Final Thoughts - Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

I'm not a fan of double dipping and buying the same game more than once. Even though me and my family loved Super Mario 3D World on the Nintendo Wii U, I had planned on skipping the Switch release initially. Then I saw the trailer for Bowser's Fury and I knew I needed this game in my life.

I had planned to do a "Initial Thoughts" type post once I had a little bit of the game underneath my belt, but I was having so much fun that it was hard to put down the controller to write a post. Yes, the game is that good.

Bowser's Fury is the first open world type Mario game. I've heard other gamers speculate that this may have been Nintendo testing the water to see how an open world exploration Mario game would perform and if this was the direction the Mario franchise would go. Now that I've beaten Bowser's Fury I can only hope Nintendo has more Mario games in this vein in our future.

This add on game is short. I'm still working on completing the game 100%, but had I not been so obsessed in finding and collecting all 100 Cat Shines in the game I could have probably finished the game in 5-6 hours. Don't let this figure however deter you from the game as the gameplay is so good.

Mario is approached by Bowser Jr. and asked for his help to essentially calm down his dad. Bowser has someone become so enraged that his size has increased and he's covered in some sort of black goop. The game can be played with a second player controlling Bowser Jr., otherwise the computer will take care of controlling him for you if you're playing solo. There is a setting of how much you want Bowser Jr. to help - you can have him collect coins and fight nearby enemies, or you can have him mind his own business. Bowser Jr. floats around in his hover clown vehicle, wielding a paint brush. Throughout the game there are hidden areas that you can command Jr. to paint. Painting these areas will yield some soft of power up for Mario.

The main world in the game comprised of different islands, each with their own lighthouse. Initially you are somewhat limited in your exploration of these islands by the same black goo that covers Bowser. Each island has 5 hidden Cat Shines to collect. As you collect these they'll add more and more light to the lighthouse, eventually clearing some of the surrounding black goop. You can however tackle most of the islands in any order that you wish.

While playing the game I couldn't help but think of previous Mario games like Mario 64, Sunshine Mario. You don't have Cappy from Mario Odyssey or even FLUDD from Mario Sunshine, but Bowser Jr. can surprisingly be helpful. I initially started my playthorugh on my own, but eventually turned Jr. over to my daughter to control. She seemed to love playing along and she ended up being a huge help in some of the later levels.

As you navigate this new watery world, Bowser will rear his ugly head from time to time and wreck havoc. The sky will turn dark, the music changes, rain starts to fall and the wind picks up. From the center of the map Bowser will spin up into the air and out of his shell. Large blocks will appear from the ground, some of which you can you to reach new coin blocks or just higher ground. Bowser will rain fire balls from the sky and even unleash his fiery breath at you from time to time. Be prepared to dodge his fire any way you can as it can easily cause you damage.

To aid you in your quest to defeat Bowser you can collect and store several different power ups to use at your will. This reminded me of the inventory management first shown in Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES.

The object of the game is to grab a Giga Cat Bell to fight Bowser, but before you can do that you have to collect pre-determined amount of Cat Shines. Once you have enough and Bowser appears, the bell will activate. This Giga Cat Bell will turn Mario in a large "Leo Mario" (that's what I call him), allowing you to go toe to toe against the titan Bowser. You'll essentially need to fight Bowser three times before he's done for good. You can aid yourself in these fights be grabbing a Cat Shine and activating one of the island's lighthouses. This light will prematurely end Bowser's attack sequence and run him off, taking a small sliver of his health in the process. Towards the end I was able to whittle away all of his health bar so by the time I grabbed the final Giga Cat Bell all I needed to was to land one single hit on Bowser to defeat him.

The game is so seamless and not having to worry about loading screens is so refreshing. I haven't enjoyed a Mario game this much in some time. Mario Odyssey was a blast, but Bowser's Fury was a nice change of pace. To be honest I was surprised at just how good this game was since it's essentially an add-on. I know a lot of fans may not have experienced Super Mario 3D World before on the Wii U so it's a no brainer for Nintendo to port the game over to the Switch. I'm sure they were hoping by including Bowser's Fury that it would entice people like myself to buy the game for a second time. Well, I'm proof that it worked! Both games in this package are excellent and well worth the $60 asking price. I hope the game sells well because I'd love to see a full length, open world exploration type Mario game in the near future.

