RetroWorldExpo 2021 Recap

After being shut down last year, and some delays RetroWorldExpo was able to return in 2021. There were a couple of concessions this year, there were no hyped after-hours events as in previous years. But there were a couple of surprises in the roster of guests this year. Beyond that, there was still a lot of fun to be had, and Hartford still had some nightlife beyond the convention center to take in after hours.

Still, there was a lot packed into the two days and it wasn’t possible to get to everything I wanted to but I still got to see a lot. One unfortunate thing is on day one my phone’s battery was low pretty much all of the day, and so I didn’t get as many photos as I would have liked to. I pressed on anyway getting in a few notes where I could. The panels started a little bit later this year and so I was able to start out my Saturday on the main floor perusing the vendors.

Getting down the guest booths I saw Pixel Dan again, who returned. This year he brought his new book The Toys Of He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe Where he and Val Staples (One of the main people behind He-man.org ) compiled every Mattel-produced He-Man toyline piece from the original line through the recent Classics line that ended last year. It’s a pretty deep dive into the various toylines as you’ll hear later. I got to talk with him a bit, and as every year I’ve gotten the opportunity he was nothing but friendly. I bought a copy from him for myself and had it signed which was really cool.

Timothy Clarke was there too. He was the man behind the Boglins toyline, and in recent years has been able to reclaim the rights to produce them. So he was selling some entirely new ones. Pat Contri and Norman Caruso of Pat The NES Punk and Gaming Historian fame were back as well. And new to the show was a YouTuber who probably doesn’t need an introduction: MetalJesusRocks.

Some of the other major names that made it out were the returning My Life In Gaming’s Coury and Tri. As well as RetroRGB. LON TV’s Lon Seidman was there, the members of Hack The Movies, Kieran and Justin from the Cinemassacre podcast also made the trek. Destiny Fomo was there this year. As well as Bonzai Pop’s Mike Pixley and Boundary Break creator Shesez.

But I got to also see a number of local content creators who were on the floor. My pals Russ Lyman and Mike Levy were there and had a couple of panels I sadly didn’t get into. (Sorry guys.) I also got to see fellow Twitch streamers ConsoleKev , Kobayashi Riku, Dan from BestSpuds , 1UpJohn , and I got to see DNick55 in person for the first time. All on the floor over the weekend Which was really cool. All of these guys are fantastic people you should check out if you haven’t already.

Big Bucks Entertainment was back again too. Over the two days, Davira Kuy hosted recreations of Press Your Luck and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? This year they had somebody make it all the way to the end of Millionaire where they won the big prize at the end which was a Power Rangers DVD signed by the original cast!

I also ran into Tom Ryan who had a booth up again this year, and a new National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation-inspired print that I just had to pick up for my Brother who loves that movie. He seemed to be doing pretty well this year, and he had a large assortment of newer pins in addition to prints.

And I got in some time with the arcade cabs and console games this year. Over the course of the weekend, I found myself getting in a few games of Tempest, Killer Instinct, Popeye, and Double Dragon. Which actually crashed on me during the second day,. Not sure what happened, but by the end of the show it was working again. I also got in a respectable score in River Raid on the Atari 2600.

My buddies over at Imaginary Monsters were there along with a lot of other independent developers. Imaginary Monsters showed off an interesting take on Robotron 2084 called Grindblood’s Gauntlet where you play a tormented character gunning down waves of monsters and demons. The current build played pretty nicely with some excellent twin-stick controls. Hopefully, some of the ideas can be expanded upon to flesh it out a little more. But the foundation here was pretty good.

Another indie game I got to check out was When The River Runs Dry, by a studio called ZwinzlerGames. In it, you play an anthropomorphic horse character who wakes up in a forest where drought is taking place. You use the keyboard to navigate your character and the mouse to do certain things in the environment or cast items or attack certain enemies. And it isn’t really a fast-paced game. Rather, you have to take your time and explore like you would in something like The Legend Of Zelda. But a lot of the pointing and clicking reminded me of old-school Sierra games like Police Quest. But that doesn’t mean you can dawdle either because there is constant pressure to find water sources too. Taking too long means it will drain out and your character will collapse. You’ll know if you are taking too long too because the screen slowly grows dark all around you as a cone shrinks. The controls seemed a little confusing at first. But it’s something you may want to keep your eye on.

Possum House Games was there as well with a demo for Space Cat 9, a roguelike platformer where you play as a kitten going up against an army of mice. They also had some trailers for their previous releases on Steam. First up; Shot In The Dark, a really interesting take on stealth platforming where you need to use contrast in battle. And I mean contrast in terms of black levels on your display. Because the color scheme is composed of mostly black and white graphics with bright reds for certain atmospheric moments. You move your character with the keyboard while using the mouse to click and shoot enemies. You play a cowboy with a revolver who ends up going on missions that become more and more bizarre.

The second trailer was for their first major release called The Sword And The Slime. In that one, you play a sentient magic sword that is accompanied by a gelatinous puddle of slime. And you need to use the slime to find creative ways out of sticky situations. So it’s a bit like David Crane’s A Boy And His Blob on the NES, but a little bit faster-paced and with a much weirder and surreal setup.

Screenwave Media was there too with their own demos of some upcoming releases. I was unaware but they are actually publishing LOVE 3, and as someone who enjoyed the original LOVE I was surprised to learn I somehow never saw a sequel. well apparently Fred Wood had put out a sequel a few years ago and I had either forgotten or I hadn’t heard about it. It was called LOVE 2 Kuso. LOVE 3’s promotional materials were a little bit deceiving in that it uses rendered models in the advertising which made me think it would be transitioning to a 2.5D sort of style. But when I got to see the demo running, it isn’t. It’s still very much the aesthetic of the original, yet obviously expanded upon. And for those of you who have never played the original LOVE, do check it out. It’s a great platformer with some awesome music with a style that very much takes me back to games like Lazy Jones on the Commodore 64. You may have to google all of those things. But it will be worth it. But the early look at LOVE 3 was pretty nice.

The second game they showed off was Iron Meat which I think is the one that was probably the most popular of the three. It’s a Run n’ Gun in the vein of classics like Contra and they went for a Super NES era look to the graphics. The demo is controlled nicely and it does have a lot of stuff Contra fans will like. If games like Super Cyborg and Blazing Chrome weren’t enough Contra-likes for you, you might want to check it out when it releases.

And the third one they showed off was Dumpy & Bumpy which is a puzzle game involving pushing blocks. So I was immediately reminded of HAL Laboratory’s LOLO series as well as the classic SEGA arcade game PENGO. It’s got elements of both of those along with other objectives they throw-in. It didn’t make the biggest splash with me compared to the other games they showed off. But it wasn’t bad by any means. If you love puzzle games that don’t do the usual match three colors rules or tweaking Tetris, you may want to keep an eye on it.

There was one other developer there too and while their game demo wasn’t as polished as some of the other things there, their staff was very passionate about their game and after playing it I have to say they have something here. The Killer Gin is a small group of people who made a game using RPG Maker last year called Killer Gin. At the show, they had a spinoff called Killer Gin Battle Arcade which is presently in Early Access on Steam. Visually what I saw isn’t going to compete with some of the similar indie games out there. But it controlled well and does do something a little bit differently.

Killer Gin Battle Arcade appears to be another take on the Super Smash Bros. Ring out rules gameplay. You get a variety of characters from their JRPG, who battle to knock each other out of the game. The difference here is that there aren’t really meters where you have to damage someone to a ridiculous level before you knock them out. Nor does it have a life bar system. Instead, the game uses elements of classic arcade games. The first is from the original Mario Bros. Enemies will spawn onto the blocks and you’ll have to hit them from underneath to be able to weaken them so you can kick them off. The second is like JOUST. There are pits, lava pools, and other things you need to avoid. While this is all going on the four of you are still trying to knock each other out of the map. And what little I played of it was honestly pretty fun.

The game has a long way to go before it’s done. but they hope to add Parsec support so people can use that to play online together since the team is relatively small and not versed in extensive networking code. The rep at the show also mentioned the potential for different ring announcers and accompanying countdown animations in future builds. Obviously, they’re not going for a Smash killer here. But with some graphical improvements, a few new features this could be a surprisingly fun diversion you might want to look into.

The first panel I went to was by Screenwave Media. Head Ryan Schott and their media manager talked about their core business as a Multi-Channel Network which is partnered not only with Cinemassacre, but several high profile YouTube channels. Basically dealing with many of the flags, content claims on YouTube as well as getting out promotion and advertising for these channels. Entering the video game space with AVGN Adventures they’ve begun carrying over some of the things they would do as an MCN for higher profile YouTubers to publishing games for indie developers. And they brought up some of the different avenues some budding developers could use to expand their reach when trying to market their games.

After that panel, I caught Pat Contri’s panel where he showed off the latest Pat The NES PUNK episode followed by a Q & A session with the audience. Some of the discussions centered around topics that have been on his CUPodcast as of late, like the Intellivision Amiico and the controversies that have been coming out about it. The controversy surrounding WATA graded sealed games. And then some information about his new Nintendo 64 book he is in the midst of putting together after his Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System books. Both of which are excellent and cover the entire scope of their libraries. The Nintendo 64 book will also take a look at Japanese-only releases as well as the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive.

I also attended the Gaming Historian panel. Norman Caruso gave us a look at an upcoming project involving the original Donkey Kong. He found some new information, and without giving much away it’s going to be a pretty great episode. After a Q & A segment following the presentation, he closed with a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? game where one audience member managed to get through to the top with a little help.

There were also two independent wrestling shows this year via Blitzkrieg Pro Wrestling I really didn’t get to see much of them but they did one each of the days. Speaking of Pro Wrestling, WWE alumni Tatanka was there too, but he wasn’t in the wrestling show. He did have a guest booth though.

At the end of the first night, I went to City Steam Brewery with some friends and had some great beer and food. I tried out their seasonal pumpkin beer cleverly titled “Gourd Vibes Only”, and tried their new Hartford Yard Goats-themed IPA. I also had their Jungle Crush IPA with my two Kielbasa sausages with sauerkraut. If you ever find yourself in the State Capitol city do check it out. It’s got a terrific restaurant in it, a comedy club, and of course many great kinds of beer to choose from. After dinner, we walked back over to the Convention center and in the adjacent lobby, many of the guests were there. Before heading off I ran into Metal Jesus Rocks who was rather cordial.

I came back the following day for the second day of the convention. The second day is generally shorter but RetroWorldExpo always seems to divide panels up with the larger YouTube names between both days nicely. When I made it back to the Convention center I spent the first chunk of the day browsing around for any interesting merchandise I might have missed out on. I didn’t really see too much although I have to say one booth stood out to me after my pal Juu Hachi pointed it out and that was Canvas Quest. They had the game-themed posters and wall art you might expect a business with that name to have. However, where they really made themselves stand out was in the area of pins. There were hundreds of different pins based on various games ranging from completely esoteric to super popular. I found two that I just had to pick up in spite of the fact I’m not a big button or pin collector. The first of these was a pin of Evil Otto based on the Atari 2600 port of Berzerk. And the second is the Yar pin which of course is the giant space fly you play as in Yars’ Revenge.

I also got into three panels the second day. The first of these was Pixel Dan’s panel where he talked about the process of making his book. It took over 3 years to put together. Much of the work involved flying all over the United States finding different collectors in the Masters Of The Universe fan community. The book features photos of every Mattel produced or officially licensed as canon toy in the original Masters Of The Universe line, Princess Of Power line, He-Man line, Masters Of The Universe 200x line, and Masters Of The Universe Classics line. That’s nearly 800 toys and it features several photos for each both in completely unopened packaging as well as loose, but with all of their accessories intact as well as the accessories themselves.

He also mentioned getting the accessories photographed was the hardest part of the process as centering the shots for small pieces proved difficult. The photography was done in each of the collectors’ homes over the course of a few days at each, and there were many collectors to visit. Because some only collected MOC (Mint On Card) or CIB (Complete In Box) while others may have had loose figures with or without all of the accessories. And obviously, a sealed collector wasn’t going to want their collectibles opened in the process. He did show off one video clip where he and Val Staples had to photograph one person’s Eternia playset which is one of the rarest playsets in the toyline and is a behemoth with many fragile parts. Getting the playset on the filming table was quite the task and everyone bit their nails anticipating something banging or dropping which of course, thankfully didn’t happen.

At first, the project was going to be self-published, but Dark Horse offered to pitch it to Mattel on their behalf since Dark Horse had already had the official license to do other Masters Of The Universe hardcover collections. Mattel gave their blessing and so the project then became an official part of Masters Of The Universe! The book is very detailed in not only the descriptions of every toy, but each page has an easy-to-follow layout showing the toys in the package as well as loose. Each accessory has its own photo and they even managed to take photos of the action features most of the toys had. Like Mosquitor’s blood pumping window or the battle damage, you can see on Battle Armor He-Man and Skeletor when they are hit in the chest. They even color-coded the pages depending on which faction the character in question may have come from. In MOTU there are generally four, the Heroic Warriors, Evil Warriors, Evil Horde, and Snakemen. The sides of the pages also have grey tabbed sections so you can get a good estimate of which toyline you’re going to be thumbing through without even going to the table of contents. The amount of details is staggering and it’s a fantastic book for any collector.

After Pixel Dan’s panel, I saw the MetalJesusRocks panel. This was an off-script panel where Jason (as he told us is his real name) loosely revisited a topic he covered in a video not too long ago about modern-day collecting tips. Some of these included things like looking at platforms that people may not be paying much attention to. Often popular systems mean that more people are going to want the big games on them and so a lot of prices for those games will reflect that in the aftermarket. So maybe instead of looking at Gamecube games try looking at something else you might not have considered before. You might find you have as much fun, and they may be less expensive in the process. Other things might be to look at the Japanese or European versions of a game you might want. Sometimes there’s a great divide between prices between different regional versions, and if it’s a title where language isn’t going to be a barrier it could be a good bargain for you. Beyond the tips there were some nice discussions about some of the Limited Run releases, console digital storefronts eventually closing down, and games we may buy a multitude of reasons out of love or obsession.

The last panel I managed to catch was the Super Retro Throwback live podcast where hosts Steven Christina Jr. and Sammie Ann Fontaine discussed some pop culture with an audience. Topics included bad remakes of popular movies, first films seen in a theatre, earliest console game memories, the Occulus Rift, and the 12 hours or more time commitment to get through the extended cuts of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy of films. There was some audience participation and they also gave out some free stuff throughout the course of the panel. I ended up with a shirt and a copy of Dead Rising IV on the Xbox One.

I spent the last hour of the show just chatting with some friends and I caught up a bit with DougMansLand who had managed to live stream through much of the weekend there. He had a pretty good turnout at his booth. If you haven’t checked out his channel give it a spin. In a short time, he’s already built up quite a nice variety channel. But time flies when you’re having a good time and unfortunately, 5 o’clock came up pretty quickly. There were some things I missed out on this year. I didn’t get to see the auction this year, though I had heard there were some pretty interesting things this year including a fully restored late 90s gaming rig. I also didn’t get to see the Street Fighter V tournament or the wrestling shows. And I missed Russ Lyman and Mike Levy’s panels which I’m sure were really good. RetroWorldExpo squeezes so much in it’s impossible to get to everything But that’s part of what makes it so fun.

