Launch Station: Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

No matter what, Super Smash Bros. elicits a rabid response from gamers around the globe.  The years leading up to the newest iterations have been no different as gamers deeply analyze every piece of media Nintendo released to the public through character reveal trailers and Miiverse screenshots.  Instead of just one Smash Bros. release this time around, there will be two; one for the 3DS and Wii U respectively.  Super Smash Bros. for 3DS is leading the pack as it releases this Friday while the Wii U version will release by the end of the year.

Since Super Smash Bros. for 3DS will be the first Smash Bros. to release on a handheld, many gamers have had reservations over how the chaotic gameplay will translate to the small screen.  Nintendo's answer to these worries is by placing outlines around all characters in order to improve visibility especially when the camera zooms out.  Although both editions of the new Super Smash Bros. share the exact same roster, gameplay and multiplayer modes, there are a few areas where the 3DS version deviates from its Wii U brethren.  Mainly, all the stages, aside from stages like Final Destination, Battlefield and Brinstar, are exclusive to the 3DS version as they pull from handheld games such as Pokemon X & Y, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and Super Mario 3D Land.  Apart from the stages, the main exclusive for the 3DS version of Smash Bros. is the Smash Run mode.  Very similar to Kirby Air Ride's City Trial mode, Smash Run places players at random locations in this large open environment with the goal of collecting as many stat-boosting power-ups as possible in five minutes.  After the five minutes are up, these super-charged combatants are put in a randomized match to determine who made the best of their run.  Along with the Wii U version, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS also allows players to create their own Mii Fighters, customize move sets for preexisting characters and use Amiibo to train computer-controlled characters.  One heavily rumoured feature, which cannot be confirmed until the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, is the ability to use the 3DS as a controller for the Wii U version of the game.

No matter the size of the screen, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS looks to be a worthy of the Smash Bros. name.  From my time with the demo, I found the controls to take quite a while to get use to and the visibility of the characters to be difficult to follow in four-man brawls.  Despite my reservations with a few mechanics, the demo is loads of fun and I highly recommend giving it a swing before picking up the full game.  Super Smash Bros. for 3DS is one of the most highly anticipated games for a reason.  It's just about time to settle all your differences and conflicts in Smash!

Year in Review 2013: The Games Part 2

Welcome to the second part of Silver Bit's best games of 2013.  Last time, I listed my favourite games from the first eight months of the year.  Now, it is time to look at the last six months of 2013.  The last half of 2013 had me glued to my 3DS and Wii U with great games mostly from Nintendo, but one also from Ubisoft.  These games easily stood above the yearly sequels which dominate the holiday season.  Again enjoy this conclusion to the best games of 2013 and if there is any game that I may have overlooked do not be afraid to share in the comments.

Rayman Legends
Delays could not hold back the quality of Ubisoft Montpellier's masterpiece, Rayman Legends.  This game was the reason I bought a Wii U and it lived up to my expectations and more.  Rayman Legends is platforming fans dream come true.  The pacing is excellent, the speed and responsiveness of the controls is spot-on and the level design is genius.  While all versions of Legends are great, the Wii U version stands as the definitive edition of the game.  Legends for the Wii U is built from the ground-up with Nintendo's system in mind.  The Wii U game pad is integrated perfectly as it is used to easily zip around the game's interactive menus and for special Murphy levels.  In these Murphy levels, the player with the game pad controls the fairy-like Murphy while another player or the computer controls another character.  As Murphy, the player creates a safe path for the other character by interacting with the environment through tilting the game pad or swiping the screen.  I cannot talk about Rayman Legends without mentioning the superb music levels.  These levels will push your platforming skills to their limits as you run, jump and bash enemies to the beat of remixed versions of Eye of the Tiger and Black Betty.  Legends is so amazing that it even trumps Mario's recent efforts in the 2D platforming space.  Nintendo's mascot could learn a thing or two from Ubisoft's limbless hero and this must-own title.

