Nintendo Direct 13/02/19: Not-so-live Impressions

Woof! Another super, super late one. Adult responsibilities, you guys, I really don't recommend them. I was actually on the verge of blowing this one off entirely, but hearing some whispers about what showed up here, there was no way I could. Let's take a look!

• 0:14 - Here it is! Mario Maker! So, Mario World confirmed anyway. (Damn it, Nintendo, there better be slopes this time round!)

• 0:23 - Looks like a redesigned interface for the stylus-less touchscreen. Still though, not sure how smoothly moving things around a level will go on that Switch screen.

• 0:25 - Oh hell yeah!! We have slopes, people! Hmm, I see the ON/OFF switch from SMW is there too. Interesting.

• 0:50 - Got to say, with them calling this Mario Maker 2 rather than Deluxe or something, I'm hoping for some pretty meaningful additions here. Maybe they'll finally do a Mario 2 tileset!

• 0:54 - Oh no. Damn it, Nintendo, why'd you have to go and add the Mario 3 sun in? I'm already envisioning so many terrible Course World levels, each with no less than twenty of these.

• 1:13 - Cat Mario. Sure, but the NSMB tile set was never really my thing in Mario Maker. Probably didn't help that it seemed to be the go to tile set for kids - which more often than not resulted in levels that were like, tile salad with three Bowsers at the end.

• 1:18 - Ooh, huge blocks! A much needed addition for that authentic Mario 3 giant level feel.

• 1:29 - Oh hell yeah, Boom Boom! Man, I'm really itching to make some more Mario 3 levels right about now.
• 1:34 - June 2019. Cool! Will definitely be picking this up.
• 2:14 - Well, looks like they're not delving into it too deeply here. Still hope for some Mario 2 action then. Ooh man, or Mario Land. That'd be wild.

Nintendo Direct 01/09/2016 (EU): Not-so-live Impressions

A Direct I was going to skip, but having glanced at some spoilers a few hours ago, hoo boy did it look like they had some surprises to drop in this one. :D Let's watch!

• 00:31 - That's where you're wrong, Mr. Shibata. My interest in Pokémon Go remains precisely zero. To be honest, my interest in seeing more Sun and Moon is about the same. :D
• 00:45 - Rowlet is still pretty dope though.
• 00:52 - Ohhhh! Litten - a fire kitten. Man, they're killing it with the Pokémon names in this one.

• 03:24 - Still just looks like another Pokemon game though. :P Oh okay, I guess the regional pokémon are kind of a neat idea. And I do like the look of this 3DS. Wait, "software not included"? Come on, Nintendo, don't Battlefield 1 out on us.

• 03:49 - Okay, I know what this is from earlier. You think it's going to be yet another New Super Mario Bros., but...

• 03:55 - ...whaaaaat!? It's Mario Maker for the 3DS.

• 04:01 - Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS eh? I didn't think they could top Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS as a clunky name, but with the addition of "Nintendo" here, I think they've done it.

• 04:12 - Ugh, spring blocks on top of spring blocks. I'm having horrible Course World flashbacks. 
• 04:26 - You know, I've barley touched the Nintendo-made courses in the Wii U version. The ones I've played were decent, but they just seem so plain compared to the user-created levels. Granted, there are lots of bad user-created levels, but even those can often be interesting. I always think they're kind of like stepping inside someone else's brain. :D
• 04:54 - Hold up. You can't search for a level with its Course ID in this version? Whoa! I presume the Mario Maker Bookmark site won't work either then. Damn. That's a huge part of the game to leave out. That'll stop anyone from loading up any specific level they want to check out - from forum threads, videos, Reddit, Twitch, whatever. They'll be left with only the randomness of the 100 Mario Challenge and the ever mysterious whims of the Recommended Courses. That's a genuine bummer.
• 05:05 - Good to hear that every existing course will be available in this version at least (even if no one will ever find them).

• 05:10 - I guess this version will feature the full-fledged level creation mode though. I'm looking to see if there any new tools in the menu here. Hm, don't think so, but they have broken out some of the things that you need to shake other items to get and given them their own slots, like the key and the skewer, and that weird skinny mushroom. Wouldn't be a bad update for the Wii U version, Nintendo. The Wii U set-up has gotten kind of weird and hard to keep track of at this stage.
• 05:24 - No mystery mushroom? You know what, forget what I said earlier, this is clearly best version of Super Mario Maker. :D

• 05:33 - Was this weird pigeon in the Wii U version? I wouldn't know, having no need to play through the tutorial. La-de-dah.

