Super Smash Bros Wii U and 3DS

 
All information has been gathered from Nintendo World Report!

First and foremost, Palutena has been confirmed earlier today in the Digital Event. She is known from her role as the Goddess of Light in Kid Icarus!

Nintendo has been going non-stop today and pulling no punches. After an exciting Smash Invitational Tournament, Sakurai sat down with some interviewers to talk more Smash.

And the first announcement that comes out - Pac-Man is playable! Apparently, he has some weird moves where he throws fruit and eats PacDots. He can also turn into an 8-bit version, interestingly enough. But normally he is like the PacMan World version. He can also use the Ghosts and he seems to have an attack where he places a fire hydrant on the ground.

Next announcement is for character customization. Apparently, every character will have 12 special variations. You will be able to select 3 out of those 12 for special moves! This is not useable in the "For Glory" mode. Characters can also equip items that increase attack, defense and speed, but there are checks and balances. If you were to make a quicker character, they may be weaker, for example.












At this point, Sakurai opens the floor for questions.

Why are the games released at different times?
He says that the games will be released at different times because of debugging. The debug teams are large, but they wish to give both games their full concentration to make it perfect.

Why were character transformations removed?He wants people to focus on single characters more deeply.

Do you have any plans for the competitive Smash scene?Sakurai is not involved with tournaments. He was impressed with the enthusiasm for the Smash Invitational though, and wants to support the tournaments.

A question on balancing?Sakurai says that it is really hard to balance the game. He basically did it all by himself from 64 to Melee (And this is why we love him...). Brawl had a 4 person team giving grades to the power of characters, but it was a little tricky due to biases in the graders from their individual playing styles. This game has a 12 person team, which will hopefully mitigate this bias. He's trying to reach out to new players as well as the old fanbase. Sakurai considers Smash a party game (that should silence that argument...).

Your games have a stylish menu design. What is your philosophy on menu design?Make all important menu items big so that there don't need to be words to understand the importance. He says to read his article on Famitsu, if interested.

When did they decide to include Greninja?A: All of the characters to consider were on our internal roster from the beginning of development. We had a slot for a new Pokemon reserved, but did not way for X and Y. We decided to use Greninja well before X/Y came out, based on early reference drawings. (Very interesting answer, in my opinion.)

Online was broken in Brawl. How will you ensure that online will be good this time?Sakurai believe he gave players too much choice in Brawl online.In new game, they are giving more solidified options. But we learned that some folks team up or play differently, making it difficult for all to enjoy. There is a reporting system. As far as technical connection issues, we're still working on it. They use a sync communication in Mario Kart and other games to improve this, but that doesn't work well for fighting games. So there is cascading failure, especially for four players. That is why they ask people to have the best communication system available (eg a LAN adapter).

Sakurai never stops giving us what we want and his fans give him a warm thank you for everything he's done for us. He's thankful to us for being fans, and thankful that the tourney went smoothly.

Nintendo Digital Event and Nintendo Minute Live @ E3

Mii Fighters! I mean, good morning everyone! Let's get this show on the road!

Sakurai graces us with Super Smash Bros 3DS and Wii U first. As I said, you can fight with Mii's in this game! Mii Fighters are broken into three classes: Mii Brawlers, Mii Swordfighters, and Mii Gunners. Sakurai says this is for the purpose of fighting as whoever you want to play against whoever you want. Super Smash Bros 3DS releases October 3, 2014 and Super Smash Bros Wii U releases in the Holiday of 2014. Reggie and Iwata go absolutely nuts in this trailer.

Nintendo announces Amiibo for Wii U, a new toy line by Nintendo, by the developers of Skylanders and Disney Infinity. The toys are created to look like a figure that can connect to your Wii U through a chip that the Wii U recognizes! Super Smash Bros Wii U will be the first game to support this. When you connect your Mario figure, for example, to your Wii U, Mario will appear on the game for you to fight as. When reconnecting your Mario figure, the fighting style of your Mario will be added to the chip, allowing you to fight against Mario with your unique style. Great for training and improving your skills at Smash Bros.! There is a trailer for Amiibo here.

