The Super Smash Nintendo Change Up

While Nintendo may not have had a press conference this year at E3, they still delivered on game announcements. And if we're being honest, it was probably a good move to save all that money, specially with the big guns of Microsoft and Sony an their new consoles. Nintendo came at us with a Nintendo Direct 40 minute showcase broadcast, a booth at E3, demos, trailers, and a couple of roundtables at the conference, so they weren't absent altogether at the Expo.

So what did they show us and what are we excited to see? There we actually quite a few titles announcements, for both the Wii U and the 3DS. Some old favorites like new Pokeman X and Y coming out this October, including a new fairy class that will be strong against Dragon class. A new Super Mario 3D World including a new cat power up, and Peach! Peach finally as a playable character, and giving everyone an old throw back move from Super Mario World 2. Not a dream this time Nintendo? And of course new Mario Kart 8 that includes a new antigravity driving style.

This is what I think of your franchise and promises

They of course announced their 3rd Party titles, some not so surprising, and some we're no doubt excited about. The expected Assassin's Creed IV, Batman Origins, Disney Infinite, Just Dance 2014, Spinter Cell Blacklist, and Watch Dogs. A new Batman Origins Blackgate coming out for the 3DS, Scribblenaughts Unmasked: DC Adventure for both the Wii U and 3DS, Shin Megami Tensei IV for the 3DS, and hold on, a new Sonic game, Lost World, coming out for both console and handheld. It looks like they took the 3D in semi 2D worlds like they did in Generations. Not even crossing my fingers.

Ta Da! I'm Back!

They threw out a bunch of new eShop titles with no release dates, including Ducktake Remastered, Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Oddworld New N Tasty, and World of Keflings which most will recognize from the XBLA library. A new trailer for a game very near and dear to my heart, The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD. The graphics will look pretty amazing on the Wii U in 1080p, and they've added some new features including an option to go faster while you're sailing the vast ocean. Although from the trailer it looks like you're only able to activate this while you're catching a certain amount of wind in your sails. I know I'm not the only one who would sail in in zig zags to get to my next destination just so I wasn't moving at a snails pace, or so I didn't have to change the wind directions every time I needed to turn. They've also changed the Tingle Tuner! Obviously you can't connect your GameBoy Advance to the Wii U, (also holy crap, throw to the past with the GameBoy Advance Nintendo!) so they've changed the Tingle Tuner to the Tingle Bottle. From the beaches of Islands you can write a message, take screenshots, and through them out into the water. What good will this do? Your messages will then start to wash up on shore in other players games while they play. An interesting little addition, it seems like it could be fun.

They also teased up with some images and gameplay of The Wonderful 101, a group of heroes that unite against space invaders to their city. They use the Unite Morph abilities to gather together and change into different weapons, like swords, or defensive items. It will offer a multiplayer options of up to five players. That one will release this coming September.

Let's just appreciate how spry Link, Pit, and Samus look here.

The three trailers and teasers we got next might have been some of the most exciting ones. A New Donkey Kong Country, backed up with some old classics tunes in the background that had my little gamer heart excited. DKC Tropical Freeze features the return of Diddy Long and Dixie Kong and her blond helicopter hair. Then they hit us a new trailer for Bayonetta 2, this time featuring a full on look of the sassy Main Character, and her pixie style hair cut, (I'm a woman, yes I know hair styles,) and her new outfit. We saw some cinematic and in game action and while I didn't see a whole lot of changes, there was enough to keep me interested. Then we saw a rather pretty looking trailer for a new game from the creators of Xenoblade called X. So far we know that it's going to be an open world with monsters, and looks like a switch between the city and the wilds, and some mech play. Interesting. Expect that in 2014.

Retro Throwback of Nostalgia

Let's not beat around the bush anymore, it's liable to catch fire from the next announcement. Super Smash Bros. The trailer opened showing us a new character. Villager from the Animal Crossing franchise running to join along. Gonna have to be honest and bet that a lot of people weren't very excited that, he's not your first choice to join the cast of characters now is he? Then we see some of our cast of regulars; Mario, Link, Samus, Fox McCloud, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Pit, Pikachu, and Bowser. First we see them in a cell shaded style, outlined in black. They're announcing a 3DS Version. I think the black outline of the characters is a good move because we know how crazy the battle screens can get on a regular TV screen, and with this new style it makes it easier to pick our our fighters on the craziness of the background paired with the smaller screen of the 3DS. While it's all but confirmed that this will be a direct mirror of the Wii U version, it looks like some levels are going to be better suited for the smaller screen of Super Smash; For instance the train level from the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks.

