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December 15, 2015 Nintendo Direct Recap

Archive — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 01:41:00 +0000

Well a Super Smash Bros centric Nintendo Direct had aired recently and revealed some new info about DLC to be added to the game in the near future, but I don't think ANYONE was expecting this. Being the very last Smash Bros themed Direct that Nintendo will produce, they decided to go all out with the updates. Here's the video so you can see for yourself how much hype the game still gets over a year after its release.

Even though this video was a little shorter than the last one, there was a lot more interesting details shown off. Here's a quick recap.

Final Fantasy VII's Cloud Strife and his stage, Midgar, were both released a couple of hours after the Direct ended. Their cost is $5.99 for one version and $6.99 for both in a bundle.
Corrin from the as of yet to be released Fire Emblem Fates was announced as a future DLC character. He/she will be worth $4.99 for one version and $5.99 for the two version bundle and will include two brand new songs that will be added to the Castle Siege and Coliseum stages. It is scheduled to be released around February 2016.
A bunch of new Mii Fighter costumes were revealed for future release. They are a Chocobo Hat from Final Fantasy, Tails and Knuckles costumes from the Sonic series, a Takamaru costume from The Mysterious Murasame Castle, an Ashley costume from Wario Ware, a Gil costume from Tower of Druaga, some cool Bionic Armor made specifically for the Mii Brawler, and a costume based on Geno from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The Geno costume and the Chocobo Hat were released at the same time as the Cloud Strife DLC. QR Codes of the characters using the costumes were also made available on the Smash Bros official site.
As always, amiibo of the new characters will be made and released some time in the future. It has also been confirmed that the Roy, Ryu, and Famicom version of R.O.B. will be released on March 18, 2016.
And last but certainly not least, Bayonetta was announced to be the final DLC character and was also confirmed to be the winner of the Smash Bros Character Ballot. She will be released at the same time as Corrin and will cost the same as Cloud. She will also come package with a stage based on the game she is from called Umbra Clock Tower.

I was certainly surprised about this Direct as I was only expecting one new character. I am definitely looking forward to playing as both Corrin and Bayonetta when they are released next year, and I JUST CAN'T WAIT for the Bayonetta amiibo to be released. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

Review: Bayonetta (plus Extras)

Archive — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 08:07:00 +0000

With the recent announcement that the Umbra Witch, Bayonetta would be coming to Super Smash Bros 4 via DLC, it got me wanting to play through the first Bayonetta game again. There is so much about her that I just adore, be it her sexual nature, her fun-loving personality, or even her fighting style; it all just screams whimsy. I played through the game again fairly recently, but after I finished it this time I decided to do a bit more research on it and I discovered that some additional products were made to further promote it that I had unintentionally overlooked. In addition to the game (and some figurines that were only in Japan), Platinum Games also released a rather large artwork book (with a behind the scenes DVD) and even an animated film called Bayonetta: Bloody Fate. So, I'm going to review each of these three and see whether or not if it is worth getting each one.

Video Game

Since the video game was the first of these three that I had experienced, I will of course be covering it first here as well. Released on January 5, 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 and again on October 24, 2014 for the Wii U, Bayonetta is an over the top, combo-heavy, action packed brawler with some light platforming and minor puzzle elements. In it, you play as Bayonetta, a rather tall, voluptuous, and long-legged witch with the ability to travel to and from Earth and Purgatorio as she hunts down and slays angels to keep the demons she has contracts with at bay. However, as she fights these angels, she also needs to recover the memory of her past which was lost from being sealed in a deep sleep at the bottom of a lake for 500 years. As well as recovering bits and pieces of her past, she also frequently runs into a bumbling investigative reporter named Luka, who blames her for the death of his father; a lost little girl name Cereza, who mistakenly confuses Bayonetta for her mother and tags along with her for most of the game; and an opposing witch named Jeanne, who wants nothing more than to stop Bayonetta dead in her tracks. To help her fight the more powerful angels, Bayonetta can also temporarily obtain their weapons when they are slain, or as a better option, collect pieces of golden LP's of angelic hymns to bring to a weapons manufacturer named Rodin at a bar called "The Gates of Hell." He will use these records as bait to call forth powerful demons which he will then turn into a permanent weapon for Bayonetta to use for the rest of her quest. Confused yet? Well the plot just gets more outlandish later on and is explained in pieces by the angels that Bayonetta kills.

