SSB Newcomer Pick of the Day #2: Isaac

Smashified Isaac made by colossalcake (Andrew Coleman)

Well I said I'd make this a series, which means there has to be more than one, right?  Got quite a bit of feedback on my Ridley post, which by the way, thank you to everyone who read the whole thing and providing said feedback!  I'm glad it got the reception it did!  Two main things I got criticized for were the whole "Ganondorf is based on Sakurai's father" thing (it's fake, should have been obvious to me honestly) and my ranty tone when trying to argue against Sakurai's points.  Rest assured, I've taken all legitimate criticism into account and will keep it in mind with future characters I cover.  From now on, I'll be sure to verify the validity and accuracy of my sources and I'll try to keep a more neutral tone with what I'm talking about.  After all, there are more than enough false accusations and angry blogs on the Internet; even though my feelings in my Ridley blog were genuine and I wanted to be sincere with it, I think we can all agree to stay classy with this stuff so that we all have a better time here.

But all that's in the past, it's time now for our second Super Smash Bros. potential newcomer!  This time, it's Isaac from the Golden Sun series!  Go beyond the break to see my break-down!

SSB Newcomer Pick of the Day #1: Ridley

Smashified Ridley made by Zesuil (Chris Szczesuil)

Hello all, and welcome to the first in a series I hope to keep going for some time, or at least until the new Super Smash Bros. comes out.  I'm going to be listing a whole bunch of Nintendo characters (as well as other third-party video game characters) and talking about them in a would-be analyst way in terms of who they are, how they'd play, and their chances of being playable in Smash Bros.!  I'm not going to pretend that I know what I'm doing, or that I did any research going into this; most of this stuff I'm just winging and based off of knowledge I've accumulated from this or that resource over the years.  Hopefully you'll be interested enough to hear what I have to say, though.

For our first character, we're going to start things off in a BIG way (though I am LOATHED to use that word when talking about him): it's Ridley from the Metroid series!  See my ramblings after the break!

Super Smash Bros. Newcomer Pick of the Day coming

I don't know how many people read my blog, but in case you couldn't tell from the blog's name, I love Super Smash Bros.!  For me, it's the ultimate love-letter to long-time Nintendo fans (and preferably I'd like to keep it that way and not lose sight of that with certain unwanted addition, i.e. characters who have nothing to do with Nintendo and characters who aren't even from video games).  It's been on my mind a lot recently, what with the announcement of a new installment on the Nintendo Switch, particularly what characters they could add to the series.  Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U had the biggest roster yet, and some say it'll be hard to top, though I could certainly think of some new additions that would either shake up the roster a bit, or even improve it, and I don't just mean bringing back the Ice Climbers!

So here's what I'm going to do: for as long as I have the brain power and dedication able to handle doing this, I'm going to see if I can do one blog post a day detailing potential newcomers for Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo Switch.  Each entry will go over who the character is, what they can do in Smash Bros., how much I'd like to see them, their actual odds of getting in (based on what I know about the series and its director Masahiro Sakurai), and perhaps a few extra details I feel like adding.

This'll probably be a big mistake, and I'll end up biting off more than I can chew with this, but hopefully it'll be a lot of fun as well.  Stay tuned.

Quickie: Mario Tennis Aces

So a new Mario Tennis game was announced in the form of Mario Tennis Aces:

I already did a massive blog post about what my ideal roster for a Mario spin-off was, but after Super Mario Odyssey, some updates should be noted.  I'm not going to rewrite the whole thing again, instead, I'm just going to do a basic outline which hopefully will be self-explanatory.  With that in mind...

Confirmed
Mario
Luigi
Wario
Waluigi
Donkey Kong

Sure Thing
Peach
Daisy
Yoshi
Bowser

Most likely
Toad
Bowser Jr.
Rosalina

Since they already have models for them from Ultra Smash
Toadette
Boo
Sprixie

Characters who SHOULD be obvious inclusions but might get passed over for who-knows-why
Diddy Kong
Birdo
Cappy
Pauline
Chargin' Chuck

Characters who will probably be included even though I'd hate it if they were
Baby Mario (well, I guess I wouldn't mind as much if it were only him)
Baby Luigi
Baby Peach
Baby Daisy
Baby Rosalina
Dry Bowser
Metal Mario
Pink Gold Peach

Other characters I wouldn't mind seeing
Shy Guy
Koopa Troopa
Koopa Paratroopa
Wiggler
Petey Piranha (doubt it since he's a boss, but still possible)
King Boo
One of the Broodals (most likely Topper and maybe Hariet)
Dixie Kong
Larry Koopa (if any Koopaling makes it in, I hope it's him)
Kamek
Nabbit
Funky Kong
King K. Rool
Dry Bones
Hammer Bro
Monty Mole
Pianta
Noki
Whittle
Tostarenan
New Donker
Shiverian
Boom Boom

Characters who definitely won't be playable in this game but I'd want to see anyway
Donkey Kong Jr.
Foreman Spike
King/Big Bob-omb
Blue Bowser (Bowser's brother from Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels; I like to call him Bluser)
All Seven Koopalings (one or two of them, maybe, but all seven, highly unlikely)
Toadsworth
Professor E. Gadd
Cranky Kong
Mouser
Wart
Tatanga
Captain Syrup
Ashley (from WarioWare)
Stanley the Bugman
Il Piantissimo
The Chimp
The Kings from Super Mario Bros. 3
Mad Scienstein/Dr. Arewo-Shitain

...And that about covers it I think.  Here's hope Nintendo surprises us some more with this game (and GOOD surprises at that).

