Ever since Nintendo revealed upgraded new models of its popular Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL Handheld consoles (called, appropriately, the “New Nintendo 3DS” and “New Nintendo 3DS XL” respectively), Nintendo fans around the world have been eagerly awaiting their launch. Both models hit store shelves in Japan last October, followed by Australia and New Zealand a month later, but elsewhere in the world Nintendo has kept quiet on their plans – all we know for sure is an international release is planned for “2015”. Now though, we have a hint that a European release may not be far away.

Similar to what it did for the launches of the Wii, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo has announced a new Ambassador Promotion giving additional rewards to early adopters of the new console. Although the promotion is currently limited to selected Club Nintendo members, interestingly this does not seem to be limited to people in the original 3DS ambassador program – so all Club Nintendo members may want to check their inbox in the next few days to see if they’re eligible.

Should you be lucky enough to qualify, the exclusive Ambassador Edition set will be available to you at an asking price of £179.99. For this, you’ll receive a white New Nintendo 3DS model (note this is not the XL, which does not seem to have a similar promotion at this time) in a special ‘Ambassador Edition’ box; along some exclusive Ambassador Edition cover plates, and a slick Super Smash Bros. set in case you want to mix things up. Nintendo is also throwing in a charging cradle, stylus and a 4GB microSDHC card.

Although Nintendo are still keeping mum on the final launch date for the New Nintendo 3DS existence of this special, limited-availability promotion (which is basically a glorified invitational pre-order bonus) suggests that we may not have much longer to wait.

Perhaps no Wii U game has been more highly anticipated this year than Super Smash Bros. With the wait finally over, its time to find if Sakurai and his team can live up to all the hype, or if Smash for Wii U has a bad case of sequelitis.

Smashing Expectations

For those unfamiliar with Smash Bros., the game is a mascot fighter drawing in characters from various Nintendo franchises, as well as a few guests from other companies. Matches take place on constantly changing battlefields. Instead of health bars, players are given a damage percentage. The more damage a fighter takes, the higher that percentage will climb. The object is to increase an enemies damage percentage and then send them flying offscreen with a well timed attack. Its a simple premise, but one that has tons of depth. Items such as laser swords, bombs, blaster guns and even a submarine machine gun (you read that right) can all change the balance of a figth. And of course, there is the smash ball, an item which must be hit multiple times before it can be  claimed. Once secured, it will allow it’s owner to unleash a powerful final smash attack.

So thats the basics of how Smash works. But how does this new version play? in short, wonderfully. The game is locked at a rock solid 60 FPS at 1080P. Its amusing that in this day of people complaining about the newest next gen games running at lower framerates or lower resolutions,. Nintendo has quietly churned out a game that can handle the madness of eight players fighting on the ground and in the air with all manner of effects going off, all while maintaining that solid framerate. I have managed to make it dip below 60, but I had to try very hard and force some truly ludicrous situations on the game before the engine finally cracked. Even then, it recovered extremely quickly. The controls are spot on as well. One of the strengths of the Smash series is the deceptive depth. Every characters has the same commands to pull off basic attacks and special moves, but those moves vary wildly between characters. The roster is deep and diverse, meaning you’ll have plenty of opportunities to find a character that suits your play style. In short, the roster depth here is incredible, the game looks gorgeous, and it handles incredibly well no matter what controller you are using. Thats right, Smash supports the Wii-mote, Nunchuk, Classic Controller, Wii U pro controller, Wii U Gamepad, Gamecube controller and you can even pair a 3DS with the system and control it through the handheld.

Mode Overload

Smash Wii U comes with more modes than any game before it in the series. Sure, Subspace Emissary is gone, but its been replaced by some truly interesting alternate options. Solo and Group smash are there to allow you to go head to head with your friends or the CPU. Event Challenge tasks you with using a specific character to complete a specific task. In return you are rewarded with coins, trophies and customization items for your Mii Fighter or custom Mario etc.  All Star Mode sees you fighting all the characters in the roster in massive group battles, working backwards through the history of videogames until you get to Pacman. Classic Mode sends you on a journey to smash all in your path on your way to face off against Master Hand and Crazy Hand. In a nod to Kid Icarus: Uprising, you can increase the difficulty of this mode (and your resulting rewards) by betting coins. Just be sure not to fail, because you’ll lose your coins! Its a nice risk reward mechanic.

The last two modes (aside from online play) are Master/Crazy Orders and Smash Tour. master/Crazy Orders sees you taking on missions from the giant disembodied boss hands from Classic Mode. Master Hand will offer up a set of three challenges. Clearing one nets you rewards. Crazy Hand on the other…hand….will challenge you to beat a set of challenges and then Crazy Hand himself within a ten minute time limit. You can choose to complete just one challenge before taking him on, but your rewards won’t be as great. Conversely, you can take them all on, at the risk of being easily defeated once you take on Crazy Hand as your health does not reset between challenges in this mode. Fail, and you lose your entry fee of either 5,000 gold or a Special Ticket.

