The History of Super Smash Bros' Adventure Mode

The original Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 64 was released January 1999 and it was marvelous. All of Nintendo's biggest stars fighting each other in a lbs all out brawl, and fighting a giant hand! What more can you ask for? A sequel of course. While working on the next installment, Melee, Masahiro Sakurai and co are probably asking themselves what they can do to make the game even bigger and better. New characters? Of course. Add another giant hand to fight? Sure why not. Make a lot of the new characters clones of previous fighters? Nothing wrong there. But it was one thing that was a definite great ideal. Let's add an adventure mode. And the rest is wonderful history.

Adventure Mode for Melee

Melee's adventure mode was the one that really started it all. An amazing journey that took you almost everywhere in the Nintendo universe. Fighting Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and Yoshis. Wondering around a dungeon in Hyrule. Trying not to get run over by the cars in F-Zero. It was an adventure mode indeed.

The Subspace Emissary 

So when Brawl was announced Sakurai met a challenge. How can I make Adventure Mode even better? Let's give it a storyline and pair up all your faves together. The Subspace Emissary was Nintendo's Avengers Infinity War. Everyone has to go and stop Bowser and Ganondorf who have teamed together to enact a devious plan to take over the Smash World and turn everyone into trophies. It was also a nice introduction to Pit joining the fray.

Smash Run

Apparently we can't have nice things as when Brawl came out and the whole story of the Subspace Emissary was leaked on the internet. Sakurai was upset about it and decide to not give us another story with Adventure Mode. But that doesn't mean that we weren't going to get a new one. Instead he made a pseudo-Adventure Mode called Smash Run. You do go on an adventure on a giant map beating up as many baddies from Nintendo games in order to get coins, power-ups, and other goodies to do a mini Smash fight or challenge at the end. This was really his attempt to give us this as well as keep Break the Targets in the game in some form. So it may not be the great adventure epic Subspace Emissary was, but we should thank him in the end, right?

We don't know what Ultimate's Adventure Mode may be but it will most likely be good (But seriously, give us a Subspace Emissary sequel). What was your favorite? Please comment and share.

How Will Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee Play

Earlier this week we were treated to some major Pokemon Switch news. We are getting a core Pokemon game, but in 2019. Never fret we are getting two games to tie us over until then. First we have Pokemon Quest which is an adorable 8bit 3D? beat-em-up. We also will have Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Pokemon Eevee.

    According to The Pokemon Company, Lets Go Pikachu and Eevee is an enhanced chibi remake of Pokemon Yellow, which is done since it's based on the anime. If you can explain Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu it's pretty much your standard Pokemon game that we all know and love mixed with Pokemon Go. It even comes with a Pokeball that you can throw. Based on the trailer it does seem cool, but how will the game play seems to be a big mystery.
     Since the game is largely based on Pokemon Go, it would be safe to say that a lot of the gameplay will be based on Pokemon Go. You don't battle with wild pokemon. Instead you throw poke balls at it hoping that you can catch one. What's also different is that instead of random encounters from the games, you can see the pokemon in the wild and in caves. You will probably get different pokemon showing up whenever you leave and re-enter an area or if you catch one, maybe rarer ones will appear if you catch enough.
     You will have pokemon battles with gym leaders and other pokemon trainers as well as we see in the trailer where you fight a trainer on Nugget Bridge as well as a Team Rocket member. There will be trainers with different difficulty in the game so you may fight harder trainers later on on the game. There might be a possibility that you may be able to re-fight trainers with a harder difficulty level than previously like in the core games. Poke Marts and Pokemon Centers are in the game as seen in the trailer, so that will be a function instead of Poke Stops.
     One question is how exactly will you level up your pokemon in the game. In Pokemon Go, you get candies everytime you catch a pokemon which works like experience points in the game. In Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee that mechanic might still work where it won't be exclusive to a certain pokemon, like getting Pidgey candy for catching a Pidgey. You may get candies or money so you can buy poke balls and other items in trainer battles as well. You can use money from trainer battles to buy accessories to buy outfits for Pikachu and Eevee.
     This is all speculation. Nothing is official and I'm sure we'll find out new info as soon as Nintendo and The Pokemon Company updates us in the future. 

Deadpool 2: Did It Suck?

     It's been awhile since the last Deadpool movie and everyone's favorite foul mouth mercenary is back! The first Deadpool movie, being a union between Marvel and movie darling with abs of gold Ryan Reynolds was a match made in heaven. Seriously, it was like the comic book movie gods created it and had Stan Lee present it to us like Moses giving us the ten commandments. Anyway, Deadpool went on to make a killing in the box office and was so successful Marvel already greenlit the second movie the same weekend it came out. Now with most sequels, especially comedic ones, there is worry that things may become stale or writers will try so hard to outdo the previous film or try to regurgite the same jokes that it ruins things, I'm looking at you Zoolander 2. With not only Ryan Reynolds back in the tight and very form-fitting red spandex, but co-penning the sequel with previous Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, there is hope. Will it be a step up from the first film or will it leave a big eh on our faces. Will Deadpool 2 suck? Some minor spoilers ahead.

      So Deadpool 2 takes place some time after the first movie so it's good that you don't have to worry about watching the first film. Our favorite contract killer is on a journey of self discovery after his love interest from the first movie, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) dies. That journey eventually becomes an adventure to put his heart in the right place, find a family, and save a kid who is being targeted by time jumping mutant Cable. If you though the first Deadpool was funny then the second film is a treat because they've made sure to give you a ton of comedy in this one. Watching comedic scenes in Deadpool 2 is like looking at Oprah's buffet plate: there's a lot of it. The jokes are not bigger nor did the writers try to outdo what made Deadpool 1 funny instead they give you plenty of jokes. This time around they've gone full comic version of Deadpool than the first film. You get a ton of fourth wall breaking Deadpool is known for. There are a ton of Easter eggs where Ryan jokes about the other X-Men movies, Marvel movies, and even takes a knock at the DC universe along with running gags that were from the first are so fresh you can put a febreeze logo on it. If you're a fan of the Deadpool comics you are gonna be very excited more about this than the first Deadpool film.

      You get the standard Ryan Reynolds-isms you normally get in most of his comedic films. The witty lines and adorable dreamy eyes. It's not a bad thing at all. He's at home in these kind of roles and they work well with him. You do see a bit of his range in the more emotional scenes and it adds to the fact of isn't there anything this man can't do, other than make us want to see him in a green CGI suit. They did well showing off Domino and her powers which is literally luck, by having the most funny and fortunate circumstances happening to her compared to other characters seeing her in action.
 
Final Verdict
So, does Deadpool suck? Not at all! It is a perfect comic book comedy film if there is one. There wasn't that much plot to the movie but it pretty much said fuck that and just gave all the Deadpooly goodness we all love from the comics and that was a pretty good tradeoff. They didn't up the ante or go bigger than the previous movie, at least not that much. They just gave us more which is the sure fire way to keep comic book fans and everyone else happy. It gets four really bad dubstep songs out of five. Now kiss me like you miss me!

Avengers: Infinity War - Did It Suck?

     Marvel's biggest movie is here! By biggest, I mean just that as it is the largest cast featuring everyone and their momma who has been a major player in the Marvel cinematic universe ever since it has begun. We've been literally front and center in theaters watching Marvel connect the dots and set everything up for the events in this movie. With all the major Marvel players in this movie, will it truly be the epic superhero movie experience Marvel wants to boast that it is or are we looking at Justice League 2.0? Will Avengers: Infinity War suck?
     So, the whole plot of the movie is Thanos, who's appearance in the Marvel movie have been here and there building up to this moment, is after six power stones which if he does have all six he will destroy half of all life in the universe. It's up to practically everyone who's been in every movie in the MCU to stop them. Epic, right? It was totally epic in every sense. Epic fights, epic heroic moments, and in the case of both Chrises, Evans and Hemsworth, epic beards. So the movie is basically the superhero version of American Graffiti... Wait, some of you may not get that. It's the superhero version of Pulp Fiction in that most of the movie is pretty much everyone breaking off in different group like the second half of a Scooby Doo episode and doing different sub plots in order to stop Thanos.
     Everything is woven beautiful in the sense that it's almost like watching mini movies of each Marvel film. You would not think that Marvel would successfully mix the episodic aspect of movies like Black Panther and Guardians with the continuing drama-ness of Captain America and Thor but they did it well. When the Guardians of the Galaxy show up you get straight up comedy, which matching them up with Thor and Hemsworth's comedic presence was genius. You got the same chemistry Spider-Man and Iron Man had together in Homecoming. And that and the stuff you usually got in your standard Captain America/Avengers movie. Everything melds well together and everyone plays their part well, they had all 10+ years to do that so no shock.
     Along with all the epicness of the movie you get a lot of drama. Oh, boy do you get a ton of it. From Thanos' backstory and his interaction with Gamora. The movie's highlight was the substory of Gamora and Thanos. Not much has backstory has been done to Gamora in the Guardian films but they are brought out in the forefront with her being warlord daddy's little girl. As for Thanos, this film is another continuation of the simpathetic villian, like Killmonger in Black Panther and Vulture in Homecoming to name a few, who is doing some pretty bad things for their version of the greater good. This time killing half the universe to throw things into balance instead of doing all of this to get bf points with Death like in the comics.
     You're gonna need tissues for this movie. From Gamora's backstory and connection to Thanos, the relationship with Scarlet Witch and Vision, and probably the most emotional part of the movie: the ending. The ending had balls. I'm not going to spoil it for you but it's true, some heroes do not make it. It wasn't your standard superhero endings that even though something tragic happened it gives you a message of hope.

Final Verdict
     So, did Avengers: Infinity War suck? NOPE! As Marvel's big superhero movie starring everybody it did not. It was more like a celebration of all the movies that Marvel has done in the past years all blended together smoothly. You have all the custom movie tricks and the cookie cutterness of Marvel movies, but they don't seem so cookie cuttery. You get all the good, and then some. The ending was a big bonus as it gives you a bit of intelligence that was needed. As shocking and sad as it was it was beautiful and genius, leaving you wanting to know how will not only the MCU will deal with all that happened but what Marvel themselves will do to fix it. How do I rate it? It gets 4 infinity stones out of five.

Should We Be Worried About the Spyro Reignited Trilogy?

     Nostalgia has hit us hard like a tsunami this week. We're getting a Spyro game. Not a brand new game, but a remaster anyway. There was an apparent leak that revealed that Toys for Bob was going to give Spyro the remaster treatment, just like Crash Bandicoot and the N. Sane Trilogy, and now everything has been confirmed. We will be getting the new, yet old, Spyro Reignited Trilogy this September, if it doesn't get delayed. It will be published by Activision who published the remastered Crash games and if that doesn't get you running down memory lane like it's an marathon on your childhood, Tom Kenney who voiced a majority of the old Spyro games will reprise his role as Spyro for the entire remaster.

      So for the millennials out there Spyro was platformer that came out during the golden era of 3D platformer games like Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, Super Mario 64, and another series that we've gotten the remaster treatment Crash Bandicoot. With this remaster everything should be cool right? Right?

       I'm sure lot of people had their nostalgia goggles as soon as they heard the news and thought back to days playing the game when they were young and how awesome the game was back then. I'm not saying that the series suck, it did everything but suck. I'm saying that maybe the gameplay could come off as a bit dated as in most cases things do not hold up as time passes. Things may not be as awesome as we remembered it and time has a funny way to make us aware of that by showing us how outdated things can be.
     We've seen this with Yooka-Laylee. Yooka-Laylee isn't what you call an old game, but Playtonic, the studio who developed the game, treated as a spiritual sequel to the popular Banjo-Kazooie series and got us all in the nostalgia feels.We were partially disappointed as we were treated to old and dated gameplay that gave the game a stale taste.
     Luckily this wasn't the case when remade Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy where Vicarious Visions did much more than just give the first three Crash games a facelift with updated graphics. They tweaked gameplay mechanics a bit that made it a bit more challenging and felt new. Hopefully that is what Toys for Bob has in mind for remastering the Spyro games as well.

What are your thoughts?

Who May Or May Not Be In The Next Super Smash Bros

     Last week we've got the game teasers to end all game teasers. We were treated to a brand new Smash Bros game coming out for the Switch. Not much was shown by for the people that missed out it first started out as a mock trailer for Splatoon as it started out with two Inklings fighting. On of them looks behind them and gazes in awe of the Smash logo engulfed in flames. We then see silhouettes of Mario, Link, and a few characters. This has led the internet to speculate who will be in the upcoming game with guesses of which characters are shown the silhouettes. There are a few obvious ones like Bowser and and DK, but everyone else is a complete mystery. People are speculating so we're going to speculate as well. Here's who I think will make the cut. Again, this isn't official but merely guess as to who will be and who may not be in the next installment for the Switch, hopefully.

N64 Fighters

     So, if you don't know who they are they are Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Pikachu, Yoshi, Samus, Fox, Luigi, Ness, Captain Falcon, and Jigglypuff. We know that Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong are pretty much confirmed (shockingly) but what about everyone else. So most of the character in this group are from well established titles in Nintendo's history and have been there from the very start so we know that most of them are going to stay, well mostly everybody. Ness was almost cut in Melee in favor of Lucas so could he end up being cut? The same is for Jigglypuff as it was also considered being cut for Melee and Brawl. Unlike Ness, Jigglypuff the case for being on the chopping block makes it more apparent as it has gotten worse over the franchise with it being in lower ranks with each game. Is Jigglypuff on the final chopping block?

Melee Fighters

     Zelda, Sheik, Peach, Ganondorf, Bowser, Marth, Roy, Mewtwo, Falco, Dr. Mario, and Mr. Game and Watch were in the remaining game with Young Link, and Pichu, being cut from Brawl and Ice Climbers being cut from Smash 4. Ice Climbers was cut due to the 3DS limitations and time constraints. Hopefully things have changed as the production team has probably have time to perfect their mechanics? Young Link and Pichu may be still setting this out especially considering Young Link since we already had Toon Link take his place, which also made more sense. As for the fighters who were in the last game, just like the N64 cast most of these characters are long staples of the group and will probably stay, most of them. Dr. Mario seems to have came back to give variety to Mario fans as Dr. Mario plays like old Mario before they changed his fighting style in Brawl. Mewtwo who missed out on Brawl, but came back to Smash 4 can either be cut again or might stay on the roster this time.

Brawl Fighters

     Wario, Toon Link, Lucas, Zero Suit Samus, Pit, R.O.B, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Ike, Olimar, Diddy Kong, Lucario, Charizard, and Sonic were the new fighters added to the mix. A lot of these fighters brought a lot of uniqueness with their mechanics and moveset. However I do feel like they will cut the least unique ones. Who will they be? They basically replaced Pokemon Trainer for just Charizard, but I feel like Charizard might not make it into the final roster and this will be a battle Ike will finally set out in favor of other Fire Emblem and Pokemon characters. They will probably bring back Wolf since fans have asked for him to be included in Smash4. Snake will most likely not return because I feel like he was a one time thing as Konami and Hideo Kojima did want Snake in Melee but it was too late so they included him in Brawl.

Smash 4 Fighters

     Just like the Brawl cast, I do feel like a lot of these fighters are new and have uniqueness in their fighting mechanics that we will be seeing most of them returning. But I do fee like they will be cutting a lot of Pokemon and Fire Emblem characters to make room for new characters from those franchises, so good bye to Robin, Corrin, and Greninja. I do feel like they will cut Rosalina in favor for Ice Climbers returning, using her gameplay mechanics. The question will be whether Mii will return since Nintendo has discontinued Mii recently. It would be nice to see if they stay as a nod. Dark Pit will probably not return as he is a clone of Pit or they might tweak him a bit to make them more different.

Black Panther: Did It Suck

     Black Panther is out! Ever since the debut of the title character, Black Panther, in Captain America: Civil War we have been desperately wanting to see this movie. It has set really high expectations and Marvel has gone all out trying to make sure that this movie does not leave us disappointed. Not only that this will be Marvel's first superhero movie with a predominately black cast, with legendary black actors like Forest Whitaker and Angela Basset, as well as soon to be legends like Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, and Chadwick Boseman so the stakes are even higher. Now that we can finally see it, have they? Does Black Panther suck?
     Black Panther takes place sometime after Civil War and brings T'Challa to the forefront being the new king of Wakanda, a black utopia hidden away, in Africa after his father's death. As the newly crowned king, T'Challa is not only met with how he should govern Wakanda, but how and whether he should help other people in the world with Wakanda's vast resource of Vibranium, one of the hardest metals in the Marvel Universe which is responsible for Wakanda's technology which is vast beyond outside world. With Vibranium being a million times more than its weight in gold, you also have people that try to steal it which T'Challa and the previous king of Wakanda, T'Chaka has to put a stop to as well as keep Wakanda a secret from the outside world which is a big obstacle in the movie and crucial to the plot.
     This is more of an introduction to Wakanda where the movie mostly takes place. The movie's director Ryan Coogler, put in a ton of visuals in this movie. You had a ton of beautiful scenes from the astral plane scenes, to the scene of M'Baku, played by Winston Duke, in his throne room, to the costumes of the characters which were inspired by the beauty of Africa. Black Panther has all of the good qualities of a Marvel film: great fighting scenes and action with a little bit of funny all throughout the film to keep us entertained.
      It had all of that and more. Black Panther was a movie with purpose but it  had a ton of political aspects to it as well. It dealt with a lot of topics ranging from colonialism to afrofuturism, to name a few. The film also invokes a familiar history with MLK's pacifism with Malcolm X's black activism with the two protagonist and antagonist characters, T'Challa, played by Chadwich Boseman, and Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan. The protagonist and antagonist also draw inspiration to X-Men characters Charles Xavier and Magneto which too were based off of King and X. Jordan has even said that the interaction between his character and T'Challa's is reminiscent of not only King's and X's but Charles and Magneto as well while explaining his version of Killmonger for the film. Coogler has woven these topics into the plot so beautifully without it becoming too preachy and a much better job than Anthony and Joe Russo tried in Civil War. Another thing that was done beautifully was the acting.
     The acting was superb. The whole cast brought their A game. Of course you never get a dull moment with veterans like Bassett and Whitaker, but everyone else was what made Black Panther extraordinary. Bosewick was amazing playing T'Challa who was coming to terms with his father's death and into his own as the new king of Wakanda figuring out how he should rule the country. T'Challa while being the main character did take the back seat compared to other characters but that has more to do with how well the other cast did than Bosework's performance. If you can say who was the MVP of the movie, it would be a three-way tie between Michael B. Jordan, Florence Kumba, and Letitia Wright. Florence Kumba was magnificent playing badass woman warrior and T'Challa's right hand man, I mean woman, Okoye who ripped apart in every scene, as well as the bad guys, she was in. Wright was amazing playing the sassy, witty, and intelligent sister to T'Challa and head scientist, Shuri. Jordan did a great job playing ruthless villain Killmonger, who while motivated by hate, militarism, and good old fashion vengeance did have a tragic villain story which made him the monster he was.

Final Verdict
So, how did Black Panther faired? It was amazing! Not bad for Marvel's first black movie in the MCU. It brought us everything we needed. A great story. Amazing and beautifully written characters and it was more daring dealing with political issues more than Civil War attempted to do, and did it so while being two hours of fun! Black Panther has raised the bar on how every Marvel movie should be. It gets four out of five. Wakanda Forever!