Welcome to The Doctor's Prognosis! I am your humble host, Dr. C-LOS. Here, I will let you know my thoughts on various forms of entertainment including film, TV, and video games. Enjoy!
Cloud Strife announced for Super Smash Bros, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD unveiled, and MORE in the latest Nintendo Direct!
Arguably the biggest surprise today was Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII debuting on the popular fighter, Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3DS.
The music sure got me pumped up. The Midgar stage looks fantastic, and the summons look amazing. Definitely a character I am looking forward to playing as. No release date was announced, but Nintendo will be doing a special Smash Bros-centric Nintendo Direct in December so keep an eye out for more info and surprises.
Nintendo also officially unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD for the Wii U, along with a brand new Wolf Link amiibo.
You can purchase the amiibo bundled with the game, though Nintendo has not announced what function the amiibo will serve. Other series-related amiibo, including Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, Sheik and Toon Link, will also be compatible with the game. Furthermore, Nintendo revealed that the data on the Wolf Link amiibo can be transferred to the upcoming Zelda Wii U game. Expect to hear more on that tidbit soon.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD will be available on March 4, 2016.
Nintendo also showed several other upcoming titles such as the new Fire Emblem, Hyrule Warriors Legends for the 3DS (Featuring a female Link!), and a rerelease of the original, first generation Pokémon games. For all that and more, here is the full Nintendo Direct for your convenience.
Conan O'Brien took a trip to E3 last week and had a chance to check out Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. for one of his "Clueless Gamer" segments. The result was the following hilarious review.....
Catch Conan on TBS weeknights at 11/10c. For more great Conan videos like this, make sure to check out the official Team Coco website and the official Conan YouTube page.
Super Smash Bros. is scheduled to release on the 3DS on October 3rd, while the Wii U version is scheduled for this year's holiday season.
Hot off the heals of announcing the Mii fighters and Palutena, Nintendo officially announces Pac-Man for Super Smash Bros for the Wii U and 3DS. Check out the trailer here!
Pac-Man's inclusion means that four major gaming mascots will be taking on the fighting stage at the same time for the first time. Players will be able to duke it out between Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, and Pac-Man in a fight for gaming supremacy.
It also looks like Mr. Game & Watch will be making a return to help Pac-Man fight for the honor of 1980 gaming icons. The cast is definitely shaping up to be one of the best in the series ever.
Super Smash Bros. is scheduled to release on the 3DS on October 3rd, while the Wii U version is scheduled for this year's holiday season.
Hello and welcome to a long overdue edition of the Doctor's Prognosis! I am your humble host, Dr. C-LOS. Been very busy with work and school but everything is going really well. In the spirit of the month of Halloween, I have been playing both Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on the 360, and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair for XBox Live. My friend pointed out that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow abbreviated is C-LOS. :P
Now on to the main event! SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 REVIEW
Super Mario Galaxy won the coveted Doctor's Prognosis' Game of the Year award back in 2007. So this sequel had a lot to live up to. Would Nintendo simply rest on their laurels and churn out the same old kind of stuff we saw last time? Fortunately, they did not.
The whole game could have looked like this and we all would have still bought it.
While SMG2 does indeed have many similarities to the first game (collecting stars, crazy gravity, etc.), the developers went out of their way to inject fresh challenges throughout. For example, Nintendo could have relied heavily on the old power-ups such as Ghost Mario and Bee Mario. Instead, while still present, these power-ups are scarce. Thus making room for the new power-ups such as the boulder-like Rock Mario, and the platform-creating Cloud Mario. Such new power-ups create new challenges for Mario to overcome.
My favorite new power-up, Cloud Mario, can create up to 3 platforms anywhere!
One of the best new power-ups, is also an old friend: the return of Yoshi! Point the Wii remote at enemies on screen to help Yoshi gobble them up and earn you star bits. Yoshi, just like the other power-ups, presents new challenges to overcome such as using Yoshi's tongue to swing around the levels, or eating certain fruits to gain even more abilities. One such fruit is the blue fruit which turns Yoshi blue, fills him with air, and allows him to float around for a bit. Red fruits make Yoshi red and give him the ability to run really fast for a while. Learning to use Yoshi will get you very far in the game and is a big part of the fun and challenge.
Yoshi changes color and gains special abilities when he eats certain fruits.
Of course with all the new power-ups comes some great new level designs creating new challenges whether it is tailored to using the power-ups, or simply testing your timing and patience. Nintendo got very wicked with their level designs and present a game even more challenging than the previous one. Difficulty will range from very easy, to extremely hard.
Awesome boss fights are another part of the fun and challenge.
The beauty about SMG2 is that it can appeal to anyone of any age and of any ability in playing games. There are many ways to go throughout the game and collect stars that new gamers can avoid the more difficult levels and challenges. Meanwhile, hardcore gamers will relish the difficulty of obtaining every star (this reviewer lost about 50 men, and the feeling in his arms, just to get the final star).
You might feel like this after getting all the stars. I did.
Also worth mentioning, the music is just as good as the previous game. Once again, Nintendo did not rest on their laurels and composed a lot of new music. Of course, there are some from the last game, but those are used sparingly. And of course, there are still arrangements of Mario games of yore. But they always seem to be used where it seems most appropriate as opposed to just being thrown in for nostalgia sake. And more importantly, purple coins are back (in both the level and musical sense)!
As has been the focus of this review, Nintendo could have indeed been lazy and churned out a game very similar to what we had in the first Super Mario Galaxy and it would still have been a great game. But instead we have an incredible game with some imaginative level design, and some wicked difficulty. The game is also much more streamlined, eschewing the giant spaceship world hub for a Mario-shaped spacecraft that will quickly take you to the level you want. And while it would be pushing it to say they raised the bar as much as they did with the first SMG, it would also be extremely difficult to find anything objectively wrong with the game. This is a game where if you die, it is your own fault. Not because the camera was in the way, or because the game was unfair, but because you timed your jump incorrectly, or pushed the analog stick too far to the right. There are not many games like that out there but Mario usually seems to fit into this category. And this Mario game definitely fits into that category. And that is why, with some hesitation, and still unable to come up with any good reason to the contrary, Super Mario Galaxy 2 gets a 10 out of 10.
"Yahoo!" "Yoshi!"
I hope you enjoyed my review! I almost did not give the game a 10 because of the motion controlled levels. It was my least favorite part but I realized I still could not put my controller down and had fun doing them. And they were really challenging. Nintendo is diabolical I tell you!
And yes I really did get every single star. And yes it did take me about 50 lives to get the last one. My arm was in terrible condition by the time I got it. If you want to know, the last star takes place in the most difficult level in the game, and you have to finish it without getting hit a single time! You must be masochistic to attempt it! Or stupid...... Oh wait! :P
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the latest edition of The Doctor's Prognosis! Hopefully the next one won't be so far off. Don't forget to make another appointment! See you soon!