March 3rd - Nintendo Switch (U.S.) Launch

What a weekend it has been! March 3rd has come and gone and that means the Nintendo Switch has officially been launched in the U.S. for a few days now. From what I've been reading in social media, Nintendo and retails have been really happy with the strong sales numbers at launch, but what are the consumers saying?

launch day haul

Back in January when Nintendo unveiled the Switch via their webcast, being on the east coast I had to stay up later than I would normally do on a work night to watch it. I was impressed, though like many others I had questions. I thought many of the games that were showcased looked fantastic, but was disappointed that some games weren't going to be in the launch line up. At that point, I really had not paid The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild much attention. When the presentation was over it appears that most rushed to their favorite retailer online to put down their pre-order. I did not. I still was on the fence. After all, I don't normally buy consoles on launch day...for several different reasons.

The next morning I awoke to some crazy stories on social media of how fast the pre-orders were selling out. Out of curiousity, I checked Best Buy to see what their stock was like and surprisingly the standard gray console was still available for pre-order. I went ahead and placed my order, for Zelda too. Then the wait began. Over the next 2 months we would hear all sorts of stories about battery life, frame rate dropped while in handheld mode, the lack of games, etc. I do have to admit I was not prepared to hear all the negative news and comments, but then again this is Nintendo we are talking about. It seems as if people love to hate on Nintendo.

Then finally, March 3rd came and I was anxious as ever to pick up the system. My little Best Buy didn't participate in the midnight launch, which was fine by me. Instead I opted to wait until the store opened up at 10 AM Friday morning. While I was waiting, I went to the nearby Walmart and Target to see what was going on over there. Walmart still had the big cardboard display up that the Switch was coming 03-03-17...no games or accessories were on display. I did however find that their stock of 30th Anniversary Zelda Amiibos were on clearance. I picked up the Wind Waker 2 pack for $12. Next I ran over to Target and at least they had games and accessories on display. I grabbed a travel case for $20 and went on my way. There was a small line waiting outside Best Buy. About 10 people maybe ahead of me. I believe they only had 5 or so Switch consoles that weren't already spoken for and were handing out tickets prior to my arrival. Just inside the store, they had set up a table with all of the games and accessories available. I basically just jumped in line to pick up my pre-order so I could go about my day.

I wanted to take the day off from work so I could enjoy launch day that much more, but I work from home most days so I thought I could still sneak some play in. Well the universe was against me that day. If things could go wrong at work, they did and so I had to handle them. I believe it was closer to 4 PM before I even unpacked the system and plugged it in for the first time.

I knew about the day one update that activiated many features of the Switch. I wanted to get this started as soon as I could because of course I was anxious to play Zelda. The initialization menus were easy and straight forward, however I had a hard time getting the Switch connected to my wireless internet for some reason. Once I did and got the system update running, it again kept losing signal. I finally restarted my router and problem solved. I believe the update took about 30 minutes or so, not terribly bad at all. While it was updating, I hooked up the dock to my TV. Once the update was done, I moved the AC adapter over to the dock and gave TV mode a try for the first time. It took about 3 seconds for the image to transfer from the Switch to the TV (but the other way around is near seamless). I set up a profile for my wife and browsed the eShop, but wouldn't you know it...dinner time.

After dinner was done and cleaned up and the kids were in bed...finally it was game time. Let me start off by saying that I'm not a big Zelda fan. I guess you could say I'm just a casual Zelda fan at best. I've played the original NES game a few times (never beat it). I bought Twilight Princess at launch with my Nintendo Wii (which was the last launch day console I bought) and I really enjoyed the game (dispite the tiring motion controls) up until I got to a fishing scene where I couldn't progress. Needless to say I was excited about playing Breath of the Wild, even though up until this point I still had stayed away from pouring over the content of this game. I guess you could say I didn't want to be spoiled and I wanted to discover everything for the first time...the first time.

Up until Sunday afternoon, I've put in about 20 hours into the game...and I'm not tired of it yet. I am absolutely loving exploring the open world and find out what is around the corner, on top of the mountain and across the sea. The puzzle elements in the shrines are starting to give me a fit, but overall I've enjoyed every minute of the game. I'm sad the weekend is wrapping up as I won't have as much time to play during the week.

Overall I've found the Switch to be another marvelous Nintendo system. However it's not without flaw. As many outlets previously reported, the left Joycon has a habit of de-synching itself in the middle of your gameplay (TV mode only). It will usually come back on by itself, but there were a few times I died playing Zelda because I'd try to walk to the edge of a cliff and Link would simply keep on walking...right off the cliff! It also seems as if there is anything in the way of your controller and the dock while playing in TV mode you'll notice some horrible lag, or downright unresponsiveness. At one point last night I crossed my leg and rested my foot on my knee...and the controller started acting up. I put my leg down and the controller was fine. This pretty much confirmed for me that I'm buying the Pro Controller as soon as the funds allow.

