestions for future videos!

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates, Wii U | 3 Comments

Hello everyone! We’re planning another Super Mario Maker live stream for Tuesday. Like last time, it will be hosted on our YouTube page.

We’re currently planning on having the stream begin at 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT. Also like last time, it will be an hour long.

If we make any changes to our streaming plans, this post will be updated with relevant information!

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Let's Talk | 29 Comments

Let’s Talk #21: Indie amiibo you’d like to see

Nintendo and Yacht Club Games made a major announcements during Nindies@Night. The two sides confirmed rumors – plus retail leaks – that Shovel Knight is getting its own amiibo. This is definitely a big move for Nintendo, and third-parties as a whole.

What’s happening with Shovel Knight really presents some interesting opportunities. It now seems like the possibility exists for any character to receive its own amiibo.

But let’s go back to the news about Shovel Knight for a second, and more specifically, independent developers. Indies have become a very important part of Nintendo’s plans over the past few years. Having said that, is there any indie character you’d like to see have an amiibo aside from Shovel Knight? Tell us in the comments below!

Highlights from last week’s topic: What do you want from the next mainline Pokemon?

LittleLynn

This probably sounds like a small, insignificant thing, but I was really disappointed to see trainer customization was absent from OR/AS. It was honestly one of my favorite aspects in X/Y. Between my obsession with collecting things, and my other obsession with making my customizable player characters juuust right in any game where it’s an option, I just always felt excited every time a new town had a clothing store. Plus, it was nice knowing my character wasn’t a carbon copy of approximately half of every other players’ characters. So, whether the next installment is a “third version” to X/Y, or it’s Gen 7, I really want to see that feature come back, and stay for good!

Also, whatever the next game is, it will almost inevitably have Amiibo support with it’s own special Pokemon line. I have no idea what it would do, but hopefully, something actually worth using (and hey, at the very least if character customization comes back, non-Pokemon Amiibo could be used for character-based costumes *wink wink, Nintendo*). Anyway, when it invariably happens, I’m just hoping that at least a few of my favorites will get one.

shinkuu

I’d like to see a bit of a break from the old formula, like with Animal Crossing: New Leaf. With each new generation there’s a new professor, new rival, new gym leaders, etc., and they’re largely forgettable. It might be interesting for new games to be set a bit in the future, with old familiar faces in new roles.

I think there also needs to be a bit of simplification to eliminate the “backwards compatibility” in each new generation. Like, “Oh, this Pokemon couldn’t hold this item before, so that’s why it never evolved” and “Oh, this Pokemon didn’t have this incense before, so that’s why this baby Pokemon never appeared”. Having a dynamic Pokedex that kept related evolutions together, and changed with new additions, might help too.

And finally, I think one of the most appealing aspects of the games is trading with others to get Pokemon you need. It would be interesting if your game’s exclusive Pokemon weren’t simply set by which version you got, but partially randomized, so just buying two copies of the game wouldn’t be a guarantee and you’d HAVE to trade or use the GTS.

Locky Mavo

More Regions with all the Gym Leaders and badges to earn, challenging Pokemon battles from Trainers, Rival, Bad Guy Team, Gym Leaders and Elite 4, at all times. Have the day/night cycle and calendar Pokemon like they had in Gold and Silver. A good story, X and Y did well with that, and some creepy mystery like the ghost girl in X and Y, that was cool.

But ultimately, an open world, home console Pokemon game would be nice, open world with the likes of Xenoblade’s open world feeling. And maybe with some MMO elements would be neat too.

But heck, a Pokemon game where you start in the Kanto region then made your way to the Kalos region would be awesome.

thecrimsonbolt

Aesthetically the game is pretty ok, but I’d lke the next game to look more polished and less rough around the edges.
Pokemon distribution really turned me down in X/Y. The amount of Pokemon was fine, but they were all just thrown in every route, making for some truly bloated routes (route 2 had like 6 different pokemon!) B2/W2 had the same amount of Pokemon, but their distribution was done a lot better (Make more caves and side areas so the distribution is more even).
I loved customization, but it was really biased towards the female side. For every single customization option, females had twice the options as males). Also, I’d like to go hatless as well.
HAVE THE OPTION TO TURN ROLLERSKATES OFF.
Allow Megas to be usable in Amie.
Allow for multiplayer battle backgrounds to be changed. This gen had some amazing backgrounds but for online battles you’re stuck with the boring blue one.
Then I’d like to tweak some of the breeding mechanics. Destiny Knot now passes down the 5 highest IVs instead of 5 random IVs, and make it so both parents can pass down the Pokeball, but in different ratios, (instead of only females passing them down, make it so it’s 25% male and 75% female).
More side areas like caves and forests. These last two gens have felt really linear.
I think that’s pretty much all of what I’d want.

