Month: January 2016

Fire Emblem Fates DLC release schedule revealed

Posted on by astyahla

It has been about a year since “Fire Emblem Fates” was first announced, but now we are three weeks away from its North American release date. Nintendo of America has revealed its plans for DLC.

Additional content begins with the game you choose. When “Fates” is released on February 19, there will be two different story lines to choose from, each of which is a full game on its own. To that point, they are divided between game cards at retail. “Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright” follows your customizable protagonist as he or she sides with his or her blood relatives in the peaceful kingdom of Hoshido as you help them defend against the invading kingdom of Nohr. Gameplay wise, the experience will be similar to the previous game in the series, “Fire Emblem Awakening” as you are able to travel around a world map and freely engage in skirmishes to grind for experience and money. The difficulty will generally be easier and the objectives for each chapter will be simpler such as defeating all enemies or a boss.

“Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest,” on the other hand, has you side with Nohr, whose royal family raised you. In this case, you will be tasked with helping with the invasion and conquest of Hoshido, while also working with your adopted siblings to start a revolution against the corrupt king. Unlike “Birthright,” players will experience a more linear game, advancing through each chapter immediately upon completing the previous one like in most of the older “Fire Emblem” games. Thus you will have a limited amount of experience and money to work with. Furthermore the game will generally be more difficult and offer more varied objectives such as defending a base or giving you a limited number of turns to work with.

Players choose which path they start with when they purchase either “Birthright” or “Conquest” for $39.99. The other path is then available to download at a discount for $19.99, omitting the need to purchase the other game. In addition, a third path, “Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation” will be available exclusively as DLC on March 10. This path will have you refuse to take a side and find out why Hoshido and Nohr are at war in the first place. This path will give insight to the events of both of the other paths, so it is best if players save “Revelation” for last. Once you are ready to play this path, it will be available for $19.99.

In addition to the three story paths, Nintendo also has a series of DLC chapters for all three paths. They can either be purchased individually or all at once by purchasing Map Pack 1 for $17.99 The first map, “Before Awakening” will be available day one for free. This chapter has your army travel to Ylisse, home of the protagonists of “Awakening.” You will also get the Exalt’s Brand and the Hero’s Brand the first tim you complete the map. The Exalt’s Brand grants any woman into army Lucina’s Great Lord class, while the Hero’s Brand will turn a man into Marth’s Lodestar class. The rest of the DLC is as follows:

“Boo Camp”

Available February 25 for $2.49, this map gives you a chance to earn a lot of experience.

“Beach Brawl”

This map revolves around a competition between the royal siblings over who gets a ticket to a tropical vacation. It will be available February 25 for $2.49.

“Ghostly Gold”

Play this map in order to get a lot of gold. This is perfect for those who need to fill their coffers. It will be available March 3 for $2.49.

“Museum Melee”

Stock up on rare and powerful weapons on this map. It will be available on March 3 for $2.49.

“Royal Rumble”

This map will throw you into a battle to see who is the strongest of the royal siblings. Completing the map grants you a Dread Scroll, allowing for a class change to Dread Fighter, and an Ebon Wing, granting access to the Dark Falcon class. This challenging map will be available on March 17 for $2.49.

“Hidden Truths 1 and 2”

This set of two maps will serve as a prologue for the games and explain some more of the story. You may want to hold off on this one until you have finished “Revelation.” You will also get the Fell Brand, allowing a man in your army access to Robin’s Grandmaster class. The maps will be available on March 24 for $4.49.

“Vanguard Dawn”

Return to Tellius for this map based off of the chapter “Elincia’s Gambit” from “Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Complete the map and you will get a Vanguard Brand, granting you Ike’s Vanguard class. This map will be available on March 31 for $1.99.

“Anna on the Run”

The recurring character Anna is under attack from thieves and needs your help. If you save her, she will return the favor by joining your army as an Outlaw. This map will be available on April 7 for $1.99.

“Ballistician Blitz”

This map takes you back to Archanea and is based off of the chapter “The Wooden Cavalry” from “Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light.” Success in this chapter grants you a Sighting Lens, granting a unit of your choice the Ballistician class, complete with a long range ballista. This map will be available on April 14 for $1.99.

“A Gift from Anna”

This is not an actual map, but a one-time gift of your choice of a Sighting Lens or a Witch’s Mark for free. This gift will be available on April 14.

