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Filed under: Editorial

Monthly Reading List (November)

2015-11-23

Hi there! We decided that we will spotlight other content for our friends and supporters. This content might not always be related to Smash, but it’s other articles, videos or media that the Source Gaming team would like to recommend to its readers. First we will start off with individual recommendations. After that, we will highlight some posts that from sites associated with Source Gaming that are interesting in particular. Lastly, I would like to highlight five comments from Source Gaming itself as we really appreciate all the comments we get.

The original idea was to do this weekly, but because we end up putting too much effort into even the simplest of projects, it might be a monthly kind of thing.

Let us know in the comments which content you recommend, and we will check it out! It’s okay to even send your stuff too!

Nantendo
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Spoiler Free Undertale Review

Everyone should play Undertale. It is one of the best games of the year and I found this review to be a very convincing one and I hope it can pull more people into playing this game.

Bloodborne: how to tell a story through Lore

A good look at how Bloodborne’s style of telling a story works really well and how many games could learn from it in the future.

Soma

Revisiting the Original, Quietly Revolutionary Assassin’s Creed

Before Assassin’s Creed was Ubisoft’s annual cash cow franchise, it was just a standalone title– a wildly new and experimental game, imbued with radical characters and settings. A great retrospective on the first entry of this series, exploring the unique elements the first game had– and what its sequels may have lost.

Oh, My, Shiranui! AJ Brooks Talks Grappling, Costumes, and Video Games

An interview/discussion with professional wrestler AJ Brooks about wrestling outfits, fighting game characters, and more, somewhat inspired by the recent “controversy” around Rainbow Mika’s butt-slap-animation-censorship fiasco (I can’t believe I just wrote that). 

2015-10-03
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Making of Shenmue (Japanese TV Special)

This TV special goes into the history of Shenmue, and what led to its’ creation. Very informative, and highly recommend.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, Videogames and You!

I love Super Bunnyhop’s videos and he does an excellent job reviewing/ reporting and researching for his video. I highly recommend you check out his channel if you don’t know it already.

SmashBoards:

Smash Back Room Launched for Wii U Version – the backroom is back for Smash for Wii U, and will serve as an important meeting point for the competitive community.

Super Smash Past: Mew2King ‘Pro Interview’ from 2009 – This interview with Mew2King covers a lot of ground with one of the top Smash players in the world.

thecolormetagame

Smash Science: The Color Metagame – SmashCapps looks at the psychology behind color choices and what it might mean. Very interesting and fun article!

Princess of Destiny – Three Expert Opinions on Smash 4 Zelda – How does Zelda stack up in the latest game? Find out here!

Smash Connect Launched on SmashBoards – Smash Connect is an important feature where people can “connect” to help create Smash content, sell things or raise money. Check it out!

MinusWorld:

Soundchips, Takoyaki, and Broken Dreams — Culture Collection #1 – this post discusses other aspects of gaming culture (such as apparel,  artwork, events). It’s nice to see these parts of gaming highlighted and I hope Oliver will continue this series!

You’ve Probably Never Played…N.Y. Nyankies – A Famicon/NES game featuring cats in N.Y published by Atlus (Get it? Nyan!). Great write up, and lots of interesting tidbits.

You’ve Probably Never Played…Wily & Right no Rockboard – A Mega Man themed board game…? Why!?

PREVIEW – New Style Boutique 2: Fashion Forward (3DS)  – A write up of the upcoming Nintendo game for the 3DS. Nirbion in particular was pretty happy to see this post.

Nintendo Direct (12/11/15) — Thoughts and Impressions – Oliver Jameson gives his review of the Nintendo Direct. Great breakdown, would highly recommend!

25-years-of-speech

25 Years of Speed — A retrospective of F-Zero – a great retrospective of the SNES classic. What are your thoughts on F-Zero?

Kantopia:

Kantopia is posted daily, so much sure you follow X Kan on Twitter, or subscribe to his blog!

Splatoon Comic – I really enjoyed the middle comic…especially that last panel!

