Desired Super Smash Bros. 4 Newcomers

Kid Icarus: Uprising is set to take flight on the Nintendo 3DS a week from today. It only makes sense that the next project for Sora, the developer, is the next Super Smash Bros. which was confirmed to be coming to both the Wii U and 3DS. I think this makes a good time to post some of my most wanted newcomers for the next Smash Bros. game. Note: Masahiro Sakurai, the man behind the Super Smash Bros. series, has just finished work on Kid Icarus: Uprising, so do not expect the next installment of SSB to come any time soon. This is just a wishful thinking post.

Ghirahim (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword)


The self-proclaimed "Demon King Ghirahim," this primary antagonist from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has a myriad of moves at his disposal to trip up Link. His sabre and swordplay alone make him a worthy adversary of the hero clad in green. He can summon a series of daggers to be thrown either one after another or all simultaneously. His Final Smash (pending these sensationally powerful moves return from Brawl) could have him sprout the hard-skinned armor that he had in Link and his final fight on the Sealed Grounds. If there is any character that should come from the new installment in The Legend of Zelda franchise, it should be Ghirahim.

King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Country)


The king of the Kremling army, King K. Rool previously stole Donkey Kong's banana hoard, ticking off the main monkey. K. Rool is a villain that many Smash Bros. fans have been rooting to appear in a Smash game as a playable character. He has plenty of attacks to challenge his unlucky and unwitting opponents with such as chucking his crown at foes, performing a belly flop to crush his adversaries, and his Final Smash could have him pulling a Gangplank Galleon and launching a series of colossal cannonballs down on all comers.

Ridley (Metroid)


Ridley is the leader of the Space Pirates, and he was the sole cause of the death of a young Samus Aran's parents. While Ridley and his Metroid Prime form in Meta Ridley have appeared as bosses in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I think it is about time that a smaller form of the dragon-like creature comes forth as a playable character in the next Smash Bros. game. Like Bowser he could spew fire from his breath, drag his tail along the ground to slice foes, and have an advantage in the skies thanks to his pair of weathered wings. Metroid needs a new face to represent the series apart from Samus, and I believe Ridley would be the perfect candidate.

Krystal (Star Fox)


Fox McCloud's on again, off again love interest and teammate on Star Fox, Krystal first appeared in Rare's last console project for Nintendo, the heavily Zelda-inspired Star Fox Adventures. She comes equipped with a staff, ready for combat, and she could utilize her Arwing (just as long as it is not yet another Landmaster Final Smash) to take out opponents from the air. Perhaps Krystal could have magic powers via her staff to dish out damage with fire, electricity, water, and wind. I'd love to see another female addition to the Smash Bros. lineup and Krystal fits that profile completely.

Samurai Goroh (F-Zero)


Already featured as an Assist Trophy in Brawl, the 3D model for Samurai Goroh, fierce bounty hunting rival of Captain Falcon, is already there, so why not build upon it and have him as a newcomer? He obviously attacks with his samurai blade, thrusting it into the depths of other characters' bodies, but he could also use other Japanese weaponry like a kunai, some shurikens, and sais. His Final Smash would take his Fire Stingray could run over unlucky victims much like Captain Falcon's Final Smash from Brawl. After all, F-Zero needs more representation.

Medusa (Kid Icarus)


Another female addition to the Smash Bros. 4 lineup could be the main villain of Kid Icarus and the upcoming Kid Icarus: Uprising, Medusa. She could temporarily turn foes into stone, toss out a slithering snake or two to deal damage, shoot eye beams from her glaring vision, and her Final Smash could have her growing to extremely large proportions to pound some sense into her opponents. It seems obvious that Nintendo is pushing Uprising beyond their normal marketing measures. Could Kid Icarus become one of their mainline franchises once more? Putting Medusa as a main character in Smash could help that greatly.

