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Gaming’s Undervalued Treasures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project

The cover art was done by longtime TMNT comics artist, Michael Dooney. Image courtesy of Hardcore Gaming 101.

The cover art was done by longtime TMNT comics artist, Michael Dooney. Image courtesy of Hardcore Gaming 101.

The Manhattan Project is one of the last great NES games

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project is arguably the best TMNT game on the NES. The less said about the first game the better and its sequel, the Arcade Game, is a mediocre port of an otherwise memorable game.

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Image courtesy of uvlist.net.

Which is a shame, since the game came out when Nintendo and Konami were starting to strictly focus on the SNES and was unintentionally swept under the rug.

A gem in the long line of Ninja Turtle video games
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a massive franchise that, despite being incredibly silly and starting out as a parody of overly violent comics of the 80s, has stood the test of time. The heroes in a half shell have been adapted into children’s cartoons, critically acclaimed comics and have had more than a few major motion pictures made about them.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is also a franchise that has naturally branched out into video games. The colorful universe lends itself quite well to the world of gaming and Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello have been treated fantastic in regards to other comic book characters.

TMNT games are more consistent than most give them credit for. Fans often point to the classic arcade game released in the late 80s or or the SNES version of Turtles in Time. However, the Manhattan Project deserves to be up there with some of the best games adapted from the franchise. The Manhattan Project also pushes the NES to the limits and really shows off what the system was capable of doing, even on its last legs.

TMNT goes out with a bang on the NES
The Manhattan Project features something that the more well-known TMNT games do not have. A unique intro. The four turtles are relaxing in Florida but instead of hanging out, the Shredder is making New York City into a floating island. Shredder hijacks one of April’s newscasts and taunts the turtles to stop him. This is done impressively for the time, in an extensive opening cutscene.

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Bummer indeed, Michelangelo. Image courtesy of Azn Badger’s Blog.

In fact, something about the entirety of this adventure feels original. The Manhattan Project is not previously based on any arcade game, which gave the team at Konami more leeway with the creativity of the game and they weren’t afraid to take a few liberties with the license as well.

Instead of the streets of NYC or arriving in some sort of building, players are immediately greeted with vivid colors of the beaches in Florida. The turtles fight the Foot Clan in all kinds of unique environments and the game even does the surfing level before Turtles in Time and is far more challenging in this game. Players will see how much Konami is pushing the NES to its absolute limits. In 1991, the NES was being phased out, but the team still wanted to showcase the power behind the system.

The graphics are on par with some of the best, more vibrant looking NES games. The animation is good too, with each turtle having their own idle animation. Raphael flips around his sai, for example. It’s a small touch, but adds more of the personality of the franchise which is always key for any TMNT adaptation.

The Manhattan Project is also showing off the NES’ sound quality as well. The music is also 100% original, aside from the always classic TMNT theme song which plays in the intro. It is also insanely catchy, and probably the best soundtrack out of any TMNT video game.

Gameplay wise, it is the same setup at the arcade game, but feels tailor made for the NES. Of course two player mode is in the game. Beat ‘em ups weren’t the NES’ forte, but its games like The Manhattan Project that will definitely make the console appear to be adept at the genre. Hit detection is much better than in the arcade game port for the NES, and aside from the obvious flicker and slow down (this is the NES after all) the gameplay remains consistently solid throughout.

Fighting the Foot Clan in Florida!

Fighting the Foot Clan in Florida! Image courtesy of 8bit.com.

The Manhattan Project contains a feature other TMNT games did not have at the time. Each turtle has his own unique special move. This can be done fighting game style, by pushing buttons in a certain order with the correct directional controls. Leonardo can spin brandishing his katanas, Donatallo has an overhead whacking technique, Raphael has a drill move with both of his sais and Michelangelo will do this bizarre hopping technique. Turtles in Time has the spinning move, but for all the turtles as a power up.

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Gaming in a half shell
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project is one of gaming’s undervalued treasures and one that can be considered the definitive TMNT video game. The game’s lively and animated graphics show off the power of the NES and the polished and highly addictive gameplay will keep fans coming back with their favorite turtle to stop the Shredder. Most importantly, the game feels more original than most Ninja Turtle games and creativity is ideal for anything related to the ‘Turtles.