• 06:00 - Oh, for fuck's sake, Nintendo. You can't even upload courses from this version!? :D No one's building close-knit Mario Maker communities via wireless; certainly not outside Japan. So this version of Mario Maker is basically a glorified 100 Mario Challenge app then? Boy, they better not be charging full price for this.

• 06:51 - A new mode in Mario Party where everyone can play as a toad? Finally. I can't complain too much about this Mario Party though, not when they're using it as an excuse to release those awesome Mario series amiibos in a couple of months. Pre-orders down already? You bet.
• 07:07 - Action-packed mini-games. That'll be a change for the series. :D

• 08:19 - Fuck yes, look at that Diddy Kong amiibo! So, I have him, Daisy and Waluigi pre-ordered. DK and Wario, I don't think'll be  that hard to find. Boo, I'm still not sold on; maybe if there's a good deal on that one later on.

• 08:23 - Who am I kidding? I'm definitely getting the Boo amiibo :D. I might still wait for a deal though. Amiibos don't seem to be hot ticket item they used to be. I was surprised to see a bunch of them being sold by Amazon for under £5 back in July.

And seeing quickly led to buying.

• 09:14 - They're doing a free multiplayer client/single player demo for this? Goodness knows why, but I kind of want to give this a download.

• 09:34 - Zelda? They're probably not going to announce the new orchestra CD or art book on this Direct, I'd imagine. Amiibos maybe?
• 09:40 - No, wait. It's totally just going to be freakin' Hyrule Warriors Legends DLC, isn't it? :D

• 09:37 - Oh. I guess this is the art book. Looking good. Meanwhile at the Metroid 30th anniversary: *tumbleweeds*

• 10:06 - Fucking wait, WHAT?! Holy shit! YES! Finally!!! Zelda amiibos! Let's see what we have here. Pixel Link looks a bit derpy, but I'll have to pick him up, if only to put next to pixel Mario. OoT Link looks great. Wind Waker Link looks good; I kind of prefer the Smash Bros. one I already have though. Toon Zelda, I'm excited to finally have on the way, but - and this may be the saddest thing I've ever uttered - I'm a bit disappointed with her pose; I would have preferred her firing a light arrow, maybe. Still, there's no way I'm not putting down a pre-order for her as soon as possible. Love the gold bases too.
• 10:16 - They'll work with Breath of the Wild? I wonder if any of them will unlock companion characters, like the Wolf Link amiibo. Running around with pixel Link as a companion would be... weird. :D Speaking of Breath of the Wild, finally saw Princess Mononoke last week - awesome movie, and damn, is there a bunch of stuff Nintendo cribbed from it in Breath of the Wild. Most surprisingly, the BotW trailer music that I liked so much back at E3. It's very close to some parts of the Mononoke score, like cease and desist close. Hopefully no one important notices. :D

• 10:33 - Speaking of scores... I'd love to go see Symphony of the Goddesses, but I'd be stunned if it ever makes it here. Like I mentioned before though, at least we have another compilation to look forward to. The one that came bundled with Skyward Sword was great. (Edit 23/10/16: Sorry if I got anyone's hopes up here. I just got the CD in question a few days ago and it's most definitely NOT a Symphony of the Goddesses compilation, more a companion piece to the Mario 30th anniversary compilation, with 2 CDs of tracks ripped from the games. Kind of neat, cool packaging, but not at all what I was expecting. I should have probably waited for a track listing or some further news to go up, but after seeing it announced, erroneously, on some random web site, I immediately jumped in and pre-ordered it. That's what you get for listening to some random idiot on the internet, I guess. :D)

• 10:44 - Wow, speak of the devil. :D Still have my copy from 2011 though. Not one of my favourites to be honest. Not because of the motion controls though, which I think work pretty well for the most part. It was the amount of filler and the lack of a propper overworld that didn't do it for me.

• 10:55 - Huh? Are they going to put out the Famicom Disk System version of Zelda on the Virtual Console? That'd be kind of neat. Hey, they could even pull off the microphone stuff with the Wii U gamepad now.

• 11:14 - No, it was just a lead-in to the NES Classic Mini. Pre-order down already? Oh, you bet. :D I probably need this even less than the amiibos though. It's mostly the size, the rad box design and the NES classic controller that are selling me on it so far. I think I have most of the games on it in some form already. I didn't even wait for a confirmation that they're not crappy PAL versions that look as bad as NES games on the Wii U. Hopefully not.

• 12:05 - Pretty sure this is the trailer that's already been released for the NES Classic. "Do you remember the good old days?" Sure - playing all these games in Nesticle in the year 2000 while listening to trance and freakin' nu-metal. Your 80's, CRT-fuelled nostalgia holds no power over me, Nintendo.

Hey, I Made More Mario Maker Stages!

