Rant: Am I The Only One Who DOESN'T Want a "Super Mario Galaxy 3"?

With the Wii U out for more than a year now, the system has already seen two major Mario titles - New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario 3D World. Both games have been popular and have seen positive reviews. But they are also both linear platformers where the goal is simply to get from the start to the flagpole at the end of the level while following a strict path. (Note: NSMBU is strictly 2D while 3D World is set in on a 3D plane of movement.)

The Wii U has yet to see any sort of news regarding a completely 3D Mario Platformer - the would-be successor of Super Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy (1&2). With 2014 jam-packed with many new releases for 1st-party titles, and 2 major Mario games already on the market, it makes sense that Nintendo hasn't commented about another Mario game. This has allowed for lots speculation by fans about what the next 3D Mario game would be. and many fans are calling for a third Super Mario Galaxy.

Why I'm Not In Favor

Gameplay-wise

Although Super Mario Galaxy is a 3D platformer, it is not a much of a "Free-Roam" game as were its predecessors - Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. Even though Mario is once again collecting Power Stars, the levels are still quite linear. Its level design and mechanics are closer to what was seen recently Super Mario 3D Land/World. In fact, you could even say that the SM3D games are successors to the Galaxy series with a hint of Super Mario Bros. mixed in.

Personally, I would love to see Mario on a 3D adventure closer to home featuring an open world and large, open, not-so-linear levels.

Story-wise

Don't get me wrong, Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel Super Mario Galaxy 2 were both games that I enjoyed (as did the fan base). But the SMG series doesn't really need a 3rd entry. Super Mario Galaxy took Mario to the 'final frontier' bringing him where no plumber had gone before. It had tons of new ideas and offered great gameplay. The story however was a bit lacking: How would Bowser have created such a threat as to take over planets and galaxies when he can't even keep the Mushroom Kingdom under his thumb?

But let's humor it and let it happen. Super Mario Galaxy 2 had almost no story at all. In fact, the game itself was created simply because there were so many ideas that the development team had when making the first game, they created the second one to implement the left-overs. And unlike sequels SMG2 was also a huge hit and added so many new things that it is also a very great game (Personally, I prefer it to the first one).

So does that leave for Super Mario Galaxy 3? Not much at all. If you say that Boswer has yet again gathered the resources to go back into space, that's just a bunch of non-sense. I would rather see Mario take on a challenge that takes place right at home exploring more of his own world rather than the universe. All I can say is that a 3rd Super Mario Galaxy in the near future would be milking the franchise instead of creating another new masterpiece.

A Fan Made Galaxy 3 Logo

Rant: What is Capcom doing to Mega Man?

One of my first articles that I wrote for The Geek Generation is a rant that sadly is still pretty relevant today. Granted, it was great to see Street Fighter x Mega Man but then nothing else has emerged other than Mega Man being included in Super Smash Bros. 4. I've got nothing against games with massive development times or hiatuses, but it's been ages since a new Mega Man title of any series to even be announced. Take a look at my thoughts and see if you agree with me.

Everyone can recognize Mega Man. He’s the arm cannon-wielding robot otherwise known as the “Blue Bomber”. Next to characters like Mario and Sonic, Mega Man is certainly a famous and successful character spanning tons of adventure games, fighting games, and many RPGs over the past 25 years. With 7 different Mega Man characters with various timelines, you would think that Capcom has endless options for making new Mega Man games. And yet, three – count them, three – Mega Man projects in the past 2 years have been scrapped and the only game in production is Mega Man Xover (pronounced Cross-over) for the iOS; a freakin’ cellphone game! So let’s look at what Capcom felt wasn’t good enough to give the fans despite their incessant demands for them.

READ MORE >>

The Wii U Is Much Stronger Than Rumors Suggest

Alright ladies and gents, time for a very long over-due rant by yours truly. The topic I'd like to discuss is the Wii U and the 8th generation consoles. It seems like everyone online has been jumping to major conclusions without checking the facts and letting time settle everything. I'm gunna list out some claims/"problems" about the Wii U and respond to them how I see it.