Resident Evil Will Be the “Final Chapter” For An Era of Game Movies

Next year the Resident Evil movies finally come to an end with “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter”, and with it, hopefully the end of horrible game adaptations.

It’s amazing that the series has been going on so long. Critics hate it. Fans hate it. But yet its still continuing as a series. Why? The reason is that most of its revenue is coming in from foreign markets, which more than double what’s being made from its showings in North America. However, now thats its over, the brand will end and so will the foreign market’s interest in this kind of movie. Because when you think about it, these kind of movies aren’t really made anymore.

Hitman tried its hand at a movie once more last year, but its critical reception and abysmal box office have shown a difference in the era of game movies. Image source: Foxmovies.com

With the power of the internet, movies are now swapped and changed much more than in the 90’s. Back then, studios would make video game movies and gave little attention to the source material during production. Now? Studios are coming under fire because they didn’t get the original Sly Cooper to voice the character in his upcoming CGI movie. Series fans seem to hold more power than ever, if really because they are a good amount of the demographic the movie is aimed at. The keyword may not essentially be good, but faithful. That is what’s getting people to give it a shot.

Resident Evil tried way too late to be faithful to the original games’s designs. Although credit where credit is due, their version of Wesker is beautifully over the top. Image source: comicvine.gamespot.com

People don’t want to see Mario and Luigi in an apocalyptic alternate dimension with little references to the game, they want to see Mario and Luigi as they are in the games. The movie Warcraft coming out has designs for the orcs that are nearly pitch perfect to how they are presented in the game. Studios know that they can’t do whatever they want with a license, they have to research it, respect it, and be close enough for the fans to recognize it as a faithful adaptation of what they love. The Resident Evil movies changed almost everything about the story but key character names and certain monsters. Nowadays, that won’t cut it anymore.

While not the best movie, Ratchet and Clank was far more faithful to its source material than nearly every other video game movie to date, with the much of the game’s voice cast, designs, and comedy all present. Image Source: Comicsbeat.com

The Resident Evil movies have seemed to beat expectations and continue on its ludicrous and nonsensical storyline that has managed to jump the shark more than a low-rent Vegas stuntman. However, as it finishes, it brings hope that video game movies can start to be what people always wanted them to be. Effort is now at the forefront of making these movies, as the Assassin’s Creed  and Sly Cooper seem to have gained a lot of attention, so hopefully Hollywood won’t disappoint.

Whether it be good or bad, this movie has Michael Fassbender. What more do you need? Image Source: Screenrant.com

 

 

The Importance of Villains in the Fighting Game Community

What is a villain? Well, when you think of a villain, you think of this antagonist who’s bigger and better than the hero. Evil intentions, scary, and just genuinely bad people, right? Villains in the fighting game community (or FGC) aren’t as over-dramatic as that, but still are a cause for a lot of tension and drama in their respective communities. That said, even though these villains cause a lot of drama, they’re a good thing to their communities. Be it through a persona they made for the sake of a good show, or if it’s just how they naturally are, villains generate hype, get the crowd invested, and make the mood of whatever it is they’re competing at much more intense, all by providing someone for the audience to root against.

Villains are a special breed of competitive player. They retain the skill and consistency to compete with the strongest players in the world, while also following up this skill with as much disrespect as possible. This can range anywhere from trash talk, to showboating, to really anything, so long as whatever is done contains major disrespect towards individuals, or the community.

Normally, the reaction to these kinds of people is disdainful, as it should be. They’re going out of their way to be disrespectful to others; of course they’re going to make people react negatively. This kind of behavior is generally known to be toxic, and when done by a regular member of the community, it is. But, when it’s done by the proper person, it changes from complete toxicity into nothing but hype building, and when it comes to the FGC, hype is the backbone of the community. Building hype increases player and audience investment, overall showmanship in major tournaments, and more. Villains generating hype through this kind of disrespect create a consistency that is otherwise not there.

But how does being so disrespectful generate hype? Quite simple, actually. Like I said, villains give the audience someone to root against. People don’t like seeing villains win, because they’re not nice people. So when a villain is up against someone who can compete against them and potentially take them down, that match will get the audience ridiculously invested, and the reaction to everything happen will be even greater than it would have been if it were between two other players.