The gameplay, as I've said before, is a combo-heavy action brawler. Bayonetta fights with punches, kicks, and with the various weapons that she obtains throughout her adventure. She can also punish her foes with BDSM-styled finishers or by summoning her contracted demons to more easily finish off her larger targets. If you are having trouble hitting faster or airborne enemies, Bayonetta also has four guns she can use that help with her reach, and the ability to dramatically slow down time when she successfully dodges an attack at the last moment. However, as fun and action packed as the battles are, the rewards that you gain from them are dependent entirely on skill. The rewards get better depending on how fast you finish it, how often you got hurt, how many items you used, and how high your combo was for the entire fight. This scoring style determines how many halos (the game's currency) you get after you win and what kind of medal (from Stone to Pure Platinum) you will receive. These medals actually affect your final score at the end of each chapter, and getting the best score is not easy.

This game is fantastically good and a helluva lot of fun, even if the difficulty on the Normal setting is a little unforgiving. The music is fantastic as well and the character and enemy designs are extremely creative and fit the theme of the game superbly. The story can be a little confusing at times, but it all comes together nicely in the end. However, depending on which version of the game you get, it can be either an extraordinary experience, or torture for the eyes. If you decide to get the game, go for the Xbox 360 or Wii U version of the game as the PS3 version is plagued by terrible frame-rate issues making it look awful to watch, let alone play. Plus as a bonus to those that get the Wii U version, Nintendo themed costumes for Bayonetta are also available which alter some minor aspects about the game without affecting the gameplay. All in all though, just avoid the PS3 version.

"The Eyes of Bayonetta" Artwork Book and DVD

Now this is usually outside my area of expertise, but before I decided to play through Bayonetta again, I decided to learn more about the game outside of what Hideki Kamiya's Twitter and Platinum Games' blog can provide. Luckily, I found an artwork book on Amazon called The Eyes of Bayonetta that had a lot of cool concept art and production notes that had been omitted from the blogs and wiki for the game. The book had a ton of really interesting tidbits and information about the game that also went unused as well. Some stuff did manage to find its way into the game's sequel though, but I'll cover that another time.

Now despite how interesting and informative the artwork books was, the "Making of" DVD actually was what I more interested in. The development process was quite a sight to behold. As it turns out, the main character, Bayonetta, was designed by Mari Shimazaki with the only instruction that she should look feminine. Needless to say that this gave her a lot of freedom and she rolled with it. She wasn't the only one that was given a lot of freedom in her work, just about everyone involved in the game's creative process was allowed to let their imaginative juices flow freely. The way everything meshes together really shows that love and care was put into the game's creation. The DVD is definitely well worth the watch; the dev's personalities show in both their commentary and their work.

Animated Film

Now out of all of the things that could've been produced from the success of Bayonetta, I don't think an animated film was expected at all. Released in the US on February 14, 2014, Bayonetta: Bloody Fate is an adaptation of the video game, with some minor changes to the plot in order to fit time constraints. The animation is is really good and music from the game is used at times where it fits really well. Some other extra details that were shown in The Eyes of Bayonetta also managed to find their way into the film as well. A really good example would be Bayonetta's guns which actually aren't Scarborough Fair as they are in the game. Instead, she has a set of guns based on some concept art for a prototype design called The Elfin Knight. Now while the plot is designed to follow the story of the game, there are some changes in order to make it flow more smoothly and to make it easier to understand. Some enemies from the game are noticeably absent from the film and certain scenes have been changed in order to better fit the lines they had in the game. Overall, I liked the changes they made because the plot was indeed a bit easier to understand. Definitely worth the watch if you enjoyed the game.

Closing Statement

No matter what medium you enjoy Bayonetta in, this first entry in the series definitely had a very strong impact. Bayonetta as a character is probably my favorite female protagonists of all time as well. She is strong, independent, knows that she's sexy and casually exploits that fact in her work, which she also enjoys. If you can get any of these things, definitely go for it, just remember to avoid the PS3 version of the game due to a very shoddy porting process. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

Game Score

Book Score

Film Score

10 Games that I Personally Think the Nintendo Switch Needs to Have

Archive — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 11:47:00 +0000

I'm sure most of you are with me when I say that while the Switch presentation that happened not too long ago was rather impressive, there was a bit of disappointment when it came to the game department. Outside of Zelda, Mario, Splatoon, and a couple of other games, there wasn't really anything for the core gamer to look forward too. Reggie did say in an interview that we shouldn't give up hope for the games we've been asking for, but it begs the question, if we don't get what exactly what we want, what would the Switch need in order to pull old fans back? Well I can't personally say for sure what the average core gamer wants, but I certainly know what I want to see. So here are 10 games and game concepts that I really want to see on the Switch.