"The Wii U has no games"

Well....okay yes, at the present time the Wii U library is a bit lacking but remember that it's only been out for less than a year. Yes, there were some games that were scheduled to come out a launch, Pikmin 3 for example, that got pushed back a bit, but E3 just a day away and there will be many games coming up by the holiday season if not earlier. Just look at the previous Nintendo Directs and this new upcoming one for dates and games that are in the works. The system had a shaky start, but it will rebound. I have faith.

"The Wii U is so weak it shouldn't even be part of the 8th Generation"

Now this idea is a bit narrow minded. Although the Wii U does overall have lower memory and processing specs, it also doesn't NEED those specs either. The XBox One has 8 cores of memory because every game is going to be downloaded from the disc rather than being played from the disc. Only games downloaded digitally will be saved onto the Wii U system or external memory options.

The lack of Blu-ray player does prevent the Wii U from playing games on Blu-ray discs meaning that very games would either need to be compressed to fit the optical DVDs or be split into multiple discs to be played. It also doesn't have the ability to play movies from discs, but the Wii U has compatibility with Hulu/Netflix/etc... Blu-ray It also keeps the costs of the system a lot lower.

Also, yes the Wii U is Nintendo's first HD system, but that's the thing. Just because it's the first from Nintendo doesn't mean that the games can't be good looking. And in case you haven't noticed, Nintendo games are more than just for the good graphics, it's for gameplay.

"Why "Wii U"?  Why repeat "Wii" instead of giving it a new name? It's so dumb"

Well, before you jump on Nintendo for repeating 'Wii' in the name, look at trends and the history. Go back 20 years with Nintendo and Sega ruling the gaming world; each new system was a battle to come up with the most clever system name. Today, Nintendo's competitors - the Microsoft Xbox ONE and Sony PlayStation 4 - have used the same base name for each system followed by a number. Nintendo did the same thing back with the NES and the Super NES even earlier to follow the trends started by the Atari 2600/5200/7800.

The name Wii U is just following suit. Yes, "Wii" and "Wii U" do sound a bit odd, but it's at least original. And I get the confusion on whether this is a separate system or if it's just a small update system - those are valid and I can see where it all comes from.

"The WiiU is just another Dreamcast and is gunna crash and burn"

First look at this comic. I laughed at it, not because it's accurate, but because it's funny in a satire way. And it's exactly what the general public is being fed which makes everyone think that the Wii U is in danger. It's not! Look back at the PS3 and the 3DS. Right off the bat, sales started to drop when their respective prices and tiny libraries kept people from buying them. After a few months though, they too were flying off shelves and provided some of the best gaming experiences of the past decade.

Conclusion

Bottom line, Nintendo's not going anywhere. To all you saying that Nintendo should just hurry up and back out of the console market and become a 3rd party software developer, I challenge you to find me good reasons why the gaming world and the consumer would benefit from such a move. I assure you that Mario, Zelda, and other titles exclusive to Nintendo will be phenomenal and right in the battle with the other consoles.

Whelp, thanks for reading my steam of consciousness. These are my opinions and I think I've also provided enough facts for my argument. Now can't we all just kinda get along and let the consoles have their chance to show what they got before we start stomping on them? Even the PS4 and XBoxOne are getting roasted and they haven't even come out yet.

I also wanna remind you that over at The Geek Generation, I'll be covering all sorts of Nintendo E3 news.

And as usual, happy gaming!  

Super Rant #1

(Author's note: From time to time I plan on just laying my thoughts out on paper and releasing huge rants to the masses even if they have nothing to do with current events or my prior discussions. So as a holiday gift from me to all my readers, I give you the first " OWNAGE Super Rant")

Guitar Hero – A Great Franchise Milked Dry

The Iconic Controllers of
first few games.