I already can’t wait to see what they do with the show next year which is supposed to be happening sometime in August. Again, I apologize I didn’t get any useable shots of the indie games on display as my phone’s battery barely had the juice in it to take the photos I managed to. But all of the ones I played and saw showed some promise. Many of them have demos on Steam and Itchio so definitely check them out if they sound like games you would enjoy. Next year I should be better prepared. This year I definitely needed the weekend though. Between some mild health scares, the stress in my personal life, and recently losing my mother to pulmonary fibrosis getting the time to decompress and see people I haven’t gotten to in a while was a needed respite.

Some things I would selfishly like to see next year would include; a Berzerk cabinet, a Frenzy cabinet, Mark Bussler (of CGR fame) as a guest, and if possible an Unreal Tournament 2004 tournament and a Splatoon 3 tournament (assuming Nintendo has released it by then.). I know I’m probably asking for the moon there. But even without those things I know I’ll be looking forward to the show. Here’s hoping I’ll be seeing all of my local and not-so-local friends there if possible.

Retro World Expo 2019 recap

Now in its fifth year, Retro World Expo is slowly growing into one of the best conventions in New England. There are consistently good guests and panels. There are always plenty of things to keep you busy. And there are a lot of vendors with a variety of games, collectibles, and other stuff waiting for you if you’re out to shop.

Some of the layout concerns of previous years appeared to have been taken to heart. Checking into the show was easy. Just like last year, it was easy to follow the line to the window for people who paid ahead of time. Traffic for people paying for entry seemed straightforward as well. Going onto the show floor, everything was more condensed. There were as many vendors, guests, and events as last year, but it was less spaced out. But not so crammed that one couldn’t move.

Getting there on time was impeded by some road work on Interstate 84 on my way in. So I missed about a half-hour of the morning festivities. This year, the convention moved all of the panels to the afternoon so that actually allowed some of the other events and attractions to shine a bit more.

 

This year Big Bucks Entertainment was back with their fantastic game show recreations. These events are great as Davira is able to get pretty good facsimiles of popular game shows going in a convention setting. This year he brought back Press Your Luck, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? I caught the Press Your Luck show in the morning, and it featured one of the closest contests I think I’ve seen. The contestants were two guys and an older woman who didn’t really play many games. Her children did. Despite this fact, she managed to get enough questions right in the two rounds to earn a lot of spins. She went on to get a score in the tens of thousands before moving along. At the end of the second round, however, one of the other contestants had no money and only a final spin. They somehow managed to land on a streak of money and free spin combinations to nearly overtake the woman. But they couldn’t quite pull it off.

Over the course of the contest, they had a charity tie in where audience members would be called upon some spins. If the contestant landed on a prize space the audience member would get a free prize. If they landed on a Whammy, the contestant would not only lose all of their money but the audience members’ prizes as well. Except for two of the audience members who were called up. They were kids, so even though they didn’t win they were given the free prize anyway.  Somehow there was enough time left that three other audience members were able to play a couple of Whammy rounds. This wasn’t as close as the primary round but it was still fun.

I got in some time with a couple of Coin-ops. I played some Centipede, managing to beat the high score. Sadly, the machine didn’t save my score but Centipede is always a fun arcade game to play. This year the KRULL machine was back and it was in working order! Not only is KRULL a wonderful Sci-Fi action-adventure movie it also saw two licensed video games. One was on the Atari 2600, and the other was this cabinet. It’s a twin-stick shooter that is composed of different waves inspired by scenes from the film. You have to find the pieces to your Glave while avoiding boulders one wave. Then you have to recruit an army in another. Then you have to defend and protect your army in another. and so on and so forth. It’s also brutally difficult. But one of those brutally difficult games you keep putting quarters into because it’s just so cool.

I browsed around the floor a bit looking to see if I could find anything on my list or any surprises. I actually found one vendor with a lot of random games and toys. While I didn’t find any games, I did see some Masters Of The Universe figures in pretty respectable shape. They were all loose, and most of them were incomplete. But they were selling everything ridiculously cheap. I found a Spikor in excellent shape. He was missing his cudgel but the figure itself had little to no paint wear. When I asked how much they wanted for it they said “Six dollars.” I bought it on the spot. I bumped into “Pixel” Dan Eardley and had a short conversation about MOTU and some gaming. PixelDan had missed last year’s show but was glad to be back out for this fifth show.

I ran into another YouTuber shortly after that, Rewind Mike! He had come to the show scouring the floor not for games, but for albums. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with him but it was fun checking out a few booths and talking about our lack of luck finding what we were looking for. We also saw my pal TheReNesance! He’s also known as The Gamescape Artist and he is a fantastic painter. He does phenomenal artwork based on iconic scenes from video games past and present. He also does commissions! And he also has a YouTube and Twitch channel where he has footage and live streams of games as well as his work! Be sure to check him out!

I then hit up PixelDan’s panel. It was an interesting one because he gave us not only a sneak peek of his upcoming Toysplosion episode (a series where he goes over the history of a different toyline each episode.) but he also let everyone in on some details about his upcoming project with Dark Horse Comics! He has helmed a comprehensive guide on all of the past Masters Of The Universe toylines. Masters Of The Universe (1982-1988), Princess Of Power (1985-1987), He-Man (sometimes called New Adventures) (1989-1992), Masters Of The Universe: Commemorative Edition (1999-2001), Masters Of The Universe: Modern Series (often called 200x) (2002-2004), Masters Of The Universe Classics (2008-present) The book won’t include things on upcoming lines or the erroneous merchandise. But it’s being designed to appeal to the casual fan who may remember a few of the toys they owned as children as well as giving hardcore fans a lot of the details they’re looking for. Personally, I can’t wait to check it out because I’ve been waiting for a guide like this for some time. So I hope it does well for Dark Horse and PixelDan. Dark Horse has put out similar books in the past for other properties including Nintendo’s.

After PixelDan’s panel, I went to the XVGM Radio Panel where Mike Levy and Justin Schneider talked a bit about the differences between the Sega Genesis and Super NES in terms of sound. The Sega Genesis had two chips. Texas Instruments’ SN76489 and a Yamaha YM2612 for backward compatibility with Sega Master System titles. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System had a custom chip; the S-SMP which was made for Nintendo by Sony. The technical differences led to very different sounds. So after going over each sound solution, they compared the same tracks on both consoles, as well as play some of the most notable songs from each. The audience got to vote of course, and the matchups were mostly evenly matched, although there were a few decisive victories too. XVGM Radio is a pretty cool, and informative podcast where they talk about game music and often even get interviews with composers. So definitely check it out.

I went back down to the main floor after the panel and ran into some other people. Peter Lazarski and Juu Hachi of Imaginary Monsters were at the show. Unlike last year they weren’t there to show off any of their game. They were just there as regular attendees. I saw some of the Cosplay contest with them before looking around the floor some more. There were some upcoming indie games there, however.

Jumpmen Gaming was back with Sentinel Zero. Except that the game is no longer called Sentinel Zero it’s title has been changed to Cardinal Conclave. It has also changed focus. Instead of being a traditional horizontal Shoot ’em up, it has taken a page from Studio MDHR’s Cuphead by becoming more of a boss rush game. It still utilizes a shmup feel though. You’ll be going over a map much like Cuphead, choosing a stage based on your current level, and going into a boss fight. To be fair, a few of these still have a traditional lead-in where you mow down small enemies before contending with a boss. But for the most part, it’s a boss rush shooter. The game does play much better than the early build from last year and the graphics have been sharpened up nicely. I was informed it has entered Early Access on Steam. Just remember when buying Early Access games you’re buying something that isn’t done. That said, it does look promising.

There was also an interesting game called Cloak And Dasher by a developer called Spirit Stone Studio. It’s a puzzle-platform game that puts you in the role of a cloaked fellow who can jump and dash. You have to play in these maps that are often a single screen where the object is to escape a maze. Unfortunately for you, there is a smorgasbord of death traps and enemies to contend with. The demo at the show was timed and you had to get through 23 maps before time ran out. You had unlimited lives. And what I saw was honestly quite fun. It has a visual style that is somewhere between Broforce and Super Meat Boy. The comparison is apropos because some of these stages could become pretty difficult. It had elements of several games, Super Meat Boy, Boulder Dash, Mega Man X, and Battle Kid all came to mind as I went through the demo. It too has an Early Access release on Steam.

Joe Granato was back with NES Maker, and it is now a full-fledged product you can buy. If you didn’t read any of my previous recaps, he has been to a few previous RetroWorldExpo shows with it as it was being made. The utility was made during the progress of an NES game he was making called Mystic Searches. A vintage Action RPG made in the mold of games like The Legend Of Zelda, and Ys. In any event, working in 6502 assembly language and HEX editing was proving exhausting. So he and his team created a GUI mapper program that would let them design their game worlds on their desktop and then the program would convert everything to 6502 (The class of CPU in the NES and a host of other consoles and microcomputers of the 1980s) language. This would vastly speed up the production of their game. But in the process, they found they could also offer the utility they built as a standalone product for budding indie game makers interested in the homebrew scene. NES Maker is that utility. With it, you can make almost anything you want on the NES within reason. Of course, there are limits based on how the team designed the tools. But after only a fairly short time on the market it’s been a success. And there are already a lot of new games being made with it. It even has the ability to flash your games to physical NES Game Paks. So if you’ve ever dreamed of making your own games you can play on an original NES, it might be something you want to look into.

Another returning studio was Giant Evil Robot who made Mecha-Tokyo Rush. It was an on-rails, auto-scrolling Mega Man clone that took elements of endless runners along for the ride. It seemed like a decent enough game, even with it taking a free-to-play model shortly upon release. However, this new game is a Mega Man clone that could prove to be one of the better ones out there. Star Girl Proxima has none of the endless runner stuff from their previous effort. It also looks a lot nicer, with a much better color palette. The controls in the demo they provided felt somewhere between Mega Man and Mega Man X. It doesn’t have quite the weight of the classic series, but there is a heavier feeling when jumping than in the X series. Your Star Girl can also dash like X, which is good because some of the jumps will require it. That said, it’s still a work in progress and while they said they’re shooting for a 2019 release, the build they showed off still had no proper end to it.

Still, even if it doesn’t make it out this year it is clear it’s already an improvement over their previous game. The demo had several sections where one had to have pixel-perfect timing to get around projectiles as well as one where a giant octopus robot destroyed parts of the scenery as regular enemies attacked you. It was a challenge, yes, but it felt good. About the only complaint, I had with it when asked by the rep was that in the early goings it wasn’t always clear where the backgrounds and foregrounds were. I kept accidentally jumping into pits as a result. They said it was something a few people mentioned so the final product will likely make platforms more obvious. Overall, I was pretty impressed with the demo. Hopefully, it will be indicative of what we can expect from the game at launch.

As the first day winded down and the main floor closed it was time to get some food. My friends from Imaginary Monsters are also fans of Craft Beer like me. So we ended up going to City Steam Brewery which is a short walk from the Hartford Convention Center. Last year they picked up a new brewmaster who has been making a number of new and sometimes experimental beers. The three of us each ordered a flight, and the one interesting thing we all decided to try was their new sour beer. It’s called Our Princess Is In Another Castle. It’s made with peaches and jalapenos and it’s amazing. When they brought over the flights we could smell the peppers from the glasses. The spiciness from the jalapenos balances with the sweetness of the peaches really well. And while it isn’t a particularly potent beer, it is light, crisp, and delicious. The food there has also been very good. No place is perfect. But I have yet to have a bad experience. I was a little bit disappointed to see their menu has been simplified, but the quality of the meals were as good as ever. I had a Bratwurst to go with my Oktoberfest, Sour, IPA, and Porter flight. Then I ended up getting a pint of Our Princess Is In Another Castle. Peter got the Nachos, and as you can see in the image, he got his money’s worth. I ended up getting a growler of the Sour because it was that impressive. And I’m someone who generally prefers IPAs or Stouts.

After getting food we headed back to the convention center and caught the tail end of the afterparty. There’s about an hour-long lull after the day ends and then they put on an event where you can drink, listen to live music, and more. Falconeer was finishing up a set of Neo New Wave dance tracks. I proceeded to get destroyed by my buddy Aldo at a Street Fighter II arcade cab. (It wasn’t entirely my fault. The buttons were messed up.) while it was going on. And then I competed with Imaginary Monsters for a high score on After Burner. After that, I would see Mike Levy take on Aldo in broken Street Fighter II, and also lose. But it was still fun. Davira from Big Bucks Entertainment had also been running Celebrity Press Your Luck with some of the guests as contestants but unfortunately, I didn’t get back from the brewery in time to catch that.

With that, the first night ended, and I made the hour trek home. I caught some of my pal Sirhcman’s Livestream of Jackbox Party and then went to sleep. The next day, I would return for day two.

Day two was considerably shorter but it was still packed with some interesting things. FRAG was there this year again, and they organized the various tournaments during the show. There were the fighting game tournaments, and such that you would expect. But there was also a retro game competition where you had to play each of the old school games set up, and they would record your scores. You could replay all you wanted in order to replace your scores with higher ones until the qualifying time was over. The top six would go on to do an entirely new set of challenges with the winner of that tournament round receiving a $100 credit they could use at any of the vendors at the show! It was a pretty cool idea, so I took a stab at it. While I did alright on a couple of the challenges, some of the games on the list I was just terrible at playing. On top of this, they used the NES version of Q*Bert which while not quite as awful as some would have you believe, is still tough to master thanks to the confusing control scheme options in it. Why couldn’t Konami just go with the diamond layout Parker Bros. did on their Atari 2600 port? But I’ve begun to ramble. The game selection honestly, was pretty good. There were scoring and speed run challenges on games like Mappy, Super Hang-On, Warioware, Spelunker, Super Mario 64, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater II, and several others. Of course, what drew me into the whole thing was spying an Atari 2600 running Kaboom! I managed to get a respectable 1,255 points in the game. And while that may sound low believe me when I say that most people have a tough time getting more than 300 points. Kaboom! is quite the challenge.

Anyway, I obviously didn’t even qualify to make the top six player bracket. But I did have fun making the attempt even if it proved feeble. But at this point, I realized I was running late to check out any of the panels. So I managed to get into Pam D’s panel. She does a YouTube show  Cannot Be Tamed. She was showing off some footage for an upcoming video that I won’t spoil here, followed by some Q & A. Some of the discussions were about giving games a second chance, finding comparable features between two very different games made by the same company, and the perception some have about video games being for males despite the fact that women and girls have been gaming since video games have existed. Definitely an insightful, and engaging panel.

