Tag Archives: Just sayin’

My thoughts on the Super Smash Bros. Invitational

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A few days ago, Nintendo posted a video about the Super Smash Bros. International, a tournament hosted by Nintendo at E3 this year to showcase the next installment of the Super Smash Bros. series. It will feature 16 players that receive an invite from Nintendo, and feature casting by well-known competitive Smash Bros. casters Prog, Scar, and D1. I think this tournament is awesome, and to see them including Prog and D1, my two favorite casters, is really cool. Really, the whole idea that Nintendo is trying to embrace competitive Smash Bros. is a good feeling. Other competitive games are usually supported by their creators; it’s nice to see Smash Bros. is finally getting some of that support.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMQySEjyCUw

I’m not going to dive into the players invited, but there are a lot of big names and I’m mostly happy with Nintendo’s choices. A lot of the players not only help with the community but are long-time players of competitive Smash Bros., with a few new names thrown in there that I don’t know at all.

Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of the Invitational: the rules.

Draft:

Basically, there are 20 characters and 16 players. Each player picks a number and then picks a character in the order of the number (starting with 1). The player’s aren’t allowed to switch characters – they must use the same character throughout the duration of the tournament.

Here’s a quick list of the characters (in alphabetical order):

– Bowser
– Donkey Kong
– Fox
– Greninja
– Kirby
– Link
– Little Mac
– Mario
– Marth
– Mega Man
– Pikachu
– Pikmin & Olimar
– Pit
– Rosalina & Luma
– Samus
– Sonic
– Villager
– Wii Fit Trainer
– Zelda
– Zero Suit Samus

So that means that 4 characters will be left out. That’s nice because then the last person still has characters to choose from rather than just being stuck with whichever character isn’t picked. I’m predicting that some characters like Mario, Pikachu, Link, Donkey Kong, Fox, and other old names will be less favored than the new characters. At least, I hope they choose the new characters over the old ones.

Gameplay:

– Single-Elimination
– 4 player Free-For-All (FFA), 4 stocks, 5 minute timer (top 2 advance)
– Winner is determined by score?
– A tie-breaker for second involves most KO’s, and if that’s a tie, then by a fan vote.
– Quaterfinals have Items on Medium
– Semifinals and Finals have Items on Low
– Grand Finals have no items.

And taken directly from Nintendo’s E3 website with the rules:

“Grand Finals is a 4-stock, 8-minute, 1-on-1 match on Battlefield as an homage to the competitive Smash Bros. community.”

How cool is that? That’s a really big deal for me as a competitive Smash Bros. player.

So, the rules aren’t exactly crystal clear on how the winner is determined. Is it the last player standing, or the player with the most KO’s? I don’t know, but I’m going ahead and assuming it’s whomever is last standing. Also I have no idea whether or not the matches before Quarterfinals have items on or off. I’m pretty sure it’s on, all things considered, but we’ll see. The stages used will be shown off at the event, which I’m okay with.

There’s also this “Fan Favorite Bracket”, which is basically fans wanting their favorite players to play again in a separate bracket where the second place winner is determined by a vote. The Fan Favorite Bracket matches are timed FFA’s instead of stock, so the winner is the person with the highest score. Items are always on Medium.

All in all, the rules are looking good. I didn’t expect any kind of hyper-competitive rules, so the FFA matches are fine with me. I’m just happy they’re paying an homage to the competitive Smash Bros. community.

I’m very excited for this tournament. If you want to check it out, it’ll be streamed on Nintendo’s Twitch channel next Tuesday, June 10th, at 4 PM PT. I’ll be tuning in and probably updating my Twitter as I do, and I’ll (hopefully) be going to the Best Buy Smashfest in my area to write a post about my thoughts on it in the next couple of weeks.

Just Sayin’.

Link to Nintendo’s E3 website: http://e3.nintendo.com/

Link to the Super Smash Bros. Invitational Rules: http://e3.nintendo.com/invitational/info.html

My take on the HIMYM series finale

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It’s hard to put into words the disappointment and confusion I felt Monday night after the How I Met Your Mother series finale aired. I didn’t really think about what I didn’t like, I just jumped to the “I don’t like Ted and Robin together” argument and stuck to it. But now that I’ve had some time to think and read tons of blogs and (unfortunately) comments on blogs about the series finale, I think I can actually articulate just what I didn’t like and why I think the finale was – simply put – awful.

