Extinction, Brawl, and Galaxy. Oh, my! All with a side of Corruption

So, the blog delay wasn’t as late as I had thought. I managed to get some spare time so I decided I should write something for those who bothered to click the link in my sig on WiiLoaded, or have come here from the Melbourne Smash Bros. Portal.

Where to start. I went to the movies a couple of weeks ago to see Resident Evil: Extinction, this was one of my biggest mistakes. I’m now $9 poorer and have lost about 90 minutes from my life that I can never ever get back. So where to start, it rubbishes the Resident Evil story and was just plain terrible to watch. At first glance it felt like I was watching a pre-Transformers Michael Bay film… and those are downright terrible (see: Pearl Harbour, Armageddon, Texas Chainsaw remake and prequel. All terrible movies) but it is strange to be nothing but critical about the film. To be honest, it tried a few cool things such as introducing the infected Crows which led to a very cool shot as the sky lit up with flames. But this had an overwhelmingly bad consequence. Alice having god damn psychic powers. I mean, what the fuck people? I know she used them at the end of Apocalypse, but they still made no freakin’ sense. And it had one of the worst endings I’d seen for awhile, the movie ruined Albert Wesker, Ali Larter (from Heroes) tried her best as Claire Redfield, but it wasn’t her fault the script was like someone took a crap on a piece of paper and said “Durrr here is the script, Ali.”

Thinking about it makes me angry, so lets talk about something that makes me happy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. So myself and the other Smashboarders have been analysing all the footage we could get from the EfA Expo last week. And as a result we now know a large chunk about the game. We also know that in the current form the game is in, it is nothing like Melee. Gimpyfish has made a comprehensive thread about his thoughts and discoveries whilst playing Brawl. This include the chance that we have lost Wavedash but also with the new possibilities that the Ink Drop will give us. Honestly, very exciting to see what new advanced techniques we can find in Brawl’s engine.

Characters are looking good, except Ike. Who looks like he has been shortchanged, hopefully they’ll reveal Marth soon so I’ll have a good FE character to main when the game comes out. Pikachu has recieved a few improvements with increased use of his dsmash and neutral b attacks, but unfortunately his usmash has been nerfed slightly. Peach had her dsmash nerfed (which seems like she’s worse, right? WRONG!) but instead her dash attack now hits twice and her fthrow can kill at even LOWER % of damage… and I thought it was bad in Melee. Fox seems to have suffered the most, without Wavedashing he loses his waveshine, his usmash has been nerfed as has his uair. Bowser seems to have improved, mostly due to the fact that everyone else has been slowed down. Donkey Kong and Yoshi seem to be more or less the same as they were in Melee. Mario apparently has better combo ability according to Gimpy, although his companion thinks they mightn’t be too hard to DI out of. Samus has lost her Missile Cancelling and maybe even Bomb Jumps, though HugS thinks they might just have different timing. Zamus wasn’t getting amazing feed back and definitely doesn’t feel like the new Sheik apparently. Diddy Kong is apparently comparable to the Melee version of Mario, so he’s average.

Yesterday Sakurai updated with the Stage Creator option, which comes with many supermassive pros and cons. Think of what the Smashboards guys will be able to do. We could see tournament exclusive levels that you will have to have in your tournament stage select maybe? Who knows. Of course, cons are the massive amounts of broken stages we’re gonna see. Thank God Sakurai has applied a limit to the stages much like the Tony Hawk designers did to the Skate Park Editor.

And of course we get to Galaxy, so its been leaked. Yay! I won’t say where… not my place. I haven’t played it, all I know is that others have and are loving it. Its getting stellar reviews and I can’t wait to get it into my Wii in a months time now (yay, a FAIR release date). For once it seems Reggie was telling the truth when he said it was a worthy sequel to Mario 64. Sunshine? What Sunshine? There was never a Mario Sunshine game *tries to forget*

Also, one final note: OMFG I GET MP3 NEXT WEEK! I’m so hyped, expect my review around the 15th of November. Which is when I’ll be seeing Muse, I aim to have it finished before then. Because after Muse I have to prepare for the awesomeness of Galaxy. OMG! Prime 3… it looks like my Wii is gonna implode from its pure uberness. Can’t wait.

And I’m spent.

See you next mission, sports fans.

Blogs Delay

Sorry for lack of posting. Its a big week and a half for me. I have to do a week of tests and fulfill a whole bunch of birthday commitments for friends. I should be back later next week to write a juicy blog regarding EfA which some lucky WiiLoadians got the chance to go to.

Less Than A Month

So last night Nintendo Australia FINALLY released the Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Preview Channel, awesome. Another space waster for my Wii! Haha! But seriously, by this stage if you wanted Mp3 then there is a VERY high probability that you watched the videos when they were released on the NTSC Wii’s. So this begs the question: Why did they even bother? Honestly, it seems like a waste of space. My main motivation for actually having it is so that my Wii has an awesome MP3 image in its channel list for now. But once I buy MP3 on November 8th then you can bet for sure that the Preview channel will go bye-bye.

PAL gamers can now get Super Metroid via the Virtual Console, and if they haven’t already then you should either be getting your credit card ready or going to your local retailer to get Wii points. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Expect my MP3 review to be uploaded by November 12th, as I have an exam on that day. What a shame MP3 comes out Nov. 8th. I like a challenge

See you next mission.
Peace and love.

Ridley: Brawlable? Or Not?

Okay, in light of recent Smash related news I’ve decided its time to do this. I was going to do a write up about Ridley long ago but never did get around to it.