Animal Crossing Boy and Girl (Animal Crossing)

Animal Crossing was represented in Brawl with the series's own category of trophies and its own stage in the form of Smashville. Now it is time for the two avatars of Animal Crossing to pair up a la the Ice Climbers and let out all of that stress of owing immense amounts of money to Tom Nook. They already have the tools to do so: bug catching nets, axes, fishing rods, watering cans, shovels to bury Pitfalls, and much more. A decent Final Smash could have a flurry of Animal Crossing characters quickly marching through a given stage, carrying unfortunate victims across the screen and out of bounds to their demise.

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Those are just some of my ideas for interesting newcomers for the next Super Smash Bros. game which is due out in the long, faraway future. Which characters would you like to see make their first appearance as playable fighters in Super Smash Bros. 4? Give me a holler in the comments section.

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (PS3, 360, Wii, DS, 3DS, PSV) First Trailer

Do you like the Lego series of games? I feel they exude a splendid type of charm that most games cannot match. The trend seems to continue with Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes for all major platforms. Nothing gets my bat senses tingling more than Danny Elfman's 1989 score playing with some stirring gameplay! Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes shows us its might this summer.

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Ridge Racer 3D (3DS) Review

The Vita installment of Ridge Racer recently released this past Tuesday in North America, and the one year anniversary of the Nintendo 3DS on this continent is coming soon. It seems like a perfect moment to review a launch game for the system, Ridge Racer 3D.

See You At the Finish Line

Ridge Racer has been a staple of many system launches. However, over recent years the series has dwindled and declined in popularity and has almost become a joke. With the infamous Sony E3 press conference having Kaz Harai gleaming "RIIIIIIIIDGE RAAAAACER" and the latest entry in the franchise revving up on the PlayStation Vita with only a handful of tracks and loads of downloadable content, what was once a proud series is slowly and steadily losing traction. Then there stands the Nintendo 3DS launch title Ridge Racer 3D. Does an extra dimension add to the fun, or does this installment of Ridge Racer come in last place?

What most players will spend the majority of their time in Ridge Racer 3D is the Grand Prix mode, made up of three difficulties: Beginner, Advanced, and Expert. Players start in the Beginning series of events, doing their best to succeed and complete tasks. For instance, a given Grand Prix is comprised of four races. Each race you must reach the required position and cross the finish line to advance to the next race. While you can advance by just getting second or third in the first three races, the final race is always one where you must cross the finish line in first. By completing a Grand Prix, you open up the next event or set of events. The structure is a branching tree of events that are eventually lead to the final event where you must clear it in order to unlock the next difficulty of Grand Prix races. In total, there are over fifty unique events to take part in. However, the constant goal of getting in the top of the pack can get repetitive quite easily.

Start from the back of the pack
with the aim of getting to the front.

The majority of events have you racing against seven other AI controlled cars. You are stuck at the start at the back of the pack with first place anywhere between a quarter of a lap to a half lap ahead of you. The goal is to get to the front of the pack and reach and finish in one of the qualifying positions. As you race on the different circuits, you get progress reports of how far away you are to the number one racer. The main feat is not really worrying about passing up the other cars but constantly gaining on the first place driver with each section of track, each lap, and each corner.

Speeding around corners and sharp turns in the game is essential in Ridge Racer 3D, and this is performed by accomplishing a drift. You let off the accelerator and then ease onto it again to drift. The premise here is to keep your speed up while sliding around corners and turns. As you drift, your nitrous gauge increases. The faster and more sharper your drift, the more your gauge increases. It can be filled up three portions, allowing you to use one nitrous, double nitrous, or even triple nitrous to soar past the competition.

Drifting feels extraordinarily smooth.

Later events on the more challenging difficulties can be occasionally frustrating as it seems that the CPU rubber-bands you. That is, they speed up inexplicably just to catch up to you or to lose you. It appears that if you are not running the race up to the game's standards and are behind the first place driver further than the game desires you to be, the AI will outrun you no matter what. This can be infuriating.

Effects like smoke, confetti, and leaves sticking
to the 3D screen make for an impressive sight.

