My concerns for Mario Kart 8

When Mario Kart 8 was first revealed at last years E3 Nintendo Direct the game looked phenomenal. All the trailers leading to its May 30th release didn't disappoint either. The stages, characters and graphical presentation all look great, but I can't help thinking about the last two iterations in the series and how disappointing I found them. Mario Kart Wii tried new ways to push the series forward and appeal to the Wii's casual audience but ended up being an unbalanced frustration of a game with a watered down battle mode. Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS was a good game mechanically but you could see the short cuts they took in order for them to get the game out before Christmas (not having a quick race opinion is disgrace, especially for a on the go game). 

My favorite game in the series is Mario Kart DS. Sure, some people didn't like people abusing the snaking mechanic online, but the DS title is by far the most content packed game in the series. It featured Grand Prix, Battle Mode, Online races, 8 player multiplayer and brand new mission mode. I played that game regularly from its release in 2005 all the way until 2010 when the 3DS come out. That's 5 years I played that game, the others didn't even last one.

So what do I want out of Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U? First of all I want the items to be balanced during races. 12 player races are back and this issue needs to be addressed, because being hit by shells every colour of the rainbow isn't fun. Second, battle mode needs to be great again. The last two games only had the option for timed matches and didn't let you turn it off. Half the fun of battle mode is frantically racing around looking for that last person to smash them with a red shell you've been saving while not getting hit yourself and time limits take all this away. 

Like most people I'm really hyped for Mario Kart 8. It's a game that has the buying power to help the Wii U move units. I'm just nervous that history might repeat itself, even if Nintendo can't afford it.

Add Drewby on Miiverse @"Mo_Joe" to give him a race when MK8 is released!

Miiverse Madness #2: "Peach, I think you're on heat"

Warning!: Contains stupid, crude humor. This is only a bit of lighthearted fun. If you are easily offended, this may not be for you.

Nintendo's social network, Miiverse is a handy utility for gamers wanting to communicate with other users, but my god, the administrators are so strict! Lets see if we can get some crude (somewhat tasteless) pictures past their defenses!

This week I through a hand full of cheeky submissions into the Super Mario 3D World community. The beauty about this community is that you're able to use stamps that you have found throughout the game in your posts. Majority of posts here are either a cluster of random stamps or a simple illustration with no relevance to anything. Example shown below.

A picture can say a thousand words.

Will my posts be as innocent as Mario waving to a bunny jumping out of a warp pipe? Heavens no!  

Drewby's Super Smash Bros Nintendo Direct thoughts

Early this morning (here in Australia) the Super Smash Brothers Nintendo Direct was broadcast live across the world. Your typical average Joe might just say it was about a well dressed Japanese man talking about crazy cartoon characters beating on one another, but it was much more. For us Nintendo fans it was 39 minutes and 03 seconds of exciting information and reveals about the latest iteration(s) in our favorite series that pulls together iconic and beloved gaming franchises. During the course of the broadcast we learned a lot about the two games coming to the Wii U & 3DS such as release schedules, details on modes, character improvements, inclusions and much more.

Through out this post I'll go through what was discussed and share what I thought about it.

Smash Bros Nintendo Direct (I'm Excited)!

I'll be honest, waiting for the Smash Bros focused Nintendo Direct feels a lot like Christmas, only without the tasty food and festive atmosphere. I cannot wait to discover what information gets spilled out for the internet to break down and discuss, because we really don't know a whole lot about the two games. Sure, we know some characters, stages and the 3DS version has some sort of single player component but that is about it. It is a safe bet that new characters with be revealed (I'm guessing three :P) along with stages and couple of new Final Smashes.

Though, what I am hoping for is for Sakurai to walk through some of the game modes and explain what their idea is for online gaming. Has a lot of thought gone into it or is it an after thought? At this stage I would be happy to hear that it works. Also some gameplay demonstrations for new mechanics would be cool, we've seen screen shots now it's time to see it in action.

Unfortunately the Official Super Smash Bros Twitter account tweeted that a release date will not be announced, only a broad release frame. The translated quote, “We’re not at the stage where we can announce a concrete release date yet, but in [today's] broadcast, we will share a broad release frame,”. While it would be awesome to get a release date, it appears that it isn't to be. I guess it will give us something to look forward to another day! 

So yeah, I'm keen and you're probably keen too! Tomorrow I'll have another post up going through whats shown and my opinion on it all. Hopefully I'll see you there!

Be Drew's Smash Brother by starting a conversation with him on Twitter @iDrewby.

Miiverse Madness: Will It Be Removed? [02-04-14]

Since I purchased my Wii U on launch day back in 2012 I've really enjoyed it as a gaming platform, and one of the features I use quite often is Miiverse. To bring anyone up to speed who isn't familiar, Miiverse is Nintendo's inbuilt network service bringing people together allowing them to communicate and share gaming experiences with other Wii U users. Though, like everywhere on the internet, people are often ignorant and stupid. Because of this Nintendo have very strict administrators looking to find and remove any inappropriate content. 

Although, I question some of their decisions...

I'm sorry Nintendo... Was it because I spelled "community" wrong? 

The reason this one was removed is a bit more understandable.

It really was "the tits".

So for a bit of fun each week I'll post something subtly inappropriate on Miiverse trying to avoid the admin's wrath for as long as possible.

For the first weeks submission I tried to disguise a penis as Captain Olimar's space ship (mature, I know). Evidently other users caught on straight away, opps. 

And so did the administrators...

So each week I'll upload my attempts of beating Nintendo's Miiverse administrators for your viewing pleasure.

Why not join in? Give it you best shot to get past the administrators and leave a screenshot in the comments or @iDrewby on Twitter!