Super Smash Bros.: TNG - Day 5

The Feudal Warrior! A Link to the Past!

  Today I keep on keeping on with one of the Vet-est of the Veterans and one of Brawl's most requested characters.

The Veteran of Time - Link

  So Link is an interesting ones because I've got two directions I could take on him. The safe direction is to keep him roughly how he is. Grant him the art style of Skyward Sword, maybe outfit him with something more useful than the Boomerang, and call it good. Alternate costumes? I"m bouncing between a more traditional Twilight Princess/Ocarina of Time skin, or his outfit from the start of the adventure with his super-adorable bed-head. Like I said; that's a fairly safe bet.

  The more extreme alternative is to let Toon/Kid Link take his place as the "Hero of Smash" entirely, and conform Link into Wolf Link.

  The obviously outrageous point here is that we are completely replacing a veteran as of the original Smash with, essentially, an entirely new character. His own move set, his own smash; everything changes. Certainly we could turn this into a Zero Suit Samus style Final Smash after effect, but I think a dedicated character is more... Appropriate. Now we could also just stack this on top of regular Link, making 3 Links (because I'm not giving up my Toon Link), and at that point what we have is a chain, not a roster. I would like to point out that one of the reasons I've developed this concept is because I've actually seen it shopped around a lot on "The Webs," and because Midna herself does not a good character make.

  What would Wolf Link do? Well aside from gnawing a person's face off, there could be a special where holding down the special button causes Midna's attack field to come up, and if somebody gets caught in it, he does a dash attack to them for minimal damage. There's also lots of opportunities for Midna's fist-hair to do some more conventional grabbing and attacks. A fine final-smash could involve Midna going ape-shit spider monster like she did towards the end of Twilight Princess, or summoning a bridge on top of somebody. Or would that be a bridge too far? I can never tell. Oh and for an alternate costume, I don't know, Toon Wolf Link and Midna? I think that'd look neat. Or we could be total jerks and just give them an Ookami make-over.

The Potential - Samurai Goroh

  Samurai Goroh was another one of those characters I saw people rooting for. It's true that F-Zero hasn't had any newcomers since the original Smash when Captain Falcon was unlocked, so I believe it's about time the stable gets another member; and Goroh is the perfect character for it. A lot of hearts were broken when he was revealed to be an Assist Trophy, which I thought weird because, hey, at least he made it into something, right? Here's to hoping that this time around, the big guy gets his chance to thrash about with heavy samurai dicing.

Classic Lylat Cruise

Plus

  Of all the Smash Bros. games, Star Fox is one of the few titles that has had a new incarnation. So without anything in the future to reach for, I have decided to reach far into the past. What I"m looking to do is re create the stage Lylat Cruise structurally and combine it with the original Star Fox visually. That means the same stage from a physical perspective, because honestly it was one of my favorite stages, but remixed to be all polygonal looking. Where in Lylat Cruise, we traveled all over the Lylat system, we could do the same here, travelling to all the different levels of Star Fox, and maybe a few surprises like Star Fox 2 (which never really launched despite being a finished product) or a SNES-ified new level. I have a cool sketch of this idea that I might be able to upload eventually.

The Music of Classic Lylat Cruise

StarFox - Corneria

  There was a neat remix of it in Brawl, but I propose leaving it alone this time. 

StarFox Assault - Corneria

  It's not just a fully orchestrated version of the original Corneria song, at least not in a way I recognize. So it fits the Corneria theme, but is also it's own awesome song. Win - win.

StarFox Assault - Sauria

  Here's my "meeting half-way" between a game I did not care for and a game I did. It's the music of Sauria, from StarFox Adventuers, but it's from StarFox Assault. I do like it's very adventurous tone, though, so I say it fits either way.

StarFox 64 3D - Venom

  So the only thing to come out from StarFox was a remake. Ehhh at least it had revamped music for me to take advantage of!

  And there you have it, my selections for today. Choice comments are welcome in the area below!

-Make it a Good One.

Smash Bros.: TNG - Day 4

Bounty Hunters 'til The End: Night in the Big City!