Smash Run is…interesting. To be totally honest, after several hours with the game mode I still have no idea what the hell is going on. You play on a Mario Party inspired board, moving around, bumping into other fighters and earning power-ups and other fighters for your team. The problem is all players roll and move at once and the instructions for the mode are obtuse at best. Of all the modes in Smash Wii U, this one seems like it had the most potential, and also failed the most in execution.

Back in the realm of more familiar modes, Multi-Man Smash sees you facing off against hordes of Mii Fighters. Home Run Contest is back as well, along with Target Smash. Target Smash has undergone a few tweaks though. You are no longer placed into a course and tasked with hunting down moving targets. Instead, you are given a bomb to smash at a set of targets and structural blocks, ala Angry Birds. Its interesting, but part of me misses the old style of Target Smash.

Those Darn Amiibos

Amiibos also make their debut with Smash Bros. Wii U. I picked up a Link Amiibo to test out the functionality. Simply selecting Amiibo from the menu takes you into a screen that prompts you to touch your Amiibo to the Wii U Gamepad. Within less than a second, my Link popped to life on my screen. I gave him a name, fed him some items I had picked up on my journeys through Classic Mode and then started training him. And by training him, I mean beating the snot out of him until he learned to fight back. Your Amiibos actually learn based on what you do in battle against them. In my case, I threw bombs at Link’s face in an unstoppable maelstrom of Deku Death. After levelling up a few times, he began to follow suit, pitching bombs left and right. He also became much more adept at avoiding them. Training done, I saved his data back by touching his figure to my Gamepad. Again, the process was lightning fast.

Amiibos can be taken into several modes to fight alongside you. Its a great option for those that might not be able to gather a bunch of friends together. It remains to be seen how useful Amiibos will be, but to date, I’ve had a lot of fun with my little plastic Link.

Multiplayer Antics

So the big question on everyone’s mind is multiplayer. Well, I can say without reservation that Smash Wii U’s multiplayer is great. Be it on the couch in a massive eight player brawl, or going for glory online, the game is just as fun as any other installment in the series. Online multiplayer is silky smooth. Finding a match only requires a few menu presses, no friend codes here. And once in a battle, I only ever experienced one or two instances of lag in over 100 matches. If Smash Bros 3DS was a lesson in how not to do online multiplayer in a fighting game, Smash Wii U’s performance is a master class in how to get it right. I could wish for more options in setting up matches online, but in my opinion the crazy one off match types are best experienced with friends in local play. Nintendo has done a great job getting the game to function great online, but you can feel that even they feel that Smash is best enjoyed when you can stare into your friend’s eyes and watch the tears as they get crushed under the iron boots of your Jigglypuff.

The Verdict

Super Smash Bros. Wii U is on of the most polished games on the system to date. From the incredible music, to the gorgeous graphics, silky smooth gameplay and absolute plethora of modes, this is a game no Wii U owner should be without. Go grab a copy, park some friends on your couch and go nuts. I didn’t even get into trophy collection. Speaking of which, its time to go rearrange my trophy horde.

Smash Bros Wii U: 9.5/10

Well, one of the new Sonic Boom games is out and already people have encountered some bugs in the game. It’s mostly standard fare, up until you realise that hitting the right combinations of buttons then going to the pause menu can actually allow Knuckles to jump. Indefinitely.

Oh dear.

This actually allows you to skip past parts of the game if you desire, even some parts of the final boss fight. It’s also the sort of game-breaking bug that speedrunners often abuse to get through a game as fast as possible so for one part of the gaming community this bug is not bad but just a pathway they can use to complete their task.

Still, you wouldn’t think with that much body Knuckles would have retained his gliding abilities from past games… maybe it isn’t a bug after all.

Yay! It’s finally the day you choose your new Life! Which one will it be? You can be a fighter with the Lives: Paladin, Mercenary, Hunter, or Mage. Or you can be a craftsman with the Lives: Blacksmith, Tailor, Carpenter, Alchemist, or Cook. Or you can choose to gather materials with the Lives: Angler, Woodcutter, or Miner. Once you chose your Life, you work hard to master it, but strange things begin to happen in the land of Reveria. Strange stones called Doomstones start falling from the sky that fills creatures nearby them with dark, destructive energy. It falls to you, with the help of a butterfly companion named Flutter, who attached itself to you, to discover the mystery behind the strange stones and to discover more about an ancient prophecy involving Reveria’s goddess and the moon Lunares, all this while trying to master the Life you chose.