Five colored buttons, a strum bar, and a whammy bar – Those three components made up the controller for one of the most widely recognized American developed, multi-console, 3^rd party videogames. Despite being a rhythm video game (akin to the family of games like Dance Dance Revolution), its sales have rivaled those of platform adventure games. The series created a huge culture shock increasing sales not only of videogames but of music, CDs, and physical instruments. Many people jumped into the craze (albeit to the dismay of real rockers with all these “posers” running around) and many games were successfully sold.

Now let’s break it down further:

The first Guitar Hero game was released by Activision on November 8, 2005 only for the PS2. Reception was superb and sales reached more than 4.5 million by the end of the year. (Problem? No. Keep looking).

Guitar Hero game play.

So then a sequel, Guitar Hero II, was spawned and reached out to X-box owners (PS2: November 6, 2006, X-Box 360 April 7, 2007). More successful than the first, it launched Guitar Hero into the mainstream world and was climbing the charts in popularity. A spinoff of GH II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80’s  served as an expansion game. Thus the culture was growing. (Too good to be true? Let’s see)

So what about Nintendo? Eager to cater to all three major companies, the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was also the first to be available for the PS3 and the Nintendo WII and start the era of true multi-plaforming (this rant wouldn’t be here otherwise hahaha). GH: III was named one of the top selling games of 2007. Sealing the deal, Guitar Hero was everywhere by this point: On T-shirts, in everyone’s game room, and even being parodied on TV.

Sitting on top of a gold mine, Activision had nothing to worry about...until something occurred. Problem? Rock Band...A.K.A. Competition. Solution? Guitar Hero: World Tour.

RockBand mimicked the idea of Guitar Hero and incorporated the peripherals of Drums and Vocals and such to keep on par, Guitar Hero followed suit in their own way. Released between GH III and WT, Rock Band seemed to take the spot light. With a RB sequel planned for 2008, Activision had to hurry up and produce a game to compare. When both were released, they were almost evenly matched…EMPHASIS on Matched –  RB2 and GH:WT shared many songs in common such as Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”

At this point you’re probably thinking: “Wow, the series just keeps getting better and better. MC Hammer Bro., you must be crazy.” Well, this is where we reach the turning point…

2009, The Year It All Changed.

After the release of World Tour, it seems that Activision got greedy and wanted to shut the door on Rock Band. With the success of a Band Specific release in “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” (which came out only a few months before World Tour), it seemed that the company was banking on releasing a ton spin of titles for every 1 mainstream edition. In the early half of 2009, Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (a collection of songs from previous titles) and in the later half, Guitar Hero 5 was shadowed with the release of Guitar Hero: Van Halen. And not even a month later, Activision takes another leap of faith releasing the unanticipated DJ Hero. And let’s not forget the release of Band Hero only 1 more month after that. 

See what I’m getting at here? In the 4 years prior to 2009, only 6 Guitar Hero titles were released by Activision. And then in that year alone, Activision released 6 different Guitar Hero games.

Despite being an avid gamer and a fan
of the series, I personally have only 5
out of the 14 console games
--- Over Saturation

Overproduction. Oversaturation. Milking the franchise for every quick money making dollar they could get. And what was the result? Sure Activision tried to put itself back on good terms by waiting almost an entire year before releasing the 6^th main game of the series, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, but since then there have been no releases in over a year and no plans to make a new GH games in the foreseeable future.

Now, I'm not hating on the Guitar Hero series as a whole. I've always enjoyed the games and have become an avid player. I just think that the releases of games became too close together that the market became saturated and basically demand dropped significantly. Although Rock Band has done better in allowing plenty of time to occur between releases, I feel that both series have taken a hit due to all this overproduction. With Activision claiming that the series is merely on a break rather than complete only gives the slightest bit of hope that there will be subsequent games in the future.

Thanks for checking out my rants and feel free to throw down a few comments.

Rock on!

MC Hammer Bro.