I'm going to put a big ol' spoiler tag on here for Zelda: Skyward Sword. If you have not finished it, and you care to, I'd recommend finishing it and then coming back.

Alright, you finished it? How was that ending? Pretty sweet, aye? Too bad you had to drag your way through some sludge to get there, but I think it was well worth it. Moving on, though...

The Veteran: Samus/Zero Suit Samus

Dark and Beautiful.

  Even though I picked the Corruption suit due to my love of, well, the Corruption Suit, I think standard Samus and Fusion Suit Samus are the obvious costume choices here, with Zero Suit Samus's alternate being her little military get-up and short hair from Metroid: Other M. Now, if we're concerned about hit-boxy type stuff, and understandably so, then I will revoke my Fusion Suit nomination to that which is pictured above. Aside from discussions of costume swaps, though, there's not much to talk about. Samus has always been incredibly versatile and, in my opinion, fairly balanced. I'd appreciate if Zero Suit got a few new moves, as the Sexy Dodge just isn't cutting it, but overall I've no real complaints.

The Potential Newcomer: Demise

Perhaps a replacement...?

  I hate clones; both as a moral dilema that brings up questions like "What is truly alive and what isn't," and as a cheap character knock off that reeks of lazy design. I get that it's for the purpose of cutting down game development time, but in most cases, I'd rather just pack skins. In Smash, there was room for leeway because we're adding characters that we know from other franchises, not creating forgettable characters that we'll eventually forget *coughCharliecough* So I ask you; do we need Ganondorf, and can we do better?

  As it stands, the Zelda stable has 4 characters, one of whom is technically two. Link and Toon Link are clones, although they've done a fairly decent job of making them relatively unique (I think we can go further, more on that), but Ganondorf is a clone of Captain Falcon. That has literally never made a damn bit of sense to me, but I've gone with it. Well, I have ideas for other characters that might bring us upwards of 6 characters in the stable, and I think going past 5 is a mistake. I say, we cut the clone, and go with his canonical predecessor, Demise. A sword fighter who moves like Bowser, but has range is interesting to me. He'd be almost of a DeDeDe, but with more momentum. It doesn't hurt that I just plain love the way he moves, and for a 'destroy the world' kind of evil, he's surprisingly personable. He's actually quickly become one of my number one wants for the next Smash Bros, and I don't mind sacrificing Ganondorf if he doesn't do something to come into his own this go around.

The Stage of History: Castelia City

The City of Potential.

  I've been wracking my brain for a good level out of the new Pokemon Black/White series, and it finally hit me that I had been looking too hard. Castelia City is perfect. It's probably the most iconic location, and there's a -lot- that you can do with it. Two ideas come to mind: The Rooftops and the Port.

  On the Rooftops of Castelia City, you can get a great view of some of the distant bridges and landscapes, while focusing on a stage that resembles good ol' Saffron City. Rooftops, some floating platforms, and a tone of Pokemon cameo traps. It's not terribly original, but it is... *ahem*... super effective!

  Alternatively, if we look at the front level, a port is a neat option. You have all the hustle and bustle of the city streets in the background while parties fight hoping from bridge to bridge, with boats that come and go as other central platforms. Flying Pokemon or random flying platforms could serve along the upper plane, but rather than having to worry about falling in the gaps, you just have to worry about becoming useless while swimming to recover. It'd be an interesting dynamic, and one of the more unique stages, I think.

The Music Selection of Castelia City

Pokemon XD - Mirror B's Battle

  If there was one thing I didn't get about Brawl's music design, it was the Pokemon tracks. Don't get me wrong, I loved almost all of it, and Sakurai hand-picked some of my favorite random tracks that I never thought would make it in there (Route 223). But he has stated that his design for picking songs was to try and grab something from every game, because somebody's first Mario was New Super Mario Bros., so there needs to be a song from that in there. Now I"m not expecting him to grab -everything-, but I feel like Pokemon covered very little ground considering the sheer breadth of the series. That's why my first submission is Mirror B's battle theme from Pokemon XD. It was an atrocious game that I got 100% completion on, because I clearly value myself little, but if one thing carried me through it was these beats.

