Here is the second stage I made with Super Mario Maker. It's in the style of Super Mario Bros. 3 and is a little more complicated than the last. Actually it's a lot more complicated than a lot of levels. You have to figure it out, but the solution is in the title.
Buck Ass NerdCast is back with over a hour of me rambling about movies and video games. Check it out! Hopefully a shorter version of the podcast will be on Stitcher soon.
New episode of What's in the Box with my opening my new-ish Wario Amiibo! Funny stuff.
I've been working on the new Sharknado episode of IntoxiNarration. Haven't got as much done this weekend as I hoped, but I'm getting there. More info as it comes.
I got some new Amiibo and decided to do the first What's in the Box episode in a while. This is probably the best one yet, due to actually putting a little comedy and editing into it, instead of just showing the new Amiibo.
This is BANerd's first Video review. It took some doing due to some technical difficulties, but here it is. First of many to come. Thanks for the support so far! I'll see you fuckin' nerds later.
Xenoblade Chronicles is a japanese RPG that combines solid semi-real time gameplay, a complex, yet interesting story and an expansive world to create one of the best experiences on the Nintendo Wii & soon the New 3DS.
The story of XC takes us to a foreign world where two massive titan-esque creatures fought to the death & their bodies sprang new life. Bionis is inhabited by the Homs, Nopon and High Entia, all organic beings (the Homs resembling humans the most). Mechonis gave birth to the Mechon, seemingly mechanical monsters that consume organic material for power.
Though the story first focuses on group of Heroes fighting a war against the murderous Mechon, we are soon introduced to our true main character, Shulk. Smash Bros. fans will know Shulk from the lastest installment. Shulk is a scientist, who was orphaned at a young age and found with a mysterious weapon known as The Monado. The Monado is the only weapon that can hurt the Mechon while being incapable of harming organic beings. Shulk's studies are interrupted by a Mechon attack & one of his dear friends pays the ultimate price. Shulk and his band of friends, old and new, set out to defeat the Mechon menace
.
The story seems like a typical hero's journey at first, but becomes a lot more than that by the end. The end though, is a little confusing, it has to be seen to be understood. Shulk runs into a lot of interesting characters, many become a playable part of his team.
The gameplay is that of a semi-turn based RPG. Though the attacks come in real time, there is a turn element to how the enemies attack. It resembles Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to some extent. Certain moves are more useful when you attack enemies at different angles. The Back Slash for instance hurts your foe from the back the most. This is also how the move works in Smash Bros.
You can play as any member of your team, but Shulk is the most useful at the beginning. Only his weapon can really hurt the Mechon based enemies or enable the other members to injure the Mechon. All of the characters are fully controllable and customizable. Each piece of clothing has its attributes, so usefulness will over take aesthetics in most cases. In some case, this may make some rather silly looking mismatches.
Become accustomed to creating gems from crystals as soon as you can. Gems add abilities and attributes to your weapons and armor. You're stuck with using the one in Colony 9 at first, but you can earn a portable one later on in the game.
Keep in mind that this game is loooong. I didn't fuck around very much and I nearly cleared 100 hours. 100 HOURS! For some this may be a negative and for some a positive. There are also a few glitches where locking on enemies and attacking is concerned. Nothing game breaking, but you notice them when you play it enough.
XenoBlade Chronicles is a great game. It was hard or expensive to get for a while, but now with its release on New 3DS, everyone will have a chance to play this expansive and emersive RPG. The story keeps your attention and I really cared about where the characters ended up by the conclusion, even if the story gets crazy-go-nuts by the end. If you have a New 3DS, you should pick it up. You won't be disappointed.
I'm changing things up from BANcast and doing normal BANerd videos starring me! I'm having a little problem with the aspect ratio and my camera, but it should be fixed within a few videos. This weekend we're filming IntoxiNarration, so more updates on that to come!
Seriously though, I've been meaning to do this forever. I finally carved out a timeslot to get the episodes recorded as well as editing this shit. Oh yeah, these episodes are pretty vulgar, so you are warned.
