Nintendo Switch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and all that jazz

the screen and box

I’m sorry Nintendo, but nothing would please me more than playing your games on the Playstation 4. I get why that would hurt your pride, but seriously, the Switch is not at all what I want as a consumer. You make amazing, polished games, why not put them on amazing, polished hardware? Imagine how much money Nintendo would make putting games on XboxOne, PS4, and Steam.

I will not pay more for the Switch than I did for my 3DS, just so you know. It looks like a smaller Wii U with detachable buttons. I mean, it is, right? Instead of playing off TV, you can just play anywhere. I doubt anyone will even bother to hook it up to a TV, too. Also, the controllers and extra stuff is priced ridiculously. I’ll wait until Gamestop has them used, thank you very much.

Much like the PS4 Pro is to PS4, the Switch looks like the Wii U Pro to the Wii U, and that’s not a good thing. At least the PS4 Pro is compatible with PS4 games! Sheesh!

the games

I’m a Wii U owner. I highly enjoyed Splatoon, Mario Maker, Smash Bros., and 3D World. I will likely buy a Switch someday, but I will definitely skip the launch, and likely the launch year and maybe even 2-3 years after.

You see, I already own Wii U. I bought Mario Kart 8 and all the DLC packs and played the crap out of them (btw, there’s NO reason the new characters/modes couldn’t be DLC for Wii U except that Nintendo wants us to pay full price to rebuy it on a new system and also buy their online fee) I beat Skyrim already. Minecraft is great but I’ve put hundreds of hours into it on my computer. Splatoon 2 looks like a meagerly upgraded port, too, sorry to say. Maybe it’s not, but yeah… The new boxing game looks good, Arms, right? Also reminds me of Wii Sports. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t buy it, but I can see the appeal.

I’ll be honest, I fear that Nintendo will soon announce Deluxe versions of Smash Bros. and Mario Maker. That’s not okay. I don’t buy new systems to play old games.

online

Nintendo has decided to make players shell out the bucks to play their games online. Fine. I pay for Playstation Plus. What do I get from Sony? I get seamless connections, little to no lag, voice chat support in-game and in-party, the ability to interact with players met online, trophies shared with all my friends to document my accomplishments, games designed for fantastic multiplayer by developers who care about what players want, streaming video whenever I want, and to top it all off free games every single month that I get to keep as long as I have PS+.

Historically, Nintendo games require long “sign in” screens for online, don’t support voice, don’t allow interactions with people who are not my friends, don’t have trophies, don’t have multiplayer focused games, and no streaming.

Nintendo has said we’ll get free games each month, but they’ll all be old games and you can’t keep them after the month is up, even if you still pay for online. I love that Playstation gives me new, fresh games, like Journey. I don’t want old games, Nintendo. I want new.

I should also mention what I mean by, “games designed for fantastic multiplayer by developers who care about what players want.” Let’s look at Smash Bros. for Wii U. First off, you must “log in” to online, which is the stone age of gaming as far as I’m concerned. Games like Watch_Dogs 2, seamlessly integrate online into the games. Players just pop on and off, no big deal. No long loading screens. Once you log in, there are no lobbies, no ranks or leveling, no online unlocks, and no customized fights with random rivals. If I want to stop fighting one stranger and go to the next, the game boots me out to the menus, which I have to aggravatingly navigate all over. I want to do 1 on 1 fights with no items with strangers, but I don’t want to ONLY play on Final Destination. I can’t customize something as basic as that? That’s ridic. Why did they mess that up so bad? Imagine if Rocket League only let you play on 1 pitch online. Then I can’t tell the other player “gg” or anything, certainly not with voice. I’m not allowed to interact with strangers in Nintendo games because they haven’t figured out how to do parental controls, apparently. In Smash, the most communication I get with strangers with taunted or ducking down repeatedly to acknowledge them. Pathetic. Also, 50-60% of the matches I played online in Smash were laggy to the point at which I could not play. Online on Nintendo is regularly (and literally) unplayable. Finally, Nintendo has a very slim playerbase that plays online. I have a hard time finding anyone to play with. Games are empty, devoid of life as it is.