Fantasy Life is a game that combines the gently paced role-playing from games like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon with spectacle and narrative tropes of JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Bravely Default. It was created by developer Level-5 who also created such games as the Professor Layton series and Ni No Kuni. It also features artwork and music from a couple of Final Fantasy alumni.

When you first start a game you begin with character creation which is pretty in depth. It allows you to change different facial features, body shape, and hair. You can also choose a voice. All of these options are rather nice and allow you to create a character however you like. Lastly, you get to choose what Life you want to have.

The key mechanic in the game is the Life system, which is a system that allows you to choose a Life, a profession, which you want to have throughout the game. When you start the game you choose a Life you want to play as, but you are able to switch between any of the Lives whenever you want. For example I chose my first Life as Hunter, because I wanted to have a combat class. Then I decided to try one of the crafting Lives, Carpenter, which allowed me to make a lot of items I could sell for higher prices, as well as make some cool bows for my Hunter Life. But soon I found myself spending quite a bit of money on materials to use as a Carpenter. So I decided to try out the Woodcutter Life so I can collect wood myself instead of buying it. It is a rather nice idea for a game. It makes so you can go though the game how you would like. I also enjoy the fact that no matter what Life you have activated at the moment you can still use skills from the other Lives you learned without changing Lives.

One thing I did notice though is some Lives are more interesting than others in the long run. For each of the Lives you are given challenges by your Master. By completing these challenges, you gain Stars (experience) which level you up in your Life. For example, for my Hunter Life I had challenges like: ‘hunt down a certain creature’, or ‘kill this many creature’. I was even able to gather plants too as a Hunter which gave the challenges of ‘collect this many of this item”. As I leveled up with the Hunter I gained more and more attacks I could use like ‘rain of arrow’s or ‘multi-shot’. All this made me really want to rise up in ranks as a Hunter to see what comes next.

My Carpenter Life was a bit different. As one of the crafting Lives, you get challenges to make certain items and certain numbers of them. This would be interesting except the crafting stage for all of the crafting Lives (I tried Blacksmith as well to check) are the same, all the time. When you want to craft something you play a little ‘mini-game’ where you follow the prompts on the screen which tell you to either, hold down A, or quickly mash A, or hit A when the moving marker flashes over the middle of a bar. That’s it. The better you match what it says the better chance you have at making better quality items which can be sold for more money. While this mini-game is quite amusing at first, after a while of doing it, I got kind of bored with it and just went back to continue my Hunter Life. But it is nice to go back to every once in a while. And as you create enough of certain items you will be able to make them in bulk which can cut down the tediousness of it.

My third Life, Woodcutter, was a bit less interesting. Basically the challenges for it were ‘cut down this many of this type of tree’ and that was basically it. It is nice that when you do go to cut down a tree, you have the challenge of finding the best place to chop on the tree so you can get more wood from it. Woodcutter and other gathering type Lives seem to be nice as a second or third Lives rather than a first one to choose. They seem to only be good for getting materials cheaper for your crafting Lives.

The Questing system in this game is quite interesting. There are 3 types of quests: Life Challenges, Butterfly’s Requests, and Other Requests. The Life Challenges are quest which help you rise in rank for your life. The Butterfly’s Requests are basically the quests that lead into the main story. These lead you to explore the land and talk with the main NPCs of the game, fleshing out the story as you go. The third type of quest, the Other Requests, is quests you get from the multitude of NPCs throughout the land. They will mostly involve you finding certain items, which you can sometimes make if you have the right skills, or killing certain creatures. You will usually get money and sometimes an item for completing these requests.

Also connected with challenges is the Bounty System the game has. As you travel though the Land you will come across some tougher creatures or rare materials which you can defeat/collect and turn in for a reward. Usually you will get a nice bit of money, but you can also get some nice items from it too. The only problem is you can’t fast travel while carrying them or run with them. You have to travel as safely as possible to get them to a bounty collector. You also need to watch out for other hostile creatures for they will try to attack your bounties.

This game also has this nice Bliss system. Bliss is collected by completing quests like the story quests and the quests you get for starting a new Life, or you get it for meeting certain milestones like ranking up in a Life. With Bliss you are able to unlock certain perks like larger inventory space, owning a pet, horse-riding, and more. It encourages you to play the story and to rank up.

Another nice thing about this game is it has a housing system in it. You start out the game living in a small attic apartment. In this apartment you are able to place furniture and customize the walls and floor with items you can buy or make. As you make more money, you can upgrade to a larger house, which gives you more floor space. There are multiple houses you can buy, but you need the money first. Your home is also the place you can keep your pet if you don’t have them in your party helping you out. You can also sleep in the bed in your house to heal and save the game.