This may be the first episode, but it is also a year in review for video games. I lay out my favorite 5 games of the year. Spoiler Alert: I talk about Nintendo a shit-ton. Check out the YouTube Channel if you would. I'll post all of the episodes here as well as on Twitter and Facebook.
The Legend of Zelda series and I have a bit of a complicated relationship. I tried playing the original a handful of times, but never went the distance and beat it. The first LoZ game I took seriously was Twilight Princess and I loved that game. The next Zelda game I finished was Skyward Sword. I think about that now and am floored. Since SS, I've beaten Wind Waker HD, Link to the Past, Link between Worlds and Ocarina of Time 3D. I'm planning on playing Minish Cap as soon as I beat the original Metroid (I beat Super Metroid a few months ago for the first time).
Since Skyward, I've tried really hard to play new Zelda games when I can. Hyrule Warriors is NOT a traditional Zelda game. Does this make it a bad game? No, but let's get into the nuts and bolts of how HW works.
Hyrule Warriors was built by the team that gave us the Dynasty Warriors series, hence the name. This is not a reskinned version of DW. It is like they took the two series and melded them together. Thematically it is 80% Zelda, but gameplay wise it's about 40% or so Zelda. A Zelda oriented control scheme helps keep it familiar Zelda fans (like myself). DW fans can choose a Warriors oriented control scheme if they wish.
The game is based on the concept of controlling battlefields. There are keeps and outposts you have to conquer and claim for your army (which isn't always Hyrule's). This is a huge departure from normal Zelda games.
Your attacks cause massive amounts of damage. You can use one of many characters (the count is over a dozen with the new update). All of the characters have different move sets and types of combos, super attacks, magic gauge attacks, etc. You pick up new items as the story oriented Legend Mode progresses. These items are occasionally used to solve puzzles, but mostly to kill enemies. There are power ups for your items that cause even more damage. You are taking out dozens of enemies at a time in some cases. You are a god and they are bugs to be crushed (well you can create literal giant bugs with Agitha to crush your metaphorical bugs)
The fan service for Zelda is dripping out of every pore of this game. From the items, to the weapons, to the characters, Zelda fans will love all of the references to other games (which includes the time hopping storyline). For example, if you power up your hook shot, you shoot it into the air and pull the Majora's Mask Moon down onto your unsuspecting enemies. Awesome.
There is a leveling up system to make your characters stronger. You can use rupees to make your lower level characters stronger (the rupees automatically go into your pouch without the need to physically touch them). The Training Dojo can only be used to level up to your highest ranked character's level. So you still have to do the leg work of leveling at least one of your characters up.
Your weapons can be replaced, upgraded and given new attributes. New weapon categories for some characters allow them to play like a completely new character. See Link's Ball and Chain for a good example.
The game's story is pretty good. It's straight forward and it's new characters are welcome additions. Cia, the main villain, is a little scantily clad for a Zelda game, but even she is an interesting character.
The Adventure mode looks like the original LoZ (even newer characters have 8-bit sprites to venture around the map). Once you decide to fight on a square, you fight a Hyrule Warriors level with certain requirements to earn certain items. These can be items to unlock other secrets in this mode, weapons or even characters (a few can only be unlocked in this mode). This mode is a favorite of mine. The newest DLC added another map to Adventure Mode (Yes!).
One thing I thought was funny is that in the new DLC, you can use Link's horse Epona as a weapon. Your weapons appear on the battlefield when you kill enemies. Your weapons are in little bags. So I found a giant 1,000 pound animal in a tiny sack!
Overall Hyrule Warriors is a solid game. Surprisingly the repetitive nature of the DW is down played with a lot of different modes with different objectives and an occasional puzzle. The couch co-op increases the replayability of the game with friends and family. Everyone will have their favorite character to play as. The fact still remains that the game can get a little brainless sometimes and isn't as good as most of the mainstream Zelda games (despite actually being able to play as Zelda). The game isn't earth shattering, but it IS a hell of a lot of fun. If you're on the fence, give it a chance, I really enjoyed my time with this game.