Now let’s look at Rocket League. I’m online as soon as my game starts. I can play any mode with any player online, trade items with them or do custom matches. I can chat with them through voice, text, or pre-set messages. I can invite strangers to continue playing with me through the Playstation’s “recently met players” section. Lobbies easily get me to the games I want to be in, with very little screens or loading between matches. There is no lag.

Nintendo has historically ignored features that make online great, the number 1 feature being interaction. If you think about it, interacting with people is the entire point of online. And Nintendo has this problem with ALL of their games, even Mario Kart 8, which only supported voice chat with friends (not anyone) and in between matches. Ridic! You might as well play against bots.

And now Nintendo wants me to pay a fee to play online? Hah! Not gonna happen. Unless it’s a dollar a month, nobody but the biggest Nintendo fan will do that. They just don’t offer enough to justify pricing it. Especially since they’re really just putting old games out, anyway. I can’t imagine Nintendo’s already slim online playerbase will be very large once the price barrier is in place. Who will even be around to participate in matches? Not me!

sum up

I’m mad. The Switch is likely going to fail, because it appears to be doubling down on what the Wii U was, and also they’re charging fees to play online when they are crappy online. I want Nintendo to quit making hardware and focus on software for Playstation systems. Also, the new Zelda doesn’t look good, sorry. Looks like a big empty world with nothing to do but cook mushrooms.

Splatoon Review

 Stay fresh, right? 

At first I thought that the saying was just Nintendo trying to force the suburban hipster aesthetic, but actually, I realize now that staying fresh is Nintendo’s philosophy on Splatoon’s design.

Splatoon began with only four stages. FOUR. A game revolving around multiplayer shooting and only FOUR stages. That is a ridiculously low amount of stages to put in a fully-priced video game. When I realized that there were only four, I was mad. I felt like I had been cheated of my money. Surely, a sixty-dollar game should give me more than that.
Stay fresh!  *insert the goofy hand wiggling of the Squid Sisters* …and yet Splatoon quickly rolled out four new ones over the month-and-a-half since release, along with new weapons. So, OK. Now there are eight stages. It’s better, not perfect, but better.
Nintendo tried to keep people playing by keeping the game fresh, meaning releasing the stages over a course of time. I understand now. I’m not sure I like it, though.
It felt like these stages were either completed before the game’s release and were being withheld, or else Nintendo released an unfinished game.

Mario Kart Wii did something that took from a similar playbook. It had a “challenge” that changed once and awhile. Like, there was a boss UFO thing to fight, but you could only play it for that certain amount of time, then it was gone, unlike how all challenges were available in Mario Kart DS at launch. Why can’t I play that boss whenever? Because Nintendo withholds it and adds it back to keep the game fresh.

Nintendo goes even further with this idea. The single greatest flaw in the game is that only two stages are available per mode for every certain number of hours. Get bored of playing only two stages? Quit playing then! I have no idea why Nintendo chose this. It makes the game get old really quick. Stages should be selected like how Mario Kart U’s voting works. Let the players vote and then randomly select from the votes. I have no idea why Nintendo would intentionally do this stage limit. It only makes players want to quit playing.

 

The mechanics and gameplay are fun enough. There are major issues, though:

The guns all have really pathetic range. The sniper-type guns are slow and boring. The motion controls are really, really bad. The Wii U gamepad is not essential. Maybe they did this to allow for younger players to get in on the action, but running is a turtle’s crawl. I know you’re supposed to shoot and swim, but the range of the guns makes this mechanic less fun. Speaking of, while traversing the ink as a squid is awesome, I hate that there are so many walls I can’t swim up. They have the yellow-and-black tape on non-swimmable walls, and that feels very unnatural for game design. Why make so many platforms that appear to be perfect places to climb when they are not climbable? I feel like the design of the stages could use some work in that respect. I want my squid-swimming to feel OP and freeing, not severely limited by stage design. On the topic of design, the fact that the squids cannot go in water feels ridiculous. Just… don’t put water in the stages, then.
The last problem I had with Splatoon is the visual design. Most of the stages are bland, for what I’m guessing the reason is that you cover them all in ink anyway. I want weirder levels. Space. Volcano. Jungle. I want more variety. Also, I want to unlock new hairstyles, tattoos, socks, eye-styles, etc. instead of just clothing. Clothing was a good start, but Nintendo ruined clothes by forcing them to have stats. Because of that, my character had to wear the clothes that were good stat boosts, not clothes that were cool looking. 