I've only used the Switch in table top mode a short time. I do like that option, but maybe it's just me but I found it difficult to open up the kick stand on the back. Perhaps that Hori table top cradle they've made is a worthy purchase in the future? I took the Swith with me to church earlier today to show my older brother and I ended up playing it in handheld mode in the car on the way to and from. I usually reserve my Sunday afternoons to get caught up on my comic reading, but wouldn't you know I sat on the couch for at least 2 hours (if not longer) playing. My guess is I got in at least 3 hours of play before I got the first low battery warning. For a game as powerful and large as Zelda, I'm OK w/ 3 hours. I most likely won't be playing it in handheld mode as much, but man I do love having that option.

The launch lineup was a little sparse, but I know that Zelda will keep me occupied for some time. I do want to download Snipperclips as I showed that to my wife, hoping that it would lessen the scowl of hers when I told her I had the Switch pre-ordered already! Not surprisingly, she does agree that could be a great co-op game for us both...and maybe even my 2 young daughters?

Next week I'll be downloading the new Blaster Master Zero for sure. The original in the NES is one of my all time favorites and despite the few successors it's had, none of them have been able to capture the excitement and feel of the original. Hopefully this one won't disappoint.

Of course before I go and download anything from the eShop I need to pick up a Micro SD card for myself. I'm not thrilled with the news that there isn't any way to transfer saved data from the console (at least, not yet), but I won't be downloading my games as I'm still one of those that perfers physical releases. Is the Nintendo Switch perfect? Nope, but it's the best new Nintendo platform I've played in a very long time and I'm really looking forward to what the future brings. I hope this is the first step in repairing relationships with third party developers because I would love to see the likes of Capcom and Konami bringing back new versions of their classic IPs (and new ones of course) to the Switch. I guess now only time will tell.

Nintendo Switch...Will it Live up to it's Hype?

If you're reading this blog, then I'm pretty sure you like video games. If you like video games, then you may have been like me and stayed up late (well, late for me at least) on 01/12/17 to watch Nintendo's presentation for their newest console, the Switch.

I haven't poured over much of the content today on social media, but what I have it seems people are firmly on one side or another when it comes to this new hybrid console....love it or hate it. I really haven't seen many people that are straddling the fence. 

You have your Nintendo loyalists that of course love it and will buy it day one. Then you have your hardcore gamers that turn their noses up towards Nintendo for a myriad of reasons. Where do I stand? That's a good question. Let me see if I can explain my stance, but first let me take a walk down memory lane and explain my relationship w/ Nintendo.

I like Nintendo. I always have. I grew up in the Atari age, in fact the last console my dad said he would ever buy me (and my older brother) was the Atari 7800. This would prove to be mostly true, then again "Santa" gave me an NES a few years later. I loved the NES. I have many fond memories of pulling weeds at my aunt's house to earn money to buy one of my first NES games, Bubble Bobble. I remember sneaking NES games with me to Jr. High school to trade with friends. I remember the first TMNT game on the NES pissing me off. Those were the times.

When the SNES came out, surprisingly I wasn't interested in games. Blame it on girls I guess. My younger brother eventually would get an SNES and I'd play it sparingly, but I really didn't do much with games until the N64 was announced. That was the first console that I bought w/ my own money. I remember the day I got the call from Toys R Us that my console was ready to be picked up. Talk about living on cloud 9. Mario 64 was utterly amazing and I couldn't put it down. Sadly, the console would ultimately disappoint me as the caliber of games just didn't capture my attention after the novelty of Mario 64 wore off.

I followed the news of the GameCube and would eventually get one for Christmas after it had been out a year or so. I thought it was a great little machine, but by that time Microsoft had already wooed me away w/ their original Xbox. It seemed if Nintendo was starting to get lost in the shuffle with more competition and as much of a fan I was, my attention (and dollars) went elsewhere. Nintendo would eventually reel me back in w/ the Wii. I bought it at launch. I remember sitting outside a Super Target in the freezing cold w/ my wife and brothers waiting to get it on launch day. I also picked up Zelda and fell in love with the game...until I had to go fishing in the game for something. 

Ironically enough, I think my favorite Nintendo console, outside of the original, is the Wii U. I agree that Nintendo didn't do the console any favors with the name and the marketing for it was horrible. I didn't buy it on launch, but eventually ponied up the money and bought a Zombi U bundle from GameStop. Today it's the most played of all of the modern consoles I have. My 7 and 5 year old girls enjoy playing Super Mario World, Yoshi's Wooly World and other games. They fight over who gets to use the tablet controller. Heck, I love the tablet controller and opt to use it over the Pro controller on certain games. 