Mario Kart 8 is the sequel to either Mario Kart Wii or Mario Kart 7, depending on who you ask. Yes, Wii is technically the sixth entry (not counting the arcade games), but Mario Kart 7 was on a portable system, though the underwater and gliding sections return. In either case, Mario Kart 8 is by far the best the series has to offer (as far as the racing goes) and is definitely the reason to buy a Wii U.
Yoshi is pretty mad that Space Princess there cut him off.
I'll start with the obvious. The game looks amazing. It runs at 60 frames per second on up to two players (three to four drops the speed down to 30fps) and is as good looking as many Xbone and PS4 games I've played/seen. Yes, the art style is not photo realistic, but it was never meant to be. The detail is great. The lighting is gorgeous. The characters are expressive and responsive to their surroundings.
Speaking of responsive, I'm sure you've seen this:
You don't fuck with Luigi.
Joking aside, that brings up another aspect of the game. The highlight reels. You can watch preselected sections of the game, based on everything, items, big hits or view the entire race. It would have been nice to have some sort of video editing program. You can load there highlights to YouTube, which also show up on Miiverse. Here is an example of mine:
Oh, Ludwig, that blue shell must sting. This is a perfect example on how down to the wire some of these races can be. Though some would also argue that my first place was unearned and luck game me that placement, but.... eh.
The balancing of the items is a lot better this time around. The Wii version of item balancing make a return in the Frantic Mode setting, which means that default works a lot differently. Powerful items are lessened in frequency and there is a counter to the blue shell...
BIATCH!
...The Super Horn!
Speaking of new items, there are several. Coins that increase your overall speed return from Mario Kart 7 (as well as the original Super Mario Kart), the Piranha Plant (Super Mario 3D World), the Fire Flower and the Boomerang (which you can throw up to three times, unless you grab an item in between throws).
The hook of this game is the antigravity sections. When you run over a blue strip you can drive on walls and ceilings, which is awesome. Your driving mechanics change to where you can get boosts off of hitting the other drivers as well as strategically placed bumpers. This changes the dynamics of the race in ways you wouldn't expect (see Rainbow Road - MK8).
The online is great. Frankly it has worked better for me than Halo 4 lately. The tournaments and custom modes give it lots of replay value. I recently knocked out the time trials, which gave me the final stamps. Speaking of stamps, I wish that the stamps were available to use in any post, rather than the stamp option in the main menus of the games that support them (which I think need to become all of the games, at least all of the first party Nintendo games). Chat works with friends list members in the lobby, but not in the game.
The only weaknesses in Mario Kart 8 are the Battle Mode and the character roster. Battle Mode no longer has arenas, so you have to have non race.... races on tracks, while trying to hit find your opponents and pop their three balloons. It is occasionally fun, but no substitute for a real battle arena.
The roster has the seven Koopalings from Super Mario Bros. 3 fame, but is missing Diddy Kong and Dry Bones (some would say Bowser Jr., but the seven Koopalings are cooler anyway). I would have liked to see Nabbit as a welcome addition to the cast, but instead we have five baby characters. Five?
So many damn babies, this isn't even all of them.
Baby Mario is fine, because he basically has his own game series. B. Rosalina had no reason to be introduced at all. Metal Mario may be the third version of Mario in the game, but he is really cool to play as. Pink Gold Peach is... yes a third version of Princess Peach... but to be honest, she is my jam. I really like playing as PGP, her weight, handling and size really play to my strengths.
Screw it, Pink Gold Peach is okay with me. 5 babies suck though.
Despite the negatives, which are mostly trivial, Mario Kart 8 is the reason to get a Wii U. The online is great, the local multiplayer is just as good. The roster may be a little lacking, but the kart selection is great. The customization helps you forge an identity and define your play style. Plus until the end of July, you get a free game (I got Wii Party U as I already had two of the games). This game didn't sell 1.2 million in its first weekend for no reason.
