Is Nintendo hinting at a possible Mario and Zelda crossover game?

  It's no secret that the original Zelda was originally a different take on the save the princess idea that Super Mario Bros. made popular, and the two franchises differ wildly from each other. Mario is more whimsical and not much on the narrative side. Zelda has over the years been anime style, western fantasy novel style, and even just downright creepy (Majora's Mask). However they are both still Nintendo franchises, and they are both still Shigeru Miyamoto's babies. Recent strange coincidences and behaviors from Nintendo hint at the possibilities that they may be considering giving us a game where Link saves Mushroom Kingdom, or Mario saves Hyrule.


   One of the biggest hints was pointed out by Nintendo themselves in a Nintendo Direct. In the latest Zelda game, A Link Between Worlds, The shop owner looks a lot like nabbit from Super Luigi U. I find it hard to believe that was all just a mere coincidence, and if it was, why point it out in a direct? Also, in Super Mario 3D world, there is a stage with a giant 8bit link that even plays a remix of the Zelda theme, as well as certain sound effects that seem borrowed from zelda, and a top down stage with torches that seems reminiscent of A link to the Past's perspective. It even has torches that unlock secrets when lit.

  I know what you're thinking. "Nintendo has done this before. Mario painting are in Ocarina of Time".  Yes, this is true. Maybe they have been planning it for a while, but were still just tossing ideas around. Can we really say it is impossible? Who saw Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem coming? I personally believe the two franchises could benefit from a crossover game. It could shake up the formula and breathe new life into both. Of course, this is all just speculation on my part.

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The Nintendo Hybrid

  Imagine, if you will, a world in which handhelds and home consoles are one in the same. Imagine buying a new Nintendo console and also getting a handheld as well. Imagine turning off your console and fitting it into your pocket to play later away from home. Now stop imagining, because this very well could be the future of Nintendo consoles.

  Earlier this year it was reported that Nintendo's handheld division and console division merged into one building. One of the reasons cited was to further expand connectivity between console and handheld. With that said, it's a almost a no-brainer what's coming after the Wii U and the 3DS/2DS have run their course. Nintendo is aiming to create a handheld home console hybrid. Why wouldn't they? Their handheld division has always been their strongest. Even their most successful home console, the Wii, pales in comparison to the success of the Nintendo DS.  With industry analyst and everyday bloggers suggesting that Nintendo goes 3rd party or release games on the iOS market, making their next console into a hybrid that doubles as a handheld could seriously silence such asinine comments as those.

  If Nintendo realeases a hybrid for their next console, they could easily grow the fanbases of several of their handheld centric franchises. Pokemon comes to mind. Fans could finally get the home console Pokemon game they've been asking for, and when they're ready to battle, or leave the house, they just carry their hybrid with them as they would their 3DS. Even more casual focused games like animal crossing could benefit from having the portability of a handheld alongside the in home experience of a Nintendo console. Beyond just being able to game anywhere, Nintendo will no doubt add some new innovation that we never thought of. They could potentially add GPS technology, a solar energy sensor (ala solar boy django), or some other idea thats can only be described as Nintendo.

  If they do create a hybrid, there are several benefits. They could make it very affordable, due to cost being lowered. With Nintendo only pumping out hybrids instead of console and handheld, they would save a lot of resources, time, and money. They could produce games faster, since team won't have to debate about putting it on the handheld or the console. However, this hybrid would most likely have to be larger than any other handheld they ever manufactured to prevent overheating and house all this technology. It would probably at the smallest be the size of a Wii U Gamepad or Apple's iPad. The hybrid also would have to have a decent online infrastructure. It would be a waste not to. They could upgrade the miiverse to include voice chat, crossgame chat, and videochat during gameplay.  It would take a lot more effort than the average person would assume it would to get the hybrid just right, but if done right, Nintendo could dominate the home console and handheld market with a single device. 

  So I shall leave you with a little food for thought. If the Wii sold over 100 million units, and the DS sold over 150 million units, imagine how successful they would have been if combined into a hybrid somehow. This is the future console that we very well could get from Nintendo. Is your body ready?