Nonetheless, you begin the game with a bunch of slower Category 4 cars. As you move on in the various Grand Prix events, you unlock faster machines (up to Category 1) that allow you to tear up each track at swifter speeds. Each race you complete earns you player points. These are used to purchase new vehicles with individual top speeds, builds, customizable color combinations, and nitrous kits. The faster cars are much looser and tend to slip and slide all over corners and turns which makes for a difficult drive. Mastering your vehicle is key to completing the various events Ridge Racer 3D thrusts in front of you.

Apart from the Grand Prix, there are an abundant array of modes to choose from such as Time Attack (a time trial mode), a race where you compete against seven players who sport the same vehicle model as you do, and a track selection method that bases the game's choices off of how long you wish to play. After each race, you can opt to save a replay of your racing finesse for future enjoyment. If you have StreetPass enabled, you can find other players' ghosts to race against. Unfortunately, there is no online option to be found. I think this is a serious oversight to what could have been a game that players could keep coming back to time and time again. As it is now, you can only do local play.

There are fifteen unique circuits in the game. They range from races through sunset-soaked beaches, airports, rides through underwater tunnels, ancient ruins, atop seaside cliffs, through rugged Arizonian-like red canyons, and through busy and bustling metropolises. Each circuit comes in normal form and reverse form where you race the same track but only in reverse. There are also mirrored courses that unlock much further into the game, effectively adding a lot of tracks to learn the ins and outs of.

The lighting is okay, but the 3DS can do so much better than this.

Ridge Racer 3D is not a graphical showcase of the Nintendo 3DS system's hardware. It looks like a glorified early PSP game at worst and a mid-range PSP game at best. Textures are blurry, the frame-rate dips below 30 fps on numerous occasions, there are a lot of jaggies to be found, there is rampant slowdown when the action gets more intense, and the various vehicles look sickly. Meanwhile on the sound front, each race gives you the opportunity to select from one of dozens of tracks. Most of them come from either the techno or rock side of the musical spectrum, so if you find a favorite song, there is nothing stopping you from playing it ad infinitum. The only problem I have with the game's sound stems from the incredibly obnoxious backseat driver that opens her mouth every three seconds as you race. At first it was nice to race and not be by my lonesome. By the end of my tenure with Ridge Racer 3D, I was wishing ill thoughts to my female driving companion. Thankfully, you can silence the woman by lowering the voice volume in the options, but this is a problem that has plagued previous installments of the franchise. Why is she still here?

Get a face full of track with this first-person viewpoint.

Ridge Racer 3D is not a technical showcase of the Nintendo 3DS, nor does it innovate the series in any way, shape, or form. It, however, does supply an above average amount of single player content for what is now a really low price, and the track design is quite competent and enjoyable to hit the pavement on. The lack of online play is not the best news I can give, but at least this is actually a full-fledged game and not a scam to sell DLC like the Vita edition. If you like an arcade-style racer and don't want to get bombarded with blue shells a la Mario Kart, then Ridge Racer 3D is a truly acceptable alternative.

[SuperPhillip Says: 7.75/10]

The Ratchet & Clank Collection (PS3) First Screens and Box Art

Announced today and known as the Classics HD: The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy in PAL territories, the lombax and robot pair's first trio of adventures (Ratchet & Clank, Going Commando, and Up Your Arsenal) end up in glorious 1080p and stereoscopic 3D on the PlayStation 3 this year. As an added bonus, players will be able to go online and duke it out in battle via 8 player multiplayer in Up Your Arsenal. As an avid fan of the series, this is a definite buy.

Heroes of Ruin (3DS) New Trailer

It is just a 3DS-filled week here on SuperPhillip Central, isn't it? We continue the entertainment with a new customization-centric trailer for Heroes of Ruin, a loot RPG from n-Space and Square Enix. The only thing I do not like about the trailer is the slow motion to hide the slowdown the game has. There is no word on when Heroes of Ruin will storm the Nintendo 3DS with its online multiplayer gameplay.

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