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Namco's Smash Bros. team includes Tekken, Tales, Soulcalibur staff
A pair of statements on Nintendo of America's Nintendo Direct site offers more detail on Namco Bandai Studios' involvement with the next Super Smash Bros. game, coming to Wii U and 3DS. Director and Sora studio head Masahiro Sakurai (who appears to have gotten even younger) said that the team started development after the announcement of the project. "Currently, the prototype prepared by Namco Bandai Games and Namco Bandai Studios' special team looks pretty good, and it's working great," he said.Namco Bandai Studios' Masaya Kobayashi named some of the staff from Namco's side who will work on the fighting game, also describing their pedigree. "Yoshito Higuchi, the producer and the director of the 'Tales' series, Tetsuya Akatsuka, producer and director of 'Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs.,' the art director/sound director of the 'SoulCalibur' series, the main development team staff from the Tekken series...and that's just for starters." Kobayashi lists Ridge Racer games, We Ski, and Go Vacation as his own representative works.If having a random mishmash of Namco staff working on Smash Bros. concerns you, remember that Brawl had a lot of programming done by Game Arts, whose history of shooters, Lunar, and Grandia games is even less obviously transferable to fighting game expertise.
Nintendo brings in Namco Bandai to work on new Smash Bros.
During today's Nintendo Direct press conference, president Satoru Iwata revealed new details on the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game currently in the works for 3DS and Wii U. Sakurai will return, but this time he'll have some help from Namco Bandai and Bandai Namco Studios. Two Namco individuals in particular were singled out: producer Kobayashi and Tales series director, Yoshito Higuchi.
Sakurai: 3DS/Wii U 'dual support' is 'key' for next Super Smash Bros.
The Smash Bros. franchise has remained relatively unchanged for the most part since 1999. Each iteration adds new stages, characters and graphical improvements, but the core gameplay remains effectively identical in almost every way that counts. This strategy has worked well enough over the last 13 years, but apparently its sustainability is on the wane."There is a certain dead end we come to if we just expand the volume of the game," said Smash Bros. creator and Nintendo legend Masahiro Sakurai during an interview with IGN. "I intend to change direction a little as we go ... The key to that's going to be its dual support for 3DS/Wii U."Sakurai corroborated previous statements that the next Smash Bros is still quite a ways away, saying that he's "really just getting started" and that development is still going to take time. "But," he concludes, "I'll come up with something that uses that link as the game's central axis, so I hope you're looking forward to it."
Transmog Inspirations: WoW meets Nintendo, part 2
I give up. I can't for the life of me create a transmog for Princess Peach. I've tried and I've tried, but there just aren't enough pink clothes in the World of Warcraft to piece together a convincing Peach. I'm sorry, Mario, but you're going to have to settle for some other princess. Princess Poobah? Princess Theradras? Princess ... I can't think of any more. Someone call Anne! Anyway, this week I decided to put together a few more transmogs based on Nintendo characters. A lot of readers were asking for more, so I made one for Princess Zelda, Toad, and Roy (you know, from Fire Emblem and Super Smash Bros. -- everyone loves Roy!).
Breakfast Topic: What could WoW borrow from console games?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Does anyone remember when Blizzard said it wanted to add Animal Crossing-style fishing to WoW? What about the idea of a more personalized daily experience for the Molten Front? MMOs are great, but console games still offer a few things that could add some additional depth to genre, and Blizzard already knows this. Personally, I'd love to see combat get revamped to be more like Monster Hunter. Dodges and attacks are based on real skill, not arbitrary stats (though damage taken and received is still stat-based), plus enemies have specific parts you can hit to eventually break or cut off pieces of a creature. I mean really, wouldn't it be cool if a whole raid focus fired on Nefarion's neck in order to chop his head off and haul it back to Orgrimmar? Or what about random power-ups appearing, à la Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros.? You're just running around the game world, and suddenly a giant sword appears, increasing your damage dealt by 1,000% and giving you a single move that constantly fires up for 15 seconds. Take that, murloc scum! What kinds of console-like features would you like to see Blizzard implement in WoW? Enemies that can be knocked out and dragged? Randomly appearing pipes to secret treasure caves? Open-world, mounted combat?
Super Smash Land (Smash Bros. demake) now available for download
It's been a long wait, but now you can finally get your hands on the Super Smash Bros. demake that caught our collective eye back in February. Super Smash Land is currently available for download over on Piki Geek. A labor of love from Dan Fornace, Super Smash Land features eleven different stages and six brawlers (including Mega Man!), a classic Arcade mode, multiplayer for up to four people and a Polygon Team-style Endless Mode. Heck, there are even online leaderboards! ... What are you waiting for? This is the full game. Go play it!