I managed to catch the last couple of minutes of Joe Granato’s panel. He was going over some of the details of NES Maker I talked about earlier. One interesting thing that came up was when someone asked about the most difficult part of making things for the NES. He talked about how the NES’ limited RAM meant that he had to code a Bank Switching routine so that information or content could be swapped into memory at just the right time. Otherwise, things would exceed the memory limits and crash. He talked about how despite the limitations of the utility, people have already done things with it he didn’t think would be possible. Graphical effects like Parallax Scrolling was one example. Another was a complete text adventure.

After his panel ended, Mike Stulir VP of the American Classic Arcade Museum had a panel going over the history of the ACAM and an overview of what they do. A labor of love, it’s a non-profit that tries to salvage, save, and even restore vintage arcade games so that future generations can experience the history of the arcade business. One of the more fascinating aspects of this is how involved restoring some of these machines can be. He talked about how they received an incredibly rare Death Race 2000 machine. It was produced by Exidy and was one of the first games that ignited the video game violence controversy. Inspired by the Death Race movie, the internal name was called Pedestrian, and the goal of the game was to score points by running over people with your car. Even though games of the time had graphics composed of simple shapes the concept started an uproar and the game would fade into obscurity.

Unfortunately, the cabinet they received had come from a basement that had flooded and it wasn’t up on a pallet when it did. So the particleboard Exidy used had rotted, and parts of the cabinet were falling off. Moreover, the side panel was even split in half so the structural integrity was unsalvageable. But the game’s motherboard, chips, and every piece of electronics were fine. So they were able to create a template from the cabinet parts, and reproduce a proper cabinet out of plywood. But the other problem was the screen printing on the old plywood wasn’t something easily created. They had to send the old plywood to a company in Florida who would scan it into their software and then ship them new decals. They also had to fly in a specialist from the Pacific Northwest to properly apply them.

Of course, all of this stuff costs money, and being a non-profit run by volunteers they depend on donations to keep the venture going. If that sounds like something you can afford to contribute to you can go right to their website to find out how. I got to ask Mr. Stulir about how restoration may affect the value of these machines as in other collectibles and antique markets things will plummet when there aren’t all original parts there. He said that they don’t like having to restore cabinets in the manner they saved their Death Race machine. But in cases like that one, they have to decide if keeping a machine playable is more beneficial than retaining every last original part. Usually, they prefer to find new old stock or take good parts from another otherwise unsalvagable machine to fix a broken machine with. With Death Race having so few still remaining, keeping the machine alive was a better fit so that visitors can still experience the game.

But that was just the introduction. The rest of the panel was devoted to the life of Ralph Baer. Most people know he was the inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey and that pretty much everything we love about video games can be traced back to his work. But did you know his family barely escaped Germany in the lead up to World War II, emigrated to the USA, and that he’d be drafted to fight in the war effort? He thought of a lot of ideas that wouldn’t be realized until decades later by others. Like the ability to use a modem to buy things off of an infomercial or remote classes where a viewer could interact with a teacher’s lesson from home. And of course, before the Odyssey became a reality his Brown Box would lay the groundwork in 1968.

The last panel was the Connecticut YouTuber Panel. So Mike Levy (DYHPTG), Russ Lyman, Culture Dog, and Paul of Retro Gaming Arts returned from last year. New this year were Dan and Nick of The Best Spuds. As well as Geeky Panda who I met on the floor last year. And Steven Christina Jr. of Super Retro Throwback was also featured! He interviewed me at last year’s show. Each of the guests briefly went over their channels and played their respective trailers. They also took a moment to talk about RAX The Great’s channel. He was originally slated to return to RetroWorldExpo this year but had gotten a bad head cold and was unable to attend. All of the panelists talked about their various setups involved in making their content. They also reminded the audience that like any creative endeavor, go into making internet videos out of passion. None of the panelists made much money doing YouTube if any. There were some humorous moments in the panel too with some slight references to each other’s respective shows.

With the final panel over with it was time to leave the Hartford Convention Center and make the hour-long trek home. The show is becoming one of my favorite things to look forward to every year. I get to see people I don’t get to be around very often due to life, and work schedules. I get to geek out with fellow video game fans, and in a way, it feels like you’re going home.  And there’s a ton of stuff I didn’t even get to take part in because it’s impossible to see everything. There were the tournaments, there were a few guests I didn’t get the chance to see or see again. Game Dave was there, Adam and Shane of Rerez were there, Jay Hunter of the Game Chasers came back, Stop Skeletons From Fighting was there, there were bands like RF Switch playing sets.  I’m missing a bunch more, there is just so much going on. And it all feels very community-driven where some of the larger shows are more about seeing new games or media six to twelve months before it comes out.  I could complain about not finding much to buy, but honestly, that’s more on me for having found much of what I wanted anyway. And between the final two panels I attended I did end up going back to the vendor, I found Spikor from and it turned out he had a Fisto with the armor and sword included for $15. So two MOTU figures in great shape are still pretty good. Here’s hoping a sixth RetroWorldExpo continues the tradition.

 

Things that most intrigued me from E3 this year.

Well, another year, another E3. Per usual there has been a slew of major announcements, directs, and panels. There’s a lot of talk about the Nintendo, and Square Enix presentations being the highlights of the year. While there’s no question there were a lot of major revelations and surprises that came from these two juggernauts, there was a lot of stuff overall. And while it’s true that some of the major panels turned out to be duds, there were some big titles that came out of the least hyped pressers.

E3 may not be as exciting as it used to be, but it still remains one of the biggest game-themed conventions around thanks to its long-standing relationship with being an industry, and press themed show. In recent years they’ve allowed fans to attend, but it is still geared far more toward showing off products than it is toward fandom.

In any case, every year I find myself more interested in some of the more obscure games than many of the popular ones. This year seemed to follow that trend for me, though there were still a couple of huge hits that squeaked their way in. In any event, read on. Maybe some of these will pique your interest too.

10.) AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

A lot of folks were probably way more hyped about Final Fantasy than a computer component. But for those who tuned into the AMD conference this year, this was a major revelation. At $499 it’s price competitive with as well as comparable to the Intel i9 9920k.  They also showed off the benefit of extra cores when showing off the 8 core Intel i9 9900k, and 12 core AMD 3900X chips running Division 2, with OBS, on maxed settings. While the game itself ran comparably, the stream quality was night and day. If you’re a streamer who is going to be in the market for a new build in July, this may very well be worth your consideration. Especially when considering the current 12 core Intel solution is $1200 as of this writing.

 

09.) No More Heroes III

While Travis Strikes Again wasn’t fantastic, it wasn’t bad enough to sour me on the franchise. No More Heroes 1, had a great story, fun characters, and dark humor. Bogged down by a barren overworld. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle was streamlined and a terrific hack n’ slash game as a result. All we really got was a trailer with a glimpse of familiar gesture moves. But it was well put together. It veered toward the stuff we loved about the first two entries on the Wii. So I’m cautiously optimistic that Suda51 will deliver.

 

08.) ASTRAL CHAIN

We previously only had a glimpse of this one, but the expanded footage made this game look even cooler. Giant robot monsters. Robot Police Officers. Fast-paced combat that Platinum Games is known for. The aesthetics are bombastic. The visual presentation is something that gets a resounding “Yes.”. Hopefully, this game continues Platinum Games’ tradition of quality action games.

 

07.) Daemon X Machina

Last year Nintendo showed off a quick trailer of this one which looked amazing. Then they put out a short playable demo that gave us the basic concept. We know there will be a customizable character you can play as and that the system for doing so is deep. We know that you’ll be piloting giant mechs and that during missions you can even get out of them to fight on foot. The controls needed some fine tuning but other than that it felt like it would be a solid action game. This year’s trailer showed off a lot more. It looks even more expansive and the action looks even more hectic than before. Here’s hoping the extra time made everything that much better across the board.

 

06.) Enter The Gungeon: House Of The GunDead

Devolver Digital always seems to have a great conference every year as they’re able to find a way to tell people what they’re releasing candidly while lampooning current trends the entire time. They showed off a few cool looking indie games but then they dropped a bombshell. The company is bringing out an actual arcade cabinet based on Enter The Gungeon. This game is a rail shooter in the vein of Operation Wolf, but with full-on light guns. It looks awesome. While I don’t have space to house it or the budget to buy one, I am interested to see one in action. Hopefully, a convention like RetroWorldExpo or Portland Retro Gaming Expo may have one on display someday.

 

05.) The Messenger: Picnic Panic

The Messenger was one of the coolest takes on the Metroidvania in a while. It had fantastic action, a great story and terrific time-travel themed feature that was used very well. If you still haven’t played it, you should. It’s awesome. For those who have played through the game and were left wanting more Devolver also revealed that the expansion pack to the game will be coming soon. Plus it will be free! The trailer shows off a new beach themed area, new enemies and even a cool octopus boss fight. Any excuse to fire up more of The Messenger is a good one. Let’s see what Sabotage has in store.

 

04.) Cyberpunk 2077

While RPGs aren’t my go-to genre, I can appreciate a good one and CD Projekt Red‘s next outing looks like it could be as big as their Witcher franchise. The expanded footage they showed off during Microsoft’s conference gave some nice details on the storyline where we’ll be playing the role of a mercenary in a dystopian future. The facial animations were quite impressive and the action looked great. This one may veer toward the Action RPG than the Witcher games did but even if that turns out to be true it will hopefully have enough to sate fans of the slower methodical pace of traditional RPGs too.

 

03.) Outriders

While it’s hard to say how this is going to turn out as Square’s segment on it showed very little outside of a prerendered trailer, I am intrigued. For a couple of reasons. First, People Can Fly is a studio that has always made fast-paced First-Person Shooters of a very high caliber. Painkiller was an amazing FPS with a Smash T.V. feel. It was like a darker version of Croteam’s Serious Sam. Years later they would find themselves working with Epic and EA where they made Bulletstorm. This was another high-quality game that felt like Half-Life 2’s linear style of action game in one sense. You played through different set pieces as the story demanded. But on the other hand, the action felt a lot like Platinum Games’ MadWorld. You had to find creative ways in the environment to dispatch your enemies for big rewards. Oddly enough, Steven Blum voiced the protagonists of both Bulletstorm and MadWorld. Outriders will be a completely different kind of experience. It already seems like there will be some sort of hero or class system. But the character design looks really cool. Especially the monsters you’ll fight which remind me of the old Inhumanoids toys. Couple those toys with People Can Fly’s track record and we may see something special.

 

02.) The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Part II

Yeah, I know everyone is pretty much excited for this one. But seeing how great the first one turned out coupled with the imagery from the teaser, you can bet I’ll keep an eye on this one. There was a lot of Zelda shown off this year between the reboot of Link’s Awakening (which looks adorable by the way. I love the claymation art style going on), and Caydence Of Hyrule. But this one already looks pretty amazing. It’s probably a good two years out, but it looks great.

 

01.) Chivalry II.

I’m going to preface this by saying that no, the original game wasn’t perfect. It had its share of bugs. When you made it to the highest level of play there were ways to exploit the movement system to do things the developers didn’t think possible. And while the expansion pack was fun, the lack of a true Team Objective mode meant many fans merely dabbled in it whereas in the base game they poured scores of hours into it. But in the grand scheme of things Chivalry was, and still is one of the most enjoyable competitive First-Person action games of recent memory. It did something few other games thought of at the time: Take the objective focus of a Modern Military Shooter like Battlefield and change the setting to the Medieval period. And while the game really veers into the Hollywood action side of things by portraying everything similarly to old time castle siege movies, there is some realism. The weapons in it existed. The missions take liberties with some of the dark war practices of that part of history.

So the original game was a blast in spite of all of its faults. This game looks to build upon the original’s solid foundation by adding new features. You’ll get to ride horses bringing essentially vehicular combat to the game. You’ll have newer objectives apparently. And they claim that the slashing action is being completely overhauled so some of the cheap looking stuff that could be done in the first game won’t be replicated here. I loved the original game so much that I put hundreds of hours into it. But as much as I love Chivalry I am tempering expectations a bit. The 1-year exclusivity with the Epic Games storefront is going to be a turn off for some. And while Mirage: Arcane Warfare was a fantastic take on the Hero shooter, it was a commercial failure. One can only hope that didn’t leave too bad a taste in the mouths of some buyers. All of those caveats aside, I really do hope Chivalry II lives up to Torn Banner Studios‘ advertised features. The trailer looked fantastic and something fans of the original 2012 release have wanted for a long time. It’s due out next year so hopefully, it shows up ready for primetime.

 

So there you go. Ten of the things that I was really invested in seeing. By no means is this complete, but these are the ones that stayed the freshest in my mind. But how about you folks out there? Feel free to comment below! Perhaps there’s something I missed or overlooked!

Splatoon 2 tips from a merely average player.

It’s no secret that I’ve really enjoyed the Splatoon series a lot. I’ve reviewed the original game, the current game, and its downloadable expansion pack already. But I’ve been playing the game regularly since getting my Nintendo Switch. And the fun I’ve had with it over that time has led me to wanting to write a little something more about it. True, there are full-fledged guides you can find out there from the Prima guide that launched alongside the game to Nintendo’s *Splat*-egy guide. A guide they include if you’re fortunate enough to find either the Starter Edition or the Starter Pack version of the retail release. (The former also includes stickers.).

With this in mind, one might wonder why I’d even bother attempting to write my own article when these in-depth books are out there. Especially considering that I am not a professional level player who has been on a competitive team winning tournaments, and getting paid to do so. While this is also true, I have been in a competitively minded group in the past. I was in the Maximum Carnage clan in the heyday of Unreal Tournament 2004. While Splatoon, and Unreal Tournament are quite different competitive shooters, there are some parallels. Both are fast paced, and frantic. Both offer multiple modes, and both require a mastery of their respective weapon line up. And with Nintendo’s recent free demo push, some newcomers may just stumble upon this.

For the purpose of brevity I’ll be keeping the focus of this article on the competitive multiplayer. So there won’t be a walk through of the campaign, the expansion pack campaign or the Salmon Run cooperative horde mode. I will say however that completing the campaigns are even beneficial to those whom prefer the multiplayer. Clearing the campaigns unlocks aesthetically alternate gear you might want to flash around. If you’ved purchased, and cleared the DLC even via the simplest means you can choose to play online as a Octoling. The mainline campaign also has tickets hidden throughout itself. Find these, and you can use them for temporary buffs at Crusty Sean’s (The food truck in the plaza.). Clearing the campaign also means The Squid Sisters can prattle off multiplayer stats to you.

The plaza is also going to be very important as it has all of the shops you’ll need to visit to unlock weapons, and gear. It also has the Street Urchin named Murch whom you’ll need to visit from time to time. When you first start playing online you won’t have access to these right away. You’ll be armed with a Splattershot Jr., a Splat Bomb, and you’ll have your Ink Armor special.

