Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (NSW) "The One-Winged Angel!" Trailer

The next character in the second batch of DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has officially been announced during The Game Awards. It's none other than the One-Winged Angel himself, Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth! Hopefully we'll get some new remixes this time around instead of just a couple of Final Fantasy VII songs taken directly from the game like Cloud had when he arrived in Smash. Regardless, we won't have to wait long to find out, as Sephiroth will be available later this month! What do you think about the newest addition to the Smash Bros. roster?

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of Nintendo's DLC Strategy

Like many online-related things in gaming, Nintendo took their sweet time entering into the world of downloadable content, or as I'll shorten it to DLC for my own sanity's sake. Starting off, the company showed great promise in the way they were testing the waters. Nintendo has approached DLC in a multitude of different forms and ways. Some good, some bad, and some really undesirable. 

First off, Nintendo seemed to be doing all the right things with DLC with the Wii U. The three major games featuring DLC are Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. This trio of games offers tremendous value to the buyer already, but the added DLC only makes the packages all the more enticing. 

For instance, Mario Kart 8 owners are able to purchase one or both of the DLC packs, each featuring eight new tracks, three new characters, and three new vehicles. Buying both at the same time gives a discounted price that is cheaper than buying both separately, despite both packs not being out at the same time. In fact, the second DLC pack is set to release next week, offering eight more remixed and brand-new tracks into the equation. Thus, you're essentially buying another half of Mario Kart 8 for less than $15. That is one heck of a deal, especially since the actual content is so desirable.

Moving onto Hyrule Warriors, Nintendo seems to have a great handle on making a compelling season pass if this Omega Force-developed title is anything to go by. Unlike Mario Kart 8, there is a staggering amount of content already on the disc that would make anyone who purchases it fulfilled without needing to fork over any extra cash. Though, don't get me wrong, what Mario Kart 8 has content-wise is nothing to honk one's horn at; it's just that any game compared to Hyrule Warriors' content would seem like slim pickings in comparison!

Hyrule Warriors was the gift that kept on giving to those who purchased the season pass. New characters which completely different strategies and play styles for players to learn, new adventure maps which allowed players even more fun completing each mission, and the brand-new weapons made for a game that could easily make players lose hundreds of hours of real life time, and I say that in a good way. Maybe not so much if you have an unhealthy addiction to playing video games, though.

Finally, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is the third game from Nintendo that I believe does DLC well. Recently (as in yesterday), the first of two announced DLC characters, Mewtwo, was released for people who purchased and registered on Club Nintendo both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U copies of the newest Super Smash Bros. games. A lot of time and effort goes into creating a new character, as you can probably imagine. I mean, after all, there is balancing the new character against the entire roster, making the character work on all of the stages and with all of the items in the game. It's a lot of work, for sure. 

While Mewtwo will be available for purchase for everyone else later this month, another DLC character was announced at this past Nintendo Direct a couple of weeks ago, Lucas from the unlocalized Mother 3. This enables fans to purchase and play as these returning fighters for a fair price while not putting players who don't pay for them at any kind of disadvantage besides not having the coolness that is Mewtwo and Lucas in their personal roster of available characters.

These three examples are good forms of DLC practice because they aren't already on the disc completely, they weren't held over from the base game to get people to pay more for cut content, and they were created long after the initial development of the base game was over.

However, Nintendo started to slide into more, well, sleazy forms of what we can essentially also call DLC. It all began with one term-- amiibo. Many games recently released by Nintendo have features of the game locked away by an amiibo paywall-- that is, one needs an amiibo figure to unlock that content. Therefore, things like having a member of the Fire Emblem squad join you in Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is locked behind not only owning a New Nintendo 3DS XL but also owning one of the amiibo figurines. The latter is more important factor to focus on. You're basically forced to buy a $12-$13 figure for something that could have been unlocked with a much cheaper DLC digital key. Speaking of keys, not only is the content already in the game itself, this expensive physical amiibo serves as the key to unlock this reward for players. 

The most egregious (and this is where it starts to get ugly) example of hiding something behind an amiibo paywall is Mario Party 10's amiibo Party mode. To play this mode, at least one amiibo is required. This makes essentially one-third of Mario Party 10 locked away from players without an amiibo, and considered the price of amiibo, that makes a $50 investment turn into an over $60 one. That is pretty slimy to me.