This finale had a message to send. A message about life’s twists and turns, about how you can move on from tragedies and good can come from them. It’s a good message and I respect the finale for that. Unfortunately, this message is ripped apart by the execution of the episode and the way the show grew in the past couple seasons and is replaced with a message about if you wait long enough, the girl you’ve been wanting for years will finally give in and you’ll live happily ever after.

This ending is not a bad ending. It could be a feasible ending, but the way the show grew, it wasn’t. Had, say, Ted never pined over Robin for so long and figured it was worth a shot years down the road, had you seen Barney and Robin struggle through their divorce (or had them not marry at all), had you seen Ted and his kids mourn over Tracy’s loss – these things, I think, needed to be included in either extra episodes or the finale. As it stands, the show jumps through time too much, too fast, while the entirety of Season 9 is one weekend. Season 9 could have easily been the wedding early on and then what happens as life progressed for them – how they split up and came back together.

Instead, we have the current series finale.

This show ultimately hit its lowest point when the kids told Ted that his story was about how he loves Robin. The same Robin that the show told you wasn’t a good fit for Ted. The same Robin that Ted finally gets over in the last few episodes of Season 9. The same Robin that has always been the superior choice according to the show. It makes sense why the finale progressed the way it did when you look at it as a story about Ted’s obsession with Robin. The show needed a way to get to this ending from where it was, and it needed to do that through Barney and Robin’s divorce, Ted having kids, and Tracy’s death, and that’s exactly what the show did to achieve it.

For a show that’s always been about a personal journey of moving on and dealing with life’s struggles, Ted certainly has life go his way at the end. He gets the kids, and gets the girl the show has told you, the audience, that he’s been in love with the whole time after telling you, the audience, the she would never love him and he would never love her that way again a few episodes back.

And I hate that.

Just Sayin’.

P.S: The kids scene was horribly acted and they look like they’ve completely gotten over their own mother dying. That’s awful.

P.S: While Barney and Robin regress believably in real life based on the time leaps, it is way too fast when it comes to storytelling, which is why I think so many people are mad they grew them so much in seasons 8 and 9 and then threw it all away in 15 minutes. A show can’t be all realism.

Salt (and why it can be good for you)

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Salty (Adjective) – To be (usually to a somewhat high degree) angry when losing. Generally used in competitive gaming.

I get angry when I lose in competitions.

Like, really angry.

I just want to punch whomever beat me in the face for outplaying me and taking advantage of things I did wrong. Why couldn’t I have done that instead? I should be the one advancing to the next round, I know I’m better than this. I want to rematch them right then and there to prove it. I want to beat whomever just beat me so badly.

And yet, here I am, writing about how it feels like my opponent chained me to a 300lb weight when I lose, and I’m unable to lift it. It’s incredibly frustrating.

How do people take losses so cleanly? I really don’t understand it. I can’t smile after I lose.

I’ve literally spent hours of my time looking up how to take losses better. I thought it was a problem that I couldn’t take my losses cleanly – that I wasn’t learning from them like the best players do.

Then it hit me earlier today while thinking of something to write about for today’s blog post; being angry about a loss is fine. I can be angry that I lost a match, as long as that anger can force me to look at the match and learn from it in a healthy way. Basically, channeling your anger into something useful so you don’t just sit there yelling at yourself on the inside.

Being angry can actually be an incredible motivator for improvement, but there’s a lot of stigma to being angry which prevents it from being used. “Going on Tilt” is to get angry and start playing at a sub par level, but that doesn’t have to be the case. If you’re just getting angry and that’s it, of course you’re going to start playing worse. I think the problem is that people have a really negative impression about anger in competition, when I think it might be a great way to psyche yourself up and continue to play at your best. When I lose a stock in Super Smash Bros., I get angry. Did I really just let myself lose a stock? It’s not happening again. I’ll nod that my opponent made a good play, even tell him it was a good play, but I’m still angry that I’m one step closer to losing. That doesn’t make me play worse – I play better, harder. I don’t want to lose, because I loathe losing.

