Lucario Rejoins the Battle!

Looking as awesome as ever. You keep doin’ that Lucario.

To the surprise of pretty much every Smash Bros. fan, Lucario was confirmed today. People were taking Mewtwo’s removal from Brawl as a clue and expecting Lucario to be replaced by a character such as Zoroark. His return was confirmed today by Sakurai via the Smash website. More details will follow.

The screenshots released alongside his announcement reveal little, but it looks like his moveset has not been overhauled and is quite similar to Brawl’s. He still has his Aura sphere and downward smash, but not much else is known about what changes he’ll have.

However Sakurai did say:

“We’ve increased the influence of Aura this time, so a damaged Lucario is truly a force to be reckoned with.”

In case you didn’t know, in Brawl the more damage Lucario had, the more he could deal back with his Aura attack. What Sakurai said reveals that he has now become a powerhouse.

The announcement comes three weeks after Sakurai’s last reveal. So far, only 22 characters have been announced, whilst Brawl had a roster of 36 characters (including dual/alternate characters such as Zero Suit Samus and Sheik). Sakurai has stated that the roster will be at least the same size, so we should expect to see more announcements with more frequency, especially if the game is to be released in 2014.

The question everyone is now asking is: does this confirm that Mewtwo will not return, or just pave the way for his future announcement?

King Dedede Returns!

King Dedede has been confirmed today as the newest character from the upcoming Smash Bros.’ roster, being the 21st character to join. King Dedede makes a triumphant return after having appeared in Brawl, marking the second Kirby character to show up in the new roster. The question is, will Meta Knight return as well?

This time around, he seems to be much more expressive, as seen in the screenshots below:

This seems a bit rapey…

The explosive hammer is back!

So what do you think? Did you want Dedede to come back, or would you have preferred to have someone else on the roster? Comment below and tell us:

Legend of Zelda and More For Club Nintendo Members

October’s Club Nintendo rewards are out, and one of them, the 1986 classic The Legend of Zelda, is a great bargain for members who might have not played the game before. It is available for the 3DS for a price of 150 coins. The second 3DS game is Touch Solitaire, available for 100 coins. The Wii is also bringing a couple of good games, the first being Super Mario Kart (150 coins) and the second ThruSpace.

New Kirby Game Announced For Nintendo 3DS

A brand new Kirby game was announced today at Nintendo Direct, but not much detail was given. It looks like a classic Kirby game with side scrolling action, but with a few effects which will surely play out with the 3D effect of the Nintendo handheld. The game was announced without a title, but Iwata promised more details soon.

Sonic joins the Fight!

“You’re too slow!”

In today’s Nintendo Direct, it was announced that the blue blur, Sonic The Hedgehog, would be the seventeenth character to join the roster, by reclaiming his spot. He is the second third party character to join, the first being Mega Man. Not much is known about his moveset.

The move is not all surprising as Sega had previously announced a partnership with Nintendo, in which they would bring three Sonic games exclusively to Nintendo platforms: Sonic: Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, with the third being unannounced.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Delayed

Nintendo announced in today’s earlier Nintendo Direct that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has been delayed from December 2013 to February 2014. Iwata says that in order to “give the players the best experience” the game had to be delayed, and apologized for it.

Donkey Kong was supposed to be one of the franchises that would give momentum back to the Wii U according to Nintendo. Will Nintendo release any other major title in its stead? Only time will tell.

Smash Bros. Weekly Recount Pt. 2

This week, the screenshots released by Sakurai showed a couple of reveals, as well as a bit if comedy.

 

The first screenshot came along with a message by Sakurai saying that Samus’ charge shot had been modified and given extra speed and power, which, although useful at times, could be bad for her. Wait, what? That thing is being made even better? How am I supposed to dodge it now?

 

The second image was a bit more on the comedic side, with a picture of Mario “proposing” to Peach. Or maybe he’s just punching her, you never know.