Mario jumps out and breaks from his cell shaded 3DS style and we get to see the Wii U's HD graphics come into play. Link takes on the look of the Wii U demo we saw him in last year and some of his Skyward Sword apparel. Samus how shed the old classic armor for her Prime look. Looking snazzy there, girl. We don't see Zero suit Samus, but we only have a handful of the confirmed line up so far, so she could make her return in both versions. Pit takes on his more stylized look from Kid Icarus: Uprising, and some of his new attacks, including two shields for an upper punch. When will this Nintendo Powerhouse come out? 2014 of course.

But they weren't done with Super Smash yet. Last year they big names were Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog. This year they throw another one at us. If you arne't excited for this one then I don't even know you. Mega Freaking Man. He gets the classic pan up, hair blowing in the wind, and then the helmet is on, it lights up and he opens his eyes. Game. On. They throw in some Mega Man 2 theme in there, until he gets beat down, shown the way of Super Smash. Then we see the powers of Mega Man int he game. Hit with some rock of Wily's Castle theme and we see what we can expect form our little blue dude in the game. You need to see the trailer (linked above) to see the awesomeness. 

And stretch. And hold. Good Job

One day after announcing Mega Man as a playable character, Nintendo showed their next new character. No one saw this one coming. The Wii Fit Trainer. Don't knock her yet, check out the trailer bewlow. I think she could be a bit of fun. 

Still Not Dead: E3 Edition

As I type this I am currently editing our first pocast in a year. And it's the Microsoft E3 wrap up podcast. I'm also watching the Nintendo direct E3 announcement, but I would lying if I said I was getting any information from this. The lag is so bad, even in 240p, that it keep buffering every 5-10 seconds. This is not a good start for Nintendo to announce their titles. I want to think that I haven't missed anything since it's taking forever. I don't know how long this was supposed to take (as it's all pre-recorded it looks like), but the buffering and eventually skipping was not good.

I'm having to rewatch the stream to get the information that I missed. We'll talk about what this means later on the podcast.

We're recording podcasts today, and writing blogs, and posting videos as E3 officially opens to the public and trailers and news comes out. Stay tuned. We're back, and we're going to be doing some cool stuff. More videos coming to the Youtube channel as well!

This Week In E3

If you know anything about gaming, then you know that this week is Gaming's biggest time to shine. The World Series of Gaming. It's the Electronics Entertainment Expo! And once again we're going to be covering it, this time in blog post and podcast form. We'll do what we did last year, break up the podcasts, this time the Big 3 (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) into one, and Ea and Ubisoft into another. Or something like that. It will of course all depend on what kind of news we get. If you've listened to our previous podcasts then you know what we're hoping for something big, but our hopes aren't big. At least they weren't, until earlier today.

Despite other announcements of games, and trailers and gameplay from others, Nintendo wanted to get a head start. How? By talking about the Wii U of course! Some people might thing that this is a bad move, that they should have saved all information for their press Conference on Tuesday. People like me. But after watching the short (only about half an hour) special broadcast, it wasn't a bad move on their part. We were treated Nintendo President Satoru Iwata talking to us about what we can expect from the Wii U, what makes it different than the Wii, improves on fromt he Wii, and why it's going to be the system to beat. The controller has been update; it's been made bigger, joysticks have replaced the thumb pads, and the form has been designed for comfort with long hours of gaming in mind. They even announced the Wii U Pro Controller, looking much like a 360 controller. The only difference between the two Wii U controllers is that the Pro is meant for, well,w hat it's named after, Pros. No screen will be in this controller. I can only imagine that you won't be able to use this controller for every game, as I can see Nintendo, and other third party designers, utilizing the screen for game purposes and you'll probably be required to use the screen.