Yoshi's Wooly World announced by the creators of Kirby's epic yarn! It is not a sequel to Kirby's Epic Yarn. It looks like they really took the 3D factor into consideration. Of course, this game is very colorful and surprisingly dynamic. The intention of the game was "to put a smile on your face". The game is set for a release in 2015. You can check out the developer review here.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker announced for this Holiday. This looks like it's based on the Green Star minigames with toad in Super Mario Bros. Wii U. Trailer here.

The new Legend of Zelda game for the Wii U looks to recreate the boundless exploration that the original Legend of Zelda had. Much like No Man's Sky for the PS4, it looks like you have the ability to travel to anything you can see. Looks like they did a great job. It comes with a 2015 release date. Great looking trailer here.

Next up! Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. As we know, the style of the game is much like Pokemon X and Y. November 21, 2014 is when the game comes out. Small teaser is right here.

My body is Reggie.

Everyone's favorite pink hero.

Now a series that is near and dear to my heart - Bayonetta. The gameplay is beautiful, of course, but what we've been waiting for for the past two years is a release date! Well we've finally got one - October 2014! But that's not all. The original Bayonetta will come, packaged with Bayonetta 2. Two great games for the price of one!

EDIT: New gameplay shown at E3 here.
EDIT: Nintendo Treehouse incited Platinum Games for some gameplay, a half an hour of gameplay, in fact, of Bayonetta 2 (in fact, you can check out this youtuber's page for many other reveals from Nintendo Treehouse).

Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors. The intention is for it to be like Dynasty Warriors, where there are multiple character that fight armies as they complete missions. You can see the interview for that here. September 26, 2014 is the release for the Dynasty Warriors-Zelda combo game.

Another Kirby game friends - Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. It looks to contain a similar style to Kirby Epic Yarn. You can see that trailer here.

Xenoblade is back! Xenoblade Chronicles X comes with an awesome new trailer. Admittedly, I can't tell what is going on because the action is so hectic, but I would absolutely love to play it. 2015 release date.

Mario Maker announced. As it sounds, you can make your own Mario courses, in both the 3D style of New Super Mario Bros. style and the original Super Mario Bros. style. You can interchange between them both.



Splatoon announced. A control-your-territory type game where you spray ink around you to increase the bounds of your territory. You control a human...squid...thing where, as a human, you can spray ink, and as a squid, you can move faster through your own ink. But you cannot move through the enemy territory quickly. Something so simple creates so much strategy. You can defensively hold your base by laying down a lot of ink and inhibiting enemies from moving, or you and your team can lay down lines of ink and offensively run through ink to reach your enemy's territory to cause havoc! Gameplay is here.

Of course, at the end of this section of this conference...Palutena, the main goddess of Kid Icarus decides that she wants some of the action in Super Smash Bros. We even get an anime style fight between Link and Pit in this character reveal...Awesome.






 Star Fox announced for Wii U! It will make use of the motion sensors of the Wii U to play! Set for a 2015 release date. I can safely now that Nintendo is not pulling any punches.

Nintendo Minute kicks off with the announcement that Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney will be here on August 29th.

Mario Party 10 announced! Bowser is the main star of this game!

Ubisoft Press Conference - E3 2014

Far Cry 4 was given a new trailer! It was intense!

Aisha Taylor is back to introduce the next games from Ubisoft, promising compelling games and she says that the show starts big and gets bigger.

Just Dance 2015 was announced with a release date of this October, featuring an updated track-list and more community interaction. Trailer here. Just Dance Now was announced as an interactive version of Just Dance with a community focus. Using smartphones, one can connect to another smart device or internet connected device and play the game with a limitless amount of people.I'm not going to lie, it looked fun. Check it out here.



Tom Clancy's The Division makes an appearance.Seen earlier today, there was more content shown in the form of a new trailer.

Likewise for Assassin's Creed Unity, coming out in October 28, 2014. In the Ubisoft briefing, new gameplay was shown, along with a trailer. We were introduced to the Phantom Blade, Multi-Barrel Pistol and French Cutlass as weapons. I did not realize that the cinematic and the gameplay was actually all within the gameplay. And that has only happened with one title in the past - Metal Gear Solid V. I must emphasize that the graphics look fantastic. It's clear that this has inherited Assassin's Creed: Black Flag's seemless flow (no loading screens) when in the Animus' reimagination of Paris, France.

