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The other day my mind was racing, and somehow took me back to the days when I first owned the Nintendo Wii. It was a system sought after by so many, sold out practically everywhere since Nintendo didn’t meet supply with the insane demand for the console. The Wii was revolutionary, and I was ecstatic when my parents surprised me with one after dinner on a random evening. Naturally, the first game everyone came across on the Wii was Wii Sports, which came with the system and still holds up. Then I caught myself thinking – what if I lost this game over time? You can’t buy the single game by itself. If I lost the game, I would be without Wii Sports for the rest of my life. Wii Sports was an incredible way to show off the Wii’s motion controls for the first time. There were many different sports to…

Pokemon is a series that is loyal to its traditions, perhaps like no other — if you get a mainline Pokemon game, you know exactly what you’re getting. In a world where a franchise might take a sudden, confusing shift into a direction that you don’t gel with, staying true to the formula can be seen as trustworthy and a good thing. On the opposite end, it’s also possible for a franchise to play it too safe and things could start to get stale. While Pokemon is definitely still enjoyable, it’s a peculiar series of games in that it’s kept up with the times in some ways, but in others is very archaic and has hardly progressed. I get it: why mess with the formula of one of your biggest cash cows? But in 2019, much of its features feel like anachronisms from the past and are outdated. In some…

Nintendo and their consoles have seen a rollercoaster of success over the years, but they are very pleased in recent times, throwing their plumber’s cap in the air at the surging success of their Switch console. They have seemed to have found a happy medium where they can sell a console with the popularity of the Wii, but with the focus being on traditional first-party games, in the spirit of the Wii U. As reported and translated by Nintendo Everything, there are no plans for a price cut or successor to the Nintendo Switch, as stated by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa through The Sankei News. Furukawa references the Switch’s great sales numbers and their lofty target of selling 20 million units this fiscal year. In short, they have no plans on stopping the Switch train anytime soon. But if there is potentially a new Switch version on the horizon, that train…

Like the true heel Pokémon that it prides itself on, Incineroar took a spot in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that was almost given to the arrow-shooting owl Pokémon Decidueye, game showrunner Masahiro Sakurai has stated. Feeling the need to have a Pokémon series representative in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Sakurai and his team narrowed their selection down to these two characters. Ultimately, Sakurai wanted a wrestling-themed fighter, so the muscle-bound grappler Incineroar won out. This information was found in an interview with Sakurai by Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream, as shared by Eurogamer. The interview goes on to mention other fun facts about fighter selection, including that the reasoning behind the unexpected Piranha Plant was to show that any character could appear. Incineroar’s own inclusion came as a surprise to some in the Smash community, as its addition to the roster was contrary to alleged leaks that came to surface before the…

The Wii Shop Channel has been live for nearly 12 years. Despite the smashing success of the Wii and the continued achievements of the Wii U, it is now the era of the Switch. With the Nintendo Switch having topped the hardware sales charts for 2018, it seems few fans are complaining. That being said, it’s still the end of an era. Now Nintendo fans are about to experience the brunt end of that loss. After nearly a solid dozen years of selling WiiWare and virtual console games, the Wii Shop Channel is now planning to shut down on Jan. 30, 2019. Many of the games offered within the service were never given a physical copy release or shifted to newer Nintendo consoles. Beyond that, Nintendo reportedly plans to eventually cease providing the ability to redownload previous purchases from the now fading channel. Consequently, many of these wonderful games will…

The first Super Smash Bros. changed the game (pun intended) when it came out in 1999. Never before had characters across other games come together like that. The concept of the game was relatively simple: various characters duke it out on stages designed after each character’s respective games. Who would’ve thought how much impact this would have on the gaming community. There are so many things that make Smash Bros. adored by the gaming community. One of the first is the story mode. Having to battle your way against enemy after enemy on their home turf with limited lives can be challenging. All of the times you get eliminated off that stage makes it worth it when you complete the story in full. That Master Hand was such a tough last opponent, and watching the hand explode and crumble away is such a satisfying feeling, no matter how many times you defeat…

The rivalry of Mario and Wario has become a classic feud in gaming, dating back to Wario’s first official appearance in 1992’s Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins on the Game Boy. Wario’s name itself is brilliance as a corruption of Mario: it takes the Japanese word, “wa,” meaning “bad,” and corrupting Mario’s name with it. Further, “W” works as an upside down “M,” suggesting an inversion of Mario’s character. Lastly — oh yes, there are three layers here — putting “War” in the name hints at Wario’s more brash, abrasive nature compared to to Mario (this is more likely a coincidence, but still a pretty neat linguistic side effect).  Since his introduction, Wario has starred in several games of his own, including the successful WarioWare franchise. Though he may have become less of an antagonist and more a quirky, garlic-eating weirdo over the years, Wario has become a staple of…

So you’ve already beat your favorite game a few times. You have tried others, but you keep finding yourself back in that familiar world on that old console. You know every inch of that map, know exactly how the story unfolds, all of the secrets, and yet you cannot get enough. Then one day out of nowhere, you hear the news – they are re-releasing that game! But what must the re-release have to encourage you to spend that hard-earned money? For me, there are a handful of games that I would buy the re-release no matter what. That’s how special a few of the games I have played are to me. Mainly Zelda games, I would re-purchase Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask until the end of time (same with A Link to the Past, but A Link Between Worlds was mostly a remake). However, a key thing with re-makes that I expect is obviously the graphics. Graphics enhancement…

Soulja Boy had released four consoles for sale on his website which were quickly withdrawn. His original offering was part of his now defunct SouljaGame line and according to gamesradar.com included ” SouljaGame Console, SouljaGame Handheld, Retro SouljaBoy Mini, and SouljaGame Fuze” and that is a mouth full. There were questions about his plans legitimacy and it would appear the skeptics were right. Days after releasing his consoles he had to withdraw them from the market and the speculation is that Nintendo may have issued him a cease and desist letter. This speculation arose from a now deleted tweet in which he stated: “For anyone that thinks Nintendo is going to sue me you’re retarded. Nothings going to happen everything is legit. My console isn’t going anywhere trust me 😁 ” — Soulja Boy (Drako) (@souljaboy) December 28, 2018 Complex.com Rolling Stone did multiple stories on his console releases here and…

Having released on December 7th of 2018, we have once more been blessed with another entry in the Smash Bros franchise. Bringing back the entire playable roster across the previous four entries, Super Smash Bros Ultimate boasts a hefty 74 playable character roster, with an addition to online features and new modes. Starting the game you are given a handful of characters instead of a huge array to blindly choose from; Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, and Pikachu. In a nostalgic throwback to the N64 version, these eight fighters mirror the starting roster of the game that started this insanely popular series. If you choose the new World of Light mode, in which you start with only Kirby available, you will then have to rescue each of the other fighters. Saving those fighters will unlock them for all other modes. This method can be extremely tedious, especially…