Wario Wario Wario

Game developers checking fan wikis for obscure characters in series they're working on is a win for everyone:

• devs get more source material to work with
• publishers and licensees get more faces to sell merchandise of
• casual fans get to see, for all they know, brand new characters
• hardcore fans get rewarded for their devotion to researching and preserving these characters' histories.

New game or no new game, this has been a great year to be a DK fan (other than the sausage in the room...)

I actually think Scooby-Doo playing into the trends and archetypes of the 70s is exactly why it's had such longevity in a time when even Yogi Bear and the Flintstones are starting to fade from the world's memory. What some more world-weary kids in the 70s could've seen as "Fellow Kids"-ey and pandering, kids in the 2020s see as something completely unique with its own wildly different tone and characters from the other cartoons marketed to them.

We could argue all day about the artistic quality of the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? show and its many barely-different spin-offs, or if rerunning and remaking old content is a loving way of paying homage or just a lazy compensation for original ideas, but there's a reason why these 5-decade-old shows see reruns just as much as their modern updates: it's not nostalgia, it's anemoia - and I think that's more universal a feeling than we acknowledge.

We should be championing new concepts, don't get me wrong, but - given they're provided with historical context or outdated content censored - passing down cherished favourites to the next generation won't hurt anyone, and kids are more than smart enough to know that older does not equal worse.

I don't think lives systems in games are inherently bad or good, it depends on the game. I found my experience with Crash N. Sane Trilogy to be much enhanced by the lives system because the levels were designed so that repeat playing would make stages gradually easier to the point of muscle memory, but I'm glad I went modern for Crash 4 because of the levels testing patience and pattern memory more than fast reflexes - both are great ways to design platformer levels, don't get me wrong, but one type is more fit for lives and the other is more fit for immortality

I do kinda wish Crash 4 gave more rewards for Wumpa Fruit collection though... the costumes system likely would've worked better as an in-game shop, but I guess the devs must've been trying to Activision-proof the game after CTR's MTX controversy.

Which Marco Rossi are you?

I've been watching Super Eyepatch Wolf's Riverdale video, and it's kinda interesting how Archie was light escapism in the war-torn 40s, and now in the 21st century where we don't really have many major Hitler-tier problems (other than climate change which we have the means to stop and just need to encourage the big guys to help out, and Covid which will probably be long gone in 2 years at maximum) Archie has had to turn into a more-shocking-than-life nightmare world to keep people's attention. I guess it must be a psychological thing: the human brain needs a balance of cynicism and optimism.

I don't want to get my hopes up too high, in fact this conspiracy theory thing is exactly what I've scourned some Geno fans for, but I do legitimately believe Waluigi is likely to be CP11, everything lines up really nicely just as it did with Banjo and Erdrick/Hero before - the Mario Sports trademark, the Legacy XP takedown, that flirtatious render from Nintendo Minute and even a merch mishap with Poster Foundry

It's kinda surprising Smash has managed to last so long without changing its frankly ridiculous serif logo. It's a weird holdover from the Shadow the Hedgehog era they should've gotten rid of in 3DS/Wii U.

I dunno where the comparisons between NASB Lincoln and Smash Ness are coming from - he comes off a lot more like Bowser Jr. to me, both aesthetically and gameplay-wise.

"Mum, can we go to ?"
"There's a at the local mall"
at the local mall:

It's easy to call a character redesign "devolution", but I think this may be actual in-universe scientific devolution

The Atari Hotels look really cool, but I don't even think Disney Imagineers could pull something like this off, let alone Atari the Sixth.

Also, small nitpick but while that game box art row is a really cool concept, a majority of those games are Milton-Bradley and Activision, and some of them are based on properties owned by other companies like Frogger (Konami) and ET (Universal)

That being said, I think referencing ET in some form was a good call. It's such a well known failure that it's pretty much unescapable in any discussion of Atari or the pre-Gyromite gaming landscape, and sweeping it under the rug like Nintendo tend to with their failures would tarnish Atari's legacy way more than acknowledging it would.

If you aren't playing your Jaguar like this, are you even a REAL Atari the Second fan?

I think it's really cool that MTA has a fire Piranha Plant instead of the regular Piranha Plant - more stuff like that would be a great way to make playable enemies the tiniest bit more interesting in Mario spin-offs. I've always liked the blue Underground Goombas, and even before "base/main character comes first" lost its universally-accepted status for roster selection I knew Koopa coming back instead of Paratroopa was a tragedy.

One thing I think is really cool about Brawl Minus is that each Waluigi skin has his own pose on the CSS. I kinda wish the official Smash games would do that - it'd be extra work, sure, but there's much less noticable things Sakurai's team have put an equal amount of effort if not more into.

I remember seeing this really cool video from the creator of Despicable Me (the concept and characters, not the actual movies) which I can't find anywhere, and at the end he apologised for the Minions even though they weren't part of his original pitch.

