Author Archives: Kappy

Melee in 2013: Year in Review

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MIOM | Juggleguy's avatarMelee It On Me

Melee in 2013: Year in Review
The sixth annual Smash tournament industry report

Previous Editions
[2007]
[2008] (none)
[2009]
[2010]
[2011]
[2012]

Overview of 2013

2013… where do we begin.

As the year draws to a close, many members of the Melee community can’t help but look back at the past twelve months and ask: What happened this year? How did we get here? How is it that the scene is arguably stronger now than at any other point in history? The answers to these questions outline some of the most exciting, grueling, and heart-stopping moments the Melee community has ever seen. Resilience was tested with the “Spirit Bomb” donation drive, and vindication was achieved with the return of Melee to the Evolution Championship Series. Adversity was conquered through the Nintendo Stream Crisis, and antiquity was celebrated with the release…

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Happy Holidays!

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I would have put up a blog about this on Friday, but I’ve been caught up in the swirl of Christmas cookies, shopping – you know the drill. I wanted to let you know that this Friday there will be no post since it’s only a couple days after Christmas. The next post will be on January 3rd of the new year.

Until then, happy holidays to everyone!

Just Sayin’.

REVIEW: Mario Party Island Tour

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I apologize for this being late, I was busy Friday and Saturday. Onto the review!

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I haven’t really played any of the recent Mario Party games. Mario Party DS I played a bit, but not too much. The newest installment into the series, Mario Party Island Tour, however, is shaping up to be a Mario Party I will play quite often.

Mario Party Island Tour, like Mario Party 9, completely offs the classic gather stars and circle a game board. Instead, they’re replaced with “race” boards, as I call them, where the first player to reach the finish line wins. However, unlike Mario party 9, where everyone rides that dumb vehicle together, it hearkens back to the classic style of moving, where everyone takes their own turn and uses dice…or cards on certain boards. Because of this style, there are no blue and red spaces that give out coins, instead having item spaces, move back spaces, and other various spaces that switch places with opponents, summon Bowser, etc… It’s actually pretty refreshing, and I find myself not missing the old style because, really, I can play the old ones on the virtual console.

So that’s all great, but what really makes this game awesome are the mini games, which are surprisingly great. I didn’t think the mini-games would be spectacular, but they’ve all been really fun and I haven’t been disappointed by one yet, and I’ve played through almost every board.

That’s really it. The music has some cool throwbacks to old games, and the graphics are pretty good (the Mario Galaxy board is awesome!), but there’s really nothing else to write about.

If you’re looking for a Mario Party experience not quite the classics, but refreshing and new with some awesome mini games, consider picking up Mario Party Island Tour. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Final Score: 7/10

Just Sayin’.

REVIEW: Sonic Lost World

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After seeing the trailers and getting incredibly hyped for Sonic Lost World, I have finally beaten it. That means it’s time for a review! Before we begin, note that I’m reviewing the Nintendo 3DS version.

Plot:

I can’t say too much about the plot. It’s a standard Sonic vs Eggman with some extraneous other enemy thrown in. The Deadly Six are just, well…there.

Characters:

This part surprised me. The relationship between Sonic and Tails is actually very well done – at one point, Sonic recklessly kicks the device Eggman was using to control the Deadly Six without heeding Tails warning, and after running from the ensuing fight due to the Deadly Six controlling all of Eggman’s robots, he laments that he should’ve listened to Tails, and Tails almost replays with a sarcastic, “You think?” It’s cool to see that Tails has some backbone as opposed to other games where he just plays the sidekick. I was impressed. Even Eggman has some real personality when interacting with Sonic and Tails. It’s almost comedic.

On the flip side, the Deadly Six are awful. They’re one-dimensional and boring.

Gameplay:

Sonic Lost World really steps up the “Sonic Formula”. Instead of gradually reaching max speed, Sonic has two speeds – walking, and running. You simply hold the R button and you will always be traveling at max speed. It’s an incredible mechanic, allowing Sonic to blaze through the parts of the level where he should without gradually reaching max speed, and when he needs to platform he has the option not to go full speed and go for some precision. Switching between the two is seamless and – I must stress – quick. Accelerating to max speed takes less than a second, and it’s very satisfying to go from precision platforming to max speed so quickly.

Sonic still has his old tricks – spin dashing, homing attack, etc… but with some new twists. Sonic can now very quickly homing attack a series of enemies with the homing attack, making for a very satisfying string of enemies defeated. It’s very flashy looking.

Sonic has also acquired some new abilities, most noticeable his newfound love of parkour. Running up and on the side of walls looks very cool, and gives a more realistic way for Sonic to traverse the levels. A lot of animation videos of Sonic show him flashily moving around his environment with jumps, spins, wall kicks, and vaults, and while it’s not exactly parkour, the vaults and jumps that those who parkour utilize is definitely something Sonic should be using. I think this style is a step in the right direction, and I’d love to see Sonic start to free run.

He can also send a slice of air out by doing an aerial backflip. It’s mainly for combating certain enemies. He also has new “Color” powers, meaning new wisps powers to use. There are some classics like Lightning and Drill, with some cools one like one that lets you latch onto magnetically charged bars and enemies, one that’s literally a moving black hole, and one that turns you into a giant iron ball. They’re all really cool.