The third screenshot, from the 3DS version of the game, shows Luigi’s enhanced jumping, which makes us wonder if his classic hovering will make a debut in Smash Bros. This could be feasible as he just appeared in his own game (or should we say DLC), New Super Luigi U. 

On the fourth weekday, it was announced that Toon Link would be joining the roster, being the sixteenth character to do so. This particular screenshot shows him taunting using the Wind Waker baton on the Skyloft stage.

 

When Toon Link was announced we weren’t sure if he would be receiving a new moveset or not, but this screenshot confirms that at least the bombs (his B + Down move) will return. From other screenshots we can see that at least the Fairy Bow and his Spin Attack have returned.

That’s it for this week, make sure to come back next time to see if anything has been revealed by Sakurai.

Toon Link Sails Into The Fight

Following the digital release of Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Toon Link has been announced as the sixteenth character to join the brawl. His design looks really good, as the HD complements his unique art style. So far it is unknown if he will still be a clone character, or if he will receive his own moveset to differentiate him from Link, but the screenshots released along with his annoucncement do show some similar moves.

Smash Bros. Weekly Recount:

Each weekday, Masahiro Sakurai, creator of the Smash Bros. series posts a screenshot from the latest installment for Wii U & 3DS. Every weekend, we here at The Gaming Fix will recollect all of the screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

The first image is a screenshot from the 3DS version, showing how Olimar will look, and is presumably from the Battlefield stage.

Tuesday’s image shows us all three of the confirmed female characters, with Peach having recently joined the roster.

The third image is just a close up of Pyrosphere’s background, and that’s about it. It is currently unknown if the stage will transition through this particular hole or if it’s just a background texture.

Our fourth image is just Peach sighing at Link’s sight… Is she flirting with him? That’s up to you.

The fifth and final image shows the return of a technique that was previously introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, called footstool, which involved jumping on an opponent’s head and stunning them momentarily.

Preview: The calm before the storm

As most of you should know, we are mere hours away from what will be a pair of weeks with three major videogame releases: First off is the Wii U exclusive The Wonderful 101 (Wii U/2013/Platinum Games). Ever since it was shown at this year’s E3 much uncertainty has followed this game: Will it be able to end with Nintendo’s Wii U related drought? Will it live up to the high standards which were put up by its spiritual predecessor Viewtiful Joe? Will it finally usher in a new generation of exclusives which make full use of the Wii U’s capabilities? All of this will be answered starting off from tomorrow, when this game will be released and will mark the beginning of what is an upcoming couple of weeks with two major releases in completely opposing ends of the spectrum: On one side will be the much awaited GTA V and the expected sequel to the football series’ FIFA 14.

Not many new information can be said about GTA V (PS3 & XBOX 360/2013/Rockstar Games) other than what is already known, such as the sheer grandeur of its map size, the amount of missions and side-events which will be available, the famous musical variety within the in-game radio stations and the borderline-socially acceptable aspects of the game series. Both new prospects to the series and old-timers will be eager to get their hands on it in order to have a good time through morally outrageous means: Be it literally ignoring everything else and committing a grand theft auto or following the campaign and trying to be one of the first people to finish it, GTA V guarantees a large amount of fun and time wastage in the coming week.

Lastly, just as there are Videogame series which are popular for innovating there are also series which have gained the fame of being recycled year in and year out (and no, I am not talking about COD). FIFA 14 (PS3, PS2, PC, XBOX 360 & Handhelds) which used to be a revolutionary series and synonymous with innovation in the world of sports videogames has now had a large amount of negativity following it for the wrong reasons. See, as a lifelong football fan it pains me to admit that while the FIFA series is not completely obsolete, it has certainly decreased its value for money over the past few years since it started to become primarily centered on graphics increases and renaming of players. However, after watching the new features of the game and the (potentially) brilliant features which the Ignite engine will bring to the PS4 and XBOX One versions of the game, there is still a small but present probability that the series might actually retake its title of the king of sports videogames this year and return to the golden age when it was a certain day-1 purchase.