  Pokemon Battle Revolution - Main Street Colosseum

  Full disclosure: I never touched that game, but I have the music, and it is surprisingly good. This song isn't quite my favorite, but I think it most suits the idea for a Castelia City stage.

Pokemon TCG - Normal Duel

  (incomprehensible drooling and mumbling)

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver - Goldenrod City Game Corner

  Also known as the Lucky Channel music from the original Gold/Silver, this track captivates the fun and excitement of the big city, and really would lay up great against the backdrop of Castelia. As I mentioned earlier, that was a tremendous lack of music from all over the Pokemon games, and I think Gold and Silver got snubbed hard. Hopefully with the semi-recent release of HG/SS, we can see a track or two come into the mix.

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver - Ho-Oh Battle

  This isn't the most impressive song on it's own merit, but I think it's ripe for a good remix. Focus on the traditional Japanese style of Taiko drums and tsugaru's, and I think you have the potential for one of the most bitchin' remixes ever.

Pokemon Black/White - Castelia City

  Sort of the obvious choice, isn't it? I rather like it, and it fits, so I don't see why we can't include it.

  One of the things Black/White was really great about was evolving music to fit the scenarios. It's something more games, especially RPG's, could stand to do, and it was well done here. When the tides of battles changed, the music reflected that, and I think adding that element into Smash Bros.: TNG is important. That's why I suggest that whenever somebody is down to one stock, or the clock is down to 30 seconds, any music on any Pokemon stage immediately switches to this:

Pokemon Black/White - Battle Danger!

  They need to make sure to keep the disorienting shift of the beeping between left and right side, as well. It really helps add to the chaotic feeling of the song.

  Thanks to The Avengers, I'm already a day behind and I'm still too tired to catch up today. I'd apologize, but only one person is even reading this, and you already know I'm sorry. That said, I'm going to double up here this weekend and I expect to be back on track shortly. Thank you for putting up with this disturbance in my schedule.

-Make it a good one.

Super Smash Bros.: TNG - Day 3

Robotic Overlords and The Boxer: The Knitty Gritty

Another late night batch of Smash Bros. wishful thinking.

The Veteran - R.O.B.

  I think nobody liked R.O.B. because he was the last reveal, and he wasn't the one character everybody still had in their hearts, whomever that may be. I don't think that's fair to R.O.B. I like robots, and Smash. Bros. had a disparaging lack thereof, and our Operating Buddy filled that gap well. Plus, I just like the way he played. He could stand to have a few better specials, but overall he was neat. Here's too hoping you're better received this time around, pal. And if you could come with a neat little costume that made you look like Chibi Robo, who probably isn't going to get their own character otherwise, well that'd be neat.

Potential Newcomer - Little Mac

  One of the big arguments I heard last time around against Little Mac is "What the hell does he do in Punch-Out that we can replicate?" Well.. Really, nothing. But if I may... What did Fox and Captain Falco do in their games that made them so easily adaptable? The answer is: not much. Sakurai made most of that up, and there's no reason he couldn't do it again. A quick-moving, relatively diminutive, fast-jabbing pugilist is exactly what's in order for him. Throw in some moves reminiscent of Knuckle Joe, or elemental punches that he 'learned' from Hitmonchan, and suddenly you have some game-bending hybrids that make him all the more unique. For his Final Smash, we could always have him Hulk out like in the Multi-Player mode of the Wii game. And for an alternate costume... well, how about a Knuckle Joe or Hitmonchan costume? Just throwing it out there.

  Also, we deserve a Punch-Out! song in this game. The fact that it has not yet been (fully) included is a reeeeal shame.

Setting the Stage - Fountain Gardens

  Kirby's Epic Yarn needs a stage. There's no two ways around it. I really don't care what we do for it, I just picked this stage because it's bright, cheery, and chock full of yarny goodness. As far as I'm concerned, all of Smash Bros: TNG could be Epic Yarn-ified and i would be most content. Potential stage hazards include crinkling stages pulling platforms together or apart, and zippers that reveal new platforms.