Monster Hunter Tri has occupied over 50 hours per player on average
Monster Hunter Tri has already sucked away over a million hours of gameplay time from users, according to stats from the Nintendo Channel. In just 63 days from release, the monster hunting epic stole a full million hours from users who reported logging in to the game over 330,000 times. The high number isn't necessarily a record breaker (Super Smash Bros. has garnered 100 times that, and players have spent 17 billion hours on Xbox Live), but where Monster Hunter Tri stands out is the per player duration: players of the game have spent an average of 52 hours in the game so far. By comparison, Super Mario Galaxy 2 has eaten up 1.8 million hours of free time over 710k times, but the average time played there is about 20 hours -- more players, less time each. There are only four games ahead of Monster Hunter Tri in terms of played-per-person time, and all of them have been out for much longer. In other words, monsters aren't the only thing being hunted in this game -- free time had better watch its back as well.
Master Chief crash lands onto Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The modders at Kitty Corp: Meow Mix, the group behind the remarkably awesome Cloud Strife appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, have worked their inexplicable magic once more, bringing a decidedly non-Nintendo character into the frantic fighting game. This time around, it's the Halo universe's quintessential badass, Master Chief -- or rather, a re-skinned version of Captain Falcon, who is fully decked out in Master Chief's armor. (We really hope he asked permission before trying it on.) You can check out a video of Master Chief's moves in a playful sparring match against Cloud just past the jump. Enjoy that video, because it might be the closest to a 3D version of Mushroom Kingdom Fusion that we'll ever get. [Thanks, Ike!]
Cloud Strife hacked (and slashed) into Smash Bros. Brawl
Up until today, our biggest problem with Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been that it doesn't have enough introspective, spiky-haired RPG protagonists. That's all changed, thanks to a group of modders known as DasDonkey Team and Kitty Corp: Meow Mix. Final Fantasy VII protagonist Cloud Strife -- along with his trusty Buster sword -- has been faithfully recreated in surprising detail here in Nintendo's franchise fight-em-up with custom animations and attacks. We won't pretend to understand the motivation behind the implementation (with these mods, we so seldom do), but hey, we're not complaining. The more, the merrier! Head past the break to check out some video of Cloud in action. [Via GameVideos]
VC in Brief: Super Smash Bros. (N64) and Ninja Gaiden (Arcade)
What a day for Virtual Console fans. For one, we've got the ultra-aggressive coin-op classic, Ninja Gaiden, to check out. Then, on top of that, the game that spawned one of Nintendo's most beloved franchises: Super Smash Bros. for the N64. If that doesn't put a smile on your face, then you just may be one of the most depressed people on Earth. We suggest consulting a doctor. Super Smash Bros. (N64, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points) Ninja Gaiden (Arcade, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points) Every week, we like to check out what's new on the Virtual Console. We offer these videos as a sort of taste to help you decide whether or not you would want the game in question. We also toss in our own two cents because we're pushy jerks like that.
NintendoWare Weekly: Super Smash Bros., Ninja Gaiden, Dragon's Lair
Nintendo announced its 500th downloadable Wii game today, reserving the honor for Super Smash Bros. Or, we suppose, for any of the other Virtual Console or WiiWare games released today. But Nintendo says it's Super Smash Bros., and that certainly seems like a more special way to celebrate a milestone than, say, the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden. See all the WiiWare, Virtual Console, and DSiWare releases after the break.
Report: Mario Kart, Pilotwings and Smash Bros. coming to Virtual Console by year's end
Gamespot is reporting that Nintendo revealed to them that a few oft-requested classic titles will be added to the Virtual Console within the coming weeks. According to the report, the festivities will kick off this coming Monday, when Super Mario Kart (which has been available in Japan for approximately forever) will be added to the storefront for the standard price of 800 Wii Points ($8). Later in the holiday season, Nintendo will also reportedly drop the original Pilotwings onto the platform, then shortly after that, will also toss Super Smash Bros. into the mix. No prices have been announced for these two titles, but according to the Gamespot article, both will be released by the end of the year. That's just great. It's not like we're already drowning in huge, time-draining blockbusters. Now we've got to start perfecting our drifting and shell-flinging once again. We appreciate the gesture, Nintendo -- but your timing is rotten.
VC Friday: Super Virtual Smash Bros.
Today's Virtual Console release is something really special -- something that only happens on the Virtual Console a couple of times a year: a Nintendo 64 game. And what a Nintendo 64 game! Despite having a day or two to change its mind after announcing, Nintendo of Europe has actually put Super Smash Bros. on the Virtual Console. Now you can play all three Super Smash Bros. games on the same system!Joining it is Cocoto Platform Jumper, which isa middling platformer from last-gen. And on DSiWare, Sudoku 150! for Challengers, a collection of sudoku puzzles for 500 DSi Points. Also, Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, whose iPhone sequel was announced at Apple's WWDC event, before this game launched. Awesome.
Smash Bros. intro done with Team Fortress 2 cast
The Team Fortress 2 vignettes are clever, but YouTube videographer AyesDyef did something that takes serious geeky dedication when he recreated the opening to Super Smash Bros. with the TF2 crew. The video above is an incredible recreation of the original Smash Bros. opening. How do we know it's so accurate? Well, there's a comparison video after the break if you don't believe us.
April Fools: Nintendo releasing M-rated Smash Bros.