This heavy focus on who wins the match makes it more exciting, and both outcomes help to make the community more invested in the game. If the non-villain wins, then the crowd goes crazy because they saw the villain get taken down. If the villain wins, the initial negative reaction to the crowd will eventually go towards an even better positive reaction when the villain finally does lose. Something big happened a few months ago with Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 villain Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez at Winter Brawl X. He had a match against Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 EVO champion Kane BlueRiver, and FChamp, also being an EVO champion in the same game before Kane BlueRiver, starts taunting him after every win. Yelling at him, talking down to him. Making it known that he is the best, and there’s nothing that can be done about it:

Video courtesy of Youtube user BasedMonster

Listen to the crowd when he taunts Kane BlueRiver. Listen to the crowd when he screams “THIS IS MY GAME!” Listen to the crowd every time he antagonizes Kane BlueRiver. He’s making the audience gain so much energy, making them get hyped up for this match, for the chance to see Kane BlueRiver destroy FChamp after being taunted. On top of making the crowd so invested in the game, his antics add flare to an otherwise regular exhibition match, which makes the event as a whole a much more entertaining show. This is the kind of impact a really good villain can give a competitive scene.

And it’s not just traditional fighting games where this happens either. Without a doubt the most notorious villain in the FGC is the incredibly talented Super Smash Bros. Melee player, Leffen. As much as FChamp has in his showboating game, and how much he taunts people while playing, there is nobody in the FGC who can compete with the sheer amount of trash talk that Leffen spits out.

Video courtesy of Youtube user Levoki

Leffen is a fantastic player, knows it, and isn’t afraid to say that he is. He generates hype in a different way than FChamp does. When FChamp does it, while he does trash talk outside of games, he does it in the moment more than prior to or after a match. Leffen will seemingly talk smack about anyone when given the opportunity. The sheer amount of trash talk Leffen speaks makes him a top contender for the “I really want to punch this dude in the mouth” contest. This whole situation between Leffen and Chillindude was started over Leffen trash talking him on Twitter, which Then ended up being a huge event at Apex 2015, where Leffen won. Leffen’s victory caused two reactions with the crowd: them freaking out because they liked Leffen, and he won, or people freaking out because they hate Leffen, and they’re mad he won. Either way, due to Leffen’s disrespect, he was able to make the huge crowd get involved in the match, and be the cause of what is probably one of the most well-known matches in Melee.

Without these villains to put into the mix, all we would have in the FGC are a bunch of really good players who all just kinda show up and play. The conflict and drama these people add to the formula provides a great show for the audience. Being a villain that is capable of generating so much energy within both the audience and community is a talent in and of itself. It takes a lot of devotion to the game and the community to be perfectly fine with being viewed as “that guy” for the sake of the game, and these villains need to be shown a bit more appreciation for what they contribute to this great community of hype.

Grave Digging: The Nerf Mentality of Warframe’s Update 18.13

I’ve been playing Warframe off and on for about a year, now. When I’m into it, I could spend several hours a day claiming rewards, leveling gear, and maintaining this monstrous undertaking of a game and not think anything of it. When I’m not into it, it’s a chore to open the game and get closer to that ever-elusive login reward.

Update 18.13 happened in one of my off bouts. Relatively cut off from the community and what exactly was happening with the update, I checked my Twitter feed one morning and was met with this.

Now, the Viver nerf was before my time. I remember just getting into the game and watching a video from Mogamu, a popular Warframe YouTuber, much like Quiette Shy, talk about the fact that “there will always be a Viver“. For some background, Viver is a map on the planet of Eris where players would group up, infiltrate a ship, and destroy infested hives to complete the mission. From what I understand, a certain team setup would yield immense amounts of experience and allow players to level their equipment quickly and efficiently.

While I agree that devs should balance their game to minimize the need for power-leveling, I also advocate for power-leveling in Warframe’s case. To be considered adequate for high-level play, you need a full arsenal of mods, better-than-decent weapons, and a fleshed-out build for your warframe that maximizes your participation in the team. Luckily another map, Draco, was found to be the next-best place for power levelling.

That being said, maps like Draco and Viver become vital to long-time players looking to throw themselves into the hardest endless survival missions they can find. They don’t want to spend an excess amount of time leveling gear and frames, they want to challenge the game with all they’ve got. These long missions are sought after due to Warframe’s issues with enemy scaling. After a certain amount of time, enemy levels ramp up quickly, and after a while, their levels start glitching out. As seen below, a five-hour survival mission in the games highest endless survival brings on enemies over level 3000.