The weapons in Splatoon 2 are broken up into a few categories. Each of which come as a *kit*. You’ll have the primary weapon which is the general gun you’ve selected. Then a sub weapon which is usually an explosive, though sometimes it will be a utility like a water sprinkler or a radar dish. Each kit also gives you a special weapon. These are powerful weapons, moves, or perks you can employ after filling a meter by painting floors, and killing opponents. Some of these are moves like the Splashdown, where you can jump up like WWE Superstar Roman Reigns, and punch the ground. Which will cause a massive blast of ink to appear, killing enemies in its wake. Or the Ink Strike, a weapon that can target enemies, and fire a wave of ink based missiles after them.

Weapon categories consist of a few main groups. First are Blasters. Blasters are the game’s equivalent to rifles, and machine guns. These can give decent coverage while inking, and a respectable dose of damage. There are a couple of them that are exceptions, but by, and large they’re going to be for those comfortable with faster firing weapons.

Sloshers are the first of two categories that kind of feel like shotgun equivalents. They’re basically buckets, or variants of the bucket. A few of them like the Explosher, and Sloshing Machine are based off of the look of a washing machine. Most of these weapons perform insanely well at close range, with a few being ideal at medium range. The Explosher can actually be used long-range, and can almost be compared with a grenade launcher as it can lob a blob of ink a great distance. No matter the case, these also give you a fairly wide coverage when inking floors, and so they can serve a great purpose in either painting or combat.

Rollers are a popular choice as they can be very instrumental in quickly claiming territory. They’re also a high damage line of weapons. You can run right into enemies, and take them out. Fans of stealth kills will want to go with one. Alternatively there are also brushes which can be used the same way. Brushes are also fairly great melee range options as they can dole out high damage when standing toe to toe with an opponent. The brushes don’t have the same fast coverage as the rollers generally. But they do allow for some fast path creation.

Chargers are a great option for those who enjoy the Sniper class in other shooters. These are long range weapons that lie down a fairly long line of coverage on the way to a target. They have a slow rate of fire though, and many of them have laser scopes. So you have to be able to lead targets properly. You’ll also want to master some movement techniques in the event you’re the last one in the group, and you’re spotted. You can repeatedly fire them for some short-range action too, but they lose a bit of power. Still, these can be a beneficial choice in a tight-knit squad. Especially during ranked modes.

Splattlings are basically the chain guns of the game. They have rotating barrels, and fire copious amounts of ink in a wide-spread in a short amount of time. They also tend to run low on ink quickly, so there is a bit of a trade-off. That said, they’re an excellent way for players to give cover while teammates go for the goal. They’re also a great choice for defensive players who like to cover choke points, or their own bases. They do a high rate of damage too, making them formidable in the hands of a skilled opponent.

Splatoon 2 also introduced the Dualies class of weapons. These work like automatic pistols like Uzis in military themed shooters. They have a high rate of fire, and allow the player to do a roll dodge while using them. This combination makes anybody who uses them much harder to hit. They might not be as potent as the Blasters, but they are as dangerous as the stick, and move approach allows them to hit, and run effectively.

Finally, there are the Umbrellas which are the other Shotgun weapons. At point-blank range they are very powerful, and they have the added benefit of shielding you from enemy fire by opening them. These aren’t permanent shields mind you. After taking so many hits they’ll be temporarily disabled. That said, they can be a great front line choice, as you can withstand a couple of shots, and give cover to a teammate who may follow behind. And they’re very useful in close range combat situations.

Each of these weapon classes has an entry that can be placed in one of three play style categories. Attacking, Support, or Defense. I can’t go over every single weapon in the game in this article as it would take far too long. But the gist of it is that some weapons are geared more toward attacking opponents, and taking them out. Other weapons are suited more toward backing up the rest of the team so that other members can get to the objective. Then there are the ones geared toward hanging back, and providing cover while also defending their position. Depending on the map, and mode being played you may be the type to change your load out, and style.

Your Sub Weapon is also important. There are a few categories. The first are the bombs. These are more or less the water grenades of the game.  Bombs cover fairly large areas in ink, and they also dole out massive damage. Some of them like the Suction Bomb can be stuck to walls. Others like the Auto Bomb follow people around for a while before exploding. Others like the Ink Mine are obfuscated until a moment before they go off.

There are also gadgets. The Sprinkler can lay down ink continuously until it is destroyed, or you throw one down in a new spot, or until you die. One cool thing about that is you can try to hide one in a hard to reach place so that you can be laying down ink while taking care of an opponent, or trying to claim an objective.  Others like the Squid Beacon will give your teammates a place to jump to. Really handy when you need to get them closer to the goal at hand quickly. Point Sensors are a great utility to tag enemies, and have their locations temporarily shown on the map.

Again, each of these kits tries to give you a versatile combination of items that complement each other. How do you get these kits? The same way you get your gear, and that’s through the shops. There are four of them. A shirt shop, a footwear shop, a headwear shop, and the weapon store.

The shops are opened up to you once you reach level 4. You raise your level by playing in the game’s online modes. There are really only two major level moments you need to hit, and that’s so you can experience everything. The first of course is level 4. Getting to level 4 allows you to go into the shops where you can spend the points you earn winning, and losing battles online. The second is level 10. If you want to play the ranked modes you’ll need to play online regularly until you reach that number. After that? Your level really won’t mean anything other than you’ve played a lot. Getting to level 30 will get you a Sea Snail every level upgrade from that point on. But beyond that it’s meaningless. So when you start out, don’t feel intimidated by seeing 35’s or 50’s in your matchups. It isn’t an indication of skill. In fact, it isn’t uncommon to see highly skilled players in the teens.

Of the shops, the one you’ll probably want to go to first is Ammo Knights. Here the fast talking Sheldon, will prattle on about the guns you can buy. It’s also the place where you can test your weapons out on dummies, and rafters. It’s nice because you can come here to see results of buffs or nerfs to weapons when Nintendo releases a new patch. You can also get a feel for a weapon before you decide to go ahead, and unlock it with hard-earned points. When I started playing I just went for every weapon I could afford after playing matches for hours at a time. And when any update brought along new weapons I was sure to buy those once I hit the appropriate level to use it. My reasoning was that I would have the option to use anything available, and I could worry about the other stuff later.

However, that might not necessarily be the best way to go about the shops because the clothing options do more than look cool. Each of the clothing options come with perks called Abilities. There are a wide variety of these, and can greatly help you in online matches. Not only do they have a perk on the clothing item, but there are an additional one, two, or three slots on the apparel for more.

As you play online, the clothing will level up at the end of each round. The amount will change depending on whether your team won or lost, as well as your performance during the round. When you fill the meter up you’ll randomly get another perk. There are two main types of Abilities: Unique, and Regular. Unique ones are only on specific types of clothing. These can not go into the additional perk slots which limits them to one slot on only a handful of possible clothing options. This is likely for balance.

Regular chunks however can be used in the sub perk slots, as well as appear in the main perk slot. Moreover, some of the fictional clothing brands have a better chance of randomly generating certain types of Regular chunks. It is possible to have pieces of apparel with the same ability in every slot on it as a result. And it isn’t uncommon to see players online with them. Be that as it may, it can take a long time to get perks on each slot, and some clothing items may only have one slot on them. You may ask yourself how it is that someone managed to get three slots, with the same ability in all three of them.

Enter Murch

Murch is the short Urchin I mentioned earlier, and he is key if you don’t want to leave what perks you end up with to chance. He can do a number of things for you, for a price. For starters, if you have any Sea Snails you can give one to him to re-roll your Abilities. You can also have him use a Sea Snail to add a perk slot to a clothing item that might have only one or two by default. The easiest way to gain Sea Snails are to take part in Splatfest events when they occur. These are 24 hour events where players pick a side (ie: Ketchup Vs. Mustard), and compete in Turf War matches. These matches take place in Normal or Pro varieties. Normal being a bit better for those whom want to play with friends (assuming you’ve chosen the same side) as it has the option to do so. Pro being the better way to go if you want to gain a higher individual score, and get a chance to be entered in random 10x or 100x matches with more potential rewards. At the end of the Splatfest you’re given a number of Sea Snails based on whether your side won or lost, and what Splatfest rank you hit (from Fanboy or Fangirl to King or Queen).

Another thing Murch can do is scrub the Abilities from an article of clothing for 20,000 points. When you do this, the chunks that were on the item go into a sub menu where they can be used later if you have enough of them. During Splatfests you’re given a T-Shirt. Often times the game will announce the Splatfest a week before it takes place. If you choose a side immediately you can begin filling, and scrubbing slots all week-long, farming chunks. Murch will scrub Splatfest T-Shirts for only 2,000 points. So you can get a head start on saving up those chunks.

Here’s where it gets really interesting though because once you have 10 of any given ability chunk you can assign it to a perk slot on a clothing item. So you can then begin to choose what perks you want, and base them around your kit of choice. If you want the same ability across three slots, it can also be done however, stacking an ability costs more. You’ll have to have 10 for the first slot, 20 for the second, and 30 for the third. If the main ability on the clothing item is a regular one, that is up to four of the same perk across the item. This is where taking part in Splatfests can help you immensely.  Of course it should be noted each one you stack is a bit less potent than the last, so on some level there are diminishing returns. Still, having a hat with four run speeds, a shirt with four run speeds, and a pair of shoes with four run speeds will net a noticeable run speed difference.

You can also pay Murch to order a competitor’s gear by choosing to when looking at their layout in the plaza. It costs more than finding it in one of the shops, and takes 24 hours per order though you can order up to three at once. But if it’s one of the rarer items that never seems to show up when you go into a shop it might help. Do note, that the perks on the clothes aren’t guaranteed to come along with it though. And while I’m not covering it here, do know that playing the cooperative Salmon Run mode (When it cycles on) can gain you some costume options, and perks as well.

The main mode of the game of course is Turf War. As you likely know by now the goal is to paint a map your team’s color while the other team attempts to do the same. You’ll run into skirmishes almost instantly, killing each other so that you can gain ground while opponents are spawning. While it’s generally considered the game’s casual mode, it can still be rather cutthroat. This is a mode you’ll actually want to play a lot of to practice the mechanics, as well as see which of the game’s massive selection of weapons best suits your play style. You can also join up with friends, though if they’re in a full game you’ll be waiting for it to end until it lets you do so.

The game cycles its maps, and ranked modes every couple of hours. While it can be annoying to be on the same two maps for a while, it does negate the voting fights that break out in other games that, ironically, often end up going between one or two fan favorites. So this solution forces everyone to play every map eventually.

Anyway, Turf War is a great means for both casual, and competitive players. If you’re not particularly great at fragging opponents like an Unreal Tournament fiend, you can focus on painting. Pressing the X button pulls up the map at any time, and is a great tool in every mode. Pressing it again, will make it disappear. While it is up, you can see where your three teammates are at any time, and then jump to them if it looks like they’ll need backup. It also lets you see any Beacons a team member may have placed, as well as any enemies that may have been spotted. The obvious sight will be what ink is splattered where. You can see areas that haven’t been painted yet. You can see lone splashes of enemy ink surrounded by yours. This might give an indication that an enemy is planning an ambush.

Along the top you can also see what weapons enemies have. As you play more over time you’ll get used to seeing how these function. Knowing an enemy is wielding a Splatbrella means you’ll be better suited trying to find a place to flank from the side. This way they can’t just shield themselves. Likewise you can see what your teammates are using, and try to modify your tactics around their strengths to help win. Maybe you notice you’ve chosen a sniper class weapon, but the random teammates all have Dualies. Try finding a point where you can cover them from the left, right, and behind as they rush to the center of the map to paint.

A lot of skills, and techniques from other games can help you in Splatoon 2 as well. Map control is a universal skill. If you know a map like the back of your hand you can better anticipate where enemies will show up, because you’ll know the most common routes. You’ll know what spot gives the best advantages, and know to help your team hold it. Also, it’s easy to forget you have a sub weapon, and a special move or weapon. Remember as you get frags, and ink turf, you’ll fill your meter. Many of the specials have a variety of uses. You can use the bubble blower to shield your teammates, or you can just blow up your bubbles to take lives or turf.  The same can be said of the sub weapons. Going back to controlling a map, as I said earlier you may want to hide a sprinkler on a ceiling  or sneak a Beacon deep in enemy territory.

While Turf War may only count painted floors toward your score, don’t discount inking a wall to get to higher ground. You can swim up walls, and you can even use that fact for some stealthy maneuvers. Keep in mind too, that if you swim quickly you’ll leave ripples that an astute enemy may spot. But if you move very slowly, barely pushing that control stick you won’t. You’ll also barely make a sound. If you’re wearing clothes with the Ninja Squid ability on them, you won’t make a sound making surprise attacks, and escaping some assaults a little more manageable. Don’t discount the saying “Run away, and live to fight another day.”. Sometimes you’ll find yourself in 3 on 1 firefights, you simply will not win. Pulling up the map, and jumping back to spawn can allow you to regroup with your team mates as they spawn so you can try to regain composure.

When you reach Rank 10 you’ll be able to play the Ranked modes. These focus far less on inking the map, but keep in mind it’s still beneficial. You can move faster in your own ink, so always keep that in mind. There are four Ranked modes. Splat Zones, Tower Control, Rainmaker, and Clam Blitz.

Splat Zones is a microcosm of Turf War. Instead of trying to make the entire map your color, your team must control one or two tiny areas of the map until your counter hits zero. If the other team takes that control, a cool down timer gets placed on your team that has to count down before the main timer continues when you take it back. It’s a lot more important to work together here because these spots will be a non-stop hot spot the entire game. At least two of you should be on or next to the area at all times. But this is easier said than done. If you’re wiped out, the four of you are going to be at a massive disadvantage when trying to take it back. There are a variety of strategies a team can take. Do you all hold the line? This may work best if the enemy team rushes you, but they can also try to flank you. Do you have one person distract the enemy by running toward their end of the map so the others can take it? They may not take the bait.  Paying attention to what people have chosen can really help you plan accordingly.

Tower Control is a push cart mode where both sides run to the center to take control of the tower. Once upon the tower it will move into enemy territory, and if unopposed will eventually land near the enemy spawn for a win. Someone on the team has to be on the tower for it to move. Over the months I’ve seen several impressive strategies from random teammates, as well as enemy teams. Often they’ve involved creative exploitations of sub weapons. Putting shower curtains on the tower as a shield. Booby trapping the tower with an ink mine. Putting Beacons on or near the tower for team mates to take it. Some teams have had their entire squad on or next to the tower, attempting to bum rush the opposing side. Others have sent one lone combatant out on the tower while lying in wait to ambush the enemy if they killed them, and claimed it for themselves. Again, knowing the map will help you plan strategies immensely.

Rainmaker is also a push cart mode except that instead of a tower, one person on one team can take control of the fabled Rainmaker. Which is kind of like the BFG of Splatoon. It can deal massive damage, as the wielder can shoot powerful ranged attacks. Of course there’s also a big target on their back, as opening the map reveals their location. So its imperative the cohorts of whomever holds it, gives them ample cover. If they die, they’ll drop it, and both sides will fight over the gun again. It’s important to have an attacker who can scout ahead of whomever is going to hold the weapon, and have defenders who can protect them from incoming flanks or surprises from behind. Again, knowing the map layout is key, and constantly checking the map for signs of reprisal is going to be important.