Music Selection for Fountain Gardens

Kirby's Epic Yarn - Fountain Gardens

  I don't care, I want it. I don't care where it is, I want it. Now. Inside my head. Forever.

Kirby's Mass Attack - Meadow Breeze

  It may be weird to think about this, but there have been 3 Kirby games since the last Smash Bros. There's a lot of good music to draw from, so I'm trying to skim over it just to cover bases here.

Kirby's Return To Dreamland - Cookie Country

  Nice and up-tempo, a great companion piece to any Kirby stage, really.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - Meta Knight's Revenge

  I'm not sure if Meta Knight is getting his own stage again, but I wanted to make sure I include this because... well because it's good, really.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - Lava Landing

  Midst an already brilliant soundtrack, this song happens to be one of my personal favorites. The low key piano that eventually crescendo's into an all out piano assault on your fuzzy insides is very striking. It may not be the most apt for this stage, but it would look good on any sort of volcanic/lava-filled stages if we're in the mood to mix things up.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - Mt. Slide

  My final selection of the night is another Epic Yarn track, a chilly little piece called "Mt. Slide." It evokes a wonderful sense of energy and a little danger, which fits perfectly with Smash Bros. It'd be great to mix this into an Ice Climbers style stage, too.

  And that's it for another day. Look forward to seeing more of my wild and crazy ideas, or just come back to listen to great music. Whatever brings you here, I welcome you!

-Make it a good one.

Smash Bros.: TNG - Day 2

The King and his Princess of the Sky.

Now I'm doing ridiculous titles where I combine the three things I'm talking about. So there's that.

Veteran - King DeDeDe

   The King made his debut in Smash Bros. Brawl, and was mostly met with lukewarm reception by the tournament scene. Well nuts to them, because I fucking love DeDeDe and I don't care how bad he is. I make myself better with him. I don't know what kind of mechanics Sakurai-san is planning for the next Smash, but I'd love to see DeDeDe with something more useful than an inhale that can't copy and tossing minions that occasionally aren't worthless. That said, I absolutely adored his running attack; it's pretty much the greatest thing ever for a long-time fan of the character.

   If he could have an alternate costume, I would love it to be him in Yarn form. Because that shit was mother-fucking precious.

Potential Newcomer - Princess Daisy

  Oh daisy. We all know your up-taunt is "Hi, I'm daisy!" and it will be infuriating. You will be the greatest tank character Smash Bros has ever devised. When you taunt, nobody will resist the swelling desire to annihilate you; and that will be your greatest weapon. You'll be dressed there in your soccer uniform from Mario Strikers, and you will bring a flurry of kicks, Chie-style, while tossing around soccer balls and maybe throwing some Mario Party dice or something. Whatever. The fact is you'll be surprisingly heavy and brutal; something no female character is. And dat wiggle. You might flip-kick me for saying that... but the priiiize...

  Your alternate costume will most likely be a dress, and that's fine. It'll somehow be better when that's what you wear to a fist fight. Your Final Smash could be similar to the Strikers :Charged Mega Hits. You'll leap into the air and make it rain deadly, flaming soccer balls. And it will be grand.

Setting the Stage - Skyloft

  Skyloft is a big place. Now, while it's tempting to just create another New Pork City or Sky Temple from Melee, I also think individual pieces of this could make interesting stages. The Goddess Statue, for example. Her hand could be an upper platform, the ground is the main platform, with a wall to the left as a sort of obstacle. Not the most dynamic stage ever, but if it could... Spoilers... Re-enact an important moment from the end of the game in the background, well that would be something cool to watch. Maybe even add in a similar low-gravity element that we saw in the iceberg-slide of the Ice Climbers level in Brawl.

Music Selection for Skyloft

Zelda: Skyward Sword - The Ballad of the Goddess

  The first super-obvious choice is the, oddly underused Ballad of the Goddess. This proper version of the song did not show up anywhere in the game that I can recall, despite being a super important component of it.