What's worse here is that a lot of the amiibo are too difficult to find. To get Mii costumes in Mario Kart 8, for instance, requires some of the rarer amiibo like Captain Falcon and Fox McCloud. Good luck getting those at a reasonable price, but even at the standard price of, again, $12-$13, it's a huge expense compared to just being able to go on the Nintendo eShop and just pay for a key to unlock all of the costumes yourself with a pain-free, scalper-free transaction. 

Things don't seem to be getting better with the amiibo front either. Wave 4 figure pre-orders sold out incredibly quick, new amiibo were announced for upcoming games like Splatoon and Yoshi's Woolly World (the former locking exclusive costumes and missions away from non-amiibo buyers), and the hope of restocking for most of the rarer amiibo seems hopeless. 

It's my wish that Nintendo leans more toward the good path of DLC (i.e. Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, and Super Smash Bros.) rather than the amiibo route. Sadly, as the figures continually sell out and are in great demand, these make Nintendo a lot of money. In turn, this reinforces Nintendo's desire to go the amiibo route with adding optional, but usually much desired content to its future lineup of software. Seeing my disgust with trying to even find amiibo figures or make pre-orders, if this were a card game (funnily enough Nintendo wants to make a line of card-based amiibo), I'd definitely say "deal me out."

Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype (PS3, Vita) Review

This fine Tuesday and Wednesday on SuperPhillip Central sees a total of two new reviews! The second of which will be part of SuperPhillip Central's month of the 3D platformer! But first, let's devote our attention to Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype, a shoot-em-up that takes me back to playing similar games on my Super Nintendo back before I could type well enough to eventually write for my own blog. Let's take flight and see how she handles!

Galactic Civil War. Huh! What is it good for? 

Absolutely everything!

While big publishers have steered away from the types of games that were highly successful in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras of gaming, indies and smaller developers/publishers have filled in the gaps quite nicely, delivering unto gamers platformers, puzzle games, and yes, shoot-em-ups. From Eastasiasoft comes the latter, a technological marvel that's pure eye candy, but also has the great gameplay to back the whole package up. Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype is a digital title on both the PlayStation 3 and Vita that hearkens back to a simpler time in gaming where twitch reflexes, coordination, and a calm set of thumbs were what were in order to save the day from an alien menace.

Soldner-X 2 is a horizontal shoot-em-up, or as I'll fondly call it, a "shmup". You control one of several ships, each with their own strengths and weaknesses in battle, through scrolling 2.5D levels, taking out enemy ships while avoid a cavalcade a bullets, lasers, and gunfire. Compared to other games in the genre, Soldner-X 2 is a bit on the easy side, especially for those of you who have encountered so-called "bullet hell" games in the past. While Soldner-X 2 does stray towards have a colossal amount of bullets on screen at the same time, you don't have to make pixel-perfect movements to survive them as you would a "bullet hell" game.

You may start out with comfortable
room for your ship to maneuver...

You start out with a selection of two difficulties to choose from-- easy and normal. The other two more challenging difficulties must be unlocked. However, even still, easy and normal can be quite the handful thanks to a clever dynamic difficulty and scoring system. As you play a level, you start at the G rank, as you defeat enemies without taking damage, your rank goes up. The maximum rank it can reach is S. Not only does this make levels more arduous to complete, but it has the bonus of increasing your score multiplier. This is how you achieve magnificent ranks on the levels in Soldner-X 2.

...But then Soldner-X 2 begins throwing more enemies your way.

Having a high rank isn't just for increased difficulty and a bonus score multiplier either. In the game, much like the original Soldner, there are secret keys that you collect from dropped ships at certain locations in levels. Collecting all of the these in a level unlocks later stages to play. Some secret keys do not materialize for you to collect unless you're at a specific rank or higher. Therefore, it's important to chain attacks so your rank is high, so your point multiplier is high, and so you can collect the secret keys necessary to see all of the content within Soldner-X 2.