Clam Blitz is a weird hybrid of a football game, and a base attack/defense game. Each side has a net protected by a shield. The goal is to fill the enemy net with clams. In order to see the net, you have to destroy the shield with a football. You get the football by collecting enough clams or by having one spawn eventually. You can’t throw the football very far, so you have to get really close to the shield with it, and the football shows up on the map so resistance will be fierce. If you do break the defenses, your teammates will also be able to throw clams they’ve found into the net. You have to be fast because eventually the net will become shielded again.

Some strategies I’ve had luck with have been throwing clams to a teammate who has a lot of clams to spawn a football. But you want to wait until you’ve managed to infiltrate enemy territory, and you’re close enough to the shield. Otherwise you’re easily seen coming.  Another is getting my own football while another player has one, causing confusion, and either going for the shield while they’re busy with them. Or by distracting them long enough for the teammate to break the shield with his.

Other times I’ve hung back, and tried to just defend our net with surprise flanks while my team tries to push into the enemy camp. You’d be amazed at how often both teams can have footballs going simultaneously. You can also try to throw the football from below or above the shield when the enemy team is standing guard in front of it. This isn’t always easy to pull off, especially on some maps like Camp Triggerfish where one can often see that strategy coming from a mile away. On the other hand you can often combine this strategy with others.

While I am by no means a professional grade Splatoon 2 player, I hope if you’re a newcomer, or a lapsed player some of this stuff can help you get up to speed. It’s a great game, with a growing community. There are over 8 million players so there are a ton of opportunities to improve. You can even play all of the modes privately with friends which makes for a great way to practice. As well as bring in other newcomers without intimidating them with veteran strangers. You should also strongly consider mastering the game’s motion controls. For some of you it might seem cumbersome, especially if you’re accustomed to twin stick shooting. The game lets you shut them off, and use a traditional twin stick scheme. But hear me out. Motion controls can be far more effective. Aiming is far smoother, especially when going after higher or lower targets. Even with them enabled you can still do snaps to the left or right with the right control stick. I generally use the joycons in a grip when playing. Some swear by the Nintendo Pro Controller, or an equivalent like the ones by third-party Power-A. It’s not quite as seamless as a high dpi mouse being used on a PC FPS game. But it’s far more responsive over a thumb stick in my experience.

I also recommend watching some tournament level players on Twitch or YouTube if you want to pick up pointers. ThatSrb2Dude, and Wadsm are two such players whose content has been a wealth of help in my own quest to do better. Some of the things I’ve talked about here, I’ve learned by watching them. So be sure to check out some of their content, and live streams if you get the chance. And of course, simply playing regularly will help you improve. Whether you’re looking to become a competitor, or you’re like me, and just simply want to be a better all around player. Hopefully something I’ve listed in all of this rambling has been of some value to you. Have fun inking, and until next time….. STAY FRESH!

Another 10 great beers to pair with games

I apologize for the lack of updates last week. When you crash your car, you tend to do a lot of phone tag on the free days until it’s time to get the thing into the body shop. And no before you ask, what I’m going to talk about in a paragraph was not a factor. It wasn’t a horrible accident, and everyone walked away fine. But now I’m paying the price for not paying enough attention. Also to rent this Nissan while my Dodge is in the shop.

Anyway, a while ago for something a bit different I combined my interest in gaming, with my interest in beer. It went over fairly well, though some pointed out I could have had a wider variety of genres. India Pale Ale was, and still is the king of the hill these days. But there are plenty of great Stouts, Porters, Lagers, Pilsners, Ales, out there too. For a while I’ve been thinking about taking another crack at this idea so here we go. Another ten great beers to check out. Again, I have to preface this  with the fact that not all of these will be available to you. Unfortunately the world of distribution is rather convoluted between contracts, and each State’s regulations. Still, if you do see one of these, pick it up!

10.) Armada brewing – Liberty Abandoned Stout

Armada is a small but growing outfit out of New Haven, and could easily take half the slots in this feature. They make a lot of great stuff in any style you can think of. One of their best is also one of the best stouts I can recommend. It’s thick, rich, with notes of chocolate, and coffee. It’s also 10% ABV which packs a wallop. But it packs that wallop without tasting boozy. It’s the perfect kind of wallop to nurse through long sessions of a JRPG. Perhaps one of the longer Final Fantasy games, or something in the Xenoverse.

09.) Sloop brewing – Sloop Juice Bomb IPA

Based out of Hopewell Junction, NY. Sloop has two major locations, one of which is built upon the former IBM semiconductor plant in Fishkill, NY. So right away there’s a hint of PC Gaming potential. All of their beers are pretty great, but their attempt at a New England style India Pale Ale is a nearly flawless performance. The hazy textured beer doesn’t lie. You do get a figurative bomb of juicy taste in every gulp. And it transitions to a hoppy bitterness at just the right level. Their Brew Master must be some kind of evil genius. Which makes this a wonderful pairing for some vintage DOOM, and Quake. At 6.5% ABV it’s not so heavy you’ll be too slow to react, but also strong enough for fighting imps, pink demons, and cacodemons.

08.) Clown Shoes – Octofest Oktoberfest Lager

Clown Shoes has a long storied history of marrying pretty great brews, with over the top label art. In the fall, they make their own North American take on the German staple. This one has just the right amount of spice, and sweetness atop the light, delicious lager you would expect such a brewery to make. In my opinion, it’s a good step or two up from many of the other North American takes on the style, many of which are also quite nice. But this one is just that much better. And it has a giant Octopus on it drinking eight pints of it. This was the obvious pairing for me last fall when playing in the Halloween Splatfest for Splatoon 2. With another coming up this weekend I wish I had some left. That said, if you’re an Inkling, or Octoling looking for something in six months, make like Marie, and DRINK FRESH! While staying fresh of course.

07.) Weyerbacher – Sunday Mole Stout

Here we go, another crazy, high-octane stout on the list. This one from Weyerbacher, a Pennsylvanian brewery known for crazy, high-octane beer in general. Based off of their already solid Sunday Morning Stout, this variant adds a spicy kick, and subtracts the barrel aging. The result is something less syrupy, but equally potent, and spicier. So it brings the heat. Not too much though, where other beers go overkill on spicy peppers, or barely bring any to the table this one finds a great balance. You’ll get the chocolate notes you love, a bit of spicy kick, and a bit of roasted aftertaste. At basically 12% ABV it isn’t something for fast paced NES Batman. But it is something you can take your time with as you take your time with the Batman Arkham games you have in your backlog. Plus it also has an evil clown on the cover waiting to be served Bruce Wayne on a silver platter.

06.) Narragansett – Lager

Not every beer needs to be eccentric. But for many people the mass market stuff everyone sees on TV just won’t do. It’s fine. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it. But we’ve been spoiled by the independent brewing revolution. Still, sometimes you’re in the mood for something that isn’t complicated, but want something better than the bog standard too. Enter Rhode Island legends Narragansett. Their Lager is just that. A great Lager. No gimmicks, just succinctness in beer form. Which makes this the perfect beer to buy for get together events where you’ll be playing Warlords, Mario Kart, Mario Party, You Don’t Know Jack, Wii Sports, or Monster Prom. (And yes, you DO want to have 4-player Warlords at a party.)

05.) Victory – Golden Monkey

Belgian style ales may not have the popularity of other genres these days (at least not in my area), but that doesn’t mean one should rule them out. Another Pennsylvanian brewery Victory, makes one such beer. This one has a terrific hint of sweetness on the backend of a light, and crisp texture. At 9.5% ABV it isn’t quite the wrecking ball some of the other entries are, but it does give a nice punch, while being relaxing. It’s pretty versatile in terms of game selection too. Whatever game you’re in the mood to play, it’ll probably go along with it. So I’m rolling with the obvious  pairing: Golden Monkey, and Golden Axe. Plus it’s by Victory, and you’ll want to wash down Death Adder with it. That was a terrible joke. But the beer isn’t.

04.) Collective Arts – Stranger Than Fiction

Deep within Ontario Canada, lies a brewery that often seeks out artists from all over the world to find art work for its decorative labels. They don’t look to get it Scott-Free either. They buy it, and promote it. But they don’t just sell fancy cans, with art by really talented people. They fill those cans with delicious beer. One of those beers is a really nice North American porter, a dark beer with a nice aroma, and notes of chocolate balanced by a nice hop composition. It’s a nice one to have when playing some classic shmups like Gradius, R-Type, or even Zaxxon!

03.) City Steam – Starlit

City Steam Brewery is in the heart of downtown Hartford where they make some of my favorite brews. One of their newer ones is this experimental New England style Pale Ale made with wheat, and oats, while having citrus, and mango notes at the same time. And at only 5.5% ABV it’s not a weak session beer, it still has a nice kick, but it also isn’t a double-digit monster you’ll only want one of.  It’s got a great all around balance of all of its elements. Making it great for fighting games. You may want to have some around when Mortal Kombat 11 comes out, or when those Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC characters hit.

02.) Bad Sons Brewing (Featuring Armada) – Candy Castle

Bad Sons Brewing is an upstart in Derby, CT that has quickly gained popularity. Not only do they have a bitching logo (A skull with a hop growing out of it), but their beer is fantastic to boot. This entry is a collaboration they’ve done with Armada. Candy Castle takes the IPA tinkering to the point where you’ll wonder if it’s something else entirely. But if it is that something else, it’s a damn good something else. It’s a Milkshake IPA, a style where they use lactose milk sugars in the process. This adds to the texture. But they also throw a slew of candy into the brew.  This gives it the properties of getting a mystery flavored carnival drink. All while retaining the properties of a beer. It still tastes like a high-profile IPA, and yet something different at the same time. Trust me, it’s way better than it sounds. Easily something you’ll want to have on hand when attempting to beat Cuphead again.

01.) Thimble Island – Mutually Assured Destruction 

I have to close this out with one of the best pairings of all. This is a beer that goes perfectly with Atari’s classic: Missile Command. It’s a rich, thick Russian styled stout with some coffee, and chocolate notes. But it doesn’t end there because there are several versions of M.A.D. that you can find in the wild. The standard one is delicious, and potent enough. But the more expensive barrel aged version is even better, as it takes on some of the properties of the barrel. Then they also make a variety pack of experimental flavored versions, a Cherry one which is the weakest, but still good. Also a Smores one which is quite nice. A peanut butter, and chocolate one that gives some of the more well-known PB beers a run for their money. Finally, there’s the Chipolte Ginger version that you’ll have to taste to believe. All of these are 10% ABV or more, but all work well in any game where geothermal nuclear disaster is in the backdrop. Missile Command, Metal Gear, Countdown To Shutdown, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., you name it.

Many of these are in New England, and East Coast territory, but some do make their way outside of the area. And with things growing in the craft scene you never know how distribution will change. Still, take note in the event you ever come into the region. Also, over the past few months I haven’t always remembered to take a photo of whatever beer I’ve purchased. So I apologize for some missing photos. But rest assured all of these are pretty great releases. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading through this list! Thank you for checking it out, and feel free to post your own beer, and game pairings below!

 

Super NES Classic Edition Review

Well, although I’m up, and around again I still haven’t been medically cleared to leave the home on my own, or return to employment yet. So what to do? What to do? Well, when you’re shut in between the rainy weather, and waiting to go in for your follow-up, there’s little you can do. So why not take inspiration from my good friend Peter, and open something some people wouldn’t?

PROS: Respectable build quality. Play Star Fox 2 legitimately!

CONS: Light on extra features. Cannot play Star Fox 2 right away.

SAVINGS: The unit has a number of games that cost a lot on the aftermarket.

To be fair I actually opened up this system a few weeks ago. I won mine at RetroWorld Expo 2018 thanks to the raffle held by the always great Super Retro Throwback Podcast. So do give them a listen, they do some terrific interviews, and discussion with a nice radio morning show feel. In any event, now that I’ve spent some more quality time with it, I figured I would give my impressions.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Deviot, you’re so late to the party on this one. We know it’s pretty damned cool.” But that discounts the plethora of people who still don’t have one, as they were on the fence, or wanted to wait until they saw how the scalper phase went. (It went pretty fast. You can find these things everywhere now.) For those who were on the fence, you’re probably wondering about things like input lag, filters, or simply how well are these games emulated. All of which I’ll get to in due time.

For the five people who don’t already know about the device, it’s the second of Nintendo’s all-in-one plug, and play consoles. Atari’s Flashback, and AtGames’ continuation of the series led to a slew of players in the market. And while AtGames hasn’t done so well with their emulated take on Sega consoles, their takeover of the Atari Flashback line went fairly well. From there they did an Intellivision plug, and play, a Colecovision plug, and play, along with others. Other companies jumped in, and so Nintendo capitalized on the craze by introducing the NES Classic. Which was infamously short-packed, and under-produced leading to the majority of them being scooped up by scalpers. Many thought the Super NES Classic would follow suit, but thankfully it hasn’t, and Nintendo re-released the NES version too. So you can pick either of these up now.

The mini console comes in a box that is very reminiscent of the one the original Super NES came in, with a black background, and grey striping along with stylized lettering. The company did an excellent job of making geezers like me, remember what it was like when we finally got our hands on one back in 1991. Upon opening the kit, you’ll find a poster, and documentation packet. Obviously the mini Super NES control deck, a HDMI cable, a USB cable, a USB Power adapter, and two Super NES controller replicas.

I have to say, I was really impressed with the build quality of the device. Granted, I know there isn’t much to it, as it’s mostly one resin plastic shell in the shape of a Super NES. Still, considering how the company could have opted to go with a flimsy, or brittle plastic to cut costs, they didn’t. It feels very much like the same build as an actual Super Nintendo Entertainment System. So kudos on the presentation. Note that when you actually want to use the thing, the front of the unit is actually a face plate that comes off. It’s tethered to a plastic ribbon so it doesn’t get lost. Behind the faceplate are your controller ports. These are the same ports that you’ll find on the Wiimote controllers for the Nintendo Wii. Which means that if you should ever lose, or break one of these Super NES replica controllers, you can use a Wii Classic controller. It also means that if you have a Wii, or a Wii U with Super NES games you’ve purchased on it, you can use the Super NES Classic’s controllers with those as well. With this in mind you might just want to get the spare controllers for the mini just to use on your Wii U if you find you own most of the included games on it on your Wii U already.

As for the controllers, they feel exactly the same as the ones made for the Super NES back in the 1990’s. The same textured surface. The same glossy buttons. The attention to detail here is wonderful. If you sold or gave away your Super NES years ago, this will feel very familiar to you if you pick one up. It even has the same rubberized Select, and Start buttons. Some have derided the length of the cables, and, I’m not going to lie. They really could stand to be a bit longer. You can buy extension cables, but realistically most of us will have to sit closer to the TV like we did as teenagers.