Mario Maker! It’s been a while, but I’ve been hard at work for the last couple of nights putting together a new level. Plus, a previously unseen one.



Bowser’s Bouncy Castle - C6A3-0000-021A-F85F

I don’t think that there’s any denying that this one’s a sizable step up in difficulty from most of the levels I’ve made so far. In first half you’ve got a challenging, but fairly traditional Super Mario World style castle - a few dry bones, a few magikoopas, lava, fireballs, a couple of spiky columns, and watch out for that saw blade!

At the checkpoint you’ll hop into the recently-added fire clown car and blast your way through a gauntlet of bumpers, bob-ombs, cannon balls, koopas and hammer bros.. I’m not going to lie, it can get pretty hairy in there, but take your time and you should be okay. If you’re feeling really adventurous, it is also possible to get through there on foot, but I wouldn’t recommend it. :D

On the other side of that is a showdown with Bowser himself. Again! :D Yeah, I’d like to see Nintendo give us a few more bosses to work with, but I think I did a okay job of making the battle here a bit more interesting than usual. Also doable without the clown car, by the way. It does involve a bit of strategy though.

Needless to say, there are a few secrets to be found in this level too…



Castle Dash - 17AB-0000-0106-9CF1

So this is a level I uploaded back December. It’s another SMW castle, but this one, I fancied doing something a little different with. Here you have only 60 seconds to dash through an obstacle course of saw blades, conveyor belts and thwomps. It’s pretty challenging, but I did my best to try and point you in the right direction throughout, so hopefully, it’s not too unwieldy. Although I see on Nintendo’s Mario Maker site that it’s already been classed as an expert course, so I guess it’s too late for that. :D



The current record record holder on this one is Zain, who seems pretty happy about that (I think :D). I’d say there’s still a bit of time that could be shaved off that though, if anyone wants to try and win some Mario Maker kudos.

Note: Mario Maker kudos not redeemable for cash value.

Nintendo Direct 03/03/2016 (EU): Not-so-live Impressions

I'm really debating the merits of doing this one here. Apparently there won't be any NX or mobile talk, so I 'm wondering what that leaves for this direct. I think we're more or less at the end of the line for new Wi U and 3DS announcements now, so I'm guessing this is going to be a lot of follow-up type stuff. Do I really have anything else to say about the 3DS version of Hyrule Warriors? I guess we'll find out. :D

• 00:20 - Yes! The triumphant return. Somewhere, Mr. Iwata is very happy right now. :)

• 00:35 - Star Fox Zero first. Damn. Shiggy's looking very contrite here. I'm expecting another delay, or at least some bowing.
• 00:43 - Yep. Little bow there.
• 00:50 - I want to believe this'll be an authentic action game, but reports of them doubling down on the second screen stuff lately aren't exactly filling me with confidence.

• 01:02 - General Pepper's looking good. Overall plot and structure similar to Starfox 64. Is this another pseudo remake of the original Star Fox then (like 64)?
• 01:06 - Oh, okay. The story's new. (Hopefully they'll take lots of cues from Star Fox Command. Never played that game, but boy, the screen grabs that keep popping up from it's story are incredible. :D)

• 01:24 - Wooo! Kat! Man, its been so long since I've plated Star Fox 64, I'm not sure how this compares to Fortuna in that, but this is definitely pretty.
• 01:51 - Always enjoyed the branching paths in Star Fox, so this is all good to hear. Ooh, an amiibo logo on the map screen. I wonder how they're going to work those in here?

• 02:41 - Oh hey, you guys remember asynchronous gameplay? Although I suppose this is more like the co-op mode in like, Mario Galaxy than the types of games they were showing off before the Wii U launched. Also, no one's going to be playing this way.

• 03:11 - Okay, so the Fox amiibo unlock let's you fly the SNES arwing. I sill haven't picked up that Fox amiibo. Is this enough to justify a purchase? Yeah, probably. :D

• 03:19 - Project Guard. It's back, you guys. I suppose as a mode in Star Fox Zero.
• 03:22 - Slippy's uncle Grippy? Boy, Grippy's an unfortunate uncle name.

• 03:39 - I don't think I ever bothered to watch footage of this before. Is this basically Night Trap? :D
• 03:45 - So Night Trap with gun turrets then. Howard Lincoln would be so disappointed.
• 04:10 - It's seems to be kind of a tower defence thing really. Yeah, not really my thing, custom levels or not. I don't know.
• 04:22 - Oh, Star Fox Guard is a separate thing. April 22nd for that and Star Fox Zero. I think I'm waiting for some impressions before I buy Star Fox. The control scheme is still a bit of a question mark. I know there was a tweet confirming a standard control option back in the summer, but that's a long time ago now. Many tea tables have been upended since then I'm willing to bet.

