The Big Picture: Junk Drawer Rises

[Dryk]

Two new NSMB games is too much, just like another Galaxy would be. As much as I would love having another set of Galaxy levels Mario seems to be at its best when it keeps moving and I think staying in the same place for two games is about the most it could handle.

Even from the player's perspective, that kind of design is welcome. Yes, it might function mechanically much like the M3&3/4 assault rifle, but visually you have a very distinct firing firing animation as all three sets of barrels rotate on their own axis, and then rotate around each other as well.

It also feels a lot better because it folds out of a much less threatening gun

Come now guys, does it matter? I know he isn't evil nor a villain- but look at our main protagonist of Wreck-It-Ralph. He isn't evil nor a bad guy ether yet he does fill in as the antagonist of the game he stars in so that's why he is considered bad, not evil but the role of bad guy. See?

The line people are getting annoyed about is actually just this. People don't seem to have noticed...

 

[Jarlaxl]

Personally, I've had enough Batman for just about forever. Once we hit Batman: The Animated Series, I was Bat'd out.

Then again, I prefer Moon Knight to Batman, so maybe I'm just a lunatic.

 

[Etteparg]

I always thought that the different modes in the some of the sports titles and maybe to a lesser extent zombie modes in Cod were atleast slightly innovative.

 

[DemBones]

Wreck-It-Ralph: I hope this film will be good, but I'm still tempering my expectations based on the rest of the trailer, particular the eye-roll inducing zombie. This is movie from Disney Animations, which would relegate the film to the "not Pixar" category. Also according to the Street Fighter movie with Jean Claude Van Damme, Zangief was one of Bison's goons. I know that every self respecting Street Fighter fan counts that film as official canon.

Django: I'm surprised it's taken this long for Tarantino to do a riff on westerns. I am very psyched to see it and I hope it frightens a lot of the bible belt, white, lower middle class people who think Obama was born in Kenya and is trying to turn them into a Communist utopia (a group of people that can be labeled as "morons"). Hopefully the film will drive more of them into their backyard bomb shelters for a prolonged period of time.

Mario: I actually don't think your comparison to the Beatles is very apt. The Beatles aren't making new music and driving the industry. Nintendo is still a dominant force in the industry and drives industry practices. They should have more leeway than anyone to take risks. They should be making an effort to not lower themselves to the same release practices as Activision or EA. Ideally Activision and EA would try to innovate as well, but this isn't about them. Nintendo still has an effect, so they cannot waste that opportunity.

Batman: The riskiest thing people can do with Batman now is go back to the camp and silliness of the Adam West show. That's kind of what they tried to do with The Brave and the Bold though, isn't it. When you say no more Batman I assume you mean "serious and gritty Frank Miller inspired" Batman. It would probably be nice to see a new version of Batman that seems to enjoy being Batman as much as his fans would. That, or as Batman from Red Son.

 

[CaptOfSerenity]

Since I only pay attention to the good Batman shit ( the new movies, the games, and the new 52 run by Scott Snyder), I say DC can do whatever the hell they want with the rest of the media.

 

[tobimaro]

So Zangeif gets to be treated as a "bad guy". I'd consider him more of a product of his times rather than he being a "bad guy". Oh, and I've heard more controversy over whether to call him Dr. Robotnik or Dr. Eggman.

 

[Gatx]

NO! THERE CAN NEVER BE ENOUGH BATMAN!!!!!!!!

If it continues in the vein of AA/AC and the Begins trilogy, yeah I totally agree with this

Captcha" get over it. LOL

People might change their mind when Beware the Batman comes out though.

I seriously don't understand why WB has made so many Batman animated series. The first one was great, we all know that. Then we have "The Batman," which was okay, and then started getting pretty good before they stopped it. Then "Brave and the Bold" was also really popular before it got stopped too and now we have a new show. Why can't there just be one show? We all know WB cannot for the life of them make an Avengers style film universe, so they might as well go with what's worked in the past, an animated TV series universe.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

Nobody ever brings up the greatest failing and betrayal of the Modern Warfare franchise.

They.Fucking.Killed.GHOST.

Spoiler: Shine on you beautiful bastard...

[sub]You will be remembered...[/sub]

I just can't bring myself to play another MW game after that...
The pain... It's just too much...
Damn you Infinity Ward... [small]Damn you...[/small]

Gaz was cooler.

 

[Beautiful End]

Yeah...I'll have to agree. Batman needs a rest. It was cool when, you know, Batman Begins came out and made me get interested in Batman again. And then Batman: Arkham Asylum/City was cool. But it's getting kinda old now. Batman has earned his badass status already...over and over again. So why don't we focus on Superman instead? I'd like for a game developer company to prove me wrong because I really think Superman sucks. I like the folklore that was brought to my attention thanks to Kill Bill: A superhero who disguises himself as a human and not the other way around. So yeah, let's work on that, yes?

Wreck-it Ralph? SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to this movie. The fact that Disney managed to get Nintendo, Capcom, Sega, Namco and who knows who else in the same room, literally, is pretty awesome. That's obviously fan service and boy, do they know how to cater! So yeah, that alone is worth my money.