Pokemon X & Y
People have been clamouring to see Pokemon make the true jump to 3D for ages.  With Pokemon X and Y, those prayers have been answered.  A fully 3D world has brought on the biggest changes for the series in years.  The 3D models bring new life to world of Pokemon as they make battles much more dramatic with new camera angles and attack animations.  Seeing an actual Flamethrower or Bubblebeam come out of a Pokemon's mouth is an incredible sight especially when compared to the limited attack animations of past entries.  Aside from choosing your gender, Pokemon X and Y offers a whole suite of customization to your avatar.  You can buy new clothes, accessories and even change your haircut.  This freedom allows players create an avatar that truly reflects their personal tastes.  The major changes come with the addition of Mega Evolutions and the online offerings.  Mega Evolutions are temporary forms that can only be used in battle.  Once you have a Mega Stone for a certain Pokemon and the Mega Ring, you can unleash these powerful new forms on your foes.  These new evolutions add an interesting new strategy to battle, but are limited to one Mega Evolution per battle.  The online offerings for X and Y are incredible as you no longer have to go to certain locations to connect with Pokemon fans across the globe.  Just enable the 3DS's wireless connection and you can connect with anybody at anytime.  Trading and battling online is the same as before but the addition of Wonder Trade is just amazing.  Wonder Trade may scare a few because it is anonymous trading with anybody in the world, but it is incredibly addicting and thrilling.  While I can easily go on for days about the greatness of Pokemon X and Y, there are some shortcomings in the story and post-game content.  Aside from those shortcomings, these games are the next big evolution for Nintendo's venerable monster hunting series.

The Legend of Zelda:  A Link Between Worlds
As a sequel to arguably one of the greatest games in Legend of Zelda history, A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds had a lot to live up to.  Funny enough, Link's first original adventure on the 3DS easily surpassed these titanic expectations by usurping tradition.  For the longest time, The Legend of Zelda has been a rather linear affair.  Find dungeon, collect item from dungeon, use item to beat boss, rinse and repeat.  There is more to this franchise than my over-simplified explanation of its linear nature, but you get the gist of it.  The first few entries in the series allowed the player to explore and complete dungeons in any order; a design choice that A Link Between Worlds fully embraces.  After the first dungeon, you gain access to Rovio's shop.  Through this shop, the player can buy or rent any item they need to complete whatever dungeon they want.  Outright purchasing items is not available right away so you are forced to rent items.  The risk of renting items comes with death as you lose all those items.  It is a risk-reward system that makes the game much more intense.  Early on in A Link Between Worlds, you get a bracelet that allows Link to merge with any flat surface.  This bracelet opens up the game to tons of mind-bending puzzles which forces you to think in a whole different way.  All-in-all, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is a worthy successor to A Link to the Past, an outstanding entry in this series and easily this writer's runner-up for best game of 2013.

Super Mario 3D World
While gaming's favourite plumber may have stiff competition on the 2D platforming front, Mario is the king and ruler of the 3D platformer.  Super Mario 3D World had a horrible first showing as many were expecting the next evolution of Super Mario Galaxy rather than a console sequel to Super Mario 3D Land for the 3DS.  While the later trailers and gameplay footage did a better job of showing off the greatness of 3D World's gameplay, once people got their hands on this game the rest was history.  Super Mario 3D World takes the excellent blend of 2D and 3D Mario gameplay introduced in 3D Land and expands on it in new and creative ways.  There are a plethora of power-ups both new and old, but the one that stands head and shoulders above them all is the Cat Suit.  Although this new suit makes Mario and company look all cute and cuddly, it adds the integral ability to climb walls for a set period of time and the lunge attack, which serves both as an extended jump and an offensive move.  3D World's other main feature is the four-player multiplayer.  While I personally played 3D World as single player experience, the time I did spend playing multiplayer was a blast.  Super Mario 3D World perfectly balances working cooperatively and competing for top honours (and that damn crown!) as players have more room in a 3D space to avoid constantly running into one another like in Super Mario Bros. Wii and U.  It is incredibly hard to summarize everything that Super Mario 3D World has to offer from the brand new overworld map to the great amount of challenging bonus levels.  Hands down, Super Mario 3D World is THE reason to own a Wii U.