The Good:

My blog is focused on constructive criticism, but since this has been negative so far, I wanted to say a few good things. I loved the single-player. It was the best part of the game, like a Mario Sunshine 2. The roller weapon is fantastic. I like the special-weapons, too. The kraken and hurricane are my favorites. The extra modes were great additions. I like the “zones” and secure the moving platform modes. Splat-fests were the thing that really made the game fresh. What a fun idea! The Miiverse integrating was the best Nintendo has done. I loved seeing my Miiverse posts as signs around town and especially during Splat-fests.
Also, the core gameplay is really fun and well designed. I enjoy playing, even if my enjoyment is limited by the number of stages that can be played at one time.

What I want from Splatoon 2:

1. Mario Kart U-style stage voting, with no limits on what time of day it is.

2. Classic stages from Splat 1 as the “DLC,” but the actual game needs to release with at least 8 new stages.

3. Better customizations. All the Splatoon kids look alike. Let us buy purely-aesthetic customizations for the characters.

4. Take the stat boosts off clothes and let us have a character skill tree. I want to wear what looks cool, not what gives me better defense.

5. The ability to use a standard controller.

6. Better range for all weapons.

7.  No black-and-yellow tape keeping me from swimming up a wall.

8. Online co-op for single player.

9. More Nintendo-style unlocks. They had a Zapper, but not a Donkey Kong shirt?
10. You should get to keep your Splat-fest shirts.

11. I want to see fewer stages where one can die by falling off the edge. I don’t want to play platforming games while shooting.

12. Weapon/equipment change out between matches.

13. Server playlists, like Rocket League has, with special rules (like, a list where everyone gets a jetpack jump, lists where more than 8 players are allowed, etc)

 

14. Better servers to kill the lag.

15. Voice chat.

16. More in-session music. I’m sick of the same songs over and over.

17. Online mode for Squids Vs. Octopi People. Just because

18. No day-to-day limit on when you can buy clothes/etc. I hate waiting for a certain pirate shirt to show up. Let me buy it when I want to.

19. A pumpkinhead helmet

OXYBORB.COM Official Review Score for Splatoon: 7.1/10 

Showcasing My Levels in Super Mario Maker: Issue #1

Mario Maker is awesome, and I've been making a bunch of cool levels. This is just a showcase of those, not the review.

Please STAR my levels and FOLLOW me, so we can play together. Leave a comment here and let me know! I will star and play your levels, gladly! Seriously, I'll star them all so you can get your medals bumped up!




Here are some of the levels I've designed (note, if you go to my in-game profile and follow me, you won't have to imput the codes for each one. Just look at the other levels I've designed in my in-game profile):

 

 

Ice & Fire

One of the best levels I've made! This level has about 10 different branching routes you can take/explore. Also, there are two really awesome boss fights to encounter. Secrets. Bonus areas. Sub-levels.

Course ID: FD13-0000-0070-1B5F

Goombablock Fort

My first level evolved quite a bit as more parts unlocked for me. I've recently remastered this level to make it one of the coolest ones I have. The difficulty is medium, but there are many ways to beat this one. Try and find the Shoe Goomba, while you're at it.

Course ID: 48F7-0000-006D-D294

Otherside Haunted Manner

I wanted to make a haunted house that had legitimately scary moments. I designed this to have a tone that is eerie, with repeating level designs and a broken-building look. Like any good haunt level, mine is a search for a secret exit. Good luck!

Course ID: E255-0000-0072-997A



 THE CHALLENGE!

Beat these levels and leave a comment! Post a picture of your high score and I will post your levels on my blog and declare you the King of that level! Please star my levels and let me know so I can star you back!

My Time With Splatoon’s Global Testfire

I took part in the Testfire Demo for Nintendo’s new shooter. Here are my thoughts:

1. The motion controls are dreadful. It made me sick to move my character at the same time I moved my controller. Trying to use any weapon, save the Splat-Roller, was impossible with motion on. Luckily, you can switch it to normal controls. Someone needs to tell Nintendo that moving the Gamepad like a camera is NOT fun. It’s frustrating.

splatoon inkling

2. The Inkling/Squid’s jump is useless. Honestly, it needs to be 3 times as high as it is. I couldn’t even get up the side of a ramp with the jump. It was pathetic. As soon as I figured out that the jump is useless, I started to win. Just keep rolling and never jump.