Zelda: Skyward Sword - The Sky

  Flying may have been one of the worst things about that game, but the music helped make it all the more tolerable. It's a bit more adventurous than combat flavored, but it's still a pretty great piece.

Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess - Ballad of the Windfish

   This one is a dedication to the love of my life, Michael, who is probably the only one reading this right now. But that's fine by me. We went together to see The Symphony of the Goddess in Dallas, and this song was a secret second encore that they played, and my god. It's fucking brilliant. If you listen, they do a rendition of the chorus with each of the different instruments you acquire throughout the game. Whoever put this symphony together wasn't just some person they hired to do it. This person knew their shit, and put together a brilliant god damned show. This piece is personal, not just to him, but to my love. I only a few months ago finished Link's Awakening for the first time, and I wish I had done so sooner, because this is just.. It's beautiful.

Zelda: A Link to the Past - Mini-Game House

  That's right, I just linked you the best thirty god-damned minutes of your life. Enjoy. In all seriousness, though, I think it could be a cool piece to maybe combine with some other mini-game themes from other Zeldas, or just make into a really weird piece. They did more with less in the last Smash Bros., so I say why not.

Symphony of the Goddess - Gerudo Valley

  A fan favorite to be sure, this is the best version of Gerudo Valley's myriad covers that I've ever heard. I'm really surprised this theme hasn't been revisited in any Zelda's despite having returned to the Valley on a number of occasions.

MOKA - Title Theme (Ocarina of Time)

  Here's something with a little more flavor that I thought you might enjoy. If you like it, I recommend checking out the rest of the album, it's quite nice.

Twilight Princess - Howling Medley

  The Song of Healing's appearance in Twilight Princess was... Let's just say it was nice. Majora's Mask may not be the best game in the Zelda series, but it's most certainly my favorite. For this idea, however, I would like it if all the songs featured as the songs you howl in that mysterious domain were put together in a cool medley (perhaps with a few surprise additions) similar to the Ocarina Medley in Brawl.

  Alright, so it's a little late, but there you have it. So much Zelda music in that one, and there will be more! What do you think so far? Am I on track? Do you like where this is going? Do you wish I was making the next Smash Bros. as badly as I do? Probably not... but oh well. That's okay. I can live with that.

-Make it a good one.

Smash Bros: The Next Generation: Day 1

  There are 35 days until E3, so I thought now would be an interesting time to start talking about the future of the Smash Bros. series. For the next 35 days, I will lay out one veteran character, one potential newcomer, and one stage idea with a list of accompanying tracks. Hopefully this will lead up to some sort of Smash Bros. info dump that I can write on, but if not, well it's just for fun anyway.

  What is my goal by writing this? Well for one, I need to keep practicing, and this is a new challenge for me. 35 straight days of content. It's something I'm passionate for, so I'm hoping it'll work. Beyond that, I'm hoping that this information gets out into the zeitgeist, and somehow enters Masahiro Sakurai-san's mind through some sort of psychic osmosis, and then becomes a reality. We'll see how well that works.

  And just so you know how this works, I have scrambled all of the franchises up so that nothing is in a predictable order, and no one day focuses on a particular group. I could have just done "Mario Week!" and "Random leftover shit!" week, but this sounded more interesting to me. Let me know how you like the format and I can consider revising it for the rest of the way. Also, please note that I do not think about tiers, and I do not think about "Final Destination: No Items." I think like I'm making a Smash Bros. game. Sorry if that bothers you ahead of time, but not really.

Veteran: Fox from Star Fox

One of the original Smash participants, Fox has seen a few ups and downs to his system, but nothing has changed dramatically. In fact he's only been cloned three times, making his general style repeated a few too many times. I think he needs to stay relatively the same, I mean we shouldn't go breaking the wheel here, but we need to start breaking his clones. I'll get to those when their time comes.