Ubisoft showed The Crew once again with Route 909, a way to interact with other competitors in tournaments (that are streamed worldwide, might I add). You can sign up for the beta that the game has at www.thecrewgame.com/beta. The beta starts on July 23. This will be out on November 11 this year, along with Halo's Master Chief Collection.

Two more games were introduced. Shape Up, an interactive and fun way to get in shape, for the Xbox One. In order to make it fun, it looks like they give the player challenges and allow them to compete against others. Next up is Valiant Hearts: The Great War. You can see the gameplay for Shape Up here and the heart-wrenching trailer for Valiant Hearts here.

But as usual, Ubisoft does not leave the show without shocking the fans. Showing an interactive hostage situation, Ubisoft revealed Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege! After 6 years, Rainbow Six is back! We were presented with a scenario where a hostage is held by criminals within her house and a SWAT team, led by 4 co-operative players, storms in to save her within a 5 minute round.The environment was completely destructible, which I see will lead to many gameplay options in-game. The 5-on-5 action will most likely represent a gameplay mode, where 10 players alternate between one team being the SWAT team and being on the criminal team. But, of course, since this was only a first-time premiere, we can expect much more.

Ubisoft, once again, stunned the crowd. There is nothing more that needs to be said. Ubisoft brought out everything that everybody expected to see.

EA Conference

 The conference begins with some Star Wars: Battlefront and Dragon Age: Inquisition trailers.

But, as was revealed to those who went to PAX East 2013, Bioware has announced that there is a new Mass Effect in the works! I will be looking out for this!



Sims 4 has a release date of September 2, 2014. It shows a new type of Sims, with many types of interactions and improved graphics. For Sims fans, and even new people interested in the series,

Visceral Games introduced a new Battlefield called Battlefield Hardline, which emphasizes the war between cops and criminals on the streets. It looks like Dice is coming together to help them with this project too. Battlefield Hardline has a beta that is available on PS4 and PC right now.

Mirror's Edge 2 was briefly discussed as well. Despite Dice saying that it was an improvement upon the original, with a newly designed Faith and new sounds to show her power and who she is as a runner, they didn't show much gameplay to prove it. Unfortunate. I was really looking forward to some gameplay.

Sports Games:
EA UFC comes out next week. They were gracious enough to show their guest character, the legend himself, Bruce Lee, in this gameplay.  EA NHL '15 was also announced, as expected. EA PGA Tour was announced shortly after with the caption "Golf Without Limits". This is released in Spring 2015. Madden 15 displays new of the Defensive Capabilities. They want you to interact with the players through the Player Emotions captured by NFL Films. Madden NFL 15 will be released on August 26, sporting Richard Sherman on the cover. EA FIFA 15 was discussed to have improved physics for the players to "feel the game". There was a pretty epic trailer here.

Interestingly enough, Criterion Games introduced a new IP. An extreme vehicle racer, where you race with all sorts of things such as wing-suits, helicopters, jet-skis, all in First Person.


That concludes the EA Press Conference. Nothing much to critique on here. I enjoyed the teaser-style of this conference; however, the lack of gameplay was upsetting. Be sure to try out that Battlefield Hardline game if you are interested.

Xbox: Game On!

Hello everyone!

Let's get right to it, shall we?

The conference opened up, as it has in the past two years, with footage of Call of Duty. This time, it's the newest addition to the series, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. I would be lying if I said this game looked the exact same, but it still look similar (why change what isn't broken? Although I, personally, disagree - this series REALLY needs an overhaul). The first thing that I noticed was the improved graphics. It seems as though Microsoft was finally taking into consideration the power of the Xbox One. Of course, there are new guns, new characters, a new soundtrack, and more Call of Duty-level drama. Other than that though, this seems to live up to the Call of Duty stigma - "similar game with a new coat of paint". You can see it here.

