"Those of us who love Nintendo know that no matter what's going on in our lives, we can always count on these games to deliver fun and great gameplay, because it's Nintendo." - Reggie Fils-Aime
It's been more than a week since the release of Civilization VI and Battlefield One, and time goes on. This week was a surprisingly packed week for Nintendo fans, including a very desired Nintendo Switch related date. Let's dive on in.
Nintendo Switch Announcements
We have already received the first look at Nintendo's next console, but there is actually quite a bit that we still don't know about it, including specs, price, and what games the system will have at launch. Nintendo's January 12 presentation seeks to clarify all of these burning questions. Until then, well I guess we'll have to keep hearing rumors and wait.
Pokemon Sun and Moon... again
The Pokemon Company has been releasing trailer after trailer after trailer trying to get Pokemon fans hyped for the seventh generation of Pokemon, and it certainly is working. Yet another Pokemon Sun and Moon trailer has released this week, detailing even more new features to the game and showing off a few new Pokemon as well. I won't go too much into this one, but the trailer includes the final evolution for the starter 'mons, the guardian deity for all four islands, and a new post-champion battle challenge that includes some Pokemon Trainer legends. Pokemon Sun and Moon are now only 18 days away.
Because why not? A Volcanion code!
GameStop had an event this month were you could go into their store and pick up a special code for a Volcanion in your OmegaRuby or AlphaSapphire Pokemon game, and I happened to come across an extra, so if you still need a code for this event-only Pokemon, here she is:
A6Z7 H4U4 USEL 6P6X
Enjoy your badass Volcanion, courtesy of GameStop and kcduckling.
I'm still looking to post some Civ VI gameplay hopefully soon, but school will be school, so probably I'll have to wait for the weekend. Until then kcduckling out.
My mic just arrived in the mail today, so you can expect the kcduckling of the future to have a lot more impressions and reviews via microphone, a real treat for you loyal fans to finally experience my silky smooth voice into your ears. I'll come back soon with some Nintendo Switch impressions and hopefully my first Civ VI Let's Play
Back at it again with the weekly update, its me. And boy howdy was this a hell of a week for us gamers, with the release of Battlefield One, Civilization VI, a Pokemon Sun demo, AND the freaking goddamn Nintendo NX was revealed as the Nintendo Switch. Pretty cool stuff. Let's get into the details, shall we?
Battlefield One
I already touched on this a tad bit the other day, I've only played a few hours of the online multiplayer, and it was pretty damn excellent. Seriously good looking and pretty fun to play, it's worth checking out.
Pokemon Sun Demo
A very overshadowed little fella, the Pokemon Sun demo also came out earlier this week on Tuesday. It is an incredibly short demo that was very, very, very disappointing. I know it's just a demo, but seriously, put at least a little substance in it. The demo is literally you walk around in a city and then go to a trial and take a few pics and battle about 6 Pokemon with your type disadvantaged Greninja. After that, you unlock a Tauros for your PokeRide service and can do a few more things, but seriously, a really quick demo that offers a tiny taste of the game. Overall though, the game still is shaping up to be the biggest entry in the series to date, so look forward to its release come this November 18th.
Civilization VI
Seriously, wow man. Civilization V had dominated my play time on Steam and was easily my most played game in my whole library, so I was looking very much forward to its follower, Civilization VI. When it finally unlocked for me Thursday night at 11pm, I immediately jumped into the game and was not at all disappointed. As of now, the game has been out for 71 hours and Steam tells me that I have played for 35 of those, so I'm pretty hooked. My time has pretty evenly been distributed between a single player game as Gandhi and a multiplayer game as Montezuma. I've got about 300 turns in both and there are some really big things that jump out at me.
The incredible aggressiveness of the barbarians seems to be so much more powerful than in Civ V. In my multiplayer game, I foolishly expanded too far out of my reach and put a new city up on the same landmass as a barbarian encampment and for my first time in Civ history, the barbarians took my city from me and burned it to the ground. Pretty rude, if I do say so myself.
The updated civics and tech trees are incredibly helpful and the integration into the game is incredible. Every tech and civic comes with a "Eureka moment" to speed its research, a feature that rewards players for playing the game with wit and really thinking through their moves.
The unstacked cities too offer a fresh take on the Civilization gameplay that demands city planning, which tiles will become districts and which tiles will be saved for food and housing.
Civ AI leaders definitely have not changed much from my experience. Even though leaders all have agendas now that should allow you to please them, they still make some pretty outlandish claims sometimes, like my multiplayer game where Gilgamesh of Sumeria denounced me because of my treasury size when I had 5,000 gold and he only had 195. Hypocritical much?
I'm thinking perhaps sometime this next week or weekend, I'll finally get that YouTube channel I've dreamed about up and running. For sure I'll try to stream a little Civ this upcoming week, we'll just have to see.