The Wii U Has The Advantage This Holiday Season

By now there's already been thousands of articles claiming the Wii U or Nintendo as a whole is doomed. I find that a bit odd considering the 3DS has been doing great for a long while now, and the Wii U is picking up steam following it's price drop and WindWaker HD bundle. I'm not going to waste time arguing counter points against the doomsayers. Instead, I'm simply going to point out why Nintendo has a clear advantage going into this holiday season.

  The first advantage is the Wii U's price. The Wii U is effectively $100 cheaper than the nearest competitor, Sony's Playstation 4, and even comes bundles with a Zelda game. For the Price of a PS4, a potential Wii U owner could get a Wii U and 2 or more games, depending on what they buy, and for the price of an XBox One, they can get a Wii U and a 3DS/2DS to go along with it. With the majority of consumers who buy consoles during the holiday season being parents, that put Wii U in a nice position. They can buy the cheaper option, and still get the biggest titles such as Batman Arkham City, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, and Call of Duty for their child. Price will definitely give Wii U an edge.

  Another advantage is Nintendo's franchises. We all know Mario sells. Nobody can deny that. In fact 80% of Wii U owners have New Super Mario Bros. U, and a brand new 3D 4-player Mario is coming this holiday season, as well as other famous franchises like Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Mario and Sonic Olympics, and Wii Party. Ever since the announcement of Wii Sports Club, the original Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort have seen a sales spike in the US. Both Titles have made their way back into the top 20 weekly games for consecutive weeks. People are apparently preparing to take the new Wii Sports Club online and challenge the world. The biggest key to Nintendo's success this holiday is not even Wii Sports or Mario, believe it or not. the biggest key to their success is Wii Fit. If a consumer already has the Balance Board, they can effectively get Wii Sports for just $19.99 when they buy a Wii Fit Meter. Wii Fit was already a powerhouse system seller for the Wii, and now its only $20 on the Wii U. That is definitely going to sell some Wii U consoles.

  Last but not least, Wii U will be the only new console available in every major region this holiday season. Neither PS4 nor XBox One will be available in Japan this year. That gives Wii U home field advantage for this holiday. leaving the Wii U alone with no competitor except for  PSVita TV in Japan was not the best idea on their part. So with price, their storied franchises, and availability as there big advantages, The Wii U is set to have a very successful holiday 2013. 

Super Smash Bros. Wii U may be the best in the series

unless you've been burried under a rock, you know that Nintendo is releasing a 4th Smash Bros. game for both the Wii U and 3DS in 2014. As per the writing of this article, Villager, Megaman, and Wii Fit Trainer have been announced as the latest Newcomers. It's also been stated that there will be no story mode this time around, but I have not doubts whatsoever, that this will be the best Smash Bros. game ever.

  First of all, Sakurai and his team seem to be really dedicated to balancing the game out as much as possible. This will make the game more enjoyable for competitive tournament players, and those who just play for fun with weapons galore, such as myself. very little if any talk of weapons has been mentioned so far, but if the character balancing is any indication to go by, there will probably be less Smart Bomb type items this time around. Some would argue that a lot of the items in Brawl were over powered, so here's hoping they balance that out along with everything else.

 The next thing that can really make this Smash Bros. the best one yet, is the character roster. Sakurai is looking to cut down on clowns and dud characters like Rob the Robot (shudders....) Yes, yes, I know Villager and Wii Fit Trainer aren't exactly known for being fighters, but for what's been shown, they seem to be formidable opponents. The roster is being chosen very carefully, as to appeal to every demographic that is even slightly interested in Smash Bros. That has to be a plus, right?

  Last but definitely not least, is the portability. This will be the first ever Smash Bros. game to be on a portable, the 3DS (or 2DS if you prefer that). If Nintendo are smart, they will find some sort of way to have some form of interactivity between the 3DS and the Wii U version of the game. You can finally falcon punch somebody on a bus (assuming C.Falcon returns) and not get arrested for doing so. As long as the online is smooth and better than the lagfest that was Brawl, its sure to be a hit.

 So with all of this going for it, Super Smash Bros. 4 (thats what I'm calling it) is set to shatter all of our expectations in a good way and deliver a superb, zany, quirky, tightly balanced, fighting game that we all want. Make it happen Sakurai. My Body Is Ready.