I'm a huge fan of this design not because of it's associated game, which was horrid, but because it's a bit unique for Fox. It looks more rough and tumble, and I always kind of pictured Fox as a Captain Kirk kind of captain. Also, I just like the more vibrant palette, and the lack of weasel head. I want alternate costumes for everybody as unlockable goodies in the next Smash, and I think borrowing from his Assault design would be a great second costume.

The Landmaster was a terrible Final Smash, in that it was retarded over-powered. I think this time should include something a little more kind, like a sniper bullet to the head. Something more akin to a high powered weapon upgrade from Slippy dropped down to Fox would be more my flavor. Or a Call of Duty style aircraft assault where his Arwing just lowers and shoots at people on the field periodically.

Potential Newcomer: Geno from Super Mario RPG

   Geno comes to us with a wide array of special moves from his only main appearance in Super Mario RPG. From shooting his fingers as bullets to shooting rockets out of his elbow, the dude is packed with firepower. Throwing discs of destructive energy, calling down laser beams from orbit... Potentials for special moves and Smash Attacks are numerous. I for one believe a Geno Whirl is on order for his Final Smash. If the Whirl would connect at the moment it's thrown with only one enemy, that enemy is pretty much assured being knocked out. However, if it hits multiple targets, it's effectiveness at knocking out thins exponentially. Thus, if the opponents are all weak, you stand to gain something by hitting them all, but if you're in a one-on-one scenario, your victory is all but assured.
  I have no really good idea for an alternate costume for Geno, other than slapping on a different outfit. Perhaps some pants could be on the table for discussion.

Stage: The Faceship from Mario Galaxy 2.

"More like Faceship!"

   The Faceship from Mario Galaxy 2 is somewhat of difficult idea, but bear with me. Turned to be a profile view, you have a fairly flat boat-like surface with the hat frill and Mario's nose to catch on, and a towering smoke stack in the back to provide some terrain. Blow the size of the face ship up for proportion if you need too, and consider adding a planetoid or two hovering around it for extra fighting room. Alternatively, it could be a -really- weird stage if it rotated in different degrees, but the perspective and gravity remained the same for the players. At that point, I'm thinking we're a bit too complex, however. I like the idea of the ship traveling through space, showing different galaxies in the background, similar to Lylat Cruise from Smash Bros Brawl. There could be some great opportunities to mix other Nintendo franchises too, with Samus's ship or Olimar's ship flying in the backgrounds. Spaceman Tatanga could make an appearance zipping around while being chased by Deoxys. Also, any random other thing could show up in the background, like one of the Spacebattle scenes from Star Fox, or stages from Super Mario 3D Land.

Music for The Faceship could include:

 Super Mario Galaxy - Purple Comet Challenge

  All the fun of Gusty Garden Galaxy, with a more dire and intense sound to it, suitable for conflict.

 Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy

  All the fun of Gusty Garden Galaxy. Done.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Yoshi's Star Galaxy

  The swanky sounds of Yoshi's Star Galaxy will have you tapping your toes while smacking your foes.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Glider

  Another more high-energy, albeit overly peppy, tune.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Bowser's Galaxy Generator

  A much more appropriate Smash Bros. tune. With the right remix, this could be turned into an amazing theme to thrash by.

Super Paper Mario - Brobot Battle

  And just to make sure we had at least really awesome battle theme in here, I wanted to make sure to include one of my favorite tracks from Super Paper Mario, a series that direly needs to be represented in the next Smash iteration.

  And that's one down, 34 more new characters, old characters, and stages to go.

  What do you think of my selections so far? Feel free to discuss these ideas or your own down below!

What Nintendo needs to do to "Win."

  Console wars are kind of a weird thing to even talk about. From an intelligent, and rational person's point of view, it makes sense to want all the consoles to do well. Success for every platform, while remaining competitive, means better games for us. It's fun to root for your favorite and condemn the obvious loser, that's all fine and good; it's part of the game. I don't want to start any flame wars, so if that's all you're interested in doing, take a hike. I'm here to discuss a few strategies that I think will help ensure that Nintendo, as a company who is in a very strange position right now, continues to thrive as a competitor.