Fantasy Life is defiantly a more casual title in the RPG genre. It has a simple story and simple mechanics which are easy to pick up and learn. While the story isn’t the best, it is a game you will find yourself loosing track of time playing as it keeps you wanting to rank up in your Life.

All in all I enjoyed Fantasy Life. While there were certain mechanics of the game that I thought got repetitive, I enjoyed leveling up my character and exploring the land of Reveria. Its lovely art style and music is also a plus as well. I spent a lot of time engrossed in getting my character to the highest rank in her Life and I most likely will continue playing until she is a Master of all the Lives. I suggest this game to anyone who has a slight interest in RPGs.

It is available on the Nintendo eShop for download on your 3DS or at your nearest game retailer.

Ever since Nintendo hit on the concept of using online video to communicate the latest information about upcoming games, new DLC or any other news related to Nintendo to its fans and gamers, the company has developed a habit of encouraging people at short notice to come to the website or Twitch to watch live the latest Nintendo Direct as Nintendo employees (mostly Iwata) reveals the next little titbit from the company.

And so it came to pass that at 10pm on Guy Fawkes’ Day (that’s November 5th for you non-Brits), Nintendo put live its latest Nintendo Direct, which this time was focused on “new information about upcoming titles”. One of these titles was entirely new – I’ve covered the reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D in the last article; and Digmbot has covered the Xenoblade Chronicles X reveals elsewhere on the site – but here’s a quick summary of everything else that was revealed during the 30-odd minute discussion:

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M imagines a world where Steam power is still king. One fateful day, a steam-powered bridge over the River Thames is due to open, but as crowds gather to witness the event – suddenly, a monster invasion breaks out! A gang of four unlikely heroes, spearheaded by Abraham Lincoln (yes, that Abraham Lincoln – the trailer even refers to him as “United States President”) have to use steam-powered technologies to bypass or defeat the monsters and… save humanity, I guess? I don’t know, the Trailer doesn’t explain the plot… or make much sense at all if I’m honest! Check it out below:

Amiibo support in Mario Kart 8

Nintendo announced earlier in the year that their popular Wii U racer, Mario Kart 8, will receive DLC for Amiibo suppoort in the near future – and now, thanks to a trailer revealed in this Nintendo Direct, we now know what it consists of. When you touch a compatible Amiibo figure (currently any Wave 1 character) on the Wii U gamepad while playing Mario Kart 8, you will unlock a special Racing Suit depicting your character. Then, whenever you race as a Mii, you can have it don the suit and it’ll dress up as that character – so your Mii can pretend to be Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Captain Falcon or any of the other Amiibo figures you may have. It’s unknown at this point if the racing suits have any other purpose besides cosmetics.

Mario Kart 8 DLC

And staying on the topic of DLC in Mario Kart 8, Nintendo also revealed what will be coming in the first two DLC Expansions:

Hyrule Warriors: Spinner Link

Something that WAS a little shocking of late was Nintendo revealing that Hyrule Warriors – which had not previously announced to be getting any support for Amiibo – WOULD be patched to add in support in the future. A new Trailer in this Nintendo Direct revealed just what this support will be; and for once it’s actually pretty cool. Use the Amiibo figure of Link while playing Hyrule Warriors and you’ll unlock Link Spinner, a new form of link who rides atop a bladed Spinning Top which he can use to slice through enemies and other cool tricks! Check out this bad-assery below:

Mario & Luigi in Monster Hunter 4? WTF Capcom?!?

Okay, so it’s not ACTUALLY Mario and Luigi, but whoever in Capcom decided to do this should be fired for damaging the serious nature of the Monster Hunter games. It’s been announced that the long term cat-like assistants in the Monster Hunter franchise, the Felynes – who, among other things, are known for their love of cosplay in various MH Titles – will be able to dress as Mario and Luigi in at least some part of Monster Hunter 4. Yes, really.

Though, given Mario and Luigi dressed as cats in Super Mario 3D World, maybe the Felynes just want to return the favour.

Pikmin make their movie début!

…Well, short movies at least! The loveable Pikmin will be starring in a series of three short movies which will soon be downloadable via the eShop on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

Splatoon’s Single Player campaign revealed!

Rounding off this episode of Nintendo Direct, at E3 earlier this year we were treated to our first look at a third-party, cartoon-style, ink-based Shoot-em-up coming to Wii U next year, called Splatoon. The E3 Trailer and subsequent discussion focused mainly on the game’s Multiplayer aspect; so this time, the footage focused on the single-player Campaign instead – which looks AWESOME, if I do say so myself.

Until the next Nintendo Direct – Crimson out!