Why is America so anxious to see Nintendo fail?

At some point, I'm not exactly sure when, American gaming media decided to hate Nintendo and wish death upon the company. If I had to guess, I'd say it was midway through the Gamecube's run. It somehow became the cool thing to do. If you want to be part of the cool gamers crowd, you have to hate Nintendo. 

  This type of thinking, in my opinion, is anti-gaming. If you love gaming, and all that it stands for, you shouldn't hate any console manufacturer, especially Nintendo. They've been changing things up since the NES days. Of the 3 major console developers, Nintendo is the only company who's controllers are all noticeably different from the previous console. SEGA used to do the same thing when they were in the console business, because this was a good thing. changing up the controller introduces new ways to play and new ways to interact with your games. How dare the media hate the Wii, but tried their hardest to hype Kinect and Move? How dare they complain about Nintendo milking franchises, but turn a blind eye to the fact that there are more Halo and Uncharted games last gen than main series Mario games? Why is it Nintendo they target? 

  At first I believed it to be simply because they are a Japanese company. Maybe that argument would hold water, if the American media wasn't kissing Playstation's ass almost as much as Xbox's. They only answer I ever get from Nintendo haters is the same repeated uninformed nonsense such as "They're for kids." "Nintendo doesn't make hardcore games." or "I'm sick of Mario and Pokemon." They couldn't be more wrong. Despite the Wii's image last gen, it was home to the three most over the top mature titles and even a game that was almost banned. If they're sick of Mario, don't buy it. Nintendo makes loads of other franchises. They even showed of a new JRPG code named "X" at E3, and there are several rumors floating around about Shigeru Miyamoto revealing a new game soon, and Nintendo obtaining the rights to Baten Kaitos. Yet, it seems like no matter what they do, American media hates them. This is not the case in their homeland of Japan. Pick up any magazine like Famitsu, and you see high review scores, positive Nintendo articles, and praise for DragonQuest X, which is Nintendo exclusive. 

  So Why the hate here? What Did Nintendo do to America? Even The Wii and the Wii U's image is warped into something that they're not here in the US. It's shocking how few people know any game that I mention when they ask me what do I play on the Wii. They expect me to say Wii fit, Wii sports, and Mario, but instead are baffled when I name The Conduit, Red Steel 2, Monster Hunter Tri, No More Heroes, Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World, The Last Story, Xenoblade, and games of that nature. The Wii U seems to be Nintendo's best shot at regaining the respect of the American media, and With games like Watch Dogs, Bayonetta 2, Deus Ex, and the ever so popular Call of Duty, Its seems they have a fair shot. With America already trying to claim the Wii U as a failure, will it even have a chance to get out of the Hater's bracket?  Only time will tell.

Is Mario being milked dry

The question on everyone's mind these days, is simply a question of "is Mario being milked dry?" In order to answer this question, we must first acknowledge that Mario himself is a character and he has multiple games that he stars in. Is the character Mario used a lot? Yes. Nobody can argue with that, but is each individual franchise that he represent being milked? I would say no.

Let me explain. Mario on average has 1 or 2 main franchise games per console and 1 of each spinoff game. Do you honestly believe everyone who enjoys Mario and Sonic Olympics, or Mario Party is also going to go out and buy Mario Galaxy or New Super Mario Bros.? The problem is that people group anything with Mario in it as a main franchise game for some reason. Mario Kart has its own following separate from Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. I know several gamers who are "tired" of Mario platformers, but get excited every time a new Mario Kart is announced.

Think of Mario as a movie star. Would you group Enemy of the State and I Am Legend as part of the same line of movies with Will Smith? No you wouldn't. Though they all star Will Smith, they are vastly different from each other. This variety is what allows Mario to churn out several games per console and still stay fresh. If we look at each individual franchise, we see there have only been two 3D games, one sidescrolling 2D game and one RPG game on the Wii. How is that any more milked that the yearly Call of Duty games that are all the same genre? So no, Mario is not being milked, he's just the star of multiple separate game franchises.

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