As for the interface it’s simplistic, but nice. There’s a brief setup where you pick your language, and then your thrust into the home screen. If you go poking around though, you will find an options menu. Here you can choose display options like the aspect ratio, filters, and borders. Really the sole filter is a CRT filter which emulates scan lines, and color bleeding. It’s okay if you really prefer the look of an old TV. There’s also the standard 4:3 that doesn’t have the filter, and then there’s pixel perfect, which basically makes the games 4:3, and crisper. But that also means you’ll see every last square that makes up every character, and background. It’s interesting because some games look completely fine, while others like Super Castlevania IV have a bit of inconsistency. My Brother who isn’t nearly as into game collecting as I am noticed this when visiting. There’s nothing wrong with the game, but you can see the backgrounds, and enemies have more details in this display mode, than Simon Belmont appears to. Of course the bigger the TV the more noticeable it is. Still, if this level of crispness turns you off, you can always opt to play the game with the CRT filter on. It really will come down to personal preference.

As for the game selection, it’s a really good one. There are some games I personally may have chosen instead, had I been a Nintendo decision maker. But on the whole, there is a nice variety of games here, covering almost every genre. Final Fantasy III (6), Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, Secret Of Mana, and The Legend of Zelda III: A Link To The Past are here for your JRPG/Action RPG/Adventure fix. You also get a lot of classic platformers. Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, Kirby Superstar are all here. Covering your action platforming you have Mega Man X, Super Castlevania IV, and Super Ghouls N’ Ghosts. You’ve got F-Zero, and Super Mario Kart for some arcade racing. Star Fox, and the previously unreleased Star Fox 2 are on the device for rail shooting. Kirby’s Dream Course is the lone puzzle outing, although Superstar does have some puzzle modes. Super Punch-Out!! is an underrated inclusion here, and of course Super Metroid is one of the best exploration games of all time. So naturally that is on here. Street Fighter II’s popularity hit its fevered pitch on the 16-bit consoles, so naturally one of the iterations would have to be included here. Street Fighter II Turbo is the iteration chosen to appear here, and it is definitely one of the fan favorites in the series. Fans who preferred the larger roster in Super Street Fighter II might be disappointed, but there are other inexpensive ways to play the Super NES port of that game elsewhere. Finally, fans of the run n’ gun genre get Contra III: The Alien Wars.

On paper, picking this mini system is worth it for these games alone. Consider that (at the time of this writing) the original physical Game Paks of many of these titles are expensive. Super Metroid goes between $30, and $40 loose, alone. Earthbound is prohibitively expensive for many people often going for well over $100 by itself. For anybody who simply wants to buy one of these games legitimately, and play it, the Super NES Classic Edition is a pretty good value proposition. As for the emulation of the games, they’re very good. All but the most astute fan can go back, and play these without noticing much of a difference. If you go through the extra work of hooking up the original Super NES on a TV, and standing it next to your new HDTV & Super NES Classic setup, you can notice slight differences. Differences in color that might matter to an absolute purist who will insist on playing the original Super Ghouls N’ Ghosts Game Pak. If you absolutely require a 1:1 experience without exception you’ll want to empty your bank account. For everyone else a .98:1 experience is still pretty impressive.

As far as input lag goes, I honestly haven’t noticed much of any, and I’ve played my unit on three modern TVs. A 50″ 4K unit by Samsung, a 20″ 1080p Insignia (Best Buy), and my trusty 32″ 720p Element I keep because it has legacy ports. In every case, the games played fine. Any input lag that is there will be noted by only the most scrupulous players. Top-tier speed runners, and tournament level players may want to spend on the original console, and games for those purposes. But again, for those who want to buy these titles legitimately, the Super NES Classic Edition is a wonderful option.

Even some of those collectors who normally might pass on it may consider giving it a go as it is presently the only way to buy Star Fox 2. And while it won’t wow you the way the original did, or the way Star Fox 64 did on the Nintendo 64, it is still an interesting one. It includes features that weren’t seen until later games in the series. If you’re a big fan of Nintendo’s long running franchise, you may just want one of these for that game. Although it is strangely locked behind the first game’s first stage. You aren’t allowed to actually play it, until you defeat the first boss in the original game. Weird.

Overall, I quite like the Super NES Classic Edition. While I feel it could use some more visual options for those who don’t like how old games look on new displays, and it could have used a more convenient way to create saves (You have to press RESET.), I do find the build quality quite nice. I also found that they added a cool fast forward, and rewind function to the save state software. So you can pinpoint the moment you want to start from. I also like that they put some of the harder to acquire titles on it, and it is nice that Star Fox 2 finally sees the light of day. The controllers are also versatile for Wii, and Wii U owners, as you can use them with games purchased digitally. It’s also a great proposition for those who want to experience what they weren’t around for without having to invest in a 20-year-old or more console, and cartridge technology. Newcomers can get their feet wet here, and see what the fuss over the 16-bit era is all about. Interestingly, Nintendo has put up PDF scans of the Super NES manuals for all of the games included here.

Final Score: 9 out of 10

10 Sodas that pair well with video games

Last time we looked at beer. This time it’s all about the soda. As someone who has far too much of it in his short run, I think I can pick out a few good ones. And I have. Just don’t house more than a couple of these. You’ll probably be up all night, long after your marathon of every mainline Super Mario Bros. game has ended.

What makes soda such a great companion to games, is also its greatest curse. The copious amounts of caffeine, and sugar. It’s wonderful while you’re playing. Keeping you alert, and being delicious. But man, the crash. I’ve had jobs where I’m embarrassed to say I’ve put away more than 2 liters by myself on a few shifts. And STILL made a trip to Starbucks on the way home. The lessons? 1.) This will get you through overnight inventory, and any tournament with ease. 2.) You’re not going to wake up on time the next day, and will be draaaaaaaaagging.

So while too many beers, may kill your kidney, liver, and give you alcohol poisoning, too many sodas can kill your kidney, pancreas, and probably activate diabetes. The point is too much of anything is not a good thing for us. Come to think of it, after this is written, I should probably go for a jog to burn off the Venti Vanilla Latte I just gulped down.

With that morbid thought out-of-the-way, here are 10 tasty combinations of carbonated water, and high fructose corn syrup for that next afternoon of Street Fighter II. Again, this is not a *TOP* ten. Just ten that I can highly recommend. All of them are pretty good, and you can probably get most of them. Soda is a little bit less regional. Though there are still some that are.

10. RC Cola

Forget Pepsi, and Coke for a minute. They’re the Mario, and Sonic of soda. Everybody knows, and adores them. How about rolling with the Alex Kidd of soda? RC is somewhere between the sweet Pepsi, and more bubbly Coke. It’s also a bit cheaper (around here it’s always in 2 liters for 99 cents.), and has a taste a cut above all of the other budget colas. It may have gotten a funny mirage joke in Family Guy, but that doesn’t make it bad at all. It’s nothing crazy, or over the top. But if you want something simple to drink while playing in the Miracle World, this one will suffice.

09. SURGE

Coke recently brought this one back to the States. In their never-ending quest to dethrone Mountain Dew, they’ve tried many formulas. This one is honestly their best attempt. It’s a bit more citrusy than Pepsi’s juggernaut. It also has the edge when it comes to warming up. Let’s face it. As much as we all like Dew, it gets gross if you don’t finish it while it’s cold. That doesn’t make warm Surge good. But it isn’t as bad. Plus it still has all of the 1990’s ad campaign art on the can. Making it go along with any EXTREME game or franchise. NBA Jam, Smash T.V., Mortal Kombat II, and Killer Instinct all pair well with this one. This may be another one of those limited time comebacks though, so get it if you see it.

08. Virgil’s Root Beer

This one is going to seem like it doesn’t belong. It doesn’t have the artificial flavors, and colors of mass market cola. It won’t keep you awake as there isn’t much in the way of anything of caffeine in it. It DOES have a lot of sugar though. So you’ll still get that burst of a sugar high. But it is one of the few craft sodas that nails it in flavor. Forget IBC. Forget A&W. Virgil’s is going to be your go to soda for Tapper. It is really awesome root beer. Definitely not cheap compared to some of the other sodas here. But it is worth the extra couple of bucks if you can swing it. Virgil’s is insanely good at what it does.

07. Freaky Dog Barkin’ Birch Soda

Freaky Dog is a regional soda, so you may have trouble finding it locally. But if you can find some online, or you visit Connecticut, stock up. Freaky Dog makes a lot of pretty good soda. But the Barkin’ Birch is one of the best. It’s so good, that even an area bar in town serves it to designated drivers. So what makes this one so good? It gets the Birch flavor down perfectly, and balances it with just the right amount of  cane sugar, and carbonation. There is nothing quite like old-school hand crafted soda. Plus Birch beer goes well with anything full of fast action. I find it’s something I roll with during shmups. In fact, if you’re firing up some Giga Wing, Ikaruga, or Deathsmiles, you’re going to break a sweat. Cool down with Barkin’ Birch. You won’t regret it.

06. Mountain Dew Dewshine

Even Pepsi is trying to mix things up with premium soda. So they introduced Dewshine. Honestly, it’s worth the extra money. What you lose in yellow color, you make up for in flavor. Dewshine is sweet. Dewshine is citrusy. Dewshine tastes better than any of the other versions of Mountain Dew, and I’ve had far too many of all of them.  It also goes for pure cane sugar over other sweeteners.  This one goes great with many games, but I’ve probably had it mostly in competitive multiplayer. Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, and Overwatch matches have been washed down with Pepsi’s moonshine themed soda. Check it out if you haven’t already. It’s pretty great.

07. Mountain Dew DEW S.A.

We all loved Mountain Dew Voltage when it came out. Code Red, some loved. Some were lukewarm on. White Out quickly became the soda for the Smirnoff Ice fan. (Seriously they taste very similar.) So now someone at Pepsi got the bright idea of mixing the three of them. The end result is delicious. One wonders why they didn’t think of this sooner. It kind of tastes like letting your favorite stick of Flavor-Ice melt, and then carbonating it in a Sodastream. Pairs really well with Rocket League. Which just beckons a soda that will make you alert. I’ve been enjoying this one a lot over the past couple of days. I’ll miss it when I go back to drinking water after it’s gone.

06. Flathead Lake Gourmet Green Apple Soda

I hesitate to call this one “Gourmet”. One look at the ingredients made me wonder why on Earth the folks at the grocery store put this in the health food aisle. Really. They did. But the peculiar art still grabbed me, and I gave this stuff a shot. The folks at Flathead Lake, do know confectionery flavor. Because upon sipping this, you will immediately remember what a sour green apple Jolly Rancher tastes like. That’s what this is. Jolly Rancher, as a soda. Which is pretty awesome. I proceeded to drink two bottles during some Toxikk matches. This was after drinking the first two at work. I had a sugar crash. But Flathead Lake is pretty damn delicious.

05. Trader Joe’s Vintage Soda

This is another one for folks that want just a great all around cola when playing through Shovel Knight, or classics like Mega Man II. It’s light, tastes sweet, but not too sweet, and has the body one would expect a standard cola to have. They’re a little bit more expensive than a mass market soda, but they also undercut sodas from healthier alternative brands. If you live near a Trader Joe’s, stop in, and try this one. It’s pretty good.

04. Red Rain Energy Soda

This is made by an outfit out of Canada. I can’t speak for other countries, but here in the US, I’ve only ever found it in dollar discount stores. But when you only cost a dollar, AND you taste better than Red Bull, AND you’re just as effective, well it’s worth the run-on sentence. It’s got the tartness most energy drinks I’ve tried also have. But where things like Monster feel like a golf ball in my stomach, Red Rain doesn’t. So if you’re going to try to play through a 40 hour JRPG in a couple of sittings, check it out. It’s sure to keep you awake through your favorite Final Fantasy, or your Chrono Trigger speed run.

03. Shasta Orange Soda

There’s a reason this one was referenced in Futurama. It’s timeless. It’s also inexpensive which is why it’s found seated alongside Red Rain around here. Plus who doesn’t like a good orange soda? This one goes great with all of the classics. Space Invaders, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Asteroids, Centipede, and Berzerk! Just don’t forget that all Rush mix tape.

02. Virgil’s Cream Soda

Virgil’s makes it on the list a second time with its excellent cream soda. Honestly, this one is as enjoyable as their Root Beer. It’s light bodied, has mild sweet notes of vanilla, and is refreshing. When you’re firing up some Forza, Gran Turismo, or Assetto Corsa, it’s a nice way to celebrate your big win.

01. BAWLS

This stuff is one of the best energy sodas of all time. It’s made with guarana, which has caffeine in it. It’s delicious.  It also doesn’t feel heavy. You can drink a couple of them (though you really shouldn’t), and not feel sick. It has enough of a kick to keep you awake for hours. After having just one of these, it’s easy to see why it was so popular at LAN parties, and tournaments. Ask any veteran of Quake III Arena, or Unreal Tournament, and they’ll attest to how tasty, and effective Bawls is. Within the last decade though, the company behind Bawls has had its ups, and downs. As such, you can’t find it in every 7 Eleven anymore. These days you almost only ever find it online by the case. But if you haven’t had Bawls, it’s worth ordering one for the experience.  Pairs well with just about any competitive arena shooter where reflexes are key. It also goes nicely with any RTS. Warcraft, StarCraft, Dawn Of War II, you name it.

So that’s my soda list! Again, not a top ten, just some really good stuff I’ve had gaming over the years. I hope you’ve enjoyed the list, and my sad attempts at advertisement parody. Is there something from your neck of the woods we should chug down? Talk about it in the comments below! Next time we’ll be back with a proper review!

10 Beers that pair well with video games

This time around I wanted to do something a little bit different. Every now, and again Mark over at Classic Game Room has reviewed beer in between some of his regular episodes.  This gave me an idea a while ago. Since I work with beer, and I review video games on this blog I’ve thought about the kinds I’ve tried over the years, and which ones really seemed to hit the spot during a gaming session. Don’t worry, I’m not transitioning the blog into a weird Cracked clone, that nobody will read. Rather, this is a part one, of a two-part one-off project. I haven’t abandoned reviews. So you can calm down, and breathe a sigh of relief. After this article, I’ll go down a list of sodas. Because not everybody enjoys beer, and even those who do like to switch it up from time to time. Obviously this entry is geared to those who are over 21, so if you’re underage you should skip this article, and check out the list of sodas when that comes out instead.

Keep in mind this is not a *TOP* ten. These are just ten that I happen to really like. There are a TON of really good ones not on this list that are just as good. Again there are also a ton I’ve never had. Also, not all of these will be available in your area. Many breweries are regional. So unless you’re able to go all over the world all of the time, you won’t see some of them. But hey, the inverse is also true. There are thousands of beers I’ll never see in my lifetime. I also apologize in advance, I don’t have photos for every entry on the list. Be that as it may, I’m going to kick things off.

