Mario

Smash Bros Character Checklist: The Yoshi Series

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If you were to ask me who my favorite video game character was, it would be Yoshi. Without a doubt in my mind, the green dinosaur who doubles as transportation for small babies and large plumbers would be my number one choice. Ever since the days Yoshi’s Story and picking him as my character in every Mario game imaginable, he has been my favorite.

So naturally, Yoshi has been my main fighter in almost every Smash Bros game (I say “almost” because the original Smash 64 introduced me to Kirby, and I was obsessed with playing as him back then). Sure, I love playing as the likes of Mega Man and Lucas, with the occasional play session with Falco and Dark Pit. But Yoshi is always my first choice, and probably my best character as a result.

Though because of this, it’s always disappointed me that Yoshi has been the only representative for his game series for FIVE Smash Bros games. But I guess that’s for a good reason: who else do you need to represent Yoshi besides Yoshi? Who else COULD you get to represent his side-series of platformers?

My thoughts have occasionally wandered over to the Baby Mario Brothers. Teaming up Baby Mario and Baby Luigi as an Ice Climbers-like duo character is an idea I’ve heard tossed around from time to time. And admittedly, it COULD work. The Baby brothers have shown in the past that they can put up a fight in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. But something about putting a couple babies in a fight against adults and fighters several times their size feels… wrong.

So if not the babies, then who? The Yoshi series doesn’t exactly have a large cast of characters to pick from. Well, how about the series’ main villain? No, not Baby Bowser! We already have a tiny Bowser as a fighter. I mean the REAL main villain!

I’m talking about the Koopa Troop’s number one sorcerer, Kamek!

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Yeah, I know, a few of you might be scratching your heads at this pick. Kamek? A Nintendo All-Star deserving of a spot in the Smash Bros roster? Well, he IS the primary antagonist in the Yoshi’s Island series, and a prominent secondary antagonist in several other Super Mario games. He is one of the Nintendo bad guys, and I think he would fit in well alongside the other Smash fighters.

Plus, my desire for Kamek as a playable character stems from another source. In a sea of Smash characters who fight with their fists, swords, and lots of tools and tech, there’s a surprising lack of fighters who use some sort of super natural power as their primary form of combat (not including Pokemon, of course). Sure, most characters have some form of super power in one or two of their moves. But Smash Bros needs a fighter who’s all about using MAGIC! And Kamek would be a perfect fit for that spot.

Magikoopas are capable of using a huge variety of magic spells, after all. They can teleport, shoot fire, create clones of themselves, heal wounds… all sorts of neat things you could draw from for a Smash Bros moveset! And Kamek has proven himself to be stronger than the average Magikoopa on numerous occasions. He can use his magic to power up even basic Mario and Yoshi enemies into giant bosses, and he even has a broom he can fly around on! Isn’t that cool?

I even came up with a neat property for a Neutral-B Special move for him. The standard Magikoopa magic spell (you know, the one that looks like a bunch of shapes?) not only can deal damage to an enemy, but is capable of transforming objects into enemies. So what if it could do the same thing to items and projectiles in Smash Bros? You could transform a bomb, missile, or banana peel flying at you into a Goomba or Koopa that would then get in your opponent’s way! It would make for in interesting way to fend off enemy attacks, other than the standard Down-B Reflector or Counter move.

And his Final Smash would be best part of all: sending his opponents into another arena where they are promptly destroyed by a giant Baby Bowser. It would be amazing and glorious!

Yeah, I know Kamek making a playable appearance in Smash Bros is a long shot. He has a LOT of other more likely character picks to contend with. But maybe the good folks developing Smash Bros for Switch have decided to give the Yoshi series and Magic-wielding characters a bigger part in the next game. Who knows, it could happen!

So what do you think of my pick? Do you think Kamek would make an interesting fighter, or should he remain a side-villain? And if not Kamek, who would make a good Yoshi series representative? I’d love to hear what you want to see in the next Smash!

That’s all for the Smash Bros Character Checklist for the time being, though. I’ll see you in the next post! Sparky is signing off for now.

Smash Bros Character Checklist: The Mario Series

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I. Freaking. Love. Super Smash Bros. Ever since I first saw that glorious commercial for the original game on Nintendo 64, I knew I was in for something amazing. To this day, Super Smash Bros remains my favorite video game series, and each game just keeps getting better.

To many gamer’s surprise, Nintendo announced the return of the series on the Nintendo Switch almost out of nowhere the other day. Everyone knew it was going to happen at some point, but I don’t think anyone expected an announcement for a Smash Bros game to happen before E3. The trailer was just a small teaser, and didn’t tell us much, aside from the addition of the Splatoon Inklings to the character roster. But regardless, it was enough to get the hype train rolling once more, and get everyone speculating about who’s going to make the cut in Nintendo’s next huge crossover fighting game.

