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.

Most Anticipated 2015 [updated]

With Legend of Zelda Wii U's recent delay and new information dropping for several other games, I figured it was time to update the 2015 list for my most anticipated games. And although its already 3 months into 2015, not much has happened so far in terms of releases. However, the rest of the year is sure to please, thrill, and entertain. So, here goes. My most anticipated game for 2015 is:

Halo 5: Guardians

With the release of these two trailers, I am now officially hyped out of my mind for Halo 5. The 2015 confirmation was nice too. Halo 5 is scheduled for an October release.

Honorable Mentions:

Splatoon

Tom Clancy's The Division
(edit) LOL fuck Battlefront

Pokemon Shuffle Review

Pokemon Shuffle is a recently-released Candy Crush Saga-esque game for the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS. And, although the free game is a nice offering from Nintendo, there are some fundamental flaws with the game itself.

Pokemon Shuffle is a cute game, I'll give it that much. The sprites for all the Pokemon are cool looking and especially in the Mega Pokemon stages, the sprites for those Pokemon look REALLY GOOD. However, it's the whole lives and coins system that really irritates me.

In Pokemon Shuffle, you have 5 "hearts" that replenish themselves every 30 minutes. These hearts are needed to start playing any level. This I am fine with, as it is the same in Candy Crush Saga. However, what really made me upset about the game is that no matter the outcome of a level, you will lose one heart. So, no matter how well you are doing, you will have to come grinding to a halt and wait for the rest of the time to lapse so you can continue playing. Just for another Candy Crush comparison, in the Candy Crush Saga app, the player only loses a heart if they fail to beat the level. Therefore, hot streaks can occur and do occur quite frequently, so you can keep a good thing going. However, in Pokemon Shuffle, the mandatory losing of hearts is a huge misstep taken by the game.

Additionally, the coin system seems very off. Every day, the player can earn 500 coins by simply "checking in", or connecting to the Internet and seeing if there are any game announcements or new Pokemon obtainable. However, buying a Great Ball will set you back 2,500 coins, or five days worth of checking in. And the Great Ball is my other major complaint about the game, What the Great Ball does is double the percent chance that you will catch a Pokemon. This however is extremely useless when the odds of catching that Pokemon are 1%, because 2% isn't much better. And, the main point of this is that if you were to spend money on the game (which, please don't) and then buy the Great Ball with your real life USD currency, the Great Ball will still fail on you. You just spent real money. On an in-game Great Ball. And it failed. I'll bet you look pretty dumb right now.

Overall, the game is charming and cute and I really enjoyed it and I still enjoy it. I love the timed "expert" stages and I love love love the graphics. And, if you don't mind setting the system down for 2 and a half hours every time you run out of lives, than this game is really good. However, for those of you who want a game that will provide your means of entertainment for, say, a long car ride. This is not the game at all.

Pokemon Shuffle

7.0 - average

Pokemon Shuffle has the charm of any Pokemon game, but the quick depletion of hearts and the relative uselessness of the power-ups leads the game to be mostly frustrating and unenjoyable.

No New Nintendo 3DS XL for me

Over its launch weekend, I decided to pass on the New Nintendo 3DS XL after being super hyped. But all I had to do was think a little, it wasn't a hard decision in the end to make. I didn't have any plans to get Amiibo-compatible 3DS games, I didn't really want to dish out $200, I didn't want to have to stop using my Luigi hat 3DS case, and I think I'll just hold out for the smaller version, if it ever comes to America.
Now I would just like to stress how poor of a decision Nintendo made in not bringing the smaller version to America too, because I don't believe I'm alone when I say that I would MUCH rather have a normal New Nintendo 3DS than a New Nintendo 3DS XL. Because faceplates.
For now, I will continue to play my games with the 3D off and I will continue to not use Amiibo on my 3DS, but if the day ever comes where the New Nintendo 3DS comes to America, I will be the first to snag it.

I mean, who could resist Yoshi?

And LOOK AT THIS SHIT THIS IS A FUCKING WOODEN PLATE

New Nintendo 3DS Impressions

This Sunday, I'm getting a New Nintendo 3DS XL, so I'll be sure to play it  lot and get back to you guys on what I like and what I don't like about it. Until then, kcduckling out.