Now comes the Switch. So far I think Nintendo has done a pretty good job at showing off the hardware and describing it's many play styles, but what concerns me still are the games. Granted a few of the launch titles and upcoming titles look good, but what I'm waiting for (as many others are) is to see what the 3rd party support is going to be like. Frankly, Nintendo hasn't had good 3rd party support for a home console of theirs since...the N64? 

The console itself is very intriguing to me. I'm not a big portable fan so that feature isn't a big draw for me, but I can see myself playing it sitting on the couch while "watching TV"...similar to what I do now w/ the Wii U. The Joy Con controllers, while small, looks to be better than I originally thought and may make playing retro games on the Switch that much more authentic if you will. I'm very happy to see a Pro style controller coming and that it's design hasn't changed much from the last generation.

I get people's concerns that the Switch may not be the savior that Nintendo needs. However what I'm already sick and tired of hearing is that it's not 4K, it's under powered, it's this or it's not this. People are complaining that it's not even as good as the PS4 or the Xbox One and why won't Nintendo just release a "regular console".

Let's face it people. This isn't the 1980's or even the 1990's. The landscape of video games has changed a lot in the 30+ years I've been on this planet. Competition isn't what it used to be and Nintendo isn't the king of the hill anymore. I believe Nintendo knows this and they've come to grips with it. Instead of trying to complete with Microsoft and Sony, they decided to take a different path and it all started with the Wii (some may argue it started w/ the GameCube). Nintendo isn't afraid of trying something new and I commend them for that. That isn't to say that things don't blow up in their face, but what I don't get is why are people bashing Nintendo for trying to be different? What's wrong with being different? Most gamers have more than one game system these days; so if they want that super powerful mega house game system to play 4K HD super graphic heavy games they can. I believe Nintendo is just trying to find their niche in this crowed market place and there is nothing wrong with that. It's fine if you don't like it. Go back to one of the other two big companies, but Nintendo is banking on people playing their games and consoles to have fun, to enjoy the gaming experience.

With the GameCube, Nintendo finally decided to use optical media for the first time...but went a different route with their mini-DVDs. Now they are going a different route w/ flash media...and I think that's pretty cool. Heck, this is one of the features on the Switch that intrigues me the most. The Sony PlayStation Vita has blown me away with the type of games they can cram onto an SD card and honestly that alone has given me hope that Nintendo will be able to replicate that (and take it to another level?) on the Switch. Even the images of the games' packaging that recently came out is starting to get me excited.

   

Will the Nintendo Switch live up to it's Hype? I think it's way to early to say. I think it'll perform better than the Wii U, but then again that isn't saying much. However taken how dominate Nintendo has been with in the handheld market ever since the original Game Boy was launched, I see them being able to market the Switch to that group as well as the home console market. I think the Switch has a lot of great things going for it, but like any platform it's the games that make the difference. While I'm glad to see that Zelda is going to be a launch title, I believe having a new Mario game ready on day one would have given the Switch a tremendously large boost. Then again, it'll take me forever to get through Zelda so I can wait until the holiday 2017 season for another big game. I know I'm in the minority here however.

   

So, did I pre-order a Nintendo Switch like the millions of others last night or in the wee early hours of 01/13/17? Yes. I kinda talked myself out of it, but then all of those great Nintendo memories rushed to the forefront of my thoughts. That and the whole Classic Nintendo debacle at retail for those who didn't pre-order. Not long before noon today I searched out various vendors online to see who still had pre-orders and it didn't take me long before I realized they were pre-selling out fast. GameStop, gone. Amazon, gone. Walmart, gone. Thankfully I did get an order in for the Switch (and Zelda) at Best Buy. The neon colored bundle was already gone so I had to settle for the basic package, but with young girls in the house that may be a good thing as I could see them fighting over who gets to play with the red or blue Joy Con controller!

Just like the video game market has changed over the last 30 years, so have I. While I still love games (obviously), I'll be 40 in a few months, have a family and a job that requires me to travel and takes up a good bit of my time. I have a lot of other hobbies as well that are constantly fighting for my attention. I'm not that 20 something guy that can sit on the couch and play games all day. If I play games now for more than 2 or 3 hours straight I feel as if I wasted my time. I don't need the Switch to be a blockbuster PlayStation or Xbox killer. I just need it to provide me with some quality, fun to play titles...which I know Nintendo will deliver on. If they get the 3rd party support that most of us would like to see, that will just be a bonus. I buy Nintendo consoles to play the Nintendo franchises. If I really want to play a big budget title I can always fall back on my Xbox One. 

March 3, 2017 can't get here fast enough for me. I'm excited about this new path that Nintendo is taking. I'm prepared for a little disappointment here and there, but I have faith that the powers that be at Nintendo will deliver on their promises.