Topping the character roster from Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Super Smash Bros for Wii U will be no easy task. The duo of games, collectively known as Smash 4, had a huge 58 character roster, with 8 additional fighters being represented as alternate costumes for existing characters. Smash Bros for Switch promises to be gigantic, and everyone has their own thoughts on who’s going to be joining the fray. And of course, that includes me.

So I’m starting off what I’m calling the Smash Bros Character Checklist, where I talk about characters I would like to see join the battle! I’m going to be going through the existing represented Nintendo games, series by series, and discussing who I think from that series would make a good addition to the cast. These aren’t going to be detailed analyses of what the character’s complete move-sets would be or anything; just my general thoughts on what the characters would play like, and why I think they should be included in the game. And starting us off, of course, is the Mario series.

Now, the main series Mario titles already have plenty of representation in the Smash Bros titles. There’s Mario and his Doctor counterpart, his brother Luigi, the lovely Princess Peach, and Mario Galaxy’s Rosalina. We also can’t forget the big baddie Bowser and his son, Bowser Jr. If you count the fact that the seven Koopalings also serve as Bowser Jr’s alternate costumes, that brings the total Mario characters up to fourteen. I think most agree that the Mario series has plenty of representation at this point, so adding more characters almost seems a bit silly.

But… there’s someone missing, isn’t there? A main series Mario character, often playable in games, that isn’t among the other main characters? Why, it’s Toad of course! It seems strange to have every other Mario character under the sun, and not include one of the longest running characters in the series as a Smash fighter. Though there is the small problem that Toad serves as one of Princess Peach’s special moves. So why not make the playable Toad a different Toad? Make it… Captain Toad!

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Starting off as a minor supporting roll in Super Mario Galaxy, Captain Toad and the Toad Brigade grew into characters of their own. The sometimes cowardly treasure hunter is now a mainstay of the series, with his own title game that’s soon going to be re-released on the Nintendo Switch. He would be a perfect fit to represent his Toad brethren in a new Smash Bros!

Like other playable Toads before him, I envision Captain Toad as a quick character with a good deal of strength behind his attacks. Though he would most likely sport the poor jumping ability of other Toads as well. Considering he doesn’t have a jump button at all in his game, maybe he should invest in a smaller backpack for his Smash Bros debut?

He would be a lot like Little Mac in a way. But in order to differentiate him from the small-stature boxer, Captain Toad would sport an arsenal of tools from his treasure hunting expeditions. He would have his pickaxe handy for Smash Attacks, and he could even borrow Princess Peach’s vegetable-picking attack for his Down-B Special (perhaps he could occasionally unearth heavy treasures, instead of vegetables, in order to deal extra damage?). The Captain could even make use of his headlamp for a Neutral-B Special, charging the light up to temporarily blind his opponents.

His alternate costumes would be easy to come up with: give him colors representing the other members of the Toad Brigade! He could even have an alternate costume that turns him into Toadette, similar to the gender-swapped costumes of Robin, Corrin, and Wii Fit Trainer. That way you could have another character added to the game, without taking up a spot in the character roster. Plus it would add to the number of female characters in the game as a whole.

Overall, I think Captain Toad would be the perfect choice to fill in what feels like a large hole in the cast of Mario characters represented in Super Smash Bros. He can be a modern AND classic Nintendo character rolled into one! Here’s hoping the development team feels the same way as I do. I’d love to see him make it in!

So what does everyone else think of my choice? Would Captain Toad make a good Mario representative, or do you have another character in mind? I hear that Paper Mario is a popular choice, and there’s always characters like Princess Daisy and Waluigi (though would Waluigi count as a Wario series character? That’s something to think about…). Either way, tell me what you think! I’d love to hear fellow Smash-Fan’s thoughts on the matter!

I’m planning to continue the Smash Bros Character Checklist in the future, so be sure to look out for posts on other characters and franchises I think would be a perfect fit for Super Smash Bros!  Until then, keep on playing! Sparky is signing off for now.

New Video Series: Luigi’s Mansion “A-Rank Run”

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It’s October, the month of spooks and specters! So why not play a game about them? Here comes Luigi’s Mansion, and my quest to get a whole bunch of sparkly treasure! I’m aiming for an A-Rank at the end of the game!

Be sure to subscribe to my Youtube Channel in order to stay up to date on the project! That’s all I have to say for now, though. Sparky is signing off for now!