If we eventually get GBA on NSO, I seriously hope It's Mr. Pants comes along with it - one of the most wonderful games Rare has ever made and on par with other block puzzle classics like Tetris, Puzzle League, and Puyo Puyo. If it was released as Donkey Kong and not a fat guy in nothing but underwear it'd be just as iconic as those latter 2 games and nobody would ever shut up about it. Easily the least justifiable snub in Rare Replay.

I know it's completely incorrect, but I've always read "corps" as "corpse" and not "core" - which makes some game titles very unfortunate.

Why does all the Street Fighter X Tekken art have SNES Mortal Kombat sweat flinging everywhere?

If Smash were to add a proper Mario underground/cave stage that isn't just part of another stage, it should use Yoshi's Island DS as a base. For such a mediocre and aesthetically-messy game, the cave tileset is beautiful.

Even though it represents the franchise better, I think there were tons better choices for a Wii Fit stage than Wii Fit Studio. The obstacle course would be a wonderfully chaotic scrolling stage, and Tightrope Tension could be a fun campy stage with narrow platforms.

I don't think the not-completely-accurate physics in Banana Mania will bother me too much. The Master System Sonic games are favourites of mine and their physics are a little off from the Mega Drive games, same with Sonic Mania to a lesser extent.

Why do you have Grinch pfp?

I like how on Nick Brawl's box/icon everyone's clearly having fun even if a bit more agressive than usual... except Cat. Cat's pissed.

To be fair, he has reason to be considering his show was being built up as Nick's next big hit before SpongeBob made it big.

I think if there's to be an indie game rep in Smash, it should be a hyper-obscure character - possibly from a game that isn't even finished at the time of their inclusion being finalised. The definition of "indie" varies from person to person but Sans, Hat Kid, or Shovel Knight - to me at least - wouldn't be proper indie reps, just mainstream gaming characters who got their start as indies. So glad Fraymakers is taking the "show love to the little guys" approach that should be a no-brainer for anything indie instead of "HEY LOOK GUYS IT'S SANS!!!!"

One of the stages on the stage select screen in Antonball Deluxe is just a button labled "funny" that shows you a meme every time you press it.

You are rewarded for doing this with Paul, a character with no animations who makes the CrazyBus theme song play while he "walks"

I bought Alfonzo's Arctic Adventure because it was cheap and the graphics looked really authentic (apparently it's NES homebrew running on an emulator), never seen the original Bob cartoons but I've always enjoyed playing games about IPs I'm unfamiliar with so that's not a big deal...

That being said, I understand the complaints about the Sonic Mania and pre-update Snake Pass home menu icons now, I've never liked the Newgrounds aesthetic and combining that with faux-synthwave doesn't help.

I feel Smash characters should be built more on the character than the game - let's say you have a fast paced one-hit-death puzzle game, but the protag is a meaty meathead, I would make the moveset based more on digetic details with a few references to gameplay here and there. A trapper moveset would feel more like playing their game, but a heavy-hitter or grappler would feel like actually playing as the character.

There are exceptions to this, Steve for example is a brilliant fighter because of his elements taken from the source material, but for the most part if you want people to feel like they're playing another game within Smash it'd be best done through gimmicky stages. Wario is a good example, Wario in Smash doesn't really feel like playing a Wario Land or Ware game, but you can get a good feel for the idea of Wario as character: a strong but uneasy guy with more cunning than he lets on - and if you want to play WarioWare within Smash, there's a stage for that.

The PR for Nick Brawl has been a glorious mess - the Avatar reps have leaked at least 8 times, two of which were on reveal day (I counted), but the devs are as honest and direct as they can possibly be within the rigid Viacom NDAs they have.

A Discord screenshot that tells me "Powdered Toast Man's shield works like Fox's shine" or "We had to nerf Lincoln Loud's water gun because it could infinite" means a lot more to me at least than a 40 minute long presentation with a full CG opener.

Antonball Deluxe has an alternate version of its CRT filter that makes it look like the screen is broken.

God, I love this game.

Even though I clown on Arms a lot, I really appreciate how they didn't give in to the fan requests for guests like Rayman, Lanky Kong, Ristar, e.t.c. and focused on building their main world more.

Honestly, Arms' biggest downfall was its choice to be a fighting game - if the fighting mode of Arms was small multiplayer bonus content for a 3D platformer or beat 'em up game it'd be perfectly servicable, but as a fully fledged game "stretchy limb fighting" is an awful idea.

I think Sakurai is the only game developer to have ever made an interactive hitpiece towards his most devoted fans.

Nigel has Rest. NIGEL. HAS. REST.

Kinda funny how these two DSiWare games...

basically swapped titles when they came to the UK.

This.. thing (pre-extinction Genesect?) has a less human body than most Pokémon but a more human face.

"It will never be racist"

Smash Wii U certainly had the most stages with comically obscure origins

How has it been so long without someone posting this song? It's up there with Rainbow Juice as one of the best boss game themes.

It's kinda surprising Nintendo didn't make a Bowser spin off as far back as the 80s or 90s - I guess they must've just decided Wario Land fit the niche a Bowser game could provide.