10. Ballast Point Commodore Stout

Seeing how I’m a big Commodore fan (I mean come on, my blog title is a C64 reference!) The name automatically drew me to the bottle. But the art will show you that the brewery was referencing the Naval rank, as evidenced by the skeleton sailing a ship. Be that as it may, this stout really does go nicely with a play through of The Great Giana Sisters, or a few games of Mail Order Monsters with a friend. It’s got the heft you would expect the texture of a stout to have. Plus it has a delicious roast coffee aftertaste. There are some vanilla notes in there too, but not enough to overpower the flavor of the beer. It’s also around 6.5% ABV, so while it’s above the 5% ABV of a typical beer, you aren’t going to be unable to function after one. It’s not one of the cheaper options here, as Ballast Point tends to command a premium. But it is pretty nice to break out once in a while.

09. New Holland Hoptronix Double IPA

They should have called this Hop Invaders. Because the first thing you will see on the box is a love letter to Space Invaders. It features some really fun pixel art, with hops replacing the aliens, and an 8-bit beer bottle in lieu of a cannon.  As for the beer itself, this is a Double IPA. As such there will be some bitterness as that is indicative of the style. However, this goes neither the ultra-bitter route nor does it go the dry, yet juicy route. Instead, as the description on the box says, it goes for a dank approach. It has elements of bitterness, and dryness. It stands out for being different. At 9% ABV it’s a bit more potent than some of the other ones in the list. But still complements Atari 2600 night wonderfully. Grab the paddles, and that copy of Warlords!

08. City Steam Naughty Nurse Amber Ale

Here we go. Sometimes you want a great all around beer. A big cut above the mass market stuff you can have any time. But also not something overly complicated. Naughty Nurse fits that bill perfectly. It’s an amber-colored ale, giving you a rich flavor thanks to the combination of English hops, and crystal malt. It has a very distinct aftertaste, and it is neither too heavy or light feeling. It’s just good. Sometimes good is all you need. And, at 5.5% ABV you can have a couple of them whether you’re going for the high score on Centipede, or exploring the countryside in The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild.

07. Lagunitas The Waldos Ale

This one is kind of cheating because you can’t get it all of the time. Lagunitas puts this one out under their One Hitter series which means they make one small run, and then they don’t make it again until the following year. It’s out now of this writing, but since it’s a small run, you may have to check a few places before finding it. Assuming you can find it. If you do though, it’s worth picking up. It has a fruity quality to it, and tastes like nothing else. At least nothing I’ve tried. There is also a very mild burn to it which may sound weird until you realize it has an 11.9% ABV. Suffice it to say, you’ll really only want to have one of these on game night. But you’ll enjoy nursing it along to many rounds of the re-release of Street Fighter II on the Switch on game night in a few weeks. That is if you don’t drink them all before then.

06. Bear Republic Racer #5 IPA

This is one of the ones Mark Bussler reviewed, and it isn’t something distributed in my area. But luckily for me, going over the State line brings me to an area where it is. Upon having some, I have to say Mark was spot on in his review. It is light, crisp, and delicious. it’s got a nice balance of bitterness, and citrus notes. It isn’t potent. It is a good, reliable Californian IPA that goes very well with a game of Ribbit King against your friends. Distribution for this one is spotty, (unless you’re on the west coast) but if you do see it in your area, check it out.

05. Thomas Hooker #NoFilter IPA

This. This is something you’ll want to check out if you’re in CT, MA, or PA (They’re small, and don’t have a massive distribution right now) but the hashtag beer is splendid. It has a very citrus fruit flavor profile thanks to the fact it isn’t filtered. It’s very cloudy. If you pour it in a pint glass you won’t see through it. It’s really good, and punches you with its juicy flavor. It’s also the perfect thing to break out when you have your next BYOB LAN party for hours of Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena, death matches, and Serious Sam in 16 player co-op. Unfortunately, it’s short packed. So  a store might only get 1 case of the #NoFilter. But if you can find a six-pack, check it out. It’s pretty great.

04. Alpine Maharaja Double IPA

Here’s another rare one on the list. But it’s one of the few unicorns worthy of the hype. At 10% ABV The King will probably get you drunk pretty fast. But it tastes great doing it. It takes a similar route the Hoptronix does, being neither too bitter or too citrusy. But between the unique blend of hops, and spices it comes off as completely different. The higher ABV does make it a tad hefty. But not enough to ruin it.  This one could potentially be popular with Entropist mains in the upcoming Mirage: Arcane Warfare. Assuming the final game is as fun, and addictive as Chivalry: Medieval Warfare was when it came out.

03. Pipeworks Blood Of The Unicorn Hoppy Red Ale

Pipeworks is a great outfit out of Chicago, and pretty much everything they make is pretty good. This one stands out though because it has elements of both a red amber ale, and an IPA. As such you’ll get some bitterness, as well as some nice malty flavor. it’s also around 6% ABV so this is something you can have a couple of without knocking yourself out or making yourself sick. The package art is also really cool. Perfect beer for a summer day on the deck trying to get that high score in Robot Unicorn Attack.

02. Relic Dreamrise Double IPA

Relic is a very small outfit out of Plainville CT, and not every beer they make is always available. They change-up the line up every few months, presumably to not over produce any one beverage. That said, most of them are pretty good like their Dreamrise Double IPA. It veers more toward the citrus end of IPAs, with a very rich taste without feeling too heavy. At 8% ABV it isn’t overly powerful, allowing you to enjoy it while playing through the classic Mega Man game of your choice.

01. City Steam Naughty Nurse IPA

This one is my current favorite beer, and has held that title almost as long as it’s been out. It is a terrific IPA. It has just the right amount of bitterness. It has some crystal malt like its amber sister. It has a citrusy aroma, and after taste on the back-end. Similar to the Racer #5, it too, has a light body. It’s a refreshing IPA. It won’t be everyone’s favorite. I’ve shared it with some who feel it’s good, but not great. But I’ve also shared it with many who loved it as much as I do. It’s around 6.5% ABV too, so it strikes a nice balance of profile, and potency. If you come out here for Retro World Expo be sure to visit City Steam’s brewery pub, and have some. It pairs well with everything from Berzerk to Super Mario World to The Wonderful 101. It’s also a nice companion to any party game. Like Dokapon Kingdom or Wario Ware Smooth Moves.

So there you go! Again, half of these you may not be able to find in your area, but if you do see any of these, give them a spin. And if there’s a beer you really enjoy cracking open during a marathon of Overwatch matches, let the world know below! Next time, we’ll go over some really good colas!

Super Smash Bros. For Wii U Review

I know I’m late to the party with this one, and everyone has told you that this game is worth picking up 1,000 times over. Is this game good? There’s no question. Is this game overhyped? Possibly. Can this game do any wrong? Absolutely, though not what you might expect. This game addresses the concerns fans had with the previous game, while bringing along a couple of new decisions fans might fret over. But no game is flawless right?

PROS: Improved visuals, features, online experience, and a lot of content.

CONS: The campaign feature in Brawl, and Melee is gone. Some character cuts.

AMIIBO: While you don’t need one, the game may make you want to own a few.

Super Smash Bros. is now around 15 years old. Where has the time gone? With every iteration over that time span, each brought something new. Obviously the core concept for the series came with the first one. While things have changed, that set of fundamental design has not. Melee made things faster. A lot faster, and a large number of fans quickly realized that it could hang with the likes of Street Fighter even though it was a wildly different game. It’s sequel Brawl, tried to make things more accessible. After all, by the time it came out, many people were talking about insane techniques needed to win against professional players. Melee was showing up in tournaments, and developed a hardcore cult following in the fighting game community. A following that has only grown over the last decade. Brawl ran much slower, allowing people new to the series to be able to pick it up, and learn the mechanics. It had its own level of challenge, and was a very good game in its own right. It introduced online play, even if it wasn’t always the smoothest or most responsive game online. It expanded the roster even further, and even tried to add a bit more pizzaz to its single player campaign.

But a rivalry broke out in the fan community that lasts to this day, with many screaming the praises of one game, while disdaining the other. Super Smash Bros.for Wii U does a number of things to alleviate that, and bridge a gap between the two flavors of game play. For the handful of you who may not be familiar with Super Smash Bros., or at least those who have seen it, but never really understood it, it’s a fighting game. It’s a very unconventional fighting game that celebrates the last fifty years of Nintendo’s intellectual properties. There are characters, and worlds from Nintendo’s greatest franchises, and products. Super Mario Bros. Donkey Kong. The Legend of Zelda. Metroid. Pokémon. Even many of their lesser known titles end up represented somehow.

Where SSB really differentiates itself from other fighting games is how you defeat opponents. In most fighters, each player has a life bar. The goal is to deplete your opponents’ life bar two out of three rounds. In SSB however, the goal is to be king of the mountain, or a proverbial Sumo wrestler. Ring outs are the key to victory.  What makes the game addicting, and challenging however is that players have the ability to get back in the ring if they are knocked out. Each stage has an invisible border around it. Knocking a player beyond that point gets you a victory. As you attack other players, their damage percentage goes higher. As they take more punishment, each attack knocks them back farther. This goes on until someone can’t make it back.

Each game has had two major ways to play it. Stock rules or Time rules. Stock rules gives each player a decided upon number of lives. Each ring out, costs a life until there is only one person standing. Time rules, gives everyone unlimited lives, and everyone plays until the clock hits zero. At the end of the game a winner is chosen by the number of times they knocked out other players. If there’s a draw the game goes to Sudden Death, where everyone has high damage percentage, and even a minimal attack can knock you out. The last player standing then wins.

Each game also allowed players to play with or without items. These would show up, at random to give whoever picked them up an advantage. Baseball bats, guns, bombs, Super Mushrooms, and more would show up. Some of the items, called Assist Trophies, would summon NPC characters to attack other players. When Brawl came around, it brought a new item called the Smash Ball. Getting one of these meant your character could perform a finishing move, much like Street Fighter’s Ultras, or Mortal Kombat’s Fatalities. Except of course they would usually result in a knock out.

Finally, the biggest departure from other fighting games is the insistence upon simple inputs. Most fighting games involve learning complex button combinations to do anything from a special move to a combination attack. SSB is much simpler. You have four directions, a jump button, an attack button, and a special move button. Pressing a direction with either button performs a move. One can also press the attack button, and a direction at the exact same time for what the game calls “Smash Attacks” these are usually the most powerful moves the game has to offer, as they can also be charged. However that simplicity only goes so far, as you still need the zoning, and unpredictability you use in other fighting games to win. Players have a shield button, as well as a grab button. Shielding is essentially a block button. But to prevent people from playing too defensively or turtling, the block will explode if you hold it too long. Shielding allows you to dodge, and parry too by combining it with a direction. Finally, the grab button will allow you to perform holds, where you can add damage, as well as using it with a direction to throw an opponent. Something that can be handy as you can then attack their airborne character with follow ups. All of these moves can have different results in the air, and most of the characters can add a third jump (you can jump twice with the jump button) by using their up, and special move button after jumping.

There are plenty of other in-depth mechanics between the games that I really won’t delve into here. But know that Super Smash Bros. For Wii U keeps all of these core rules in place. What it does differently from previous games is moves the speed somewhere between SSBM, and SSBB’s. Something that makes it accessible to both groups of dedicated players. The roster has been updated again. Some of the characters that didn’t return in Brawl have returned here. Others are entirely new, while some haven’t returned at all. Many will be happy to know that in addition to the better run speed, a lot of rebalancing has also occurred, and while not perfect, everyone is pretty viable. For most players there won’t be a vast gap between character match ups. For the hardest of the hardcore? Well it’s still going to be awhile before we start seeing consistent tier lists, but there is still plenty to love. Cross ups, two in ones, and advanced combos are all here, and some astute diehards have already discovered a handy technique they call perfect pivoting. I’m certain some may still prefer the old Gamecube version, but this Wii U iteration is certainly deep enough to sate most any fan.

If the tweaks to the core formula weren’t enough to get you to check this out yet, some of the other new features just might. For starters, the internet play is much, improved over Super Smash Bros. Brawl. While I’ve still had my share of disconnects, or a lag ridden match on occasion, that frequency has been greatly reduced. It is irritating when it does happen, as you will see the wrong move pop out as the game isn’t sure what you’ve pressed. Or to see things creep down to five miles an hour. But thankfully those moments have been pretty rare. At least in my case, most rounds go pretty smoothly. Those with wired connections may see even fewer instances of hiccups, as there might be interference in some homes that conflict with a wireless signal. While no means flawless, it is a vast improvement over the last game’s internet performance.

Online mode also has been split up into two modes. For Fun, and For Glory. The former is designed for those who love the random craziness Super Smash Bros. is known for. Items are in full bloom, no holds are barred, and records aren’t kept. Some may have a small nitpick with this mode though. That is the game’s over reach on stopping griefers. In order to keep things civil, the game will disconnect, and put an hour-long ban on you if you target one specific player, over, and over again. While it is commendable that there is a game that really takes this sort of behavior seriously, it can be a little overzealous for some. Sometimes if one player consistently attacks, another, and also consistently fails at it the defender may suffer the consequences. To be fair it seems to be a rarity, and most of the time one has to actively work to make it happen. But there could have been a better concept implemented here. That said, it is generally the zany fun you are accustomed to.

The second mode sets things up similarly to what you might find in a regional tournament. Super Smash Bros. Wii U adds a new map feature called Omega Mode, where maps are converted to a similar layout to the Final Destination stage every game in the series has had. That is, there is but one platform in the center of your screen. For Glory mode also means that no items are in play. Not even the Smash Ball. Games are timed to 2 minutes, and you play for the most knock outs possible. This is easily the most popular mode for people who want a challenge. The mode can also be played in a 4 player mode, a 2 on 2 team mode or a 1 on 1 mode. SSBWU also has an online stat tracker for anybody obsessed with wins, losses, and character stats.

There are also challenges you can take part in by choosing certain characters. Nintendo updates them under a section called Conquest. Going under here simply notifies you of what characters are in play. Using them in For Glory modes, will add points to the character’s team. It doesn’t seem to reward you with anything, but it is something you might have a passing interest in. You can also spectate matches. Going here, and picking a character will find games where the character is being used, and then broadcasting the match to you. If you are the sort who enjoys watching streams of high level play, or any sort of competition, it’s another avenue for you.

You can also play online with friends, which allows you to play up to four players on any given stage, with or without items, in stock or time rule matches. One of the cool things about playing online is that you can have a player, and his or her friend as a guest play online simultaneously. It’s great for anyone who has a roommate, spouse or sibling, who share the same console.

If all of that were it, it would be enough for some, but it isn’t all there is. Players who have local parties with friends can play 8 player battles. This is in addition to the regular 4 player battles. The only drawback here is that not every map in the game was designed with 8 people in mind, so some of the maps are not useable in this mode. Using Omega mode opens up more, but the inability to play on every stage is a minor disappointment. Still, it is a blast if you can get 7 other people to visit or if you’re bringing the system, the game, and some controllers to a party.