Next were additions to Forza Motorsport 5. More specifically the Nurburgring course. Forza Horizon 2 was announced - an open world racer. Promised to contain Forza 5's graphics engine with dynamic weather. It comes with an online experience that has no lobbies and seamless connectivity. This game contains over 200 types of cars. It seems to offer the same experience as Forza 5, with more! Trailer with wub wub here!

Following that was Evolve, a game created by the makers of Left 4 Dead, which puts you in the position of Assault, Support, Medic or Trapper as you take on other-worldly monsters. Or, you can play as the monsters against the humans. Sounds just like Left 4 Dead 2's multiplayer in fact, with the addition of classes. It will be released this fall. I, personally, have not seen enough gameplay to give a proper judgment, but you can see today's gameplay for yourself here.

Finally, something that we were all waiting for, footage of Assassin's Creed: Unity! Along with the gameplay of the dynamic changes to the gameplay that appear to be better looking, we finally (seriously, I was waiting for this) can play with up to 3 other people to form your own Brotherhood of 4 during the story! Fantastic! This game will be exclusively for next-gen consoles. Check out the previewed gameplay!




 Next, Dragon Age: Inquisition was given a small trailer with a release date of October 7. You can check out that trailer here.

Next was a pretty interesting game announced a little while back called Sunset Overdrive, from Insomniac, where you create your character, you choose which weapons you want to use, conventional or unconeventional, and you save Sunset City. There is an 8-player mode called Chaos Mode, as well! You can see the trailer of this unique and fluid game here! Also, gameplay!

Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha, huh? Hah! No seriously, that's the title of the DLC for Dead Rising 3, available now. You can cosplay as several of your Capcom favorites and play as the previous Dead Rising 3 stars in a beat-em-up style. Clearly a nod to Street Fighter's ridiculous naming system. I respect that.

Fable Legends was given some gameplay. You can play as Winter, a hero of will, Rook, a hero of

skill, and Inga, a hero of strength, plus a few more heroes. This game is fully cooperative, and to add on to the multiplayer experience, every trap, every enemy, and every challenge is created by a human villain, who can choose who they want to target. There will be a Multiplayer Beta available this fall, which you can sign up to on Fable Legend's website.This looks like a step-up from the previous Fable titles, which were admittedly lackluster. Check it out!

Next, Project Spark was brought back. This game, shown at last year's E3, allows creators to make stages which their friends can play.

Ori and The Blind Forest, coming Fall 2014, takes the award for the most beautiful game in E3 thus far. It's hard to explain in words. Check it out for yourself in the gameplay here.

November 11, 2014 - Master Chief Collection. Includes Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4. The purpose of this is to lay the groundwork for Halo 5: Guardians. Halo 2 will be getting the anniversary treatment in honor of the 10 year anniversary of Halo 2. It will ship with Halo 2 multiplayer, "exactly as it was 10 years ago"! It includes EVERY single map from Halo 1-4 (that's over 100 maps) all running at 60 FPS at 1080p ALL with their original engines. If that wasn't enough, you will get access to the Halo: Nightfall, a series that introduces an important character for Halo 5. But wait, there's more. Halo 5: Guardians beta access! If you are a Halo fan and don't have an Xbox One, this may be the reason that you get one! I know that that's all I needed to hear, friends. Save that date on your calenders! I highly recommend you watch this entire segment.

Hard to follow that up, but Playdead tries their hand at it with their new title "Inside". It looks somewhat like Limbo. Check it out here.

Finally Xbox gives some love to Indie developers (much respect), in their segment called ID @ Xbox, where they showed several games, including Mighty 9. You can see that trailer here.

Rise of the Tomb Raider, given a Holiday 2015 release date, was announced, with an amazing trailer.

Next was Witcher 3: Wild Hunt! Showing gameplay of the main Witcher on a hunt for a Griffin. His hunt brings him into a village under attack by bandits, showing that his quests will often interact with the open-world. Following the combat the village, he engages the griffin in epic combat. This game looks exciting.

The creators of Killer Instinct want to bring back yet another game. Phantom Dust! If you haven't seen the game before, it originally came out in 2005 as an interesting mix of real open-world and fantasy. Check out the epic teaser here.