And can we talk about how rich is Disney to bring all of those guys together for the first time?!

 

[Sean951]

Wreck-It-Ralph: I hope this film will be good, but I'm still tempering my expectations based on the rest of the trailer, particular the eye-roll inducing zombie. This is movie from Disney Animations, which would relegate the film to the "not Pixar" category. Also according to the Street Fighter movie with Jean Claude Van Damme, Zangief was one of Bison's goons. I know that every self respecting Street Fighter fan counts that film as official canon.

Django: I'm surprised it's taken this long for Tarantino to do a riff on westerns. I am very psyched to see it and I hope it frightens a lot of the bible belt, white, lower middle class people who think Obama was born in Kenya and is trying to turn them into a Communist utopia (a group of people that can be labeled as "morons"). Hopefully the film will drive more of them into their backyard bomb shelters for a prolonged period of time.

Mario: I actually don't think your comparison to the Beatles is very apt. The Beatles aren't making new music and driving the industry. Nintendo is still a dominant force in the industry and drives industry practices. They should have more leeway than anyone to take risks. They should be making an effort to not lower themselves to the same release practices as Activision or EA. Ideally Activision and EA would try to innovate as well, but this isn't about them. Nintendo still has an effect, so they cannot waste that opportunity.

Batman: The riskiest thing people can do with Batman now is go back to the camp and silliness of the Adam West show. That's kind of what they tried to do with The Brave and the Bold though, isn't it. When you say no more Batman I assume you mean "serious and gritty Frank Miller inspired" Batman. It would probably be nice to see a new version of Batman that seems to enjoy being Batman as much as his fans would. That, or as Batman from Red Son.

Actually, it's the upper middle class that is more likely to be against Obama than lower to mid middle class. The poor who don't live in the South are a Democratic base, especially if they are unionized. Suburbia just loves them some GOP though.

 

[Infernai]

In this list we have everything from the nifty but near useless to the outright insane. Does any weapon in 90% of modern shooters deserve to be anywhere near this list? Honestly, the only gun I can think of in FPS land that feels half as fun as this is... not in an FPS. It's the Patriot from MGS4 - an infinite-ammo SMG that plays the Snake Eater song when you shoot with it. Even then, however, it's just a less ludicrous (and thus less hillarious) version of the RYNO-V.

What about the Rail gun? Or the dolls?
Don't tell me you didn't have some fun with the rail gun? That thing was damned awesome.

Admittedly metal gear has always had some pretty sweet weapons available, so i'll forgive this transgression this time.

I agree with everything else though.

 

[Urameshi13]

Too much Batman?! NEVAH!

As long as the Dark Knight keeps being featured in awesome games, cartoons, movies, etc. I say let there be more!

BTW, I am pretty sure there's also a new Blue Beetle live-action series coming out. I'm surprised you didn't mention that.

 

[TwiZtah]

Also, Batman is the only interesting DC character, the rest are Demi-gods walking amongst mere mortals, Over-powered fantasy characters that even the Bat himself falls prey too in "Being able to plan for everything" trap.

Yes, I prefer Marvel characters, they have tend to have a Set power, and stick to it.

(note, I'm not massively into comics so I don't have a ton of lore, just working off what I've seen)

Uh, I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure DC has a TON of non-powered characters. Wildcat, Green Arrow, Huntress, the entire bat-family, Shining Knight, and Manhunter just off the top of my head. And that's not even counting "suit" characters.

Superman can now run x number of times faster than light and is immune to kryptonite, so yeah.

 

[shintakie10]

-I'm going to say something that will probably be controversial. Justice League Unlimited was probably the last time the DC Universe was anything resembling good.

You never bothered to watch Young Justice or Teen Titans did you? Or perhaps any of the DC animated movies to come out in the last 7 years. They're generally not very well advertised, but you can easily pick them up in stores when they come out or on Amazon and they are almost always excellent.

 

[VinLAURiA]

Glad I'm not the only one getting a little stunad with Batman. Me, I always preferred Superman, but even if you forced me to watch some Batman, I prefer Terry McGinnis over Bruce Wayne. At least Terry has more personality than a bag of dirt. He's hilarious. He's like Spiderman with all of Batman's gadgets.

As for the Mario vs. CoD debate, I agree with Bob here. Yeah, Mario games are always platformers, just like CoD is always an FPS series. The thing is, though, that every Mario game does something different with the platformer formula and just uses the basic Mario mechanics as a jumping-off point. CoD has been the same damn game for the last five years, and this is from someone who actually liked MW2 but thought WaW blew. At least Black Ops II looks to mix up the formula somewhat and has been the first one I've been genuinely excited about since CoD3, and I never even ended up playing CoD3.