Fire Emblem Fates Character Guidebook / 4Koma Comics:
Lazward
Pieri
Benoit
Charlotte
Crimson
Flannel
Asura
Izana
Flora
Fuuga(1)
Fuuga(2)
Yukimura

Valkyria: Azure Revoltuion

Japanese 3DS:

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Bri Bri posts quite often and deserves a lot of credit. He is constantly posting information about stuff in Japan in English. He is responsible for most of the Famitsu scans you probably see, and posts updates like eShop rankings and new badge center information. So check his blog often! Make sure you follow him on Twitter.

Here’s an example of a news update he’s posted. He also posts rankings and sales information.

GameXplain:

We were recently joined by Ash Paulsen on SourceCast #4 — Cloud Storms the Battle.

Nintendo Direct Discussion: Cloud in Smash Bros, Linkle, Twilight Princess HD, Zelda Wii U, etc
The GameXplain team discusses the Nintendo Direct and give their thoughts on what was covered. They make a lot of good points, and serves as an excellent review of what was covered and its’ implications.

 

 

Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Head-to-Head Comparison (Wii U vs. Wii, GameCube)

A great video showing the differences between the versions. Nintendo should have just used this video in their direct!

End of DLC for Smash Bros Wii U & 3DS Near?

GameXplain covers the tweet that Source Gaming translated and briefly discuss the possibility of Smash DLC ending.

Comments:

Please don’t think of this as top 5 comments of the month. This is just some of the comments that I thought were interesting and I tried to select from multiple people over multiple articles. I sincerely appreciate everyone who takes time to not only read our articles, but takes time to write such insightful comments. Thank you!

Delzethin:

There’re at least a handful more super-iconic third party characters out there…and yet, pretty much every one of them has some obstacle that can stop them from getting into Smash. Konami’s rapid decline all but rules out Snake, Bomberman, and Simon Belmont. Rayman is less of a big deal in Japan, and the trend of late of Ubisoft’s execs seeing Nintendo as beneath them could sour any chance at collaborating for him. Master Chief has never appeared on a Nintendo system, and the companies behind his games haven’t had a history with Nintendo the way Square Enix has. Banjo & Kazooie are outright owned by Microsoft now, and you could argue they fell hard enough over the last ten years to not qualify for super-iconic status. We could see another character from a company already present in Smash, but would Sakurai be up for double dipping again?

Overall…it doesn’t seem very likely we’ll see another third party character. If the stars aligned, _maybe_ Snake or Rayman would have an outside chance? Maybe another character from Sega, Capcom, or Square Enix? I’d focus more on Nintendo characters for the rest of Smash 4’s lifespan, though… (Source)

SG Choice third party alt

zoniken:
I think I’m one of those guys who’s being a fool upon stranding with rules that’s not been true to Smash; such “that character must have relationship with Nintendo”, “Sega and Namco needs 2nd character to balance with Capcom”, “Mii Fighter costumes means that character won’t become DLC”…that last one is suspicious, but I do like to apologize for me becoming such a fool to misleading the false info, as much I do agree with this article.

However, there was one point I was wondering about the Capcom reps. Just like what Bob commented above, there are two Capcom companies listed in Smash 4. One is Capcom Co., LTD, and another is CAPCOM, USA. CAPCOM USA was added after Ryu was included as DLC, and since they use this company name in every games that Street Fighter characters are involved, would this mean this type of Capcom is different from the actual Capcom company? In other words, Mega Man and Ryu are from the same Capcom, but came from the different department? If so, it does make sense that Ryu is another Capcom rep, but from a different company than Mega Man’s. It also makes sense why Sega and Namco didn’t provide a secondary character to Smash…which we still don’t know that yet.

