Best of E3

HE LIVES!

But seriously, I'm here. And I just watched all of E3 as I hope you all did as well, and it was phenomenal. I'm here to tell you who won the show, why they won the show and then go over some of the general awesomeness of E3.

Who won? Xbox. Plain and simple. Seriously. I, the writer for a Nintendo blog thinks that Xbox won. Because they showed a lot of games and, AND, HOLOLENS MINECRAFT. But anyway, Nintendo's presentation seemed short and there wasn't much focus on the focus-deserving Wii U. But hey, 3DS owners like myself are feeling damn good right now. So yes, Xbox won. Easily. Side note: Sony sucked dick as usual. Classic Sony, really.

THE GREATEST GAMES? Ooh, good question. Well from all companies, here they are:

Super Mario Maker (Wii U)
Tom Clancy's The Division (XB1, PS4)
Star Wars Battlefront (XB1, PS4)
Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)

BUT THE GREATEST GAME? Obviously,

Halo 5: Guardians (XB1)

But Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam is a close second. I mean, look at this!

Gold. Pure gold. Great E3, I can't help but look forward to next year as a whole. Legend of Zelda, Nintendo NX. What a great year it will be. See you soon for a Splatoon Review. Spoiler Alert: It's really really good.

Nintendo Outlines E3 Plans

The Big N is preparing for E3 already, and just like last year, you can look forward to a digital event to be the means of information.

It all starts on June 14, with the Nintendo World Championships. After a long time away, the Nintendo World Championships are returning and will be exciting as ever. This will kick off Nintendo's E3 festivities, despite being before the actual E3 convention.

Then on June 16, Nintendo will air their Nintendo Digital Event, which has been previously said to be all about 3DS and Wii U titles. No, NX will not be there, and neither will their mobile plans, but who cares? Here's to seeing Metroid Wii U...

Also on June 16 and continuing on until June 18, Nintendo will have their Nintendo Treehouse Live on the floor at E3. Here we will get to see most of the E3 announced games being played with commentary from Nintendo's desginers.

Finally, on June 17 and June 20, head over to a participating Best Buy to try out Mario Marker.
Best Buy is also the location for the Nintendo World Championship Regionals.

Details are still pretty scarce, but their website will update as time goes on, the website can be found here: www.e3.nintendo.com

kcduckling out

Splatoon Impression

Splatoon has now seen all three of its Global Testfire sessions come and go. I was fortunate enough to join in on the third and final play session, and let me tell you, Splatoon is just as amazing as I've made it out to be.

Gameplay is fluid and the motion controls are simple to pick up and start using. I became accustomed to the motion controls in a matter of minutes.

As for the demo itself, four weapons were made available and two maps were playable. Of the given weapons, I found the Paint Roller to be the most effective for both "splats" and quickly covering up large areas of the map.

Overall, the game looks great, plays great, and is an absolute blast to play. If you haven't pre-ordered, I suggest you do and quickly. (For those with Super Smash Bros., you're gonna want to pre-order from GameStop, who will give you Splatoon costumes for Smash.

Splatoon Demo Now Available

Splatoon is easily one of the best looking games of the year, and its release is right around the corner, so it seems only natural for Nintendo to be giving us a demo of it, albeit a severely time limited demo.
The Splatoon Turf War Mode will be available for all Wii U owners who have downloaded the demo from the eShop during these times:

Friday, May 8, 2015
10:00 - 11:00 CST
Saturday, May 9, 2015
06:00 - 07:00 CST
14:00 - 15:00 CST

And here is the website:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wiiu/agmj/event/us/index.html

Mario Kart 8 DLC # 2 Thoughts (continued)

After yesterday's post, I realized that I had completely forgotten about 200cc. Which is absolutely terrible but terrifically fun at the same time.

200cc lends a new excitement to the game and allowed me to replay all of the Grand Prix once again in this breakneck speed mode, and it requires a substantial amount of skill. In 200cc, Mario Kart tells you that "braking is necessary" which I shrugged off at first and then proceeded to get 12th place. What you must do in 200cc, which took me a while to master, is the art of brake tapping. Which means that when you come screaming around a corner and begin your drift, you must tap the brakes as you drift to slow you down to a manageable 150cc speed. Once you master this, 200cc becomes  great delight to play, especially on courses where the difference is noticeable.

Overall, 200cc is an excellent addition and makes couch racing even more fun, so well done Nintendo. 10/10.

Mario Kart 8 DLC #2 Thoughts

The second installment of Mario Kart 8 DLC has released with 8 new courses, 3 new characters, and a few new kart pieces. Of course, all of the courses are beautiful, but which courses are the best new courses? Let's check it out:

Crossing Cup
Baby Park (Double Dash!!) - An amazing course that retains everything it had in the GameCube original, with added on grassy areas on the ends to add some mushroom shortcuts. Overall, still one of the best competitive courses, especially with 12 racers.
Cheese Land (Super Circuit) - A once bland course is now less bland and somewhat exciting. Not my personal favorite, but it does at least look nice.
Wild Woods - Yet another course with working Shy Guy in it and another course with an impressive vertical climb. Aesthetically pleasing, the course itself is decent. Not my favorite, but doesn't receive resentment either.
Animal Crossing - The best looking course from either of the DLC cups, Animal Crossing presents four different seasons to race through which makes the course interesting to race on for much longer than other courses.
Bell Cup
Neo Bowser City (Mario Kart 7) - Neo Bowser City faced the same challenge every other course from Mario Kart 7 faced: they already had water and air parts, so the course really can't be altered too much, but Neo Bowser City picks up an anti-gravity part to make it interesting, a great course.
Ribbon Road (Super Circuit) - Just like Cheese Land, a once sad little course transformed into a masterpiece. Ribbon Road is an outstanding competitive course thanks to its two no-mushroom-needed shortcuts. And, the backdrop for the course is stunning. Fine details also have a huge home int his course.
Super Bell Subway - A fun course, Super Bell Subway also makes use of fine details in listing departures for other courses, similar to Sunshine Airport. There are plenty of paths to take, but they all diverge into one smaller path at the end, which makes the course a pretty good competitive destination.
Big Blue - I hate Mute City. It's a terrible course. I am not a fan. Anyway, so when I saw another F-Zero course, I was like "OH GREAT MAN OH GREAT MAN OH GREAT", but Big Blue is a terrific course that utilizes sections instead of laps, another hug plus.

BEST NEW COURSE

Big Blue

BEST RETRO COURSE

Ribbon Road

BEST CHARACTER

Dry Bowser

BEST KART PART

P-Wing

Mario Kart 8 DLC #2 Informtion

First leaked recently, Nintendo has decided to reveal all of the information for the next Mario Kart 8 DLC, focused on Animal Crossing. The videos can be found at Nintendo's Mario Kart 8 webpage. The pack releases April 23rd. Until next time, kcduckling out.