Although there wasn't much that was announced that we didn't already now, or assume, from last years E3, there was a video that showed what the Wii U, and it's controller, would be able to do. Including what looked like it's own social network, complete with video chat. Nintendo has found a way to include the Mii's in a very interactive way, much better than before and just using your Mii to show off to your friends when they come over to your house. Not so possible when your friends live half way around the world. They're calling it the Miiverse, and it'll include interactivity between the Wii U, and the 3DS, and other systems. It also looked like there might be an mobile app coming to a smart phone near you, so that you can interact with the Nintendo community.

These are things that will all be covered again this Tuesday, I'm sure, at the Nintendo Press Conference. Let's see how Sony and Microsoft take this news. E3 kicks off tomorrow with the first big press conference from Microsoft starting at 12:30pm EST (9:30am PDT), EA at 4pm EST (1pm PDT), Ubisoft at 6pm EST (3pm PDT), and Sony at 9pm EST (6pms PST). Then Nintendo will step up on Tuesday at 12pm EST (9am PST) to show off their goods. Here's hoping for some kind of LoZ fan service. Expect tweets from us (@TCPSpodcast) and wrap up posts after each press conference summing everything up, and podcasts to go up after the big conferences are over. We won't leave you hanging.

TCPS 21: Pre-E3 Ramblings

Like usual, we're on top of things, and took the time to sit down and talk about E3. What we got from last year, what we were promised, and what we'd like, and what we Need to see this year. Enjoy. We actually got a little serious. Until the end.

TCPS 20: We're Not Dead

No, we're not dead, we're back! And we somehow manage to cover short reviews of the games that have come out since January of 2012 up until just this week! And then there's some nonsense, but then we actually have some meaningful conversations about Sony and Nintendo and some Microsoft. Yes, we talk a little bit about Mass effect 3. Listen in!

 

Once upon a TCPS Holiday Guide

The holiday season is rapidly approaching and lots of people are thinking about gifts. Whether it be the person who's going out to buy them or the person being asked (or pestered) by their family for gift ideas because they can't come with something right away and they go through the same thing every year, and they're forced to make a- Sorry. Point is, it's the holidays. So what should you buy or want? Well, I Could give you a few ideas, but let me just run through some of the things that came out recently, so if you haven't picked them up yet, and you feel that you can wait until present opening time, you have something to tell those pestering persons of interest. (Also, I live in the US, so everything I state is based on availability and prices here.)

While the Nintendo 3DS didn't recently come out, it did get some awesome titles for it recently, and that enough should be enough to go out and pick up the handheld. If you're feeling lucky, or generous go and pick up one of the special editions or bundles. The new Flame Red bundle comes with Super Mario 3D Land, while a new Pearl Pink version has shown it's pretty face bundled with Nintendogs + cats. Of course there is the Cosmo Black Legend of Zelda Special Edition 3DS, detailed with gold art on the outside and gold buttons on the inside, and bundled with The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D. That's my personal favorite, but we've already clarified that I'm biased towards LoZ. You can pick all three of those up at your local GameStop(.com). (Please call ahead before you run in there saying TCPS told you so.) Walmart stores will have the Pink bundle, while you're local Target will be carrying The Pink and Red bundles. Both the Mario and Zelda 3DS Bundles will run you about $200, while the Pink puppy bundle will run you the regular price of $170.

But you're going to need something to play on your 3DS if you don't get a bundle! Well, just released is the new Mario Kart 7! Swim and Fly in this installment, and experience the fun that you know from the Mari Kart series. Also why not pick up some other Mario games, like Super Mario 3D Land, and the DS Mario games New Super Mario Bros, Super Mario 64, and many others. Not wanting to play as the courageous Link running around Hyrule in Ocarina of Time 3D? Got you covered. Do a freaking barrel roll in Star Fox 64, or spin dash into Egg Man in Sonic Generations. All of these games will run you between the sweet wallet spot of between $30 and $40. And don't forget to pick up those accessories for your games and handheld! You'll need a case to protect your pretty new 3DS, maybe a car charger, and a travel charging base if yo're gonna take it on the road. You might want to think about picking up a case to carry all of your games in to so you're not toting 10 to 15 big plastic cases with you in your bag. You'll need that space for the accessory to turn your 3DS into a controller for easier handling.