But indeed, Smash is no longer a Nintendo characters only game, as being a crossover battle of all video games, and a celebration of video games for all gamers. Smash is a game with possibilities and imaginations, and having any third party characters can have possibilities to join as they support Smash too. I think this game was for the former president Iwata too as he refer himself as a gamer than a president of Nintendo back in his present days. If people still believed that this game is for Nintendo characters only, then there wouldn’t be Smash 4, and even the previous Brawl in the first place since they added third parties in there. Even chosen characters aren’t meant to join as advertisements or promotion, they’re here to show what possibilities they can have to make Smash a greatest character game ever. Overall, you may hate Nintendo if they’ve committed a scandal, but you can’t hate Nintendo for who they’ve chose for Smash; it’d be ridiculous and pathetic for hating Nintendo for that reason.

Now after Cloud’s inclusion, it wouldn’t be too surprising which third party character will join Smash in the future. I don’t know if there’s gonna be another one for this DLC other than Cloud, but we could expect another if there’s one. But other than third parties, I’m also hoping to see another new Nintendo rep. Splatoon’s Inkling, Kirby’s Waddle Dee, Kid Icarus’ Medusa, Zelda’s Impa, Star Fox’s Krystal, anything will be happy to see; but even if none of them entered the final DLC slots, I’m still gonna be happy to see how perfect the final roster has become, and still hope for those characters for the next Smash.(Source)

Winturwulf:
I agree with the article… Black Mage was my favored choice before, but those are some good points about BM being generic. At the end of the day, Cloud is one of the most iconic and relevant characters they could have selected as DLC, even if it did divide the fanbase a bit.

He’s been in pretty much every FF game that have featured characters from past games… not just Explorers, but he was also in Record Keeper, Dissida, Theatrhythm (for that one, he’s even on the 3DS icon), Ehrgeiz, and probably more that I’m not aware of. There has been strong demand for a remake of FF7, and the strong demand also led to other games taking place in the same universe like Dirge of Cerberus.

Cloud is to Final Fantasy as Pikachu is to Pokemon… even though there have been many other characters in the series, both are the most well-known among the general populace.

To those fans upset by his inclusion: he’s DLC, you’re not required to buy him. Complaining about taking development time and resources from a Nintendo or more Nintendo-centric third-party character is not going to do anything at the end of the day. The DLC has to sell, Sakurai and the DLC team need to make DLC that is going to appeal to the most people, not just die-hard Nintendo fans.

That said, as I’ve said many times before, Cloud is not my first choice for DLC, but then again, my first choices (besides Inkling) probably wouldn’t sell as well, so I’m holding onto hope that they’ll be in Smash 5. (Source)

2015-11-14

DonkaFjord
It’s incredible how much detail he pours into games and the feeling of games- Same with a lot of other video game designers and how they design things to mentally try and help the player or to feel satisfying. I also think he doesn’t get enough credit for creating a game for a huge audience spanning the casual players to the competitive and everywhere in between- of course he can’t fully satisfy everyone, but he puts a lot of effort in attempting to. (Source)

Depth:
Bayonetta’s sexuality is only a very small slice of her in-depth character. You do not mention strength, confidence, sympathy ect and besides she flaunts it to her will. A lot of people don’t see sexuality the ‘core’ of her character. Look beyond. The standard costumes from both Bayonetta games as well as most of the additional costumes are no more revealing than some of the costumes which are already in Smash Bros. Inherently she’s no more sexual than Zero Suit Samus when acting normally as usual. There’s only about 4 over the top close up cutscenes in each of her two games anyways. She is much less revealing than a Shulk or ZZS and with Lady Palutena on the sexy poses list already, some potential taunts would also be perfectly acceptable. If anything, all you’d have to do is make the Wicked Weaves not strip her while showing the epic hair effects similar to the process in Bayonetta and cut the cursing – that is, if Wicked Weaves do come into play. Bayonetta not stripping (or, if possible, limited striping) will also just make it EASIER to get her in as less valuable resources are wasted creating unnecessary animations.

Another thing I’d like to add is that Nintendo was able to incorporate Solid Snake into Brawl, whose original fighting style involved pistols and rifles, which if you ask me, would be even harder to tone down than unrealistically massive, colourful fantasy guns.. Graphic finishers? Does Snake use his graphic finishers in smash? She does not need to, either, nor any lines using swear words. But they were able to make him work nonetheless, so I’m pretty confident that they can make Bayonetta work in Smash.