3. Why is it possible to fall off the platforms? Who designed it like that? Shooters are not supposed to be about staying on platforms. Save the platforming sections for single player.

4. Swimming up walls needs some serious work. Unless you 100% cover an entire wall, your squid will just begin flailing around uselessly until you give up and fall. I recommend changing it so that if your squid jumps while going straight up a wall, he gets a boost so that he can bypass a short hop up onto a wall. That, or just make the ink shots cover more of the walls when they hit. I once cornered a squid up a wall. I had my roller down below him. He had nothing to do but drop and die, but he just sat up there flailing. I just waited for him to fall and die, and he did.

5. Only the Splat-Roller is even an option, at the moment. I realize that there are four guns in the demo, and that there will be more in the full game, but the Splat-Roller was totally overpowered. I suspect the reason is that it is extremely difficult to aim any of the other guns, but it is easy to roll over people. I won almost every game I played, getting the top score, as soon as I began using the roller. I suggest giving the Splat Shooters more range/faster shots, and giving the Charger gun more of an area-of-effect when it launches.

6. Aiming is not good. It’s hard to be accurate, even with motion-control off.

7. I hate how many of the ledges are “non climbable.” I don’t understand why one of the coolest ideas—swimming up walls—is limited so frequently. Many of the ledges, even ledges where one is allowed to be on/paint, have black-and-yellow police tape on them which keeps you from swimming up over them, even if they are 100% painted. I don’t understand why they have this. The one factory-like map had the most of it. For some reason, Nintendo wants us to use these two ramps rather than swim up the walls. It makes no sense. Take down the police tape.

8. 4 on 4 is really limited gameplay. I wish it were more players with bigger maps.

9. Nintendo doesn’t do dedicated servers; Nintendo relies on everyone’s connections being perfectly compatible. For this reason, several of my games dropped for player-to-player connection issues (not because of my Internet, trust me).
10. I like being able to jump across the map and help people on the front lines. That was the coolest feature.

11. Spawn-camping was easy on the factory map. I held up the entire other team with my Splat-Roller and grenades while the rest of my team painted the entire map. I wish there was more than one spawn-location.

splatoon inkling

12. My favorite thing to do in the beginning was instantly turn into a squid and ride out as far as I could, or follow behind someone else with a Splat-Roller.

13. I wish there was voice chat. I want to talk with the gaming community.

14. I wish Nintendo had a unified achievements system.

15. If two Splat-Rollers run into each other, pick one and kill them, Nintendo. When you kill both, nobody wins and that’s no fun.

16. Finally, I hate that I’m stuck with one set of weapons for an entire match. Why not be able to change out when you die? Allow users to build a couple of pre-sets, and then pick when they die. Not that anyone would ever switch from the Splat-Roller, since it’s the only weapon that is any good.

I’m probably not sold on this game. It’s fun in some ways, but not as fun as games like Fat Princess. If it were on Playstation 4, I’d probably go for it since the multiplayer userbase would be bigger, there would be dedicated servers, voice chat, and trophies to collect. Right now, it’s like going to a laser tag arena. It seems like it would be fun once and awhile, but not something I would get deep into.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U Mega Blog - WITH ILLUSTRATIONS!

Super Smash Bros. (hereafter SSB) is one of my favorite series ever. If you've ever read my blog, you know I do more than just review games... I give constructive feedback on how to make games better. That's what this is. Games I truly love tend to get the harshest feedback, since I want them to be so much better. 

Just to clarify, I consider the 3DS version to be SSB4 and Wii U to be SSB5, the hypothetical next game in the series I will call SSB6. I base the six on a job listing that was posted to NAMCO for Super Smash Bros. 6, so we know hope that they’re working on it!

As Ridley warns, this blog post is BIG and contains a million image files! I set it behind a pagebreak so it doesn't lag you out. By the way, the screenshots are all ones I took in the game, the drawings and illustrations are all hand-done by me, and the photos were ones I took. The only image in this that I didn't make was the Ice Climbers moving gif.

 Click through the to jump to the article!

2014 Game of the Year

So, this list isn’t a list of my favorite games that released out in 2014… this is a list of my favorite games I played this year. Some are old games that I just finally got around to, some are new games.