Kogamo

What I want is what I think everyone has wanted since… jeez, the Wii’s launch, maybe? Just a simple open-world, home-console experience, if not containing all regions, at least containing all Pokémon thus far introduced. Where there aren’t two versions, and where coming across Pokémon that would normally be version-exclusive is simply a rare occurrance that isn’t dictated by your color or cover-legendary preferences. ‘Tis beautifully simple to imagine.

Also, the underground from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum is something I’ve wanted again and again since it was removed. Naturally, things that are objective improvements, like character customization and online trading, should return just because there’s no reason to remove them at this point.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates | 8 Comments

Update (8/29): Giving this a bump to the top. It’s your last chance to be eligible for our August giveaway!

Original (8/2): It’s the first weekend of a new month, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to share a first update regarding out new Patreon!

First order of business: giveaways. Starting today, those who are pledging $5 or more will be automatically entered into an exclusive giveaway for a gold Mario amiibo! We’ll be choosing a winner once the August payments have been processed (end of August/very start of September). If you’ve donated $5 or more during the period, no action is needed on your part – a winner will be randomly chosen. Something else to keep in mind: each Patreon giveaway is open to all regions.

One final note about giveaways: those who are pledging $5 or more are as of today eligible for automatic entry into any giveaway we hold right here on the site. That’s in addition to the monthly giveaways held for $5+ pledges on Patreon. It’s basically two bonuses in one!

Our Hall of Fame is now officially open for business, and you can find it right here. This is our small way of showing appreciation to each person who is looking to help the site out financially.

Other things that happened on Patreon during July (for $3+ pledges):

– Sneak peaks of two features before they hit the same
– Sneak peak of one news item before it hit the site
– Just a Chat in MP3 form

I think that’s it for now. Thank you so much to those who have supported us thus far. Every contribution, no matter how little or large, is truly appreciated.

Nintendo Everything’s Patreon can be found here. If you’re wondering why it was even set up in the first place, please read this post as well as this one.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in 3DS, 3DS eShop, Features, New Nintendo 3DS, Reviews | 33 Comments

System: Nintendo 3DS
Release date: August 27th, 2015 (EU) – September 15th, 2015 (NA)
Developer: Tamsoft
Publisher Marvellous, XSEED
Best girl: Rin

Let’s just get this out of the way first: Senran Kagura has always sold itself on the breasts of its female protagonists rather than the actual gameplay and on the surface this sequel is no different. It’s still all about teenage anime girls fighting it out in the perviest way possible and it’s bound to be a style that will alienate most of the console’s audience. Though it wouldn’t be particularly professional to do so as a reviewer, Senran Kagura 2 is absolutely the kind of game where it is reasonable to dismiss it based on the premise alone. That said, there is more to Deep Crimson than finally making good on the producer’s promise of viewing breasts in stereoscopic 3D and there are some welcome refinements to the brawler gameplay.

My only experience with the series prior to this was the Playstation Vita spin-off, Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus, a game I didn’t care for at all, which made it even more surprising when I ended up enjoying Deep Crimson quite a bit. I still have my misgivings about the game’s aesthetic, but the fast-paced combat and bizarre tone definitely filled a niche on the console’s library. Though the gravity-defying blobs the game calls breasts might still be Senran Kagura’s primary selling point, there is thankfully a bit more to it this time around.

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More: highlight, Marvellous, Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson, Tamsoft, top, XSEED

Posted on 8 years ago by Vincent Ward in Reviews, Wii U eShop | 13 Comments

System: Wii U eShop
Release: August 27, 2015
Developer: 13AM Games
Publisher: 13AM Games

Author: Vincent

It’s not too often that an indie release comes around and blows my expectations out of the water. But with Runbow, it appears that the folks over at 13AM Games have successfully created a title worthy of being the exception. Bringing a new concept to the platformer genre is about as difficult as it gets, and it’s even harder to make it all work. Yet with Runbow, the developer has gracefully created a game filled with as much innovation as there is fun. Also, did I mention you get to play as Shovel Knight and Rusty?

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