Well, we guess this is one way to show the hardcore that you haven't abandoned them. The always-dependable IGN says that Nintendo is rolling out the new "Wii Expand" service with Super Smash Bros. Brawl X: Extreme, a super-violent take on the company's party fighter.When it really comes out because it's really real, SSBBX:E will allow Link to decapitate Mario. So, yeah, it's going to be the best game ever.
Wii Warm Up: Smashed Gameplay
As reported yesterday, the new TMNT: Smash Up for the Wii seems to borrow liberally from Super Smash Bros. We're not going to argue about the "fairness" of lifting from other games to make your design, because appropriating other people's ideas and resynthesizing them is basically the essence of art. And every fighting game since Street Fighter II has cribbed from Capcom's masterpiece anyway. Basically, we wouldn't have a fighting genre if not for copying.But on to Smash Bros. and the Turtles. Do you think the Smash Bros. gameplay is strong enough to work without Nintendo characters? Are there any particular ideas involved in the bizarre fighting series that more fighting games could stand to inherit? And is it going to become its own branch of the fighting game genre?
Super Smash Bros. sparring on Japanese Virtual Console in January
"B-b-b-but I don't live in Japan!" We know, dear reader -- despite the fact that a great deal of the world's population takes up residence in the Land of the Rising Sun, we understand that there are plenty of those who don't. This second group likely just thinks we're taunting them with the information that Super Smash Bros., one of the most requested titles for the Virtual Console, will be landing on the service in Japan sometime in early January.However, take solace in the fact that this might mean that it'll be hitting North American e-store shelves sometime soon. Let's just hope that our price for the game doesn't mimic Japan's -- 1,200 points (as opposed to the usual 1,000 for an N64 game) is ridiculous, and we absolutely would not pay it. Well, maybe we'd pay it, but we definitely wouldn't feel good about it. Fine -- we'd probably be ecstatic, but we'd totally pout for like, a minute or two. Take that, Nintendo!
Wii Warm Up: Super Obsolete Bros.?
The big news out of Nintendo of Japan yesterday was an impending Virtual Console release of the original N64 Super Smash Bros.. I personally have warm feelings for the original title that none of the sequels have managed to recapture, but that has more to do with the circumstances of my life at the time than the actual game -- I just happened to be living in a dorm at the time, and Super Smash Bros. was a daily pastime among residents.At least on a superficial level, the sequels (both of which are playable on Wii) improved massively upon the original in terms of character selection, levels, options, and extras. So why all the furor to go back? Is it something about game balance that is visible only to tournament nerds? Overarching love of the series? Nostalgia? Don't take this as an attack -- I'm probably going to buy the thing myself, and I'm not sure why.%Gallery-26316%
Super Smash Bros. leads January VC lineup in Japan
Nintendo of Japan has announced their plans for the next month's Virtual Console games, and, for once, the list includes a Nintendo 64 title. Super Smash Bros. is headed to the Japanese VC in January. Pokémon Snap came out in the US within a week of the Japanese release last year, so maybe this year's big winter N64 game will follow suit. Nintendo has lovingly appended an extra 200 points to the normal cost of a Nintendo 64 game for this release.Super Smash Bros. is likely to be the only thing anyone reading this will care about, given the combined Brawl obsession of the Wii audience and the first-party-franchise domination of VC sales, but we've got the whole (rather small) lineup for January after the break just because.
Top 5: Multiplayer Experiences
As someone who writes on the Internets, I do a lot of reading as well. As just about any successful author will advise, if I want to be a better writer then I should be reading as much as possible. Thus, I tend to spend a good amount of time scouring the gaming websites and reading commentary from just about anyone. I wouldn't insult anyone by pointing out flaws in their work (as I'm host to many of my own), but it is sufficient to say that there is great diversity in the quality and other general attributes of gaming commentary. One source that I do consistently enjoy comes from GoNintendo's head honcho, known as RawmeatCowboy. Equal parts Nintendo fan and beard enthusiast, RMC has a passion for gaming unmatched by nearly anyone else in the entire industry. Whereas some journalists and commentators may give off an impression of jaded cynicism, this particular blogger is a bundle of video game-loving joy. Though he's not quite the wordsmith of a Jerry Holkins, his joy and optimism transcend any potential criticism. And after all, that should be the reason we play video games: for happiness. Stepping away from worshipping his shrine, I'll get back on target. In a recent post, RMC discusses offline multiplayer via a get-together involving several friends of his trying out Guitar Hero: World Tour. He states that multiplayer is more enjoyable in person than online, and I find it difficult to disagree. That is not to say that online multiplayer is garbage; quite the opposite is true. Aside from the obvious pragmatics of not always being able to round up a few friends to play a game you enjoy, there's the global aspect behind online gaming. Though I've been battling people online via chess years before any major console had such capabilities, the enormous power of the technology didn't register with me until very recently. As I was connecting to an online race in Mario Kart Wii, the identification of racers on the globe really hit home. Realizing that I was simultaneously connecting with individuals from Japan, China, Germany, and England was strangely beautiful. Despite the fascinating global implications of such connections, I remain a bit of a luddite in that I don't think there's anything better than having your friends in the same room with you while fighting with or against each other. Here's the Top 5 ways we recommend that you enjoy such opportunities. NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.