I think the reason people go “on Tilt” when they’re angry is because they realize they’re angry and don’t want to be, which affects them more than they may realize. I say be furious, but be in control of what you’re doing and feeling (mainly because if I were actually furious all the time I’d probably have a heart attack or something). Don’t just be angry – channel that emotion to have a purpose. You don’t want to just sit there and be angry and then play your next match. While it seems weird, it’s entirely possible to feel angry and motivated at the same time, and that’s the good kind of anger.

You can say good games at the end, admit your opponent played better than you, and be a good sport. But that doesn’t mean you’re not seething inside and are itching to beat them next time so you can pop off and say you’ve gotten better.

Just Sayin’

REVIEW: Super Mario 3D World

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Apologies for last week; school has just started and so I was a little preoccupied with transitioning into school mode. But, enough of that, it’s time to review Super Mario 3D World!

I won’t bore you with the plot or characters. It’s standard Mario fare, except Peach is a character you play and the victims are a group of fairies. What’s really important is the gameplay.

Gameplay:

If I were to sum up the gameplay of Super Mario 3D World, it’d be “wow”. With this addition each character (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad) has different properties – Mario is the most balanced, Luigi jumps the highest (but is a little slippery), Peach can float (but is the slowest), and Toad is the fastest (but jumps the lowest). This allows for some pretty interesting gameplay choices within each level, as some characters have a vastly easier time with certain platforming elements depending on the level.

Speaking of levels, the level design is fantastic, and you can see the thought put into the 4-player co-op with each level. While the worlds are pretty standard (Grassy, water, desert, lava, etc…), I loved most of the designs, some of them proving to be quite challenging.

Because each level doesn’t brutally murder you for having 4 players (like New Super Mario. Bros), playing with friends is very fun. The twist to playing with multiple players is that, instead of everyone having their own lives, the players are share them. That means that playing with friends, while more fun, is also much more dangerous. Expect game overs, even if you’re experienced with Mario games. My brother and I probably accumulated 3 or 4 game overs throughout the main portion of the game due to us sharing lives.

Thankfully, unlike in New Super Mario Bros., you cannot bubble in the air. This is great because it means you can’t just haphazardly attempt to make a jump and just bubble to safety. I always hated that feature because it decreased the game’s difficulty while playing multiplayer. I like how punishing it is now, because it forces cooperation. The ONLY problem with bubbling is that you can get out yourself, and sometimes, the bubble will hover above an abyss and you’ll pop out yourself and die again (I can’t tell you how many times this happened to me). Even near land, the bubble would literally hover just off the ledge and so you had to wait until you popped out. I would rather get back to the action as fast as possible, not wait 10 seconds for the bubble to be over land so I don’t die again.

Oh, and let’s not forget the new power up, the Cat Bell, which transforms Mario and co. into a cat that can dive and climb walls. This is, without a doubt, the best power up Mario has ever used. Platforming is a breeze once you master how to use the cat suit. It’s an awesome power up, and the little “meow!” that Mario and co. say after beating a level is absolutely priceless.

Atmosphere:

There’s not a lot to say, unfortunately. Pretty standard Mario fare, although I liked a lot of the level designs and the art. Nothing really captured me, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it.

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All in all, Super Mario 3D World is a fantastic game, especially for co-op. If you’re a Mario fan that still loves the series or even someone who’s been a little bored with the series, I recommend it. It’s a breath of fresh air to the Mario franchise co-op wise, and that’s something, I think, a lot of Mario fans have been yearning for since New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Gameplay: 10/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Final Score: 9/10

Just Sayin’

A small update

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Dearest readers,

I’ve been very busy the past couple weeks. Last weekend I attended the St. Louis Pokemon Video Game Championship Regional, and this past Saturday I attended a Super Smash Bros. Project Melee monthly tournament, and so the time I would normally spend writing I’ve spent completing homework so that I don’t fall behind. So, this coming week I will be spending more time catching up on homework and getting absolutely no writing done, thus – unfortunately –  I will not have a post for this week. Once I get this homework done and my schedule back on track I’ll be pumping out a post every Friday, as usual!

I promise.

Just Sayin’.

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’.