  It's no small secret that Nintendo as a publisher and as a developer is at a sort of crossroads. The 3DS came out and had a shaky start, but has come through looking better for wear. If they can keep this momentum going, we're in luck. Recently, they announced a new Mario game, so I know I'll be slavishly waving my hard earned money at the person behind the counter to pick up my copy. Here's to hoping they do a little innovating on this title.

Ice White Nintendo 3DS

   The future of the Nintendo Portable platform has me a bit intrigued though. The 3DS is here, and it looks like it will remain mostly successful. But what's next? A lot of Nintendo's share holders are calling for a Nintendo Phone, but that'll take a shoehorn the size of Montana to eke out an existence in that sea. If you think about the (complete, global) saturation of iPhones and Androids, there's really nothing left for Nintendo to bring to the table other than Mario. Perhaps Japan has a vastly different cellular market that has enough legroom for a new cell phone company, but over here isn't so likely. Nintendo could open up and just slap the Android interface in there, however, Nintendo is traditionally very tight-knit with it's devices. I foresee more of an iPhone path for them, if they were to ever go that way. And that's just not going to be viable in this ecosystem. Would you trade up your smart phone to a Nintendo Phone? Sure, there are some people saying yes. I don't think I would, though. I love my Samsung Nexus S and I'm addicted to Google's infrastructure. I'd probably still get the Nintendo Phone, but just to keep around as another dedicated gaming device. Because of that, I'd rather they spend their time making quality handhelds like they do now, something they pretty much own the market on.

  Looking at the WiiU, I think Nintendo has the opportunity to make a bajillion dollars right off the bat. Would you like to know the very simple answer to this? Angry Birds. I won't deny any love loss for what i feel to be a lackluster game, but the fact is that it's got wings. If you slap that grumpy, red bastard on the front of a WiiU box, you're making money. Pack it in with every console as a game that can be played on the WiiU's tablet-like controller, and you've just banked. If you're Nintendo of course. Imagine now, if I may expand, all of your favorite iPhone and Android app store games coming over to Wii U. Game Dev Story. Sword and Sorcery. Canabalt. Anomaly: Warzone Earth. Cut the Rope. All streamed from the big white box to your lightweight tablet controller. Some of them even could come with button controls, which YHVH knows they need. And the Stylus that comes with it would make games like Cut the Rope more accurate, and more playable. Plus, you could have high-end graphics for all of them. Forget Infinity Blade's shine on the iPhone, imagine how good it could look with more horse power? The long and short of it is, opening itself up to this kind of an App Store (and preferably partnering with an existing partner, like Google) would be a killer.

Imagine: Angry Birds... Right there. And on the big screen, so the whole family can enjoy.

  I just thought about playing Plants vs. Zombies (for the 9th time) on this controller, and I would kindly set fire to a puppy orphanage to have it.

  Last, there's this little bit about the Virtual Console and how they handle it. For one, it's no secret that the Wii Virtual Console is kind of dead in the water. I'm not sure how much of that is Nintendo choking it out while they focus on the 3DS, and how much is that nobody just putting anything up there anymore. For another thing, they've been putting out NES games on the 3DS now, and I can't help but wonder why I'm paying for these. Again. With the WiiU, there needs to be enough forefront to create a way to convert my Virtual Console games from my Wii, to my WiiU and to my 3DS. If I have to be that roundabout, that's fine, I'm gonna move everything to the WiiU anyway. But having I'd be much happier not having to pay for Startropics again. At that point, Nintendo is sort of just asking people to go get emulators on their SD cards and go from there. If they open up that Virtual Console on all their machines, on your same profiles/accounts, that would be stellar. While on the subject of Virtual Consoles... Why haven't we seen Mother, Earthbound, and Yoshi's Island yet? There's some work to be done there, and I'm sure somebody on the interwebs would gladly take a contract job to do it.

 With that off my mind, I want to know what you think? Can these strategies be improved? Do you have other ideas? Better ones, even? Please feel free to sound off below!