On the subject of controllers, the game allows for several kinds of controller options. Obviously you can use the Game Pad, or the Classic Controller Pro. Both of these controllers work great, giving you the versatility of using a second stick for quick Smash Attacks. You can also use the Wiimote on its side, with a Nunchuck, or with the Wii Classic Controller. Using the latter is pretty much like the Classic Controller Pro. Using the Wiimote by itself, or with a Nunchuck isn’t the most ideal way to play as you lose some of the benefits of having analog movement, and easier to pull off smashes. That being said, if you are really good at knowing the precise timing to pull off smashes, then it’s less of an issue. Nevertheless, having some Classic Controller Pros, or Classic Controllers for Wiimotes are going to be a more ideal solution. The game is also compatible with the Nintendo Gamecube Controller. Which is what the absolute purists will insist upon. It isn’t an insurmountable advantage over the Classic Controller, or Classic Controller Pro. But it will feel more familiar to anyone who played an awful lot of Super Smash Bros. Melee. How exactly do you use a GCN controller with this game? Nintendo released a USB adapter that four controllers can plug into, and even supports using two adapters for eight controllers. The only problem? Not very many were produced, and most of them were bought up upon release. If you are fortunate enough to find one at retail, or a copy of the game bundled with one, it is a nice option. Particularly if you have old controllers knocking around. Barring that, the Wiimote, and Classic Controller or Classic Controller Pro are your most ideal options. There is another option for those who own the 3DS version of the game, and that is using the portable as a controller, so long as they have the game plugged in. You can also transfer some character data with it as well.

Smash Tour replaces the single player campaign, and it combines the arbitrary rules of Mario Party, with the challenge of Super Smash Bros. You can play this against the CPU, or against three other people. It’s a board game that allows you a set number of turns (15 being the lowest number), in which you’ll move across spaces upon every turn. As you play you’ll collect characters to use in combat, as well as items, and assist trophies to help you in battle while levelling up. Bumping into other players, will often times start a round of Super Smash Bros., with the winner gaining items, and costing the other players items. At the end of the board game there is a final battle with everyone using the characters they’ve collected. As in the Mario Party games, there are also random items generated for players depending on certain events. The object is to try to have the most stuff going into the final round, as it devolves into a handicap match. Someone will almost always have far less characters to use than the others. So skill building from the main game is still paramount.

Another new duo of modes are Master Orders, and Crazy Orders. Master Orders will give you the opportunity to spend gold to enter special challenges. Winning them gives you rewards for your Mii fighter creation, and Amiibos. Crazy Orders is similar but you can use tickets or gold. The difference is Crazy Orders will give you better prizes the longer you can go without losing. Once you lose, you gain nothing. Some of the challenges in the game require you to accomplish certain feats in these modes so you may want to play them. Another key thing in Crazy Orders is that once you’ve beaten as many challenges as you think you can handle you fight Crazy Hand. If you manage to win that battle you’ll retain all of the prizes you’ve claimed thus far.

The game still has the less touted single player modes of previous Smash games however. There is the Classic mode, in which you’ll have to go through a gauntlet of matches, until you meet the final boss. There is a really challenging spin on the mode here however. When starting the game, you’ll be able to choose a difficulty setting, and the higher you choose, the better the rewards for winning. You’ll also need coins to choose the higher settings. You earn these in all of the various modes, along with other items. If you can get to the end of the game on the highest setting, it not only puts you against both the Master Hand, and Crazy Hand (which turns into a number of different forms depending on difficulty level), but puts you into a side scrolling secret stage similar to the end of the original Contra. You’ll have to destroy 3 hearts while hordes of minions try to stop you.

Here’s the thing that makes this an even bigger challenge than in previous games. Even using a single continue will lower the difficulty setting. So you cannot get the highest possible win if you continue. Each consecutive continue lowers the difficulty further. All Star mode also returns, which is essentially a gauntlet through the entire roster. You’ll have to beat every character in a row, on one life. If you can manage to do that, you’ll be rewarded with items, and trophies of each character’s Final Smash.

Also returning are the event stages, which task you with objectives during matches, like beating a character in under 30 seconds, or not letting an enemy touch the stage floor during a 2 minute match. Clearing these can result in some harder to find items, and unlockable stages. Other returning modes are the Home Run bag mode (where you send a sandbag flying for a high score), the multi man NPC smash battles (Beat a number of computer controlled enemies), and target (Break round targets in the shortest time possible)challenges.

But wait! There’s more! Mii’s have become the series’ create a wrestler mode. You can take any given Mii on your system, or  a new Mii, and customize them to create new characters. You can choose from three attack types, a projectile heavy character, a speedy character,  or a brawler. From there you can change around their move sets, costume designs, and more. You can also take an existing character such as Mario, and retool their move sets for interesting results.

Super Smash Bros Wii U also is the first Nintendo game to make significant use of their Amiibo toy line. Instead of unlocking weapons, or skins, they become sparring NPC partners. After setting them on the Game Pad, the character can be renamed, and given custom move sets. Once that is done, playing against it will level it up. As it levels up, it will actually analyze the way you play, and find workarounds for many of your tactics. It quickly goes from being easily squashed to impossible to defeat. What is pretty cool about this is that it will help you learn your weaknesses in a way that a level 9 CPU character simply can’t. The toys can be levelled up to a rank of 50, although they’ll continue to evolve their tactics around your improved tactics. Moreover you can give your Amiibo many of the items you’ll find playing the various modes.

These influence its strengths, and weaknesses. Depending on what you give it, it will veer toward a fast, projectile, or brawler character much like the Miis. You can also only give the Amiibo so many items at a time, before the game will tell you it is full, and has to fight in more matches. In between fights it can be given more items.

In terms of unlockables, the game also has them in spades. The most important ones, are the characters, and stages which can be unlocked by playing enough matches or by meeting certain conditions. Such as beating classic mode, clearing a certain event, and so on, and so forth. But the game also has a lot of trophies for you to collect as well. Hundreds of them. Also carried over from Brawl, are the Nintendo demos for the old games the characters come from, as well as the stage creator, and snapshot features.

Stage creator is a great feature for anybody who likes to create mods. It isn’t going to be the deepest tool. But it does allow you to pick textured block designs, create a nice layout, and even add hazards like lava, or spikes. These can be saved to an SD card along with screenshots you take. Screenshots can be taken like most Wii U games, by pressing Home, and then posting on MiiVerse or a Website. But you can also use the game’s pause menu to save photos to the earlier mentioned SD card.

Super Smash Bros. Wii U really does succeed in many ways at bridging the gap between Melee, and Brawl. But it isn’t quite flawless. While most won’t be bothered by the omission of a campaign, some may be saddened that Solid Snake doesn’t return, nor do the Ice Climbers. Rosalina shares some of their tactics as she has a Luma as her proverbial tag team partner, but still plays wildly differently. The Pokémon Trainer is also gone. Instead, Charizard comes on his own, GreNinja enters as a newcomer, and Pokémon fans still get to play with Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and Lucario. (Mewtwo is also going to return down the line as DLC) Despite these, and other roster changes (Zelda, and Sheik are no longer tied to each other, as is the case with Samus, and Zero Suit Samus) things still seem much better here. Mega Man functions nearly identically to his 8-bit NES counterpart, Pac-Man is a lot of fun to use, and you’ll also see some other classic, and contemporary Nintendo characters showing up here. There is a lot to love here, and few games of any genre give you this much content these days.

If all of the modes weren’t enough, you have the aforementioned trophy hunting,  as well as an album function for your photos. The game also has a wonderful soundtrack. All of your favorite series’ songs are represented here. There are symphonic renditions, the original chip tunes,  Rock n’ Roll, Electronica, and so on. You can even set the frequency of each song’s playback for all of the game’s stages.  At the end of the day, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is a must for anyone with the system.

Final Score: 9 out of 10

Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL Review

Say that title five times fast!

Anyway, as we all know, knockoffs are nothing new. We see them in everything. Everyday household items. Appliances, and of course creative media. Including obviously, video games. Over the last thirty or more years we’ve seen Pac-Man clones. Space Invaders clones. Super Mario Brothers clones. Street Fighter clones. Doom clones. Basically, one could spend a lifetime talking about the concept alone before even getting to the examples. Some of which I’ve already reviewed. Many knockoffs aren’t worth a second thought. But as Mortal Kombat, Saints Row, and others have taught us, sometimes they are. Taking a proven formula, and putting their own spin on it.

PROS: Nice graphics. Decent mechanics. Controls well.

CONS: Saves can’t be brought to another system. Unbalanced.

CAPTAIN PLANET: He’s our hero! Going to take pollution, down to zero!

Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL does just that. This time the target is Super Smash Bros. The SSB series looks like it can easily be copied at face value. The core concept of keeping combatants off of your hill or out of your ring seems simple. You have a cast of characters who are unique, yet share a simplified movement set.

Moving beyond that, Smash has also employed campaigns in past games. Such as Melee’s Adventure Mode, or Brawl’s Subspace Emissary Mode. Smash has a ton of different items you could add in for random fun. Or assist trophies, that enable NPCs to help you win. Nintendo’s series even has a lot of individual mini game challenges throughout the series from target smashing, to sandbag beating. All with mechanics that hyper-competitive players find quite deep. Today, the series has hardcore fans, and countless tournaments where the best players win enough cash to live on. It’s one of the most watched series on Twitch. Its reputation has reached the heights of games like Street Fighter, and Tekken.

To say that CNPTEXL has some lofty goals is an understatement. Does it get anywhere near the pedigree of Nintendo’s mascot party fighter? No. But is it a bad game? Shockingly, the answer is also no. This game takes Nintendo’s approach to mascots, and applies it to Time Warner’s Cartoon Network. The game was published  a bit before the channel’s power houses Adventure Time, and Regular Show. So you won’t be playing as Benson or throwing down with Finn. However the game’s roster does go pretty far back to the channels early days. Dexter’s Lab, The Power Puff Girls, Samurai Jack, and Johnny Bravo all make appearances with many of their characters. Some of the later hits like Ben 10 & The Grim Adventures of Billy, and Mandy are here. And even some of the lesser known shows are represented.

The game has a campaign mode in the vein of Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s Subspace Emissary mode. The story is told by a narrator (Voiced by Space Ghost’s George Lowe), which follows the convergence of all of Cartoon Network’s shows. This follows a formula similar to Brawl’s. You will go through side scrolling platformer stages with brawler elements. Depending on the stage, you can use a certain number of characters. When you get to the end of the campaign it is revealed that the narrator’s TV remote has gone rogue, and is responsible for the merging of the realities. Of course, this remote is the final boss.

Along the way you’ll also unlock characters for you to use in the other mode. Again, much like the Subspace Emissary. The difference is that you use currency to do it. CNPTEXL has a Store option where you will find not only the bonus characters, but stages, alternate costumes, and clips from the various Cartoon Network shows. Clearing the game or playing enough in the other modes will give you points that can be used to unlock them. Once unlocked, the characters, and stages can be used in the Story mode or the Battle mode. There is a vault where the unlocked clips can be viewed, along with the character models. It works kind of like a cut down version of Smash’s trophy room. You can get info on the characters, what shows they belong to, and their original appearances. It isn’t nearly as deep as what you will find in Nintendo’s games, but it still gives you something to look forward to if you are a fan of the CN shows. The clips are DVD quality, and most of the clips are from some of the better shows’ moments.

 

The meat of the game is in its multiplayer. Battle mode is up to four players, and also allows you to use a variety of controllers. If you’re playing the Wii version you can use the Wiimote, and Nunchuck. Or you can opt for either a Classic Controller or a Gamecube Controller. As I’ve mentioned before, the core concept of CNPTEXL is the same as the Nintendo franchise it cribs from. Each of the game’s 26 stages will see players trying to keep each other off of the arena. You do this by attacking one another, to build up damage. The more damage you take, the farther you are knocked back with each successful hit. Each stage has a knockout zone around it. Going beyond it, or being unable to otherwise make it back to the arena results in a death.

The object of course is to be the last one with any lives left. The game plays as one would expect. There is a primary attack button, a special move button, a shield button, and a button for your finishers. Each of the main three buttons can be combined with directions. So as in Smash, you can get different moves based upon what direction is used with each. It also has smash attacks of its own. So pressing a direction with the attack button at the same time will dish out more knock back. The shield also allows you to roll out-of-the-way, and perform parries as in Smash. Many of the tactics employed in Smash like edge guarding can also work here. Even holding the shield for too long will break it, leaving you open to punishment. The finisher button is novel too in that you don’t have to chase down a smash ball. The one thing this game does to carve itself out a niche is  the use of a gem system. Beating up on your opponent will cause them to drop gems. Collect enough of them, and you can use your finisher. Most of the finishers are pretty cool, and have anime inspired animations leading up to the attack.

In addition to the primary battle mode, there are a handful of variants. Choosing a custom match is similar to the way custom matches in Smash games work. You can turn assist trophies on or off, set the frequency of items, and set the time limit or number of lives. It does not let you go over each individual item however.  Beyond the custom mode, there is a mode called Drones where the game will throw a bunch of NPC enemies into the match. Instead of scoring you on stock or knockouts, it instead scores you on whoever defeated the most computer controlled combatants.

There is also a variant called PTE mode, where you collect energy orbs. Think of it like the coin mode in the Smash series. Finally, there’s the arcade mode. This plays like the arcade mode in Smash. The game puts you in a ladder, against other combatants, and you’ll get a different ending for each character you beat the mode with.

As far as the look, and sound of the game go, the visuals are pretty nice, while the sound isn’t. All of the characters models look pretty good considering Papaya’s probable budget constraints. Backgrounds aren’t very detailed. Muddy textures cover most of the background objects, and small details are lost in the shuffle. Although one has to be impressed with some of the destruction, and transition that goes on in certain stages. Again, the finishing moves are actually pretty impressive. Especially if you’re a fan of some of these old shows. Audio is lackluster however. Aside from the voice samples, and quality during the unlockable clips, there isn’t much to recommend. Music isn’t all that memorable, and none of the effects will really wow you.

Despite all of the similarities with Nintendo’s games it still doesn’t hold a candle to Super Smash Bros. That’s the biggest trouble with Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL. The roster isn’t as large, and as great as many of these shows were, it simply isn’t as fun to pick up Johnny Bravo, as it is to pick up Donkey Kong. What’s worse is that the roster you do get isn’t really all that balanced. There are a handful of characters you’ll stick with if you do decide to play this with friends even remotely regularly. While every fighting game ends up with one or two characters that have more versatility, the best fighters still make everyone viable. This game really doesn’t. It was clearly made to be a Smash clone for people on a budget. Or at least for Cartoon Network fans who couldn’t get enough Smash-like experiences. Unfortunately while it does succeed on those merits, it won’t succeed in keeping you away from Nintendo’s franchise for very long. The fact you can’t unlock everything on your own, and bring it to a friend’s is disheartening too. Especially since, at least on the Wii, you can back up your save file to an SD card.

Still, if you do like some of these classic cartoons, you might want to check the game out anyway. It is by no means a terrible game, and it is a fun ride as far as licensed games go. But you aren’t going to drop Super Smash Bros. for this. Nor are you going to fool yourself into thinking you’re playing Super Smash Bros. if you pick it up on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.  It’s average. But sometimes that’s enough.

Final Score: 6 out of 10