You know why I think people see it the other way, though? Because FPSes are currently the genre. When someone says "it's an FPS," people'll ask "What kind of FPS?" If someone says "it's a platformer" these days, you'll hear shouts of "God, another one?" The current gaming culture is in FPSes, so people'll look closer than surface-deep. Since platformers are currently "one of those other genres," people'll see a platformer and won't care or wish to know anything other than "platformer." Especially Mario games. Yeah, goombas, koopas, ?-blocks, whatever. You wouldn't want a Half-Life game without headcrabs or a crowbar.

Point is: do a little research, people. NSMB2 is a score-attack game based on getting a whole lot of coins and all the mechanics have been retooled around having as many ways to get those coins as possible. NSMBU looks to trying to have the most dynamic, detailed environments in a 2D Mario since Yoshi's Island, plus we've got the whole GamePad implementation for asymmetric gameplay and speed-runs, as well as the return of the multiplayer focus from NSMBWii.

And as for the Zangief thing, I don't care. The fact that they're actually caring to get all these licenses in the first place is awesome. They could've just stopped at Bowser and Eggman, but they're doing characters from games even I'm not that knowledgeable about. I eagerly await Wreck-It Ralph, because it looks positively awesome. Plus you've got the guy who did Steve Brule from Tim & Eric as the main character and a character played by Sarah Silverman, so what's not to like?

 

[TwiZtah]

Also, Batman is the only interesting DC character, the rest are Demi-gods walking amongst mere mortals, Over-powered fantasy characters that even the Bat himself falls prey too in "Being able to plan for everything" trap.

Yes, I prefer Marvel characters, they have tend to have a Set power, and stick to it.

(note, I'm not massively into comics so I don't have a ton of lore, just working off what I've seen)

Uh, I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure DC has a TON of non-powered characters. Wildcat, Green Arrow, Huntress, the entire bat-family, Shining Knight, and Manhunter just off the top of my head. And that's not even counting "suit" characters.

Superman can now run x number of times faster than light and is immune to kryptonite, so yeah.

Since when is he immune to Kryptonite? If anything he's been depowered since the new 52.

This was taken from the wiki on Kryptonite where it says "Superman is shown to have become immune to the effects of green Kryptonite due to either repeated non-fatal exposure, continuous long-term absorption of solar radiation, or extremely high short-term exposure to the sun.

 

[TwiZtah]

Also, Batman is the only interesting DC character, the rest are Demi-gods walking amongst mere mortals, Over-powered fantasy characters that even the Bat himself falls prey too in "Being able to plan for everything" trap.

Yes, I prefer Marvel characters, they have tend to have a Set power, and stick to it.

(note, I'm not massively into comics so I don't have a ton of lore, just working off what I've seen)

Uh, I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure DC has a TON of non-powered characters. Wildcat, Green Arrow, Huntress, the entire bat-family, Shining Knight, and Manhunter just off the top of my head. And that's not even counting "suit" characters.

Superman can now run x number of times faster than light and is immune to kryptonite, so yeah.

Since when is he immune to Kryptonite? If anything he's been depowered since the new 52.

This was taken from the wiki on Kryptonite where it says "Superman is shown to have become immune to the effects of green Kryptonite due to either repeated non-fatal exposure, continuous long-term absorption of solar radiation, or extremely high short-term exposure to the sun.

How incredibly disingenuous, so you're just going to ignore the stonking great "In various stories..." right before that part you quoted? Those various stories include Kingdom Come (happened on Earth 22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_(Kingdom_Come) ) and All Star Superman which (also on wiki) "These series are attempts by DC to allow major comics creators a chance to tell stories showcasing these characters without being restricted by DC Universe continuity."

Superman in regular continuity does not have an immunity to Kryptonite. That's like complaining that Batman's overpowered because in In Darkest Knight he gets the green lantern ring.

I did not know this, thanks for the information.

 

[kingmob]

So Mario gets to exist for ages in marginally different games, but Batman, existing across several different media is enough, you must be joking (disclaimer, I am actually nto really excited for the new movie, but the point remains).

I also don't understand the hype for Wreck it Ralph, from what I can tell it looks to be an uninspired, standard story, but the 'twist' is it has some video game cameos? I'll wait before getting excited if you don't mind.

 

[The Great JT]

-I'm going to say something that will probably be controversial. Justice League Unlimited was probably the last time the DC Universe was anything resembling good.

You never bothered to watch Young Justice or Teen Titans did you? Or perhaps any of the DC animated movies to come out in the last 7 years. They're generally not very well advertised, but you can easily pick them up in stores when they come out or on Amazon and they are almost always excellent.

I do watch Young Justice, I used to watch Teen Titans and no, I haven't been paying too much attention to the various DC animated movies over the years. Mostly out of sheer laziness. I mean yes, there's something insanely awesome about Justice League: New Frontier, but I just never seem to scrounge up the coin for them. I think what I meant was that Justice League Unlimited was the last time something dealt solely with the day-to-day of the Justice League itself.

 

[Fusioncode9]

2D Mario games used to have a lot of variety back in the NES and SNES days. Now Nintendo is content with just releasing the same game over and over again. Once Nintendo actually does something different with Mario then I'll consider buying a WiiU.