• 04:37 - Oh weird. Star Fox Guard is getting a physical release in the limited edition of Star Fox Zero. Wow, that box art sure is something. :D Just what does Uncle Grippy have a hold of? Looking at the bottom right of the bundle box, it looks like there's a third thing in the bundle too. Some kind of DLC maybe?
• 04:58 - Oh, it's a steelbook. Never really got the steelbook hype. Depending on price though, yeah, I might go for this pack.

• 05:17 - Damn it, I still haven't gotten around to Splatoon. I even bought the soundtrack already, and I STILL haven't gotten around to the actual game.
• 06:41 - Mario and Sonic at the Rio Olympics. Those games are still a thing. Remember that short window where everyone was excited about Mario and Sonic teaming up in the first one of these before Sonic in Smash completely destroyed any excitment for that endeavor? What a time to be alive.

• 08:00 - Still, this looks about 1,000 more appealing than watching the actual Olympics. Shy Guys on floats? That's an opening ceremony I could get behind.

• 09:05 - Oh, Super Mario Maker. Slopes?

• 09:35 - Nice. I've been working on a SMW castle stage. These will fit right in.

• 09:42 - Nope. Fuck that. :D
• 09:50 - Yes! Keys! Though, unless you can attach a second bonus level to a keyhole, they won't be that cool.
• 10:12 - Yeah, not really the implementation of keys I was hoping for. Still, they'll be useful for creating boss battles.

• 10:28 - Oh, these are interesting - red coins that you need to collect all of before a key will appear. Bringing some Mario 64 into Mario Maker. I like it.
• 11:01 - Yikes! Super Expert Mode. Granted, I haven't checked in in a while, but I even find most of the levels that wind up in Expert borderline unplayable.

• 11:10 - Yay! Tetra! My dark secret though? I super don't care about mystery mushroom characters in Mario Maker. I haven't even scanned all the amiibos I have to unlock those mushrooms. I don't know. If the characters had different abilities maybe they'd be more appealing, but as it is, they're just palette swaps for Small Mario with a couple of custom sound effects. I'd rather just play as Mario. Now a Tetra amiibo? Day. Freaking. One.
• 11:35 - Damn it! No slopes. Denied!

• 11:58 - Hold up, you guys. Genei Ibun Roku ♯FE AKA SMT X Fire Emblem might actually have a real name in the West now.
• 12:53 - Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. Well, close enough. Really excited to grab this actually. It's looked better and better every time they've shown it.

• 13:08 - Oh shit! IT'S HAPPENING! The Paper Mario on Wii U rumors were true. Already sounds like this one has another dumb gimmick though. Great.

• 13:42 - Damn, Mario. I know you hate Toad's guts, but that's cold.

• 13:55 - Really like the look of this, but this color hammer stuff sounds worrying.
• 14:25 - Oof, the battle system sounds a lot like Sticker Star. Man, I really want another good Paper Mario. I have a bad feeling that this won't be it.

• 14:58 - My Nintendo. Still haven't gotten around to to signing up for that. (I've been laid up with what felt like the plague for the last week and a half.)
• 15:41 - Yeah! Amiibo news. Really hope they're done the Animal Crossing ones now, 'cause yaaaaaaaaawn.

• 15:50 - Apparently not. And they're cards too. Yuck.

• 16:01 - Okay, some physical ones. Nothing I'm really after though. I still hoping they'll at least do a series of Zelda ones before the amiibo train comes off the rails.

• 16:22 - Huh? What? Some relevant Hyrule Warriors Legends news. So, I guess I got my wish and the new characters *will* be available to download in the Wii U version, but only with that code that comes in the 3DS version I'm guessing. Come on, Nintendo, not like this. Let me pay for them separately.
• 17:49 - Well, at least we'll get Medli for free on the Wii U. (Psst, another Zelda amiibo I'd totally get day one. Do you hear me, Nintendo? Come on, do it.)
• 18:52 - Yo-kai Watch. Yeah, I guess we're into the 3DS section now.

• 19:08 - Yikes.

• 19:13 - The thirst for animated GIFs is real. :D
• 20:06 - Hey, I finally have a 3DS now. I should probably download that Yo-Kai Watch demo. (I won't though.)

• 20:26 - Disney Art Academy. Yep.

• 21:47 - Oh boy, did Metroid Federation Force leave fans with "some questions". :D
• 25:31 - Yeah, I can't say that much to sell me on this game. Tanabe might want to play out battles between Federation forces and Space Pirates in a Metroid game, but I think he might be the only one.