Soldner-X 2's general difficulty isn't too taxing, at least it wasn't for me, a person who isn't the best at these types of games. You take more damage at higher difficulties, and enemies enact more complicated patterns. Soldner-X 2's difficulty makes it so even a beginner in the shmup genre can have a blast with the game, and they can challenge themselves as they see fit on whatever difficulty setting they see fit.

From outdoor destroyed cities to zoom past...

Alongside the main arcade mode, Soldner-X 2 comes equipped with a Challenge mode. This mode creates scenarios for you to try to complete, such as not losing a life in arcade mode's first three levels or beating the entire game with the handicap of only being to select one weapon throughout its entirety. Completed challenges reward you with such bonuses like extra credits in arcade mode and new weapons for your ships, making them great to not only challenge yourself but to win cool rewards in the process.

...to indoor circuitry and ruins to dart through.

Fortunately, Soldner-X 2's development team wasn't satisfied to just add a bunch of new things to make for a better game compared to its predecessor. The team also changed a lot of things for the better as well. For one, the original Soldner required you to ration your shots, as shooting too much meant your weapons needed to enter a cooldown period for a few moments before you could return to blasting foes to smithereens. This has been removed, thankfully, making what would be a very hard game much more manageable to play. In addition to that, gone is the need to switch between weapons to keep your attack chain going. In its stead is the ability to shoot down enemies and pick up golden rings, similar in appearance to what a familiar blue hedgehog would covet.

The super affordable downloadable content that released approximately eight months later to Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype, known as The Last Chapter, introduces three new fully developed levels and around a dozen new trophies for those trophy hunters out there. The levels are well crafted and will have your heart and adrenaline pumping just as wildly as when you're playing the standard levels in the base game.

Hello there, giant boss. Thanks for the warm welcome!

Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype as just the base game or the entire package with added DLC makes for an amazing old-school style shmup with intense side-scrolling shooting gameplay, bosses that cover up half of the screen, and plenty of challenges for both beginning players in the genre and veterans. Everything runs smoothly, the voice acting is superb, and the music gets you in the mood to shoot down the D'arrg menace, regardless of whether or not the story is as purely cliche as any other space shooter. While the need to collect space keys to advance in arcade mode is something I rebelled against in concept, overall, Soldner-X 2 is really remarkable shooter, perfect for gaming on the go or lounging on a couch at home.

[SPC Says: B+]

Review copy provided by EastAsiaSoft.

Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) - Excitebike Arena Trailer

I don't normally get excited about DLC, but that's different when it comes to companies who do it right. For instance, with Mario Kart 8, Nintendo didn't hold back content for DLC purposes. Instead, it was made after the full game was finished, and it certainly isn't just already on the disc requiring a code to unlock it.

That said, Excitebike Arena will be a part of the first of two DLC packages for Mario Kart 8. Not only is the design reminiscent of Baby Park, but the track layout is randomized each time.

New Super Luigi U (Wii U) Review

Available in both downloadable form (as of June) and now retail form (as of late this month), New Super Luigi U gives everyone's favorite green-clothed plumber some more time in the spotlight. What's that, Mario? You getting jealous? Why, you're turning so green with envy, you're starting to look like your brother! Anyway, here's SuperPhillip Central's review of New Super Luigi U.

It Ain't Easy Being Green,

But It Sure Is Fun.

When the Wii U was released back in November of last year, New Super Mario Bros. U was a heavily popular launch title among purchases. Nintendo had promised some form of downloadable content in the near future. Well, the near future is upon us, and instead of creating packs of three levels like New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo has created what is essentially a brand-new game. With Mario out of the picture, Luigi is the star of his own platforming adventure, New Super Luigi U. (It is the Year of Luigi, after all!) While folks with a copy of New Super Mario Bros. U could download the game for twenty dollars in June, the retail version of the game was released this past week-- one that could be purchased for New Super Mario Bros. U-less Wii U owners or collectors like myself. Does New Super Luigi U add enough content to justify its price tag?

In a word, yes. New Super Luigi U has the exact same plot of New Super Mario Bros. U, and a similar opening cinematic. The only difference is that Mario is nowhere in sight, so it's Luigi's turn to save the princess from the fearsome Bowser, who has taken over Peach's castle. There's one more similarity, and that's the world map. Everything remains unchanged on that front.

A thorn in my side since the original
Super Mario Bros.-- the Hammer Brother.