If we're gonna talk about Nintendo we can't forget the Wii. It's had some pretty good releases and so far the best selling release would have to be The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword. This isn't just my bias talking, it's gotten some amazing reviews. Nintendo really took advantage of their Wii MotionPlus with this game, and it's paid off. Again, if sword fighting isn't your dig why not take a break and dance with Just Dance 3, or maybe some fighting in WWE '12. Maybe Spyro is more your likes and you want to pick up some Skylanders. It's all there for the range of $30 to $70.

I know, you're really interested in the other consoles, right? Xbox 360 and Playstation 3? Yeah, they've had some amazing releases, too. Like Skyrim. If you haven't picked it up, and you think you can wait that long, go ahead and put that at the top of your list. Then when you open the gift and thank the person who bought it for you, tell the rest of your family and friends goodbye while you immerse yourself in a game that's going to easily last more than 90 hours. It was nice knowing you. Don't want to disappear for quite so long? Yeah, I don't blame you, (even if it is a really good game.) Why don't you ask for the newest installment in the AC series with Assassin's Creed Legacy. I hear that Ezio is older and searching for something, something that may or may not have to do with Altair. Just a hunch, I'm not actually sure. *ignores blatant AC ad playing in the background* Don't forget about Sonic, he's not just on the Wii and 3DS, and of course Batman Arkham City. New DLC coming out for that one. Or maybe you're more of a FPS person, yeah we've got you covered there, too. Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. You're welcome.

We can't forget the exclusives, like Kinect exclusives, or PS exclusives. Looking for fun for the whole family? Pick up Disneyland Adventures, seriously, I'm almost 24 and I kind of really want that game. Of course you can dance with the many dancing games, like Just Dance (1,2 or 3) The Black Eyed Peas Experience or Dance Central. Want to just kick back, or kick something? Kinect Sports season 2 is out, or kick some alien animals with Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking. And the one Playstation 3 exclusive game worth buying is the next installment in the Uncharted franchise, Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception. Perfect for any Nolan North fan. Seriously, that guys voice gets around. Did you know he was in Marvel vs Capcom 3? No? Well go get that game, too!

Then for you PC players, you can pick most of the games mentioned above. Probably through Steam. Assassin's Creed Legacy, Sonic Generations, COD: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Skyrim, Batman Arkham City, Saints Row The Third, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, and many many more. You could also play some Terraria and Minecraft which just came out with their own releases! Minecraft is official people, and Terraria is 1.1! You should think about picking up Bastion also, and maybe look into Trine and Trine 2.

Whatever you play this holiday you now have some idea on what to those gift hounds, and what to pick up for those that just have too much on their list, or too little. Whether you're going to stop at GameStop, Walmart, Target or Best Buy, at least you're not going to go in blind. Happy shopping all! Thank you for letting TCPS add a little more confusion into the busy season of shopping.

TCPS 15: E3 Special - Nintendo

We watched the press conferences, we took notes, and now we talk about it. We cover Nintendo and what they announced, how the brought their game, and how excited we are about it!

TCPS E3 Preview

Today kicked off E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, and I couldn't be more excited right now. Antonio and I are making sure that one of us watches it live if the other can't. Presently, Microsoft has just wrapped up and I have a long list of notes that I took. What can you expect from this? Well up to 5 podcasts, that's what!The big 3 will get their own podcast, (Unless Sony doesn't give us a lot), and then Ubisoft and EA combined with other third-parties. You might get treated to Microsoft tomorrow in fact. We work hard, just for you! Also, my lovely co-host and I will be discussing some exciting things for everyone.

TCPS 9: Rants and Rave

We're back with another Audio podcast! And we've got another guest, Shua, as we rant and rave about the PSN ordeal, talking about Nintendo, and generally getting off topic.

TCPS Video-Cast Challenge 1: Castlevania

The first of the video game "Classics" challenge. Watch Megan attempt to play Castlevania for the first time while Antonio watches. Then watch as Antonio (supposedly) does it the right way. Plus an added bonus in between that might scare you.... It's Here!

To Continue Press Start 1! The First podcast!

So here it is, the maiden podcast of To Continue Press Start, (which was almost changed to Pity Health earlier today. Long Story.) During this audio podcast we talk about Marvel vs Capcom 3, or we had planned to. Also, challenge to myself, Megan, is posed, we talk about fighting games in general, some classic games, Let's Play! Power Rangers edition, and even some Kingdom Hearts, and much much more.

Check it out Here (or hopefully up in the iTunes store soon!)