April Fools! …Or Not
Nintendo streamed another Direct yesterday, April 1st, 2015. What did Iwata and company do to celebrate the special date? Absolutely nothing. I have to admit, this came as an unpleasant surprise. After delaying Zelda Wii U, and with this Nintendo Direct being on a holiday (of sorts), I expected something great from this broadcast. I was disappointed on almost all fronts, as you’ll find when you continue reading…
Super Smash Bros. Tweaks
We’re actually hearing about legitimate Smash Bros. downloadable content (DLC), and I’m glad some of it isn’t what fans already knew about: new costumes for Mii fighters (coming April 15th for less than two bucks) and the return of Earthbound’s Lucas as a playable character (aiming for a June release). Of course, Mewtwo is also on the way.
I’m glad we’re getting these new characters, but I personally didn’t use them much in their previous Smash outings (Mewtwo in Melee and Lucas in Brawl), and there’s also that simple fact that they are returning characters. Fortunately, however, Nintendo is giving us, the fans, a chance to influence possible choices for future playable characters. Click on over to the “Smash Ballot,” and you can enter whatever character tickles your fancy and include why he or she should make the cut. And please don’t choose “Cat Mario.” Just…please.
More amiibo news rounded out the talk on Smash. Overall, a pretty underwhelming start to a Nintendo Direct that should have blown minds.
amiibo-Focused Game
amiibo Tap: Nintendo’s Greatest Bits is a free downloadable Wii U game coming this Spring. Players will be able to scan their amiibo figures (any of them I imagine…and hope) to get 3-minute demos of classic, first-party NES and SNES games. Once a figure is scanned, it will be randomly “assigned” a certain game, so you can never be sure what you’re going to get. There will be several “scenes” to try out in each game, which could add up to a fair amount of gameplay with those aforementioned 3-minute gameplay chunks.
I’m excited to see how amiibo Tap will surprise me. I only have two amiibo for the time being: Samus and Ike. It’ll be interesting to see what titles I get to play. Hopefully ones I don’t already own.
Mario Maker: “A definitive Mario experience”
That’s a pretty big statement, Iwata. Still, I’m happy at the prospect of playing the Mario stages other fans will be outputting using Mario Maker, because you can be sure my creations won’t be anything special. All I ask of Nintendo is this: please let us download that Super Mario Bros. 30th anniversary stage day 1. I demand it.
Mario Maker is slated for a September 2015 release.
There’s much more news to talk about, and one post just isn’t big enough for it all. Stay tuned for our next news post, which will cover, among other things, the single cutest amiibo the world will ever see.
Cuteness Overload: Yoshi’s Wooly World
This is Anthony hijacking Holly’s post in order to talk about the cuteness that is Yoshi’s Wooly World. The first announcement is just meh, I could really careless about a casual mode. I just hope that the “classic mode” is more difficult then Kirby’s Epic Yarn which shouldn’t really be a problem if they add in the ability to lose lives. I expected the title earlier then Fall, so that is kind of a let down as well. But then Nintendo goes and does something to totally redeem themselves…
I need this in my life, like right now.