New Super Luigi U isn't downloadable content that simply rearranges levels. No, the developers have crafted incredibly made new levels to test players' skills. If you thought New Super Mario Bros. U was too easy of a game, New Super Luigi U's first world is about as challenging as New Super Mario Bros. U's fourth world, and it only gets crazier from there. By the ninth world, you will be running through 1-ups like toilet paper to a man with diarrhea. Sorry for the mental picture.

Why the long faces?

Every level in the game gives you only 100 seconds to work with, meaning you don't have much time to dilly-dally around. That said, the levels are much briefer affairs than New Super Mario Bros. U's. That's a good thing, too. Levels in New Super Luigi U have zero checkpoints, much more fiendish star coin locations, hard secret exit spots (all secret exits are located in the same levels as in NSMBU) and a level of challenge that 2D Mario fans haven't seen since the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2. The risk of death is much greater, and the fast levels make having to replay them much less of a hassle. It's also terrific for playing in short bursts.

Give those Piranha Plants a
taste of their own medicine.

A part of the challenge is how Luigi, his two Toad counterparts and the all-new playable character Nabbit (more on him later) control compared to their New Super Mario Bros. U counterparts. They can jump much higher and get extra hang time in the air. However, each character's momentum will have them putting on the brakes noticeably slower than NSMBU's physics. This can make those death-defying leaps all the more intense.

Luigi's just showing off now.

Another aspect of challenge concerns multiplayer. New Super Luigi U wasn't really built for four players. There's far too many thin platforms and jumps that require pixel perfect (or is it polygon perfect?) precision. This can be hard (and quite frustrating) to have a group try to make jumps only to have someone jump off another player's head and bounce into the abyss, or push another player into the lava. Even with two players the game can have some truly tricky spots. Still, players are able to freely enter a bubble at any time to stay out of the way of harm, but this can be abused to make New Super Luigi U easier than intended. Don't disgrace yourself and your friends by doing this. If there is no dignity, then there is no honor-- or something like that.

There's not much real estate to
work with here for four players.

New Super Luigi U is a devious game in difficulty, so some might be curious as to whether or not the game would be suitable for younger children and family members to play. This is where the fourth playable character comes in, Nabbit. Nabbit is unlike Luigi, Yellow Toad and Blue Toad. He can only lose a life by being crushed, falling down a pit, or touching lava or poisoned water. He can run through enemies without taking damage. Nabbit cannot pick up objects or use items. He simply grabs them and puts them in his burlap sack. How ever many he nabs will grant him several 1-ups at the end of a given level.

I'm guessing someone doesn't
want us in this tower.

New Super Luigi U delivers something that a lot of Mario fans have been desiring for a long time-- a 2D Mario platformer that is tough to beat. Technically, this isn't a 2D Mario game, but a 2D Luigi game, so theoretically Mario fans are still waiting. In all seriousness, New Super Luigi U is a great game to play in small sessions, but also nice for long playing periods. You can make a hefty amount of progress in a few short hours. The levels are magnificently designed, the level of challenge is high but fair, and the option to play as Nabbit allows a type of accessibility so all can enjoy this downloadable content turned retail package. As the tagline of this review reads, "It ain't easy being green, but it sure is fun."

[SPC Says: 8.5/10]

New Super Luigi U (Wii U) New Screens

If you've been living under a rock or do not follow gaming news regularly, then let us enlighten you on New Super Luigi U, downloadable content that is coming out this summer for the Wii U launch title New Super Mario Bros. U. The DLC will be single-player and star a Luigi that can jump higher, but has bad stopping power. 80 new levels will be available for those who can't get enough 2D Mario (like us) to enjoy.

LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3) The Muppets Premium Level Kit Trailer

The Muppets are going from the big screen to LittleBigPlanet with The Muppets Premium Level Kit. It brings with it five brand-new Muppet themed levels, seven new trophies, two mini-games, a new material that allows Sackboy to walk and run on walls and ceilings, and an assortment of other objects, stickers, and more! The Muppet madness on the world of LittleBigPlanet comes January 25th for £4.79 / €5.99 / US $5.99 / AUS $ 9.95.

Get your Muppet on with the direct link.