A Reason for Re-Releases

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Anyone who owns a Nintendo Switch can tell you that the wait for new game content on their brand new gaming console has been a little… slow. True, it’s only been about two months since the system launched in early March, but that two months has felt like an eternity for the next big system release to follow up The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I myself only own one other physical Switch game right now: I bought Skylanders: Imaginators to fill in the time between game releases, and give myself a reason to use the assorted Skylanders figures I had sitting around doing nothing. On the digital front, I also have gotten Wonder Boy: The Dragons Trap, a remake of possibly one of the best 8-Bit games I’ve ever played (and a Sega Master System game, of all things! Weird, right?). But overall, the wait for game releases has felt so long, I was suddenly caught off guard by the fact that two game launches I’ve been waiting for suddenly hit me at almost the same time.

The puzzle game combination Puyo Puyo Tetris and the next game in Nintendo’s biggest racing series, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, were releasing within days of each other at the end of April. So as not to spend TOO much money at once, I decided to settle on buying only one of these games for the time being (alongside getting an additional controller for multiplayer action awesomeness). Though the biggest question was “Which one do I pick?”

Immediately my thoughts drifted to Mario Kart as the prime contender for my money. Ever since the time of the Nintendo 64, Mario Kart has been a big favorite of mine, and I get the game on every system it comes out on. But while making plans as to when would be a good opportunity to grab the game, something occurred to me that I hadn’t thought of: I already own Mario Kart 8. I have it on the Wii U. In fact, I hadn’t even technically finished doing stuff in the game at that time. And the additional content the new Deluxe version added was arguably minimal, so I began to ask myself a few things.

Do I really need the re-release? And the game is so recent, does it really even need a re-release at all? What’s the purpose BEHIND a re-release?

Re-releases, remakes, new versions, ports, virtual consoles, HD collections… things like this have become commonplace in the world of gaming. But re-releasing a game in any form can come under harsh criticism as being a shameless money grabbing tactic, in place of just producing new and original content. Especially for Nintendo: the Big N has been doing things like that for ages now, it becoming a really popular practice of theirs in the era of the Game Boy Advanced. Not only was there an entire game series dedicated to re-releasing classic NES and Famicom games on the system, but several other NES and SNES games got ports and remakes for the handheld as well. So redoing and remixing some of their classic titles is clearly nothing new to Nintendo. But Mario Kart 8 came out as recently as May of 2014. It’s just barely under three years old! Do you really need to sell what amounts to being the same game two different times so close together?

Thinking about this got me wondering if I should buy the game at all. I got to thinking about the purpose of behind a re-release or a remake, aside from making money and milking its popularity. And I feel like I came up with a good one: having accessibility to a game.

Consider the above-mentioned GBA games. During that time, there was no digital Nintendo store you could buy and download a copy of Super Mario Bros from, and the NES and SNES were old and outdated. You couldn’t exactly walk into a Wal-Mart and find an NES on the store shelf along with the state-of-the-art Nintendo Gamecube. By making the Classic NES Series and games like Super Mario Advanced, Nintendo not only found a way to preserve and upgrade the classics that people loved, but it gave younger gamers a way to experience these games as well. They made them accessible to both long time fans and young people too!

I can personally relate to this kind of situation: I didn’t have many NES games growing up, and I never owned a Super Nintendo at all. Thanks to the Game Boy Advanced, I got to experience games like the original Legend of Zelda and Super Mario World for the first time ever! And they’ve been some of my favorites ever since.

Even though the game is newer, turning Mario Kart 8 into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe stems from a similar situation of having accessibility to a game. I mentioned in my last post that a lot of Wii U games were getting brought to different systems in one way or another. And there is a very good reason for that: if these games didn’t get some kind of port or remake, then probably next to no one would have ever played them. The Wii U did not sell well, it continues not to sell well, the system itself has basically been pulled off of store shelves to make way for the Switch, and as a result its library of games has gone relatively un-played and is un-accessible for most gamers. It’s a shame all around, but its the truth. So what’s the solution to the problem? Why, bring the games to other systems, of course!

Mario Kart 8 is a beautiful and wildly creative entry in the series. And now that it’s getting its new Deluxe version, I’m happy that more gamers will be able to experience it. And I’ll be more than glad to get it a second time, to experience the new content and old content in one awesome package. Heck, the mere fact that people own two or three versions of any given game can say a lot about its quality and how enjoyable it is as well!

So yes, in my opinion, remakes, re-releases, port and whatever HD Turbo Remix Deluxe Collection comes along will always have a reason for being made and sold, outside of a company just trying to make money. It’s all about accessibility, and giving everyone everywhere a chance to play it in some form!

If anyone out there reading this agrees with me, or has some other opinion on the matter, I’d love to hear what you have to say and talk about it a bit! Until then, Sparky is signing off for now!

(I’m thinking about getting some more Mario Kart practice in… I don’t want to be rusty for the new game!)