Oh, and she’s Hideki Kamiya approved. He just doesn’t like to be bombarded with requests on his personal twitter. — If you were following Kamiya you would quickly realize he doesn’t want spam of any kind on his personal account.

“So it’s not something that I could comment on. In fact, you could probably ask Mr.Sakurai! If Mr.Sakurai wanted to put her in the game it probably would happen and I’d be more than happy to!” – Hideki Kamiya, 2013. (Source)

Top 15 Seeeeegaaaaah alt

Let us know in the comments which content you recommend, and we will check it out!

If you haven’t please vote in the “Who is an All-Star?” poll!

3 comments
  1. I read through the color science thing… it was very interesting! Maybe I should choose red colors early in training and blue for later. ^_^

    I don’t really have any recommendations, sadly… I tend not to read or watch too much stuff other than Siliconera and SG unless I’m doing research for something.

    Thanks for picking my comment on one of the Cloud articles, though! I’m super excited to play as him in Smash, and playing through FFVII again is reminding me why the game is so highly regarded. If anyone hasn’t played it and is able to, I’d strongly recommend it… if you can look past the 1997 blocky polygon models (the beautiful pre-rendered environments make it easier), it’s really a great game with an amazing story. I’m still on the first disc on this playthrough, but I’ve already had a fair dose of comedy, tragedy, creepiness, heroics, and sheer random fun.

    I’d recommend playing every Smash Bros. character’s games, actually… it truly gives one a new appreciation for the character and the work Sakurai puts into each one.

    Winturwulf (@winturwulf) on November 23 |
  2. It must have taken a long time to put this page together, I really appreciate the effort that you all put into promoting friends and partners alike. I also like how it gives us and others a chance to explore articles on other sites we may not have noticed before.

    Please keep up the great work guys!

    xkan on November 23 |
  3. I was surprised that you’ve chose my comment from the Character VS Company article for this! In the beginning, I was one of those people who’ve always followed those specific rules that was never meant to be true, like “third party’s relationship with Nintendo in the past is the major requirements”. But when I first I came to this site since then, I’ve opened my eyes that everything explained here does perfectly make sense, and what I’ve believed for this whole time was wrong by misleading ideas. Since then, I understand that Smash isn’t just for Nintendo fans only, but to all gamers who love video games entirely, and I do believe this is was former President Iwata really wanted to have as a gamer too. I really thank PushDustIn and everybody of this site for helping me realize what Smash is all about, and I do wish to continue supporting this site as long Smash continues on.

    I can hardly bring up any games that’s recommended by me. My Wii U is temporarily sealed away from my room while I still have my 3DS hidden for many reasons, which I blame myself for that cause. However, although I don’t play any indie games as I’m not a fan of it, I do agree to recommend Undertale. I haven’t played it before since I terribly suck at bullet hell games (I’m like one of those walking “Break The Targets” type of guy), I’ve watched the gameplay through Youtube, starting from Markiplier’s first playthrough (although it’s on hiatus for some reasons). But if I do play (sorry for spoilers!), I’d choose Pacifist Run only, which I refuse playing Genocide Run as I don’t want to mess up the game with hatred and horror.

    Anyways, the next DLC will be the last Smash production we’ll ever get, but I wouldn’t think we’ll get it next month after the final Smash Direct. As we can think about Mewtwo’s inclusion announcement from last year’s 50 Facts Direct, I think we’ll get the final DLC around the next year of spring, probably sometime in March or April. And since we have 2 more characters left according to those empty slots found by data miners, I wonder who’ll be the last chosen fighters for Smash; could it be a returning veteran like Wolf, another third party other than Cloud, or a truly new Nintendo fighter from the Smash Ballot? Either way, can’t wait for the next Smash Direct!

    Thank you so much for providing so many interesting articles for the Smash community. Keep up a great work!

    zoniken on November 24 |