Top 10 Games of 2011

Yesterday, I listed my Top 5 Downloads of 2011.  Now on the final day of this calendar year, I give you my Top 10 Games of 2011.  As one person, it is very hard to play every single game that comes out in a year especially when you get some of them for Christmas.  So there will be some big games that I am playing at the moment that might have made this list if I had the money to get them earlier this year, but ultimately will not at this point in time.  Before you see this list and immediately make comments that I did not make this list, just remember this list is just one man's opinion.  If you want to share your opinion, I encourage you to make your own Top 10 list.  So let us countdown in my opinion the best games of 2011.

10. Jetpack Joyride
This addictive, time chopping, one button run for your life game sunk its claws in me early this year when I downloaded it to my iPad.  I have sunk many hours into this dollar game trying to collect coins, complete missions and beat my friends' best distance.  You can play Jetpack Joyride for two minutes or two hours, you will always have fun.

9. Sonic Generations
After years of being dragged through the mud, Sonic has remerged as one of the kings of the platform genre.  To celebrate The Blue Blur's 20th Birthday, Sega gave the fans Sonic Generations, a game that gives us both the classic Sonic platforming and the modern Sonic mix of high-speed obstacle course and platforming segments to make the best Sonic game of the last 10 years.  Personally running through a HD version of Chemical Plant Zone as both classic and modern Sonic with remixed background music was one of the highlights of my year in gaming.

8. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
It is all about choice in Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex: Human Revolution.  Will you run in guns blazing or take a more stealthy approach?  Will you hack into a computer and turn the security droids on your enemies or disable the droids with a EMP Grenade?  There is no clearly defined right or wrong way to complete any objective in Human Revolution and that is what makes this game so amazing.

7. Bastion
Beautiful art, great music, compelling story and deep gameplay that even works with a mouse and keyboard, this Action-RPG stand out above all the other downloadable games.  Bastion literally looks like watching art in motion, it is so beautiful.  Also having the ominous ever-present narrator tell the story is one great touch that has not been done before in games.  If you own a Xbox 360 or a PC, Bastion is the best downloadable game and one of the best games you can play this year.

6. Portal 2
Once you start thinking with portals, you can never go back.  Back in 2007, Portal charmed gamers around the globe with its great puzzles and amazing villain in GlaDOS.  With more brain-racking puzzles and more GlaDOS, Valve adds in more challenging puzzles with co-op and new hilarious characters in Wheatley, Cave Johnson and last but not least the Space Core.  More story, more puzzles, more laughs and ultimately more fun, these are all the things most sequels look to do, but never achieve.  Portal 2 is one of the few exceptions and that is why it is the best puzzle game of the year and one of the best games of 2011.

5. Pokemon Black and White
For years, people have felt that Pokemon needed a huge shake-up or this RPG behemoth would loss some steam.  Nintendo and Game Freak proved that it they did not need to make some radical changes to make the series feel fresh again.  Launched head first into the Unova region as a new trainer, you start off with a new batch of 150 Pokemon with none of your old favourites in sight.  The additions of seasons that affect terrain you traverse, TMs that no longer disappear from your inventory after one use and the improved online features make Pokemon Black and White the definitive games in the Pokemon franchise.