“Witches’ Trial”

This map is set in Valentia from “Fire Emblem Gaiden.” More specifically, it is based off of the chapter “Fear Mountain.” If you complete the map, you will be rewarded with the Witch’s Mark, which can be used to make any woman in your army a Witch.

All of the maps can be played multiple times and most of them yield rewards every time you complete them. In addition, “Fates” is compatible with amiibo. By scanning a Fire Emblem character (Marth, Ike, Robin, and Lucina), you can meet that character between chapters and receive a gift from them. The third time you scan a character, you will be able to fight them and recruit them if you are victorious.

Super Mario Maker Review: A constant stream of excellent content

Posted on by astyahla

Platform: Wii U

Genre: Platform/Creative

Number of Players: 1

ESRB: E

“Super Mario Bros.” is an important part of gaming history. It was the game that revitalized the video game market and the series has been going strong since 1985. This is largely due to the excellent levels the experts at Nintendo have created. However, there has been no official way for players to try their hand at creating Mario levels. Nintendo has remedied that with “Super Mario Maker” and it is a blast.

The game is exactly what it sounds like, you can create your own Mario levels. While you do start with a small selection of objects to place, you unlock more as you spend more time in the editor. What starts with simple ground, blocks, pipes and basic enemies such as Goombas and Koopa Troopas expands to include more advanced tools such as P-Switches, doors and more advanced enemies such as Lakitu, the Hammer Bros. and even Bowser and Bowser Jr. These are unlocked by spending five minutes each day with the newest tools or by placing enough objects in your levels, allowing you to choose the pace at which you create more and more advanced levels.

You can even choose from six different settings, including ground, underground, underwater, castles, airships and ghost houses, across four different graphic styles based off of the original “Super Mario Bros.,” “Super Mario Bros. 3,” “Super Mario World” and “New Super Mario Bros. U”. While some objects may change between graphical styles, such as Goomba’s Shoe from the original and “3” being replaced by Yoshi in “World” and “U,”the game gives you everything you need to create your own masterpieces and a lot of freedom to do so. You can give Super Mushrooms to enemies to make them bigger, add wings to anything, put enemies, items or obstacles in Clown Cars and many other challenges you may wish.

One cool addition is the Mystery Mushroom, which changes Mario into different characters or objects. The all control the same and the costume even lets you take a hit. These costumes are not just limited to the Mario universe, you can play through the level as Link, Samus Aran, Isabelle, Pikachu and many others. You can unlock most of these costumes by scanning the corresponding amiibo. But even if you cannot track down a particular one, all of them are unlockable by playing the game. The 100 plus costumes are not limited to characters with amiibo so you will have to work for a lot of them even if you are an obsessive collector.

Once you have created a level, you can play it to make sure everything functions as you intended and can even back out into the editor to make changes at anytime. Once you are satisfied you can upload the your course to the internet for other people to play. In order to keep impossible levels from showing up, everyone is required to be able to complete their own levels before uploading them. While this is reasonable, it is common for people to make really hard levels and put a short cut in somewhere to say that it is beatable.

You can play other people’s levels by choosing them individually, or in a series of eight to 24 in the 100 Mario Challenge. Playing individual levels gives you infinite lives, while the 100 Mario Challenge gives you 100 lives to last through the entire challenge. You may not exceed 100 lives and you may only gain back three lives per level. In this case the levels are randomized and you are given the option to skip a level if it is too difficult and get a new level in its place. Your efforts are rewarded, as you unlock a random Mystery Mushroom costume every time you complete the challenge, however the game stops giving you costumes on easy and medium difficulties after a while, requiring you to play on expert difficulty to get the rest.

Once you have completed a level, you have the option of giving the level a star as praise and comment on the level. The more stars you earn on your levels, the more levels you are allowed to upload to the server. Unpopular levels are delisted over time, so it behooves you to improve your design skills to send out more levels. However, you are forced to give a star every time you comment on the stage, so giving criticism forces you to say you like a subpar level.

For those who do not have a stable internet connection, “Super Mario Maker” includes 100 pre made courses that you can play through the 10 Mario Challenge. They are just as creative as the levels in previous games so they are worth looking at. They can also help give ideas for user made levels.

Finding a specific level is easy as each level comes with a course ID number. Everytime a course is posted, it is shown on Miiverse along with the ID number so you can enter it to find it. You can also use the search function in game, or check the companion website “Super Mario Maker Bookmark.” Once you log in with your Nintendo Network ID, you can bookmark levels you wan to play and they will show up on a list in the game. These options make it easy to find specific levels. The portal can be found here.