Want to know who won in other years? Here’s the 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2013 list.

2014 is THE YEAR OF NEW!
This past year has been about my new systems. I bought both a Wii U and a Playstation 4, so most of the games I played were on those systems.

So, without further ado, my 2014 list of favorite plays (in no particular order):

Assassin's Creed: Black Flag

This game was one that I bought on a whim. I had a break from work (I’m a teacher, so I get off most holidays), and I wanted an open world to explore. I played this on PS3 (I didn’t have PS4 yet) and I was incredibly impressed. I doubt that there could even be a better pirate game. The ship sailing mechanics astounded me so much! MORE THOUGHTS BY ME ON THIS GAME HERE!

Pikmin 3

This is a game I got for free with the Mario Kart 8 promotion. I loved both Pikmin 1 and 2, and so 3 was a natural get for me. While controlling 3 characters at a time and the inferior control scheme (as opposed to the Gamecube controller) makes me rank it the lowest in the series, Pikmin 3 was still a marvelous play and an absolute must-own for anyone with a Wii U. MORE THOUGHTS BY ME ON THIS GAME HERE!

Red Dead Redemption

This is a game that actually made an “honorable mention” in last year’s GOTY post from me. I got to Mexico and quit… well, I’m happy to report that I got the urge to play the other half. It was awesome, one of the best stories ever told in videogames. Much like Black Flag was the best pirate game, Red Dead is certainly the best cowboy game ever made. I cannot wait to see what’s next in the series! MORE THOUGHTS BY ME ON THIS GAME HERE!

Mario Kart 8

Best is a word I use too much, I guess, but Mario Kart 8 is the best racing game I’ve ever played. The DLC that came out is great, too. My friends started a weekly tournament, which we played for many weeks after! I even won a good portion of them! I have, somehow, become extremely good at this game, to the point where I barely have anyone to compete with. MORE THOUGHTS BY ME ON THIS GAME HERE!

Skyrim

This is a game that made the same list last year. At that time, I hadn’t even beaten it yet. 2014 allowed me to do so, finally, after putting a million more hours into it. I also achieved the status of a platinum trophy. I will probably end up playing Skyrim again in 2015, since I have the goal to get all of the rest of the DLC trophies. I did a massive writeup about my thoughts on this game. MORE THOUGHTS BY ME ON THIS GAME HERE!

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U

Smash is the game I obsess over every time it is announced. I watch videos, read blogs, I click on the smashbros.com site, I surf smashboards.com, and I OBSESS. Sometimes, I think my anticipation of the game is almost as fun as actually playing it. It’s so much fun to speculate over which characters and etc. will be in the game. I’m doing something really special for my inevitable blog post about Smash, but I’m going to take my time on it. It’s already the longest post I’ve ever made, and I’ve made TONS of new artwork specifically for my review. I’m thinking that the end of January/beginning of February will be when I post this, and when I do, I’ll update here, too.

Mass Effect 2 and 3

I didn’t play the first game, because I owned a PS3 and began with 2. 2 was a game I started when it first released, but I never finished it. 2014 was the year I took to beat the game, and the sequel, too. This game had amazing world building aspects. I loved the alien races and graphics. The dialog and dynamics of choice were cool, too. This was almost a tie to win my GOTY award, but I chose the other because this game’s ending was a little frustrating. MORE THOUGHTS BY ME ON THIS GAME HERE!

Honorable mentions: (still just games I played in 2013, not necessarily released)

Super Mario 3D World – Very fun but quite easy! I beat this within a few short play sessions and got most of the stars/unlockables!

Shadow of Mordor – A fun sandbox with an enemy system that created a personal story of my adventure

Assassin’s Creed 3 – I played half of this game after Black Flag, but it’s not as good. Still quite fun, though

Fallout: New Vegas – I revisited this game so that I could platinum it. I began a new playthrough to do some evil
Wii Fit U – An exercise game I put a lot of time into. I was hoping for DLC, but they never made any

NES Remix – I love retro Nintendo, so this was right up my alley. I hope they made 100 more of these, covering all the old systems
Sonic’s Sega Genesis Collection – A game I got with Christmas money last year. It was fun enough for me to platinum!