So where to begin? Everyone who has played Metroid knows who Ridley is, he is the nemesis of Samus (the Bowser of the Metroid franchise one might say) and as a result there are many people who want him to be featured in Brawl as a playable character. I am one of said people, of course both sides to the argument have very legitimate reasoning. But when it all comes down to him being playable in the end, what side do you side with? Well, I hope to sway some of you to the Ridley side with more than just cookies. So, he is a big purple space dragon who commands the Space Pirate forces and is responsible for making Samus Aran who she is. Of course some say he is far too big to work in Brawl and would be a very awkward character to control.

Much earlier in Brawl’s development Sakurai posted a character poll for the Japanese to vote freely on what characters. And through this poll Sakurai had hoped to get an idea of the sort of characters that the Japanese public wanted in the game (sadly the English speaking world was not given the same option, however many of our ideas were submitted with the help of SamuraiPanda on Smashboards) and the final list had some names of interest in it. Sonic, Lucas and Ike were all on the list and guess what? They all have been confirmed for Brawl thus far
You may be wondering what relevance this holds. Well, Ridley was also in the list and he was, in fact, in the top 10 or so characters with multiple people requesting that he be included in the game’s line-up. This is one of the stronger arguments for his inclusion in the game, but by no means is it the only one. So, signs indicate that he is popular enough to appear.

Speaking of popularity, as of late Metroid’s popularity has really taken a step up thanks to the help of the Prime trilogy. And Ridley played a major part in two of these games, the two most popular ones at that. He was why Samus ended up on Tallon IV in Metroid Prime 1, and in Metroid Prime 3 he was featured in two boss fights.
But this isn’t Ridley’s only contribution to the Metroid games, he also features in bosses in almost all Metroid games. Which is only natural as he and Samus go way back. An online comic details some of Samus’ earliest day when she is just a young girl when Space Pirates attack her home village. The Pirates are lead by the mighty Ridley, everyone who lives in the village is killed, even Samus parents (her dad is killed by Pirates and her mum is killed by Ridley) so that means that IF Sakurai decides to give Metroid the rep it deserves then he’d want to add one more character to allow this.

Ridley’s only competition for Metroid rep are: Dark Samus (who would be so CLOSE to being a Samus clone), Bounty Hunters (its way to hard to pick just one to satisfy all fans, I say make them Assist Trophies and/or bosses in Subspace Emissary), and Space Pirates (who again, should only appear in Subspace Emissary in the Metroid section). Which leaves us with just Ridley, he is a whole step above the rest. Kraid and Mother Brain sadly do not have what it takes to become playable characters in Brawl.

The size debate, it is true that Ridley’s size fluctuates wildly a lot which has resulted in Ridley being significantly larger than Samus on many occasions. But at the same time a few appearences he hasn’t been much bigger (for example: Super Metroid and the intro clip for SSBM)

Bowser as he appears in Super Mario Sunshine, he is massive isn’t he? Yet he appears in SSBM and SSBB because he was worked down to a logical size.

The same could easily be done with Ridley, especially now that Charizard is in there. A dragon like design simliar to that of Ridley means that now both of them could easily be programmed into Brawl.

And last but not least, recent Dojo updates. Two Ridley relevant updates so far, one was Ridley’s actual theme music titled “Boss Fight: Ridley” which DOES not mean he will only be a boss fight. It could be titled that because the music is used in boss fights in the Metroid games when you clash. And the other Ridley update was “Norfair” as a selectable stage. Why is this Ridley relevant you ask? Well, any Metroid fan could tell you. Ridley’s area in the older Metroid games is Norfair, much like how Kraid’s is Brinstar and Mother Brain’s is Tourian.

In conclusion, its quite obvious that Ridley *should* be a playable character in SSBB. He may look awkward but Charizard is workable (proves that dragon like characters can be done) and Bowser has been successfully shrunk down (proves that large characters can be downsized and still work). He has a stage there, and a theme song as well which I can imagine being played during Story Mode and as a secondary tune on Norfair. And of course, he is the biggest villain and the one that appears the most throughout the entire Metroid franchise.

All that is really left to say is that having Sonic in Brawl is all good and well, but there is no way he should be in the game if Sakurai can’t even include one of the Metroid franchise’s most important characters (besides Samus Aran of course, and no. Zero Suit Samus doesn’t count)

Please oh please Sakurai, use your head and include Ridley. You’ve already done so much good work on Brawl, is it too much to ask for Ridley to be playable? You know he deserves it.

Nintendo Unleash Smash News (Sonic, Online Co-Op, Japanese Delay)

Nintendo have finally confirmed Sonic, reveal that co-operative mode will also be online and announce a sad delay for our Japanese friends.

read more | digg story

Bringing In 2008, Smash Style.

So what can I say. SSBM has basically been my most played game this year easily.

I attended a Smashfest in January, competed in my first “Official” tournament in March, competed in the special SephirothKen tournament in June and now I have been bogged down by University and personal burdens. Luckily the University burdens will end in mid November where I shall begin preparing for Boss Stage. The Victorian SSBM finals will take place there and I’m quite excited to see who will come out on top. It won’t be me, I’ve missed far too much to even challenge the top 5 or so. I’m sure if Shaz stopped sandbagging he’d take it… but I wouldn’t bet on that.

That takes place on December 15th, which will be the conclusion of the 2007 SSBM Season in my area, how ever plans are already underway for the 2008 one. Making it bigger and better apparently, codenamed: The Secret Life of Smash. I’m so very hyped, its in the very capable hands of Caotic.

Rumours are buzzing about Melbourne’s next big tournament being in the April-March area, which is incredible. I can’t wait. Its codename thus far is: RAMBO.

All of the above are SSBM events, although rumours are leaking that RAMBO will feature an SSBB tournament as well an SSBM one.

2008 Smash Season, here we come.

I will be attempting to host and organise online tournaments on WiiLoaded, but I have no idea how successful they will be. I’m aiming to launch my first one in mid January-early February. Keep your eyes peeled.