Overall, Super Mario Maker goes above and beyond in its function as a level editor. The many ways to get involved in the community and potentially endless stream of content is more than worth the retail price even for those who are not as creative as most people. Even so, I recommend going into the editor as much as possible. The user interface is very simple, yet the possibilities are endless. You may make the next great Mario level.

Score 9.5/10

Three new fighters revealed for Pokken Tournament

Posted on by astyahla

Nintendo revealed three new playable characters for the “Pokemon” fighting game “Pokken Tournament.” The first of the new characters is Braixen, the evolved form of Fennekin. According to the site serebii.net, Braixen specializes in ranged attacks. Its appearance goes against the trend of fully evolved Pokemon as playable characters, as Braixen evolves into Delphox.

Another new character is Garchomp, the “pseudo-legendary” of Generation IV. It is said that Garchomp is more of a close-range fighter and will be able to Mega Evolve as its Burst Mode.

The final Pokemon revealed today was Mewtwo, known for being the strongest Pokemon in the original games. It is unknown how Mewtwo will differ from the previously announced Shadow Mewtwo, which serves as a secret boss, but can be unlocked as a playable character by fulfilling currently unknown conditions in-game or scanning the Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card that comes with first edition copies of the game.

It is known that one more playable character will be revealed on Friday, Jan. 15.

“Pokken Tournament” is a fighting game developed by Namco Bandai, and is based off of their own fighting series “Tekken.” The influence can be seen in certain move sets, such as Pikachu using a similar fighting style to the Mishima family, namely Heihachi and Kazuya, and Gardevoir having similar moves to Jun and Asuka Kazama. The game was released in Japanese Arcades on July 16, 2015, while Dave and Buster’s had a limited run of the Arcade version in North America. The game will be released for Wii U on March 18, 2016 in Japan, while North America and Europe will get the game this Spring and Australia will get it this Fall.

The roster so far includes Charizard, Pikachu, Pikachu Libre, Machamp, Gengar, Mewtwo, Shadow Mewtwo, Suicune, Sceptile, Blaziken, Gardevoir, Garchomp, Lucario, Weavile, and Braixen.

A look at multiplayer-only gaming

Posted on by astyahla

Competition is one of the most integral parts of gaming. As such, several games include at least one multiplayer mode, in addition to a single player campaign. Sometimes the multiplayer mode ends up becoming the focus of the game, even to the extent that there is no single player mode to begin with.

Multiplayer-only games are nothing new, but they have become more and more prominent in recent years. While several games are renowned for their multiplayer such as “Super Smash Bros.,” “Goldeneye 007,” or “Call of Duty,” those do not count as they all have fully realized single-player modes. Even genres synonymous with multiplayer, such as fighting or sports offer either dedicated single-player mods or just allow you to play against the AI.

A good example of a multiplayer-only game is “Titanfall.” There are no single player modes at all. Just online first-person shooting matches with you playing either on foot or in the cockpit of a giant robot. While this helps players get straight into the action, there are signs that the developers wanted to include a campaign of some sort, as there is a series of matches with a storyline tacked onto them.

Meanwhile, “Splatoon” is not a true example of multiplayer-only gaming. Yes, the online 8-player matches are the highlight, but it does include a single-player campaign. Ultimately, the single player mode feels like an afterthought as it can be completed in just a few hours and does not have a compelling story for the player to get into.

One of the most visible recent examples is “Star Wars: Battlefront.” This shooter looks to recreate the large scale battles that are synonymous with “Star Wars.” The title supports up to 40 players in a single match while also offering cooperative missions that can also be played through local multiplayer.

While the idea of multiplayer-only games sounds awesome, there are some flaws that come with the games. For example, these games rely on a continuous flow of content in order to avoid boring players. One common complaint about “Battlefront” is the lack of content available. I remember similar complaints were made about “Splatoon”upon its release, but once more content was added, many publications revised their reviews and “Splatoon” became one of the best games of 2015.

For that reason, I think that it is best to wait to review multiplayer-only games for a few months. Either that or go back and take another look once more content is available. It is entirely possible for a game with more content added to address the original complaints and become good. After all, “Battlefront” still has the potential to be a good game. We just have to wait and see.