  As a programming note/advertisement, I plan on discussing a -lot- of Smash Bros. in the coming month. Starting May 1st, and every day through E3, I'm going to drop something else I think should be in the next Smash Bros. All of that will lead up to hopefully -some- sort of announcement at E3 that I can geek out on, and then see if I have anything to expand upon with some crazy new knowledge. I look forward to the discussion!

  Social Media Go: @DocRandle , Facebook, The Midnight Roost

-Make it a good one.

Music Appreciation: Mass Effect 3

Music to save the galaxy by.

  With less than 4 days to go, and 4 weeks since I last wrote something, I figured now would be as good a time as any to bring back some music appreciation. This time, however, I wanted to bring something that hasn't been released yet, and since Mass Effect is about the only thing I can think of right now, I decided to dig around to see what I could find. As luck would have it, I found some pretty great stuff.

The soundtracks of Mass Effect are some of my favorite in games. They are brilliant, they are beautiful, and they are mature. The first Mass Effect took us to a soundscape reminiscent of 70's and 80's sci-fi's like Blade Runner, Terminator, and The Running Man. It was a world of music long since lost, but brought back in a gorgeous way. From the fluttery openning of The Citadel's Presidium to the triumphant climax of From the Wreckage, this game set itself as an homage to "the good ol' days" that inspired it, as well as something truly unique in video games, and really all media in the past decade. Jack Wall, Sam Hulick, and Richard Jacques really pulled this one off.

  Mass Effect 2 was a contentious title for a few people, myself included, at least at first. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it was a better game in almost every way, but it had it's share of problems and, perhaps worst, didn't feel quite as "Mass Effect." A large part of this, I think, was due to the soundtrack. That's not to say it's bad, because it's not. Any game would be happy to have this quality of a soundtrack. It just lost some of that 80's sci-fi feeling that I had fell in love with. I mean, yeah, there was still The Suicide Mission, Garrus, and Mordin. But it seemed that the series had moved to broader, sweeping orchestral pieces rather than the more personal tones of the synthesizer. Oh well. The music in Afterlife pretty much made up for everything I might have been upset with. Here's a remix by the original composer, Jesse James Allen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUKrhOu6e28

  The music of Mass Effect 2's DLC was composed by a different team, and was amazing in it's own right. It seemed to mix the love of the electronic with more of a Hans Zimmer approach to the broad themes. The combat theme to Overlord is one of my particular favorites, although something about The Shadow Broker battle just makes me stop everything I'm doing to sweep my hand with the music.

  The team behind Mass Effect's 1 and 2, sans Jack Wall, combined with the talents of the team behind the DLC are coming back for an all out soundtrack blitz for the final game. Much like everything I've gathered from the Demo, it seems like this game really is taking what the teams learned from Mass Effect 2 and about how they could make it feel like Mass Effect 1 again. The phrase "this is what Mass Effect 2 should have been" comes to mind, but should also be discarded because Mass Effect 2 had to be exactly what it was to get here. It's called evolution, and from what I've played and heard, this series is really finding it's natural order.

  I'm as spoiler free as I can with these links, even picking things with minimal spoiler titles. There shall be no "Death of Qui-gon" here, my friends, but I can't say for the suggested links afterwards. Just be forewarned.

  First, a slight diversion, because Zeus almighty I cannot stop listening to this song. It's the dance music to the clubs in The Citadel.

  Next, something you're likely to hear early on, it's the Character Creation music. The char-creation of Mass Effect 2 was a favored piece, so this one fits right at home in my heart. Because that's where I store my music.

  If you've played the demo, then you are already familiar with the theme to the Salarian Homeworld. This one reminds me a lot of the Mass Effect DLC, with the sweeping orchestral intertwined with electronic doodads. Have a listen!

  Here's something for the lovestruck spacefarers, the romance theme. This appears to only be a piece of it, but it gives you a good look at what you'll be hearing in your eventual boning sequences. Unless your Forever Alone Shepard.

  Do you have a favorite piece of Mass Effect music from the series? On a scale from "Very" to "Hnnggh" how excited for Mass Effect 3 are you? Posty your comments below!