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Many hardcore players of Nintendo’s long-running, franchise-merging beat-em-up, Super Smash Bros, will attest that the only way to properly play the games is with a proper, chunky controller with plenty of buttons to enable the widest range of moves and tactics. It’s no surprise really: having started on the N64 and then moved on to the GameCube for the subsequent sequel, Melee – both consoles whose controllers could be described as chunky and button filled – Smash Bros. was a game that took advantage of every single button to provide plenty of attacks, taunt options, grabs and – for the wusses – defensive moves. That Nintendo had to simply every character’s movesets for the Wii follow-up, Brawl, due to the Wii Remote having just four buttons and a D-Pad was seen as sacrilege to many fans of the previous two titles, who felt reducing the immediately available attacks and using two-button combinations for most moves just didn’t offer the level of control they were used to.
Luckily, the Wii offered something that catered to those fans: Gamecube backwards-compatibility. Realising that there would be those craving the greater control of the previous games, Nintendo allowed people who had plugged Gamecube controllers into the Wii to use them as controllers for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, letting them play the new game with their old, familiar controllers even though they’d still be subject to the simplified move sets. That players familiar with the previous generation could fight again using the ergonomic, full-featured controllers they’d gotten accustomed to was a godsend; and so, when the Wii U removed Gamecube compatibility and the Gamecube ports, many weeped that they’d not get the same option in the next Super Smash Bros. title.
That’s right! Nintendo UK and Nintendo of Europe took to Twitter today to announce that Gamecube Controller support will be hitting the Wii U; and will feature in the next Smash Bros. title! From the picture posted, it appears the support will be added via a new accessory which will plug in to the Wii U via USB and offer the standard four Gamecube controller ports like on the original ‘Cube and the Wii. Given the nature of the accessory, it seems unlikely this will be used ONLY for Smash Bros. – many Wii games and WiiWare / Wii Virtual Console titles supported the Gamecube and the Wii U is backwards-compatible with those, so we may see Gamecube controls returned to those games; but what’s stopping Nintendo also baking Gamecube controller support back into the Wii U Virtual Console or even into future Wii U titles? The prospect is tantalising.
Interestingly, the picture appears to show the Wii U with both front USB ports in use, though the connectors are different colours. This begs the question as to whether the Gamecube add-on will require one or two USB ports to use. What’s more, the plugged-in Gamecube controller in the picture features a Smash Ball decal – just a decorative touch, or will whole new, special-edition Gamecube controllers hit the stores once again? There’s a lot of questions still to be answered; but one thing’s for sure. Those of you who’ve kept hold of your Gamecube controllers for the last couple of years or more, now have even more reason to feel smug.
Gg Nintendo. Now people can’t tell me I’m crazy for keeping four new gcn controllers all these years!
The last week seems to have brought a lot of game developers out of their trance as far as the question of what will happen to the multiplayer servers of many games after Gamespy is shut down on the 31st of the month. Quite a few games have already had solutions either announced or already put into place. The latest are Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Dawn of War II.
Relic have swooped in at the last moment seemingly (although the process actually started last week) to save the original Dawn of War from Gamespy and while Dawn of War II is not supported by Gamespy (rather the Games for Windows system) they’ve decided to set it up with the same new system. In short it means that these games, noted for being progressive games in the RTS genre, will continue to offer multiplayer games after the end of May. And that means all seven titles as well.
Dawn of War’s multiplayer has already been updated to work through Steam instead via a patch offered on May 22nd, but Dawn of War 2’s new system is still a work in progress. Relic say that they expect it to be buggy for a little while, but they couldn’t fathom leaving the players without any sort of multiplayer system for a length of time so release it mostly-finished so they can patch the bugs while still offering players the chance to connect and compete.
Sega have released the details of a new Sonic character today via their online Sega blog. The character will be important to the events of the new Sonic Boom franchise, appearing in the show, games and merchandise as part of the ‘core ensemble’.
The character is an orange and brown ‘jungle badger’ named ‘Sticks’, who has lived in the wilds all her life. The blog describes her as “the most primal character in the Sonic franchise” and as a “force of nature”. She’s listed as being a strong hunter, survivalist and having a strong animal instinct, using hand-crafted weaponry (most notably a boomerang) to take on foes. However the wildness of her character makes it hard for her to trust others, as well as having negatively affected her social skills.
In terms of relationships, the blog says that she and Amy will become close, Amy helping the badger to adjust to social situations and more urban settings, while Sticks will protect Amy from greater threats. This could potentially be seen as the Sonic Boom’s way of developing Amy’s character beyond the constantly following fangirl of Sonic she is often depicted as, and maybe giving her an opportunity to mature slightly.
Beyond this, not too much more is known of her so we’ll have to wait and see how the games and tie-in show do with handling her character and role.
Mario Kart 8 is almost upon us. What better way to celebrate than by announcing DLC?
Mercedes and Nintendo of Japan have partnered to bring the new Mercedes GLA do the game in kart form. The best part though, is this commercial featuring a truly terrifying Mario.
(No word on availability of the GLA Kart DLC outside of Japan as yet, stay tuned for updates).
Nintendo’s involvement with Youtube and the people who do let’s plays of their games is well-known. The company’s stance to those videos who earn a living by reviewing games in video-form was simply “don’t do it, or if you do be prepared to give us all the revenue from it” and led to many, many content creators simply deciding not to do Nintendo content as it was simply more trouble than it was worth.
Now it seems that Nintendo has relaxed its policy. Reviewers and Youtubers who make their living from gaming video content can make and monetise videos of Nintendo’s games now… as long as they’re prepared to sign up to what the company calls an ‘affiliate program’. These programs are arrangements made between ad companies, Nintendo and Google and mean that the revenue gets shared between the video maker, Google and Nintendo.
While it’s a step up from the previous policy, it’s still probably not what Youtube content creators would hope for. As of yet, the standards of the program is unknown which could mean smaller channels might get rejected. Either way, this new policy might not convince those who swore off Nintendo content to start making it again.