The Oxyborb Blog Game Of The Year for 2014

Infamous: Second Son & First Light

Strangely enough, I never wrote about this game on my blog. I suppose it’s because this game was so good that I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to say about it. I loved the past Infamous games, and guess what? I loved this one. I played Second Son twice! I got the platinum, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
 

a pic I took from the top of the Space Needle

Infamous has been a series that has helped me through extremely tough times. I beat the first two games after going through a divorce and leaving Seattle, a city where I learned so much. I learned how to make friends. I learned how to be alone. The first two Infamous games felt like the spirit of Seattle, they felt like the experiences I was going through. Loss. Anger. Sadness. Survival.

I loved Seattle. I loved being in motion, a place where things were happening. Seattle was a city I missed, and then Sucker Punch, the developers of Infamous, announced that Seattle would be the city setting for the next game. I was stoked. I saw the game and yearned for it because it was my way of going back. Of course, I realized that the game’s Seattle and real Seattle were not 1 to 1 or even nearly the same, but the spirit of the city is what made me feel at home again. I climbed the Space Needle. I walked into silly hipsters with their coffee. Second Son brought me back to Seattle at a time when I really was missing the city.

My emotional reasons for loving the game are not the only reasons why I picked it. Truth is, I had a dilemma between picking Second Son and Mass Effect. ME has the better story, but SS has a great story too. SS has better characters, but Mordin is the best character.

The biggest reason why Second Son wins for me is gameplay. Being a conduit is FUN. I love all the powers in Second Son and First Light. Neon is ingenious. Concrete, smoke… video…  these are powers that were designed for an urban environment. They were extremely well thought out, and they were extremely fun to use. Second Son had an extreme variety of things to do and ways to play. It was impossible to get bored.

So, I guess that’s it for 2014. Thanks for a great year on my blog! Let me know what you think in the comments, in fact, tell me what your personal GOTY was!

Thanks for stopping by my blog!
UNRAVELSPACE UNRAVELTIME

BRING BACK THE ICE CLIMBERS! - a best-of Miiverse holiday Super Smash Bros. Special

So, I'm working on something BIG. If that large text didn't emphasize it enough, I'm working on what will probably be the biggest blog post I've ever done, and it's all about my thoughts on Smash Bros for 3DS and Wii U. I'm going to cover everything ever on it, but I have a day job, which means it's going to take another month to finish. With that, I'm also doing a bunch of hand-drawn art to spice it all up, so watch out for that sometime after the holidays...

So, for this month, I thought my blog post would be a simpler one. It's another BEST OF MIIVERSE post (Part 1 is here), and it mostly has to do with Smash Bros. anyway, since that is what I have been gaming recently (also, Shadow of Mordor).

The biggest theme for these is that while playing Smash, I've really missed playing as the Ice Climbers, who were cut from the latest versions.

Here's my plea: Nintendo, please bring them back as DLC! I don't care if they're Wii U exclusive and cannot be played with during 8-player Smash. Just bring them back! Smash just doesn't feel the same without them!

Anyway, here goes:

I tried to draw Ridley....

First thing I drew upon realizing that the Ice Climbers were cut

...I was mad, bro...

Then I began my crusade

This was as positive as I got

Dolphin Shoals has always been one of my more challenging races in Mario Kart 8

Playing some Wii Fit U

Working on the new Mario Kart 8 DLC

Back on topic...

First post on the Smash Wii U

I used to love Garfield

Things got weird

We'll end with another one about Ridley and his size... I really love that you can post Smash screenshots to Miiverse!

Anyway, thanks for coming to my blog. [insert PLEASE UNDERSTAND meme] My next post will be HUGE and well worth the wait and ALL about Smash!

Best of Miiverse Part 1

How to make Mario Kart 9 Significantly Better than 8

Mario Kart 8 has some of the best racing in any game ever. This fact cannot be disputed. The items are finally balanced; even the blue shell is OK. The new courses are extremely fun, the remixed returning tracks are inspired and fresh again with the new mechanics. The anti-gravity is great. Bumping each other for boosts is really awesome. I love the glider and the underwater propeller. I love the racing. The tricks. Wow. Such fun.