Atmosphere:

The levels are very well designed. I didn’t get bored once with them. As with many of these kinds of platforming games, you have your grass world, laval world, water world, desert world, etc…but what’s working for the levels are the Super Mario Galaxy-esque level designs. Although not as sharp as the aforementioned platformer, Sonic Lost World does a pretty decent job incorporating gravity into their levels. It’s an interesting experience after having played both games in the Mario Galaxy series, and I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed. It didn’t feel like some cheap rip-off design. There was definitely thought put into how Sonic world interact with gravity.

The music is surprisingly unmemorable for most of the game. I can recall only the first world’s music clearly. I’m a little disappointed; as a Sonic fan, I’ve played through some of the not-so-great games in the series, but there was always some really solid and memorable music.

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If you like Sonic games, you’re sure to love this. As with Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, this is a big step in the right direction for Sonic games, and I hope this uphill trend continues.

Score:

Plot: 5/10
Characters: 7/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Final Score: 7/10

Just sayin’

Pokémon VGC 2014 Rules Announced!

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If you’re a competitive Pokémon player, I’m sure you’ve heard the news: the official Video Game Championship (VGC) ruleset for 2014 was announced by The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) about a week ago. I’m here to give you my opinion on the format. I will be taking directly from the official document (link will be provided at the bottom).

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9.      Sanctioned Format

Pokémon Organized Play supports one format for sanctioned play: Standard. Sanctioned events are listed on the POP website, and the results are reported to POP after the event concludes.

9.1. Standard Format

The Standard format is the standard tournament format for Play! Pokémon video game events. This format will be used at all premier events unless specified otherwise. The Standard format for the 2014 season will use the following restrictions:

· Only Pokémon X and Pokémon Y Game Cards or downloadable versions are permitted for use.

· Players may use Pokémon from the Central Kalos Pokédex from #001 to #150, Coastal Kalos Pokédex from #001 to #153, or Mountain Kalos Pokédex from #001 to #147.

· Pokémon must be placed in the Battle Box.

· Pokémon are allowed to Mega Evolve.

· Pokémon above Level 50 are permitted, but they are auto-leveled down to 50 for the duration of battle.

· Players may use Pokémon with Hidden Abilities.

· Players may use items that have been officially released via Pokémon X, Pokémon Y, the Pokémon Global Link, or an official event or promotion.

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9.2. Kalos Native

Pokémon used in the Standard Format must be native to the Kalos region in Pokémon X or Pokémon Y. A native Pokémon is a Pokémon that is hatched or caught in Pokémon X or Pokémon Y. Pokémon that have been transferred to Pokémon X or Pokémon Y via Pokémon Bank or Poké Transporter are not native.

So this right here is the “big” news. Rumors had been flying around about the rules being Kalos Dex only, and here it is: Kalos Dex only. What does this mean? A lot of Pokémon in the Friend Safari are NOT allowed. While this may seem confusing and frustrating to those who want to use Togekiss or Breloom, I’m okay with this. I don’t enjoy that they’re restricting Pokemon, but I get it – they don’t want any Pokémon RNG’d from older gens in, and so they’re eliminating that possibility entirely by simply banning them from play.

One interesting thing about this group of Pokémon is the lack of legendaries. Many teams used at least one or two legendary Pokémon from trios because they were very strong, and others would use those such as Heatran, Cresselia, Latios, etc… because of how well they played. In fact, Latios’ Dragon Gem Draco Meteor was THE special move to EV around in 5th gen.

This sudden lack of those legendaries means two things: 1) Casuals who hate it when people use those legendaries may actually decide to play competitively, and 2) the metagame will definitely be shaken up a little. I don’t think it’s going to be a crazy shake-up, but there will be Pokémon that will replace Cresselia, Thundurus, Heatran, Terrakion, etc…

One thing to note: You can breed egg moves from Pokémon transferred from 5th gen to 6th gen Pokémon and have it be legal, so that’s a plus!

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4. Time Limits
Tournament staff is responsible for running a timely event. To assist in this effort, POP has established guidelines for time limits during various portions of the event. Players may take notes at any time during their match but
must begin each match with a blank sheet.

4.1. Pre-game Time Limit

Players will have 90 seconds to view their opponent’s team and select their Pokémon.

4.2. Mid-game Time Limit

Any mid-game effects, such as selecting a move or retreating Pokémon, are to take place within the 45 seconds allocated per turn.

4.3. Match Time Limits

Single-game matches will be 15 minutes. For best-of-three matches, each game in the match will be 15 minutes.

This is the part I’m not super-fond of. I take a long time to decide my moves. You have to think about a lot more than just the turn you’re about to play. Reducing the time from 60 to 45 hits hard – I’ve already had quite a few moments where my turn was decided by the game for me because I took longer than 45 seconds. That’s the only part that I don’t like – 90 seconds for team preview has always been enough for me, and 15 minutes I’m indifferent about.

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Those are the two BIG sections I wanted to talk about. If you’d like to see the full rules document, CLICK HERE.

If you want a list of all legal Pokémon in the Kalos Dex, CLICK HERE.

Just Sayin’.

Update

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Dearest readers,

I would have made a post on the 15th, but finals kicked in and so I had no time to really sit down and write (and I had nothing really to write about, to be honest). But, I have a little time right now, so I’m making a small update post!

Now that my semester is over, I will resume writing every week, but will not be moving back to Monday. I will continue to make posts on Friday. 

Finally, the next post will be December 2nd to make up for this month and because I’m out of town for Thanksgiving. That is all for the update!

Look forward to my opinions on the recently released VGC 2014 rule set on December 2nd!

Just Sayin’.