I feel like there was something else. I can't quite remember what it was, what was I thinking of? Oh, right.
A freaking new Nintendo console is on the way and not only does it look pretty freakin sweet, it also teased a new 3D Mario game for it which is enough to get that hype train rolling down the tracks. I'll come back later for some more detailed Nintendo NX impressions, but until then have a good week and kcduckling out.
I too am surprised that I was away from video games enough this weekend in order to get this post out, but I have already logged about 12 hours in Civ VI and have also gotten to play about 3 hours of Battlefield One and both have been impressive.
Battlefield One
Seriously one of the prettiest games I think I've ever had the pleasure of playing. I don't own it, but I did get to play it for a few hours on my friend's PlayStation 4. The weapons are cool as shit, the game looks phenomenal, and the only gripe that I have with it is the seriously overpowered horsemen and snipers. But that is a small complaint. One of my friends said that Battlefield One is a good game but doesn't feel like a Battlefield game, which could disappoint some fans of the series. Still though, with an incredible story experience, Battlefield One is a good entry, at least as a first person shooter and not so much as a Battlefield game.
Civilization VI
It has been a little while since Civilization V and Beyond Earth just couldn't satisfy my Civ cravings, so thank god Civ VI is finally upon us. I have played about 12 hours, in one single player game as Gandhi and in another multiplayer game as Montezuma. 200 turns into the game as Gandhi and I can really feel all the changes that have been made, from feeling the wrath of crossing an AI's agenda to the relentlessness of the goddamn barbarians. I'll be back with a more in depth look at Civ VI, but just know this: Civ VI has improved in just about every way from Civ V, and that was a damn good game.
This is a little appetizer for tomorrow's post for the weekly update + Civ VI stuff, but I am also thinking about maybe recording some Civ VI and doing a little YouTube actin, but we'll just have to see. Until tomorrow, kcduckling out.
At long last, the long awaited and infinitely hyped "Nintendo NX" was revealed as the Nintendo Switch. The reveal trailer is a little three minute video that shows off some games but mostly the versatility and the various features of the new system. The system will have tremendous third party support and will be launched in March of 2017. Unfortunately, I don't have much time right now to do any breakdown because of a project I have due tomorrow, but I will be back this weekend and I'll try to handle everything that's going on, between Pokemon and Civ VI and Battlefield One and now this too, its looking like a pretty hefty weekly update. Here's some stuff to look at:
Hello all! I don't know what it is but I am inspired to post more this week! Just the other night whilst in the laundry room, I decided to play Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam! The game that I felt like hyping up a lot only to be let down. I hadn't played it since its release in January, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by it! I think I just burnt myself out after I got it, so I will be carrying on with it this week before Civ VI's launch and be back this later this week with a little review action. Until then, kcduckling out.
Update (11.03.16) I reordered them because I live in a constant state of self doubt.
Recently, I have gone back and started playing both Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii again and it has inspired me to take a look back and rank the Mario Kart games from worst to best. This series has always been very dear to me as Double Dash!! was the first video game I ever played and Mario Kart Wii was the first game I ever bought with my own money. Here goes:
8. Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Mario Kart: Super Circuit is the little known entry in the series for the Game Boy Advance. Not much can be said about this game, it was the entry that brought the series to handheld, but other than that the game is dull and isn't much fun to play.
7. Super Mario Kart
Nostalgia aside, Super Mario Kart is a flat, unexciting game with very little to no fun or exciting courses. The game did start the franchise, but the game itself isn't that great of an outing.
6. Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart 64 marks the point in this countdown where the games go from "not very good" to "good". Mario Kart 64 is a great game, don't get me wrong, but compared to the other games, Mario Kart 64 can't quite compete with the other games ahead of it in the countdown. Mario Kart 64 was the first 3D game in the series and featured incredibly memorable maps such as its Rainbow Road and Yoshi Valley.
5. Mario Kart 7
This here was a tough call, because Mario Kart 7 made huge leaps in the series by introducing car parts to assemble your own race car, flying portions of track, and underwater portions of tracks. Mario Kart 7 simply just doesn't compete with its predecessor because Mario Kart DS was much more revolutionary.
4. Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart DS introduced some of the biggest staples of the entire franchise, including the first game with online competitive racing and bringing back retro tracks remastered, which still remains in the series to this day and is a massive part of every modern Mario Kart game, greatly adding to the depth, variety, and replayability of the game. As far as how fun it is and how much I enjoyed it, Mario Kart 7 is definitely in front of Mario Kart DS, but this game was simply too ground breaking to leave any further behind.
3. Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart Wii is by far one of the greatest multiplayer games for the Nintendo Wii and to this day holds up as a fantastic multiplayer experience. Mario Kart Wii was so damn successful because of its addition of bikes, half-pipes, and tricks to add a whole separate level of gameplay to an already enjoyable game. Additionally, the motion controls and the addition of the Wii Wheel is a welcome addition that really successfully utilized the motion controls of the Wii and was surprisingly not cumbersome. Overall an incredible game that takes the cake in the series for most hectic, just not the best.
2. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Double Dash!! is an incredible game and is the only Mario Kart entry to feature two player coop racing within the same kart, an incredibly fun feature to use with your friends while playing. Additionally, Double Dash!! has some of the most memorable courses in Mario Kart franchise history: Baby Park, Waluigi Stadium, DK Mountain, Wario Colosseum to name a few. Also, the All Cup Tour is such a fun way to play through all of the courses still in Grand Prix mode.
1. Mario Kart 8
Wow. Mario Kart 8 is just such a mind-blowingly great game that this was the easiest decision on the entire list. Mario Kart 8 carries over the flying and underwater sections from Mario Kart 7, as well as the car parts mechanic that allows racers to construct their own cars with no limits on size. Mario Kart 8 is by far, no question, the most gorgeous looking game I believe I have seen on the Wii U. Mario Kart 8 runs at a smooth 1080p, 60fps, and it is noticeable. Mario Kart 8 is beautiful game that manages to make even old SNES and GBA courses look incredibly good and its original courses are some of the best in the series, to site a few: Mount Wario, and who cares what else because FREAKING MOUNT WARIO. The one complaint about Mario Kart 8 is its god-awful character roster. I slam Mario Kart Wii for having Baby Peach and Baby Daisy forced in, but Jesus, Mario Kart 8 includes them as well as a Baby Rosalina, each and every one of the Koopalings, and a, I shit you not, Pink Gold Peach. Meanwhile, Diddy Kong and King Boo don't even make it in. This is one thing that I literally cannot stress in words: it baffles me to know what the hell Nintendo was thinking when they crafted this roster. It seriously confuses the crap out of me. Later DLC adds Link and Dry Bowser among others, which is great that they make it in, but seriously, where the hell is Diddy Kong? Bowser Jr.? Dry Bones? Apart from the character roster, and some item problems, (mostly the existence of a coin item) Mario Kart 8 is a flawless game.
Back at it again with his weekly update, here's kcduckling on time for once! This is a big week for some highly anticipated games, let's jump in.
Civ VI, Battlefield One Release Week
We have almost made it to October 21st, also known as release day for two of fall's biggest releases for video games: Civilization VI and Battlefield One. After weeks of counting down and checking in on updates for both games, mainly Civ VI, I could not be more glad that they have finally arrived. Look for those games this Friday.
Pokemon Sun and Moon continues to unveil creatures
Pokemon has continued to unveil creatures, and this week's unveil includes evolved forms of previously unveiled creatures and new Alolan forms for Grimer and Muk. Full details for the new Pokemon can be found here, Pokemon Sun and Moon is now only one month and two days away.
Not enough to satisfy your hunger for the duckling? No worries, I'll be back later today. Although, because I have not yet had an opportunity to play Paper Mario Color Splash, I will be holding off on my Paper Mario article and instead be posting an article ranking the Mario Karts. Look forward to it,
kcduckling back and on time for once! This week's update will be very lightly packed, as I had a post earlier in the week covering the main happening this week which was, of course, the new Pokemon Sun and Moon trailer. So, without further ado...
Pokemon Sun and Moon starter evolutions revealed
Big news in the Pokemon community as the evolved form of all three of the starters was revealed earlier this week in addition to a bunch of other stuff about the game, all of which is covered right here!
Please, for the love of God, stop with the NX rumors
This isn't news that is brand new this week, this is a plea to anyone in the gaming community to shut the hell up about Nintendo's next console, the NX unless there is actual information to convey. I love Wii U Daily but Jesus, just look at their rumors category and you'll see months worth of random guesses and rumors of what the NX will look like/have as games/perform like/other shit we don't know. But in general, seriously, just please wait for the official announcement. Thanks!
Paper Mario Post coming in hot
The post I'm working on for the current state of the Paper Mario franchise is coming along nicely and should be ready to post sometime this upcoming week. Look forward to it, as it will cover my impression of the new game and compare it to the past games as well as look at where I hope the series is going from here.
Pokemon really dominated everything else this week, including the very popular Pokemon Go app which also will be receiving an update in the near future. Update deets are found right here. See you next time, kcduckling out.
God is good! On Tuesday morning, we were treated to a nearly four minute trailer for Pokemon Sun and Moon that was packed to the brim with information, so here is all of the information right here with the video included, of course.
First of all, we were blessed with the starter Pokemon evolution, and boy do I feel very differently about them. Dartrix is Rowlet's evolution and he is now moodier and has better hair. Overall, he's pretty cool. Torracat is Litten's evolution and I think that he is by far the best designed of the three. Brionne is Popplio's evolution and I am glad I don't choose water type starters, because whoof. This must be the water starter's cool down after creating Greninja, but more on him later.