All that above is undeniable. Best racing in a Mario Kart, hands down. The thing that Mario Kart 8 lacks in is features and game modes. While the core gameplay is the best it’s ever been, the extras were bare bones. It’s like all of the resources for Mario Kart went into the races, and then everything else was rushed to get the game out faster. Obviously, Wii U needed the game immediately, so I can understand why this happened, but it’s still worth talking about. Why? Because I love Nintendo more than any other gaming company. I want them to succeed, not fall behind. If I’m honest, though, Nintendo is falling behind when it comes to basic features that should be in every game. I’m not hating on Nintendo here, just trying to add another voice to let them know how critical it is that they get their games up to the same level as other companies.

First, I want to talk menus.

They are very simplistic, and not in a good way. The menu systems that Nintendo implements in its games feel archaic, dry. They are: go straight to the races. However, modern companies that accept that online is how gamers want to be should give its customers more than that. A menu system should make the community of people who love that game feel like it’s a living and breathing world.

Best Of Miiverse....

Miiverse is Nintendo's Twitter. You can draw pictures about your favorite games and upload them so everyone can see. Sometimes your pictures will even appear in other peoples' games. It's a really awesome idea, and I love contributing to Miiverse. Recently, Nintendo added a feature that allows people to post Miiverse posts to their blogs. So, this is that. My person, BEST OF MIIVERSE! The best of my drawings on Nintendo's social network. Enjoy!

I love MarioKart, so I post there often. This one is about the track Grumble Volcano.

I have a weird artistic obsession with Waluigi, apparently... I feel like he's some sort of rejected Dr. Seuss character or something

This one is from when I started my Wii Fit training. I joined a gym and posted the ideal body I wanted to have... OK, so it's a little ironic to have a video game company helping me to lose weight.

Editing the "Stamps" they allow you to use is fun

Ice Climbers are another reoccurring theme in my Miiverse.

Uhhh.... What if there was Wapeach and WaDaisy and WaYoshi...

kek

Me wishing that Geno was in Smash Bros....

WAAAA. Wario and Waluigi are just so gross, it's funny.

More wishing for the return of the Ice Climbers

This is interpretable. Waluigi is a strange man.

BEG BEG BEG. I really cannot wait to see them.

Playing through Nintendoland... Monita was so annoying...



Best of Miiverse Part 2

Pikmin 3 - My Thoughts and Ideas For Improving the Sequel

If you’ve ever read my blog, you know I don’t review games. My blog is about dissecting games and trying to analyze specifically what the problems are and how to fix them. Also, I like to give my creative ideas and constructive feedback, in hopes that I can contribute to the conversation for how games can be better.

Thorn Pikmin

This is not a review of Pikmin 3. If it were, I would say how much I loved the use of the tablet for a map, the art and sound design, the music, the characters, the puzzles. I would say how much I think Pink Pikmin were ingenious, especially when used alongside Blue Pikmin. The Bee-Queen boss battle was furiously fun. I absolutely enjoyed my time with Pikmin 3 for Wii U, which is awesome because I got it for free. When I purchased Mario Kart 8, it came with a download for P3, and to be honest, I’ve loved P3 even more than MK8.

But this isn’t a review. I want to talk about the issues I’ve had with the game and the creative ideas I have for (hopefully) the sequel (please, please make one!).

Rock and Purple

Black Pikmin

First, I just want to say this: Rock Pikmin are just a rehashed Purple Pikmin. I feel like Purple Pikmin could have been used to break glass as easily as rock ones. I feel like making a new “weighty” Pikmin showed a lack of creativity. Why do the same idea twice? It would have been just as easy to bring back purple as use rock, since they’re so similar.

Now, I want to say that Winged Pikmin are the BEST. I love them. The new abilities of Yellow Pikmin with that electricity chain thing is AWESOME. Good work! I wish there had been more of this… for example, Red Pikmin could get a fire burning on their leaves if they pass through flame, which would allow them to set fires to piles of brush or monsters. Blue Pikmin could absorb water and shoot it at enemies or move it to make ponds elsewhere… I wanted more of this kind of thing, however Yellow Pikmin were the only one of the old Pikmin to get new abilities. Also, I wish I could have gotten to play with White, Purple, and Bulborb Pikmin just for posterity's sake. Maybe they could have just been a cave-specific thing.

Missed opportunities for Rock Pikmin:

I had a bunch of cool ideas for how Rock Pikmin could have been differentiated from Purple Pikmin, and here they are: