Bit by Bit: September 2015

September was an eventful month. I went to Fan Expo, spent three days powering through Mario Maker for a review, started classes for another year, and ended my post-secondary career in the span of 30 days. The last one might seem drastic and surprising, but it has been surprisingly refreshing. A great weight lifted off my shoulders when I handed in the withdrawal form. School took up every facet of life for the past five years, so to finally be done is surreal. Now, I got more time to play games!

Enough about me, we got games to talk about especially with the fall game rush in full effect. For the uninitiated, the fall game rush is the incredible amount of games that release from September to November each year. And I bet if you're a self-respecting gamer, you picking up at least one brand new title in the next few months. I know I'm buying quite a few.

Game of the Month
Super Mario Maker would be the easy choice for Game of the Month with its robust level editor and insane amount of user-created content, but I haven't spent as much time with the game that I originally thought I would. Mario Maker is one of the best games on the Wii U; it just hasn't grabbed me in the way I wanted it to. Outside of the first weekend owning the game, I've only picked it up a handful of times over the last few weeks. Let's just say seeing little reaction to your uploaded levels can be disheartening.

While Mario Maker didn't grab all my free time, Yacht Club Games' free expansion for Shovel Knight sure did.

In Plague of Shadows, you take control of Plague Knight as he collects the essence of his fellow knights in order to create the ultimate potion. Instead of relying on a shovel to bounce off enemies like a pogo stick, Plague Knight must use bombs, spells and his charge launch ability to reach the chambers of his former comrades. Although you play through the same levels that are in the main campaign, using Plague Knight's unique abilities makes each level play in a whole new way. Plus as an added bonus, each level has special area that only Plague Knight can get through. Plague Knight may be tricky to control at first, but you will definitely get the hang of his arsenal after the first few levels. In addition to the brand new campaign, Plague of Shadows adds a challenge mode with over 40 challenges to complete as Shovel or Plague Knight.

As an expansion, Plague of Shadows offers more content than most game expansions or DLC. Plus, it's all free for anybody who buys or already owns Shovel Knight! If the other planned expansions for the game are just as good as Plague of Shadows, Shovel Knight may be one of the top games for years to come.

Most Anticipated Games of the Month
I can't nail down my most anticipated game of September since I have three big game purchases during the first three weeks of October. Very similar to those picking up all the big AAA releases in November, October is my big rush of games. Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash drops Friday, October 9th followed by Yoshi's Wooly World a week after that and The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes just a week later. With all those games, I'm going to have quite a bit to talk about this upcoming month. No promises, but maybe I will get around to posting some reviews for them in the near future.

In all seriousness, I am really looking forward to playing all these new Nintendo games. Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash is going to be to closet thing to a new Castlevania until Bloodstained comes out in 2017, Yoshi's Wooly World might just be the best Yoshi solo outing in decades, and The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes takes the fun of multiplayer Zelda and melds it with the expert dungeon design of traditional 2D Zeldas. Also two out of the three games come with adorable amiibos, which is always a plus in my books.

Video of the Month
Words will not do this video justice. Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle that is the Japanese launch trailer for Tearaway Unfolded. I promise you, it's one hell of an acid trip.

First Byte: Fan Expo 2015 Gauntlet

Early September, I went to Fan Expo Canada for a day. Aside from exploring the massive show floor and buying a few cool items on sale, I spent the majority of my time playing upcoming games. Actually, it was more like standing in line to play said games. Much like last year. there were well over 30 games at Fan Expo for all to play from big AAA titles such as Assassin's Creed: Syndicate to smaller titles like Cuphead. I always go in dreaming to play every game on the show floor, but I can only get in a quarter at best. This year, I played 10 games in total.

This time around I'm changing up the structure of the Fan Expo Gauntlet. Instead of taking two parts to outline every game I played, I'm going to highlight three titles. These are the titles that I got more time to play and can dissect for your pleasure. With how poorly some demos were managed by volunteers, I just couldn't extract enough from them to fill a paragraph. For example, I played Transformers: Devastation for only enough time to say the combat is exactly the same as Bayonetta just with some third-person gunplay thrown in the mix.

Yo-Kai Watch
To my surprise, Nintendo had a lot more games at their booth than the three games advertised (Splatoon, Super Mario Maker and Yoshi's Wooly World). One of the titles available to play on 3DS was the newest sensation out of Japan, Yo-Kai Watch. The demo I played gave me a good impression on the game's combat system, which is pretty different from most JRPGs on the market.

There are no random encounters in Yo-Kai Watch, you literally chase down wild yo-kai by keeping your cursor over them. Once the yo-kai are caught, you engage in combat. Combat consists of spinning a wheel on the touch screen to alternate between the six yo-kai on your team and activating special touch screen specific activities in order to unleash special attacks. Outside of lining up the correct elements to maximize damage and special attacks, normal attacks automatically occur at regular intervals.

For the 15 to 20 minute demo, I found the combat really fun and engaging alternative to the traditional RPG combat systems, but I can see it getting tedious over the course of a 40 hour playthrough if this is all Yo-Kai Watch offers.

Star Wars Battlefront
Ever since EA and DICE released the first slew of information on the new Star Wars Battlefront at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, people have been tirelessly debating over the game's content or lack thereof and its similarities to Battlefield. The gameplay footage revealed at E3 did quite a bit to fan the flames, but there were still some doubters. I will say this: you will have no doubts when you get your hands on the game. My friends and I walked away from the demo at Fan Expo astounded at how amazing it was.

The only mode available to play was Survival. It is Battlefront's version of Horde mode as you and a teammate are tasked with battling through waves upon waves of Imperial forces on Tatooine. The first few waves consist of just Stormtroopers, but as the waves go on, the difficulty goes up at a gradual yet challenging pace by throwing AT-ATs and shocktroopers your way. For somebody who can't hold their own in contemporary shooters, Battlefront made me feel like an all-star. The controls felt perfectly tuned to deal with everything that was being thrown my way. There were a couple waves where I was the last man standing and the tight controls were the only thing that allowed me to pull through.

Although the demo consisted of only one mode, the superb controls and the game's ability to accurately emulate the world of Star Wars has me highly anticipating playing Battlefront later this year.

Star Fox Zero
Most games I played at Fan Expo left me feeling optimistic about their final release. Sadly, I can't say the same for Star Fox Zero. While I will still buy this game early next year, I have a bad feeling that the game is going to alienate a lot of people because of its unique control scheme, much like Kid Icarus: Uprising before it.

Star Fox Zero has you using the analog sticks to control the Arwing and the motion controls in the Wii U gamepad to aim your weapons. This control set-up works during the on-rail segments. but completely falls apart when you enter all-range mode. The reason for this occurrence comes from the all-range mode's reliance on pinpoint accuracy to dispatch enemies. If you played Splatoon, you would already know that this control scheme is no where near accurate and Star Fox's focus on it feels counter-productive. Transforming into the walker did alleviate some of the targeting problems with particular enemies, but the walker's controls felt rough around the edges as will.

After playing Star Fox Zero, I am happy that Nintendo delayed the game until early 2016 because it gives Nintendo more time to refine the controls for the game. While Star Fox Zero has the potential to breathe new life into this struggling franchise, a polarizing control scheme might just ground the Star Fox team for good.

E3 2015: Nintendo Digital Event Impresions

In recent years, Nintendo has pulled back from the traditional E3 presence.  Instead of the tried-and-true press conference and booth combination, Nintendo has opted to provided a constant stream of content from the Nintendo World Championships to the daily Treehouse Live stream.  The crown jewel of Nintendo's week is their Digital Event, a special one hour video that highlights their biggest titles for the upcoming year.  With the Wii U Legend of Zelda skipping the show, could Nintendo announce some titles to fill that void this holiday season?

Nintendo didn't have one single answer to that question as they went for a sheer numbers approach.  Starting with Super Mario Maker, there will be eight titles across Wii U and 3DS, including Star Fox Zero, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Yoshi's Woolly World, releasing this Fall.  While there may not be a single title that will move tons 3DS and Wii U units, this is one of the most robust lineups Nintendo has had for the holidays in a long time.

Looking at the Digital Event as a whole, its content was good, but the video was completely underwhelming and disjointed.  Nintendo tried so hard to be charming and wacky with the puppet skits, but it came off as embarrassing awkward.  Also the announcement of certain games felt out of place.

Although I am not as upset about the Metroid Prime 3DS games as others, the way Nintendo just unceremoniously dumped it on us was a little insulting, especially for longtime fans.  Federation Force and Blast Ball are two refreshing new takes on the franchise that I look forward to seeing more of, but these titles shouldn't have been the only Metroid announcement of the show.  Plus the huge focus on Super Mario Maker and Mario's 30th Anniversary was a little lackluster considering the Nintendo World Championships did such an incredible job promoting that game.  I will admit, revealing that the Mario transitions were actually the Amiibo support for Super Mario Maker was awesome.

While Nintendo's Digital Event felt lackluster as a whole, there were some titles that really impressed me.  Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes looks to be the Four Swords sequel/co-op Zelda I've been craving for a long time.  The ability to play core Zelda dungeons with others both on and offline is great.  The proper return of Mario Tennis with Ultra Smash for Wii U was exciting to see.  If Nintendo adds in robust online multiplayer to the game, it could be up there with Mario Kart, Smash Bros. and Splatoon as another great multiplayer game for Wii U.  Last but not least, Level 5's Yo-Kai Watch was impressive as it had a great amount of charm and some unique RPG elements that looks to appeal to all ages.

The easiest way to describe Nintendo's Digital Event is a mixed bag.  All the games showed off looked to be a lot of fun and it gave perfect picture of Nintendo's holiday lineup, which looks to be their best in a long time.  The show just didn't have the cohesion or a big punch to keep fans from felling a little disappointed.  Plus where on Earth is Retro Studios!?

Grade:  C+

On the Download: Mario Kart 8 DLC Impressions

Last Thursday, the second pack of DLC for Mario Kart 8 became available for download on the Nintendo eShop for eight dollars.  If you didn't pick up the previous DLC pack, both packs are available in a bundle at the discounted price of 12 dollars.  Each DLC pack offers three characters, eight tracks and four vehicles, which pulls some of its content from franchises outside of the Mario series including The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Excitebike and F-Zero.

While DLC and how game companies approach pricing and releasing it has become a hot topic in recent years, Nintendo has received a great amount of praise for their approach to these DLC packs.  The reason behind the praise comes from the critical reception for Mario Kart 8 on its own and the timing of the DLC announcement.

First, Mario Kart 8 received universal praise from fans and critics alike.  Both thought the game was packed with great amount of content to begin with and many were craving for more content for the game.  Instead of feeling like Nintendo was adding content that should have already been in Mario Kart 8, the announcement of the DLC felt like a natural extension of the game and an evolutionary step for the whole franchise.

Second, most DLC announcements come well before a game hits store shelves.  This practice can alienate consumers as it can be interpreted as game companies holding back content in order to extort money out of their loyal customers at a later date.  Nintendo waited a good three months after the release of Mario Kart 8 to announce DLC for the game.  Although Nintendo may have been working on the content at the same time as the game, the timing of the announcement, coupled with the affordable price, makes consumers feel that they are getting more bang for their buck and that the DLC content is in addition to the content already in the game.

Aside from dissecting the wide acceptance of the Mario Kart 8 DLC, the content provided in these packs are superb.  Playing through each pack gave me a greater appreciation for Mario Kart 8 as a whole.  Certain aspects that I overlooked upon my initial playthrough, such as graphics, audio and track design, are brought to the forefront in unique ways.

Seeing the rain-soaked neon landscape of Neo Bowser City hits home how wonderful it is to see Nintendo properties in full HD glory.  Hearing the unique audio cues from Animal Crossing and Legend of Zelda on their respective tracks along with the electric fences and healing pads in the F-Zero tracks shows Mario Kart 8's incredible attention to detail and the reverence Nintendo has to their properties.  Pulling together old and new Mario Kart tracks, in addition to re-imagining tracks from both F-Zero and Excitebike, spruces up the tried-and-true formula of cups having all new tracks or all old tracks and injects a ton of variety into the track designs.  Speaking of the track designs, the changing seasons of the Animal Crossing track, the randomized layout of mud spots and ramps on the Excitebike and even slightly tilting Baby Park on its side for the track to be raced entirely in anti-gravity are wonderful tweaks that make the tracks a lot more engaging and exciting to play.

Although the inclusion of Link, Villager and Isabelle open Mario Kart up to the possibility of becoming Nintendo Kart, the three other "new" characters are nothing more than new costumes for existing characters.  They don't bring anything new to the game other than a cosmetic change.  Nintendo could of easily added these new costumes by having the a separate menu pop-up when selecting either Mario, Peach or Bowser much like they did with the boy and girl Villager and the colour variants for Yoshi and Shy Guy.  Adding these unnecessary characters brings more attention to Mario Kart 8's overinflated roster problem.  Also including these variants on existing characters over brand new characters from either the Mario universe or Nintendo as a whole feels like a missed opportunity in my opinion.

At 12 dollars for both of packs, the DLC for Mario Kart 8 is must own.  The amount of content packed into it is astonishing.  You are literally getting another half-game of content for the price of movie admission.  Hopefully, the success of these DLC packs leads for more content for Mario Kart 8 in the years to come.

Launch Station: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

In the last couple of years, crossovers have become more common on Nintendo consoles.  From full-on retail releases such as Pokemon Conquest, Project X Zone and the upcoming Hyrule Warriors to smaller experimental pieces of downloadable content like Nintendo character costumes in Monster Hunter 4 and Bayonetta 2, or special Yoshi's Story and Legend of Zelda stages for Sonic Lost World, crossovers are seeing much more attention in the video game industry now than in generations past especially here in North America.  Continuing this large surge of video game crossovers is Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, a brand new 3DS adventure that brings together two franchises that made their names on past Nintendo handhelds.

Transported to the medieval city of Labyrinthia, Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright and company are tasked with solving puzzles and winning court battles in order to help Espella Cantabella, a girl who is wrongly accused of being a witch, prove her innocence and find a way back to their respective universes.  Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is divided into two distinct sections that coincide with each franchises respective gameplay.  The Adventure section of the game will be awfully familiar to Professor Layton fans as you are searching environments for clues and interacting with characters.  Through your interactions with the environments and characters, you open up a multitude of thought-provoking puzzles which earn Picarats, the currency from the Professor Layton games used for unlocking extra puzzles and buying hints, and advance the story.  The other section of Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is the Witch Trial.  This is the section where Phoenix Wright and the gameplay from the Ace Attorney series takes centre stage.  Using the clues from the Adventure section, Phoenix must cross-examine witnesses and find contradictions in their testimonies in order to pull out the not guilty verdict for Espella.  Although finding contradictions involves the standard pressing for information and presenting of evidence that the Ace Attorney faithful are accustomed to, there are a couple twists to the standard Ace Attorney formula which spice up the proceedings quite a bit.  These twists are the ability to cross-examine multiple witnesses at a time and the addition of presenting magic spells as evidence. After completing the main game, there is additional content such as special episodes and art galleries available for players to download for Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney via the Nintendo Network.

When crossing over two completely different franchises, you always wonder how their signature elements such as gameplay, audio and art style will co-exist.  In the careful hands of both Capcom and Level 5, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney looks to strike a careful balance between the unique gameplay, art styles and designs of each franchise in a way that truly compliments one another.  Although it took four long years since its initial announcement to reach North America, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney should be a quality third-party title to keep 3DS owners satisfied until major titles like Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. release this fall.

E3 2014: Nintendo Digital Event Impressions

Aside from Sony's offerings this year, E3 2014 can be summed up in one word-- safe.  For the second year in a row, Nintendo looks to usurp convention with their Nintendo Digital Event.  Details surrounding this event have been clouded in mystery since the Big N announced it.  A lot of people especially Nintendo fans were hoping to see Nintendo move out of the financial woes of the Wii U with this event.  Did Nintendo's Digital Event deliver?

As a whole, the Nintendo Digital Event delivered as a perfectly paced entertaining forty-five minute show.  It provided a great amount of new information on Nintendo properties people were most concerned about and wove it into a fun captivating presentation including smooth transitions, funny Robot Chicken skits and a steady pace.  With all that said, the presentation felt pretty safe and underwhelming in this writer's humble opinion.  Not to mean Nintendo's performance was bad, in fact it was better than last year's showing, however nothing truly surprised or caught this writer off-guard.  Also this writer would of ended the event with The Legend of Zelda reveal instead of the Palutena character reveal for Super Smash Bros.  Speaking of The Legend of Zelda reveal, the new game looks incredible with a cel-shaded anime art style and the futuristic technology mixed with medieval fantasy.  A more substantial Zelda trailer or gameplay would have been nice yet what we got was great nonetheless.

Super Smash Bros. saw Palutena and Mii Fighters revealed as new additions to the character roster.  Masahiro Sakurai took a bit of time to focus on the Mii Fighters as they look to be Smash's answer to create-a-fighters in other fighting games as you get to choose the Mii's style (brawler, sword-fighter and gunner), special moves and most likely appearance.  That news was coupled with an excellent one-on-one fight between Reggie and Iwata and the introduction of amiibos.  Despite the weird name, amiibos are Nintendo's answer to the collectable toy genre popularized by Disney Infinity and Skylanders and they allow you to store, transfer and unlock different data across multiple Nintendo games.  Currently confirmed to work with Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart 8 and Mario Party 10 among others, the amiibos showed off at the event looked really well crafted.  There were a lot more games covered in this event including Mario Maker, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker,  Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2 with the first Bayonetta included on disc, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Yoshi's Woolly World.  Sadly, most of them are coming out in 2015.  Not much incentive to buy a Wii U this coming Fall, which is a mistake on Nintendo's part, but in 2015 the Wii U will be releasing games at a considerable pace.

Before the Palutena reveal, Nintendo ended off with a brand new property for Wii U called Splatoon.  Splatoon is a third-person shooter where you play as a squid-human hybrid and the goal of each match is to cover the arena with the most ink.  Ink plays a greater role than being your ammo as you can use it travel far distances quickly in squid form and slow down opposing players that get caught in it.  While Splatoon looks more like a downloadable game rather than a system seller, it was nice to see Nintendo introduce a brand new property for the first time in what seems like years.  Splatoon is hopefully a sign of more good things to come from Nintendo.

Although this writer did find Nintendo's Digital Event thoroughly entertaining, it was not the home run the company needed.  Nintendo did a great job in developing a definitive lineup for the rest of 2014 with set release dates for all their titles except Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, giving fans confidence in the games further down the pipeline and wrapping it all in an entertaining package.  Despite all that great stuff, this writer wanted Nintendo to make a much bigger statement this year and they fell short.  The Wii U will definitely gain some much needed ground in 2014, just not enough to compete on the same level as Sony and Microsoft.

Grade:  B+

Launch Station: 3DS Double Feature

It has been a long time since Launch Station has graced the pages of Silver Bit.  Formerly part of regular scheduled programming, Launch Station is Silver Bit's preview article where yours truly conveniently summarizes all the information on a selected new release or possibly multiple releases for your reading pleasure.  Speaking of multiple releases, Nintendo is looking to jumpstart the summer months with a slew of new games for the 3DS this Friday.  The games in question are Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Mario Golf: World Tour.  For 3DS owners looking for games to play after getting their fill from Bravely Default, Yoshi's New Island or Disney Magical World, there will definitely be something for them this Friday as these two games fall under two opposite ends of the gaming spectrum.  They will easily be great appetizers for the main course that comes later this month in Mario Kart 8.

Due to the series more casual audience, Kirby has always been a character that Nintendo can test out new ideas and concepts.  For a character all about transformations, Nintendo's pink puffball embraces new directions and experiments as Kirby has been turned into various types of balls from a pinball to a golf ball and even being made entirely out of yarn for the sake of new ideas and concepts.  Aside from new transformations and more powerful inhaling abilities, Kirby's platformers have stuck to the same formula since the original Dream Land series on Game Boy.  Kirby: Triple Deluxe looks to add a few new ideas to the Kirby platforming formula in order to take advantage of the 3DS's power and stereoscopic 3D.  Levels involve more than just movement from left to right.  Thanks to the Warp Star, Kirby can move between multiple layers of the level in a way much similar to moving between the foreground and background in Mutant Mudds.  With the multiple layers, Kirby now needs to worry about threats from the standard Waddle Dees to massive life-ending mallets that move between the layers to attack.  More so than past entires, Kirby's inhale move has been super powered with the help of the Miracle Fruit's Hypernova Kirby transformation.  As Hypernova Kirby, the pink puffball can inhale extreme amounts of items, enemies and large obstacles in order to solve puzzles.  Along with the new transformation, Kirby's copy abilities have seen a drastic overhaul as the developers have worked tirelessly on creating unique move sets for every single ability in the game.  As a bonus to the main game, Triple Deluxe includes two extra subgames in Kirby Fighters, a fighting game similar in gameplay to Super Smash Bros. where you pit Kirby's different copy abilities against one another to see which one is the best, and Dedede's Drum Dash, a rhythm game that has you controlling King Dedede as he bounces on large drums to the tune of classic Kirby songs.

It has been just under a decade since Mario and friends last hit the links.  Considering Nintendo's focus on motion controls during the later half of the 2000s, it is very surprising that Nintendo did not bring Mario out with new entries in his two most iconic sports roles, golf and tennis, to champion a new motion-controlled generation of gaming.  Well the wait for a brand new Mario Golf game is almost over.  With the portability of the 3DS, Mario Golf: World Tour's main focus is on multiplayer.  There is a large suite of multiplayer options for players to choose from with the first choice being whether to play locally or online.  Local play allows for quick and easy competition amongst friends and colleagues in the same vicinity.  Online play allows for a few more options as players can compete in regional or worldwide tournaments to see where they rank in Mario Golf.  Since you only have to post your scores for online tournaments, there is no need to have players log on at the exact same time.  You can post a score anytime during the tournaments scheduled start and end date.  Players can even set-up their own online tournaments and communities to compete with their friends and rivals in a more personal online setting.  While it may be the main focus of World Tour, multiplayer is not the only way to play this Mario Golf.  Castle Club is World Tour's single-player mode which allows players to learn the basics of the game through lessons from Toad, compete in club tournaments to increase stats and earn new gear for your golfer and explore the club grounds in order to meet familiar Mario characters and find special challenges.  The fun does not stop there as Mario Golf: World Tour offers players with a lot more downloadable content to buy.  You can either pick up the Season Pass for 15 dollars which includes all three packs for download upon release or buy the packs individually for 6 dollars each.

No matter what game you choose to pick up this Friday, there is no way you will end up disappointed.  Nintendo has put out two great 3DS titles to eat up gamer's time until the next large 3DS release or Mario Kart 8 later this month for Wii U owners.  Personally, I am picking up both titles for different reasons.  While I am not the Kirby fan in my family as that title belongs to my youngest brother, I have heard nothing but good things about Kirby: Triple Deluxe.  Even though Kirby's notorious easy difficulty, I am looking forward to playing Triple Deluxe.  On the other hand, I am a huge fan for Mario Golf.  Considering my father is a golf professional and I have been around the sport all my life, blending Mario with such a key part of my identity has always made me identify with the series more than your typical simulation golf game.  With the incredible online additions to Mario Golf, I am excited to play the online tournaments and compete on world Mario Golf stage to see where my skills stand.  With two great titles released on the same day, there is nothing that will not keep a Nintendo system owners smiling this Friday.