Tom Clancy's The Division sees some love today as well. With extremely dynamic gameplay, this solidifies my stance on why Tom Clancy games produce the best Third-Person Shooters. If Tom were still with us, I'm sure he would be proud to see where this game has gone. Check out the premiered gameplay here! We are not given any release date, but it will be out in 2015!



Hideki Kamiya graces us with his presence. As Platinum Games are my favorite producers, I expected a lot from him immediately. And I was not disappointed. The new game Scalebound is like  "How to Train Your Dragon", but 1000% more epic. Check it out here.

The finale of the Xbox E3 conference: a Crackdown reboot, made by the original creator. The trailer, with the familiar voice of the Agency's leader narrating, shows 4 of the Agents working together to stop one of the undoubtedly many crime bosses. This crime boss is one from Los Muertos, which tells me that the game will most likely reboot the first installment in the Crackdown series, where the Los Muertos gang was the first one players were directed to take down. I sincerely hope that the environment is as destructible as it shows in this trailer and I'm curious as to if they will use the same world, or an entirely new one.


Overall, the press conference was so much better than it was in the past two years. I'm a little saddened by the Xbox crew not keeping their promise to keep Xbox 360 alive, as the entire conference was about Xbox One, but it is to be expected given their near-dead console. Hopefully, all of these announcements breathed some new life into Microsoft's newest console. Game On.

E3 Begins Anew!

Hello readers, I am back to cover E3 2014's Press Conferences and bring to you the updates from Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft, and more!

Coverage starts 12:30 PM EST!

The Rise of the Playstation 4: Sony: E3 2013

Sony begins by thanking all of its long-term fans, as usual. Tretton, the CEO, introduces the conference to statistics about the PS Vita. Sony hopes to make the Vita, "the ultimate companion device to the PS4".

They continue on with the Puppeter, Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Gran Turismo 6 all in a row. I'm assuming that these games were meant to show that Sony hasn't forgotten about the the PS3 is still strong and will continue with support.

Continuing on, Batman: Arkham Origins was spiced up with a quick trailer with more scenes of the main Batman villain, Black Mask. It seems as though the reveal was more to introduce the fact that WB and Sony are now partnered up again, which I assume was . Arkham Origins and GTA V were also shown to have 

The Next Generation:

Priced at $399, this console looks to be the fan favorite this year at E3.

The PS4 has been announced with a $399 price tag along with several bundles! It is worth noting that despite the PS3 launch being unsatisfactory, this game system will launch at a price that is $200 less than the PS3. Sony clearly has gone back to basics with this system. It is sleek, and much smaller than the original PS3. Also, it appears to be much smaller and less heavy.

A few minutes later, we were introduced to The Order: 1886, a PS4 exclusive, made by Ready At Dawn Studios (makers of God of War: Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta). A game that looks like it takes place in early 20th Century England. Not much information was given on this title, but if it's anything like

Afterwards, we're shown trailers of Killzone: Shadow Fall(available on release), Driveclub(available on release), and Infamous: Second Son (2014), the last of which, I'm surprised didn't get its own section.

EDIT: New gameplay trailer of Infamous Second Son.

Transistor by Supergiant Games is revealed with a 2014 release date. These are the creators of the award winning indie-game, Bastion. The game's trailer shows a female protagonist, Red, as she traverses through a sci-fi themed world. The game seems to have a little strategy to it as well.

Next, Indie Games get some respect. I'm a huge fan of the work that indie developers do, so it's a great pleasure to lay out these games that will be coming through
- Don't Starve
- Octodad

Just another day for the Octodad.

- Secret Ponchos
- Outlast
- Ray's Dead
- New'N'Tasty
- Galak-Z

Square Enix:

Final Fantasy VERSUS XIII hasn't been forgotten! The game is still being worked on, and more information will be revealed at a later date. But for now, we are left with a trailer that shows the beauty of a new world and the interactivity between Noct, our main character and the environment. The enemies are a part of that environment, interestingly enough, and it appears that there are no longer random battles (or maybe there are).
"The legend meets it's match, but the world is ever changing for the fifteenth coming."
  - With this announcement, FINAL FANTASY XV has been confirmed as the name of the title,      replacing the original Final Fantasy VERSUS XIII title. Final Fantasy XV will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One.