4. Super Mario 3D Land
The Nintendo 3DS had a slow start when it launched earlier this year, but those woes seemed to end with the release of Super Mario 3D Land.  A portable Mario that cohesively blends concepts from both 2D and 3D Mario games into one compact handheld game that you can play on your 3DS.  It is one of the must-own games for any 3DS owner and the best portable Mario game of all-time.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Confession time.  I have never completed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time until I got it for the 3DS this year.  Boy, was I ever missing out.  Even with the 3D coat of paint on it, Ocarina of Time stands the test of time (seriously no pun intended) and shows why it is considered the greatest game of all-time.  Either on consoles or in the palm of your hand, Ocarina of Time is one of the best games of this year.

2. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
I am one of the few that did not consider Uncharted 2: Among Thieves to be the masterpiece everybody says it is.  Do not get me wrong, Uncharted 2 is a phenomenal game, but it felt like it followed the same formula from the first game.  It is just the difference between what I consider a 9.5 and what I consider a 10.  Uncharted 2 was a 9.5, but Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is a 10.  Naughty Dog hit it out of the park as it improved on all the mechanics from the second game, added a fun and rewarding multi-player that I can even get into and got rid of the bullet sponge enemies that I hated from the previous two Uncharted games.  When I finished Uncharted 3, this was my Game of the Year that was until I played this next game.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Sorry Nathan Drake, I love you, but Link schooled you.  If you have read my blog for the past month, you would know how much I love The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  It is the greatest game of this generation, the best game of 2011 and in my opinion, the greatest game in this iconic franchise.  Again when people complain that said Nintendo franchise is getting stale, Nintendo shows them up and makes one of the best games in the series.  It happened earlier with Pokemon and happened again with Zelda.  Shows that you don't mess with Nintendo.

Super Mario 3D Land Review

To bring the 3DS out of its hard launch, Mario is here to save the day with Super Mario 3D Land, Nintendo’s newest platformer for the Nintendo 3DS.  Made by the team that made the two Super Mario Galaxy games for the Wii, Super Mario 3D Land looks to blend concepts and gameplay from both 2D and 3D Mario games. 

The story in Super Mario 3D Land is the same as every Mario game.  Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser yet again and needs Mario to save her.  This time around Bowser has stolen all the leaves off of the Tanooki Tree to help him in his conquest of the Mushroom Kingdom.  So in Super Mario 3D Land, the Super Leaves, the power-up which bestows the beloved Tanooki Suit, play a prominent role in the game’s minimalist story.  Throughout the game, you will run into iconic enemies such as Goombas, Bullet Bills and even Bowser himself donning a Tanooki tail.

The first thing you will notice when you pick up Super Mario 3D Land is the game is much slower than previous 3D Mario games.  The slower pace may be off-putting to some hardcore Mario fanatics, but it works incredibly well with the excellent level designs.  All the levels can be finished in a few minutes, which complements the on the go nature of the 3DS handheld.  You will be replaying these levels a lot in order to collect all the Star Coins and other goodies hidden throughout the levels.  After besting Bowser in one incredible boss battle and saving Princess Peach at the end of World 8, there is one phenomenal surprise that doubles the size of the game and offers a stiff challenge for seasoned Mario vets like yours truly.  Super Mario 3D Land makes great use of the Nintendo 3DS' 3D as it uses it to enhance the gameplay for certain moments such as making it easier to notice obstacles or objects when the 3D is on.

One of the few things to fault about Super Mario 3D Land is the game's difficulty.  Worlds 1-8 are a little too easy and you get so many lives that you will never see the Game Over screen.  The one other fault was the StreetPass functionality.  It works, but that is not that interesting.  You can exchange mystery boxes with the people you StreetPass, but it would have been much more interesting if you exchanged ghost data with others and race them through levels to see who gets the best time.  Just an idea.  

Overall, Super Mario 3D Land cohesively blends concepts from both 2D and 3D Mario game in one incredible game.  It may not be the masterpiece that the Super Mario Galaxy games were, but Super Mario 3D Land is definitely the best portable Mario game ever.  If you own a 3DS, there is no excuse not to have this game.  Super Mario 3D Land is a must-own for any Nintendo fan and 3DS owner alike.