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M&C| WEDNESDAY | 10.29.2014| Maceandcrown.com
Nintendo dumps facts on the new Smash Bros. Robert Williams Staff Writer Last Thursday, Nintendo held a special Nintendo Direct titled “Super Smash Bros. for Wii U 50-Fact Extravaganza.” The video featured gameplay showcasing new features in “Smash Bros.” for Wii U and was voiced by the “Smash Bros.” announcer. “Super Smash Bros. Wii U” will be releasing Nov. 21, a little over a month after the internationally successful launch of “Super Smash Bros 3DS.” The Nintendo Direct covered a whopping fifty newly revealed facts about the game, the most important of which are catalogued and listed below. Additional Controls and Characters A total of 40 characters will be playable immediately, with additional fighters available to be unlocked. Mewtwo will be added to both versions of the game as a free download. In order to claim the download, players must own both versions of the game. Mewtwo is scheduled to be released in spring 2015. A Gamecube controller adapter will be released allowing four Gamecube controllers to plug into the Wii U. Additionally “Super Smash Bros Wii U” can be played with all of the controllers supported by Wii U or even a 3DS. The buttons for each controller type can be customized. In order to use the 3DS as a controller, players must own the 3DS version of the game. Linking the 3DS and Wii U will also allow the player to transfer over customized characters and Mii characters. Nintendo’s new amiibo toy line can be used to add “figure players” to the game. They will continually grow stronger and learn new strategies, allowing players to have a super powered side kick or more advanced
enemy. The gamepad can be used to display the same visuals as the TV, or to display the damage information. Pause screen photos can now be drawn on with the touch screen. An update will allow these drawn photos to be shared online. Using the gamepad’s microphone, there is now a voice chat feature while playing with friends online. Voice chat will only work while in the selection and result screens, but not during actual battles in order to preserve signal strength. Nintendo is working on a sharing feature that allows players to share pictures, mii fighters and custom stages with their friends as well as post them online. New and Improved Modes Up to eight players can play at once in a special mode. This mode is offline only and will only allow certain stages to be played. Stage builder allows the player to draw custom platforms on the touch screen. The player can also add various stage hazards and features, like springs, cannons and magma. Stages can have one of five themes and use any of the music you have unlocked. Special match mode will be returning. Special match allows the player to customize certain aspects including character size, gravity, and speed. Stamina matches, which were absent from the 3DS version, will be found here. Special matches will not affect player records. Event mode will make a return. In event mode, the player will fight in various themed battles. Clearing an event unlocks events on a map, as opposed to the line in the Wii game. Event mode features a two player mode with separate events. Smash Tour is a new mode similar to a board game. As players move around the board, they will collect fighters and power-ups. The final
showdown will be a stock battle where the player’s fighters are powered up based on the items they got on the board. The stock for the battle is each player’s group of fighters, so the more fighters the better. Target blast gives the player a time bomb that they must use to destroy targets. Before the bomb goes off, it can be weakened, allowing it to be hit farther. The second bomb is a larger, more powerful bomb that also will take more effort to damage. The stadium now features multiplayer mode. Up to four players can take turns on target blast or multiman smash and up to two can play home run contest. Special Orders is a new mode where players take on special challenges issued by either master hand (master orders) or crazy hand (crazy orders). Some features will be repeated
from the 3DS version, such as the “For Glory” online mode, a mode that features no items and flat stages for only the most competitive players, and Global Smash Power. Stages on Stages on Stages To account for the increased player count in certain modes, there are multiple large stages featured in the game. These will feature “Danger Zones” and other stage hazards to create more hectic battles. Master Core returns from the 3DS with a new giant form called Master Fortress. Master Fortress is a large dungeon like stage where the player must find and destroy glowing spheres without being killed by enemies. Master Fortress will only appear on higher difficulties. Dual plane stages were introduced by showcasing a stage based on Donkey Kong Country Returns.
There will be a Miiverse stage that will pull posts from the Miiverse, Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS social network, to show in the background to cheer on the players. The stage Gaur Plain will feature Metal Face from Xenoblade Chronicles as a boss that will appear at night to mock and attack the players. Pyrosphere, a stage based on the Metroid series, will feature Ridley as a boss. Ridley can join a player’s side, power up to Meta Ridley, and be knocked out. Buying the 3DS and Wii U versions of the game and registering them on Nintendo’s loyalty rewards service, Club Nintendo, will allow users to get a special CD set with two discs, a red one with 36 songs from the 3DS game and a blue one with 36 songs from the Wii U game. This offer will be valid until Jan. 13, 2015.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor game review Robert Williams Staff Writer “Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor” is an action role playing game for the PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox One and 350 and PC set in the universe of “Lord of the Rings.” This game mixes “Assassin Creed” traversal with “Batman: Arkham” combat which delivers great gameplay to this compelling story. The plot takes place between “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” books. Players follow a Ranger name Talion whose story set the tone of game. He and his family are killed by Sauron’s armies and now Talion’s soul will not rest until he gets revenge for his family death. However,
he does not take on Sauron the dark lord alone; he gains an ally in an elf ghost whose memories are scattered and forgotten. One thing the elf does know is that he and Talion are bound with same urge for revenge. To simply put it, the game is fun and the combat is a big reason why. It is easy to fight and kill the enemies despite their relentlessness. The enemy Uruks swarm in large numbers and enemies are diverse enough to keep fighting fresh. In the early game, if you are not careful, dying will be a hobby. Unfortunately in “Shadow of Mordor,” dying is the last thing you want to do because of a new mechanic called the Nemeses system. The Nemeses system is Sauron’s
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Army which is made up of randomly generated Uruks that are given names and unique strengths and weakness. These strengths can range from invulnerabilities to certain types of attacks to special combat abilities such as poison weapons and jump attacks. They also can have passive abilities which could include attack, defense and speed upgrades just from looking at Talion. What makes the Nemeses system great and Sauron’s Army almost organic is how it directly interacts with player. When an Uruk kills you, he is promoted to a Captain in the dark lord’s army and is given new armor, new weapons and new strengths. The Uruks might even lose a weakness or maybe an old weakness is replaced
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with a lesser one. Each Uruk can eventually become a War Chief. They are pretty much like Super Uruks, only five are allowed in a given army. Uruk Captains and War Chiefs remember each encounter the player has with them. Whether they kill you or runaway to survive another day, Uruks will give dialogue about the last clash you had with them and may even have battle scars or burns depending on how badly they were beaten before. Sprinting climbing and running in the game is not as intuitive as previous Ubisoft titles might lead you to believe. Having played all the “Assassin Creed” games except for the handhelds, the movement in this game feels like AC 1 or 2. I found my-
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self running up walls I did not want to and being stuck on ledges I wanted to get down from. I will admit that it did not get me extremely frustrated until I was trying to complete the timed side missions. Luckily there is a fast travel system in the game so players do not have to run to every location you need to get to. Overall this is a great game. With a story campaign just under 25 hours, this is perfect for a college student’s weekend. If you do have more free time than most of us, there are an abundant mastery missions and Trail of War leaderboards that add another eight hours to the game to keep players coming back for more.