Shortly after, Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced. Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix, the re-release of Chain of Memories, the Game Boy Advance title, and Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, the remake of Kingdom Hearts 1 with bonuses.

EDIT: Today, Day 1 of Square Enix's presentation, we received some information of what Final Fantasy XV is all about, and why it is where it is. New gameplay has also been revealed just moments ago. You can see the newest gameplay here.

Final Fantasy XV is an action-based RPG with with not much turn-based gameplay, but they want to keep the Final Fantasy feel.

Noctis (Noct for short), the main character is apparently, "a person with cool characteristics." Noct himself, although appearing to be the ultimate level-headed hero, is not like that at all. Makes me think of Zack from Crisis Core in that he's not exactly, cool-headed, but looking at his appearance would assume so.

Using your party is still important. The gameplay revealed a massive amount of cooperation. Although this is the case, Noct can still fight on his own. However, Square wanted to emphasize that in some spots, using your team will be most advantageous to you.

The trailer showed Noct's abilities to teleport himself. Square Enix hopes to use this to make the game more interesting with the fantastic aspect, but keep it grounded in reality - in that, he's not invulnerable, nor can he fly.

Square also gives the reasoning for their decision to put FFXV on the next-gen consoles, and not for pre-gen titles. Tetsuya Nomura, the director of FFXV, has decided that the core idea would best fit the newest system, as new things could be achieved with it. Also, they use a tool called Dialect X11 to create the game. Square keeps into account the ability of the console to handle the quality that Dialect X11 delivers. The consoles that were best able to do this were the Xbox One and PS4 as of now. This could mean that, if PCs can handle the game's specifications, that Final Fantasy XV can come to the PC.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag receives further gameplay (more than what Microsoft showed, noticeably) of the explorative aspects of Cuba. The gameplay mechanics are still the same as they were in AC3 with a few twists (the use of two guns that allows you to fight at range after alerting the enemy. It looks like the guns finally have chambers, so they can shoot multiple times before reloading). Also, within naval battles, you are able to leave the Captain's Wheel at will and board enemy ships to get up close and personal. There may or may not be rewards to doing this.

Watch Dogs was next, further adding to the already present hype. There is much more presentation this time around with regards to the control that you have of the technology present at the moment (Cameras, Cars, etc.). There really is no limit to your control. We are promised an extra hour of gameplay and an extra costume upon preorder of the game.



Sony has partnered with Bethesda Softworks and will support Elder Scrolls Online, "the next chapter in the Elder Scrolls Saga". The trailer of the game can be found here.

Sony introduces a world premiere of Mad Max with a brutal trailer, adding to the 140 games that are in development for the PS4.

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT: Time for the jabs to Microsoft. There are no restrictions on used games, and no daily authentication.  All Playstution Plus memberships will apply to the PS4, and members will receive one title every month for free.

Finally, Destiny. We immediately get thrown into a gameplay presentation that puts us in front of a dilapidated wall that encircles a barren wasteland. Shortly after, the main player is joined by a Warlock, an archetype of soldier that you can use in this game. The gameplay introduces the Ghost, a small aid that helps you navigate through dark areas. As the gameplay continues, the duo runs into an engagement with the Fallen. These appear to be agile enemies, very similar to the Elites of Halo. Adding to the similarities is the Battle Rifle-like gun that is used by the presenter. Shortly after clearing through a few waves of Fallen, they fight a larger monster called Rixis, Archon Slayer, which drops a gun upon being defeated. This looks like a page out of Borderlands, which is impressive. After they end up on the other side of the wall, they meet up with another archetype of soldier, called a Titan, that seems to be a heavy weapons user. But the introduction of the Titan quickly becomes overshadowed by the "Public Event", which joined the new party of 3 with a larger group to take out a mini-boss type enemy. This gameplay was phenomenal, combining the traditional Bungie aspects and a new formula.

Continue reading for my Highlights from the Sony Press Conference