Mario Spin-Offs: My Ideal Roster

Disclaimer: I originally started this article months ago and have struggled to finish it until recently.  Since then, a lot has changed, and new information has come to light.  I've tried to change what I've written accordingly, but if some spots sound weird or outdated here and there, well, there's your reason.  Apologizes in advance if any of this is confusing.

So I'm playing Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64 on my Wii U's Virtual Console, and I thought to myself, "There's a nice selection of characters in this game, for its time anyway...  Why can't all Mario spin-offs have rosters like this?" See, it feels like lately Nintendo's been throwing in random "new" characters to their spin-offs while neglecting old favorites; Mario Kart 8 and even it's Deluxe Switch counterpart are the most recent and notorious example. It makes me wonder who decides these things and why they thought people would want to play as Baby Rosalina or Pink Gold Peach of all things... And it's a good thing Link was originally bundled with Tanooki Mario and Cat Peach as DLC for the former, otherwise I would seriously question who at Nintendo thought people would pay extra money for such uninspired characters...

So with that in mind, if I was working at Nintendo, and I was head of whatever group decides what characters should be in a Mario spin-off, who would I pick? Now, obviously, there are some factors that affect who gets chosen or not; some characters are not adequately build for certain spin-off, such as being too big or too small.  Of course, the Mario series has always been fickle when it comes to that sort of thing, but that doesn't mean there are still some unspoken rules for some spin-offs.  Mario Party, for example, is a series where Bowser will never be one of the main playable characters, given that his whole thing in those games is to mess things up for the actual players.  If he IS playable in Mario Party, it's through a special mode or mini-game like in Mario Party 10.  There's also the size of the roster, you can only have so many characters before things start to get overwhelming.  The exception is Mario Baseball games which are build around having lots of characters to build 9-player teams out of (incidentally, I REALLY hope we get a dedicated Mario Baseball game for the Switch, the one on the 3DS game Mario Sports Superstars just feels REALLY lackluster).

So that being said, the characters and roster ideas I mention are going to be games like Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, that kind of thing.  This will be broken down into 5 sections: "Gold Standard", "Other Favorites", "Playable Generics", "Potential Newcomers", and "Pipe Dreams", and I'll explain what they mean as I go.  Also, this will only pertain to Mario characters, no other Nintendo characters or third/fourth party characters allowed on this list, otherwise this could go on forever.  With all that out of the way, click the break to see what characters I'd have in my ideal Mario spin-off!

Yooka-Laylee - Initial Impressions

So I played Yooka-Laylee for about 2 hours, according to Steam anyway, and I gotta say, I feel pretty overwhelmed... For me, that is. If something's too big or too daunting, I sometimes have difficulty getting motivated to do it all, especially now since my time to play games is so limited. Plus, even though the game emphasizes the whole "explore or expand" thing (which really should be called explore or expand THEN explore, because that's what you're doing regardless), I'm the kind of guy who tries to go for 100% completion, which can be tiring when each world has so many collectables in it. This more than ever makes me miss the Banjo-Kazooie mode; decently sized worlds with just the right amount of collectables and challenges in each of them. Again, this isn't a criticism against the game, it's just how I feel.

Also, yeah, the camera's a bit wonky but not as bad as I was expecting. There ARE some forced perspectives at certain places and my gosh, does it get caught on objects like crazy, it's like I'm bumping around whenever I try to maneuver the camera to how I want it to.

Other than that and some REALLY minor nitpicks, this game isn't bad at all. In fact, I love it! The story had me intrigued, and there's already a mystery element with the book, the Pagies, and Yooka and Laylee's shipwrecked home. The characters are all great, yes, even the minor, incidental ones! I really do feel like each character has their own personality, and each one of them could be on their own personal adventure (though that's not to say I'd want a game focused on each one of them), and the humor is typical Rareware dry, British humor, the kind of humor that would make many people groan but dang it, I just love it! I also want to say, I am LOVING Yooka and Laylee's design, how they're textured, hwo they move, how expressive they can be; already I feel a personal connection with them akin to Banjo and Kazooie! Even characters I didn't think I'd warm up to right away like Trowzer I find myself adoring! Also, some people may take issue with the voice grunting, I didn't mind in the slightest. It's what I've wanted since Banjo-Tooie and I'm glad it's back in full force!

Even though exploring all this space and agonizing to get every single collectable with be tough, I want to pull through just because I love the world this game set up! Thank you, Playtonic Games, for giving me a joy I haven't felt in ages!

Edit: OH, I almost forgot, I didn't know you could switch to a first-person perspective until I accidentally pressted the left control stick once. I had SUCH a difficult time aiming projectiles until that point.  There are other times I performed something I didn't realize I could do, though I can't remember exactly which moves they were.  It's weird, considering the tutorial at the beginning, they'd leave out some extra stuff that could have been helpful to know...

What new character do you want as DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? - Poll on StrawPoll.com

What new character do you want as DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? - Poll on StrawPoll.com: What new character do you want as DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? - Whats your opinion? Vote now!