Festival Plaza is the new social aspect of the game, and it looks eerily similar to Join Avenue from Pokemon Black and White in the aspect that trainers offer you services like training your Pokemon and buying good items. The trial captain Sophocles runs the place, and it looks like everything is payed for by Festival Coins which are earned by doing favors for people that visit your plaza.
Poke Pelago. Wow. Poke Pelago is where your Pokemon in the PC go while they're hanging out in there, and there are several different islands that each have different tasks for your PC Pokemon to do. The only island available from the start is called Isle Abeens, which is the Island where you can possibly find and catch new Pokemon that have been attracted to your island. From there, you will have to develop your other islands before you can use them, but once developed other islands include abilities that will let you find rare items like evolutionary stones and train your Pokemon.
The Z-Ring is all powerful, I guess. Not only can it execute Z-Moves, but it can also trigger mega evolution! The trailer showed Lucario, Kangaskhan, and Salamence all mega evolving, so perhaps this is hinting at their presence in Alola? Furthermore, this is not confirmed by the Pokemon company yet, but if I had to guess, since mega evolution and Z-Moves are both powered by the Z-Ring, I would speculate that you can use EITHER a mega evolution or a Z-Move in battle. Unless its VGC 2017, but we'll get to that later.
What's really cool is that Pokemon is going to release a special demo version again, just like they did for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Pretty freakin cool. But what's also cool is that for the duration of this special demo version, the trainer will have access to Ash Greninja, a special Greninja with an ability that whenever he knocks out a Pokemon, he will transform into Ash Greninja through his Battle Bond ability. This special Greninja can then be transferred into the full game upon its release.
And, of course, don't just take it from me, check this shit out:
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
In addition to all that glorious information in the trailer, the Pokemon Sun and Moon website was also updated with new details on a bunch of stuff, and one of those things was the Pokemon Global Link. The ol' PGL will be updated and reopened on release day: November 18th for Pokemon Sun and Moon. This update will bring about some hefty changes to the system.
For rating battles, there are four categories: single battles, doubles battles, special battles (variants of the aforementioned categories, the first special battle will be single battles featuring legendary Pokemon, Ash Greninja, and a few other normally banned mon's), and the new championship format. The championship format will be available day one for Pokemon Sun and Moon battlers and will use the rules set for VGC 2017, which doesn't look like it's gonna be horrible.
In addition to the rating battles, QR rental teams will be a new feature that will allow players to put their team into a QR code format and share it with other players to then use online.
Another new feature will be Global Missions, which is a common goal for every Pokemon Sun and Moon PGL user in the world. If this goal is achieved, well I would hope there is some type of rare Pokemon or item for reward, but there is currently no word on rewards. The first mission available from day one will be to catch a lot of Pokemon. Seems easy enough.
The last big feature mentioned for the new Pokemon Global Link is the ability to host your own Pokemon competitions. These can be hosted either online or nearby, with the difference being you either pre-approve a roster of players for online or you simply create a QR code for a competition and local players all use that code.
That's all for this update, here. Of course if you want more information, you can try out the Pokemon Sun and Moon website. There's always good stuff there. I think I'll have time later this week for my Paper Mario post, but I've already hit two in one week so I don't wanna get too crazy. Until next time kcduckling out.
Just a little late in true kcduckling fashion, here I am for the seventh installment of Weekly Update! This week I talk milestones, releases, and more. Let's dive in.
4000 Page views
Wowsers Bowsers, baby, this blog just hit 4000 page views this last weekend and I'm pretty happy about it! The blog is a little over three years old, so I would consider that a pretty cool milestone there. But who cares other than me amirite? Let's move on.
Paper Mario Color Splash Release Week
The latest installment in the Paper Mario franchise comes out in stores and on the Nintendo eShop this week and I don't really care. It's a pretty hefty adventure it looks like and I know that a lot of reviewers are saying that the series has gained its witty and hilarious writing back after Sticker Star's disappointing adventure, but why I can't get excited for it is mostly because of the battle system. Call me old timey, but the sticker system really just doesn't work for me. I'll perhaps post later in the week giving my thoughts on the series overall. Look forward to it! For those that are getting the game, which I will neither advocate for or against, it comes out October 7th, or Thursday.
Obviously, Pokemon
Pokemon Sun and Moon had another new trailer today, but since it was technically this week, I'm not going to go into much detail here. I'll have a post later in the week really breaking it down. What I can tell you is that:
mega evolution is back, baby
mega evolution is banned from competitive play, baby
starter evos look good, great, and shitty... in that order
SO MUCH OTHER STUFF DAYUM
I'll be back later this week for Pokemon Sun and Moon breakdown, and if time allows, Paper Mario franchise thoughts. Until next time, kcduckling out.