EarthBound Trilogy HD

No matter what forum or gaming site I visit, the one game I've seen that everyone wants on Virtual Console is Mother 3, and to tell you the truth, I'm one of them. I've played through the fan translation in its entirety and I loved it. But don't think that a Virtual Console release is what we need. Because the fan translation patch is already readily available to the public for free, I propose that a collection of all 3 Mother & EarthBound games redone with HD graphics would be the best way to go. It would breath new life into a series that had been neglected for such a long time.

Metroid Prime 4

We desperately need a proper new Metroid game, I think we can all agree on that. Now I'm not saying that Federation Force was bad; I actually enjoyed that game quite a bit. But I do think we need a new entry in the series where you play as Samus. There is so much that can be done with the game on the Switch, especially since both Prime 3 and Federation Force ended in a way that alluded to the enemy hunter, Sylux. I would think that if Prime 4 were made, you could have the ability to switch between the two characters and they would each have their own unique abilities and story line. Just a thought.

Hyrule Warriors Complete Edition

Hyrule Warriors was a helluva lot of fun despite its simplistic gameplay, but I think that Hyrule Warriors Legends on the 3DS was a little lackluster compared to the Wii U version. I think that combining all the features, content, and DLC of both games and releasing it on the Switch would make for a great collectors pack. But then again, since it would technically be the third iteration of the same game, I think a "casual mode" where you gain rupees, materials and EXP at a greatly accelerated rate would make the game much more enjoyable for those that lack the time to do all of that grinding.

Super Smash Bros for Switch

This situation would be similar to the Hyrule Warriors idea from the previous paragraph, but since both the 3DS and Wii U versions of Smash have vastly different content, I propose that having all of the characters, most of all the stages (with obvious duplicates removed), both Smash Tour and Smash Run, and the inclusion of Tag-Team Battles. And while we're at it, maybe bring back the Ice Climbers and Wolf. I was understanding of Ice Climbers being removed, but I was a little shocked that Wolf never came back.

Final Fantasy Hexology

This is another collection much like the EarthBound one I said earlier, but unlike EarthBound this wouldn't require a lot of work to do as the HD remakes already exist. Now the "hexology" I'm referring to is the first 6 Final Fantasy games on the NES and SNES which to my knowledge were all remade for iOS and PC in some form. Just port all of those to Switch and sell it for $40-50 and you're set.

Super Nintendo Land

I'm probably one of the few people that wished that Nintendo would make a sequel to Nintendo Land. The game was fun, so sue me. But as fun as it was, it was kinda lacking in the variety department. So I think a "deluxe" version of the game that has a few more attractions based around other games like Splatoon or Star Fox would probably make the experience more enjoyable in the long run. I personally think there should be around 20 attractions total, even if that means recycling the ones from the previous game.

Bayonetta 3

THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN. This series is criminally underrated and has been the subject of a lot of unnecessary backlash because people can't handle how the main character looks or acts. But the thing is, the series is one of the most fun, most polished games I've played in a very long time. And since the Switch seems to have a minor focus on paid online play, I think the online multiplayer this time around should be a MOBA of sorts where you make and customize your own Umbran Witch/Lumen Sage and play as them during the great war that happened 500+ years before the series starts.

Kirby Air Ride 2

Kirby Air Ride for the Game Cube was one of the most fun and most replayable racing games I ever owned. There was so much to do despite how little there was actually in the game. Now since the original game had a lot of focus around randomly selected events and challenges, I think a sequel could amp that up quite significantly if they also made the City Trial map and the race courses procedurally generated as well. And of course add more characters, air ride machines, and challenges as well.

Pokken Tournament Deluxe

I really liked the original Pokken; it gave me and a lot pokemon fans what we've been asking for for years. But I am a little disappointed that ONLY the arcade version of the game had been updated with 4 more characters since the release of the Wii U version. So I think the game needs to have a rerelease on the Switch with all of these new characters available, and maybe 3-6 new characters and a tag-team game mode to make it more worth your money to double dip.

Digilux: The Complete Art Style & Bit Generations Collection

I may like my fair share of difficult and challenging games, but that doesn't mean I don't want to kick back and relax with a simple game every once in a while. That's why I think a compilation of all the games from the Art Style and Bit Generation series would be perfect. These games have all but fallen completely off the radar in the past 7 years and I think a revival is in order. There's 15 games in these series each with their own gameplay styles and some of them even have multiplayer game modes; they would be perfect. (By the way, if you're curious about the name Digilux, it was a prototype name that Nintendo was originally going use before Art Style)

Well, those are my opinions on the matter. The Switch has a lot of promise for a great lineup of games, but only time will tell if devs will take advantage of the system's features. While just about none of these game ideas of mine actually do that, they are desperately needed regardless of what features they lack for the new system, even though this is just wishful thinking for me. So until then, I'll be seeing you.