Update 18.13 brought some changes to certain frames. Some received passive abilities if they didn’t have them beforehand. Other frames were tweaked to improve their performance and make it so that the powers, based on the theme of the frame, had more synergy. One frame, Mesa, the so-called gunslinger, received a buff to her abilities. Her ultimate ability, which had been nerfed late in 2015 to remove its horrendously AFK-enabling auto aim, scales with secondary weapon damage, as many people called for prior to the update, to name one positive change.

As for other frames, such as Mag, a magnetic-based frame, Trinity, the dedicated healer, and Valkyr, the berserker, had no such luck. The aim was to make the frames more balanced, but instead, as was the case with Mag and, in my opinion, Trinity, they have been made relatively unusable.

Valkyr’s ultimate ability granted her invulnerability for as long as a player’s energy pool would sustain it. Now, not only does this ability eat more energy per second it is activate, but also deals a percentage of the damage Valkyr would have taken back to her after the ability is dispelled if she is standing near any enemies. This is one nerf that I’m fairly content with. It removes the “press 4 to win” mentality that Valkyr carried, similarly to Mesa. I see both of these as improvements: they open up different options for builds per frame.

However, Mag, who once dominated a specific enemy faction in combat with her Shield Polarize ability, no longer has the one-button area of effect (AOE) ability that players essentially relied on after her previous nerfs. Trinity’s heal ability no longer targets all players across the map, but limits its range to 50 meters, in game. To me, this diminishes her as an asset to the team, but could give her additional survivability on her own.

Since the nerfs came at a time when I haven’t been too involved in Warframe, I’m in the process of giving both Mag and Trinity their dues. While I’ve picked it back up over the last few days to tweak builds and see how they actually perform, I’m not optimistic for the future of the game overall. The scaling issue has been around for a long time, and while Digital Extremes (DE) promises that it’ll be fixed Soon™, I’m beginning to wonder if they’ll just leave it as-is and let players have at it.

There is a responsibility for devs to make their game balanced, as I stated earlier, but punishing players for making the most of unpopular frames, at least in Mag’s case, doesn’t feel right. I’ll come out and say it now, I’m very biased. Mag was the frame I started with. The fact that I had a certain mod for one of her abilities gave me an edge in starting out, and I was able to overcome the learning curve by being included in higher level missions because of it.

One of Mag Prime’s last promotional images. (Via Warframe.com)

Bias aside, it’s unfortunate to see Warframe suffer so many nerfs in such a short period of time. These sudden changes not only confuse the player base and make it harder for players to challenge themselves, but it also gives the impression that DE really doesn’t care about their community. It seems to me that DE wants Warframe to be played a certain way, and if the player base isn’t playing the game the way they want it, their solution is to force players to do so, but not by editing their game’s core mechanics. Instead, the logical thing to do is to make the frames less powerful and hope that we’ll just get the message, right?

Fallout 4 Far Harbor Review: Far From Home

*This is a review of the PS4 version of Far Harbor and I cannot speak for the performance issues on PC*

 

Far Harbor is Bethesda’s first meaty expansion for the underwhelming Fallout 4, they had some additions like Automatron and Wasteland Workshop, but this is the expansion that everyone was looking forward to.

Taking place on Bethesda’s representation of the Coast of Maine, Far Harbor starts you right where you left off the last time you played Fallout. Unfortunately for myself, the last time I actually played Fallout before this was back in December so it ended up being a little jarring trying to remember where the hell everything is. Much to my surprise, I forgot I managed to piss off every faction and was immediately being shot at upon loading the save.

After I handled all of that, I started the expansion. You arrive at Valentine’s office and quickly learn that a girl named Kasumi Nakano is missing and you have been hired to go find out where she is. You go look for evidence around the house, and this is when I was immediately reminded that I was still playing Fallout 4.

After finding out she went to a place called Far Harbor, you follow suit and go find out what’s really going on. Upon arrival, you’re greeted by one of the new factions called the Harbormen. The introductions are quick as you’re thrown into a fight with creatures that come from the Fog. The dreaded, dreaded fog.  And with an otherwise very interesting introduction, this is also the first time you realize how much of a problem the fog is going to be. It’s not because the enemies are tough or anything, but because the frame rate drops substantially whenever you’re fighting anything in the fog. Unfortunately for the players, the entire island is covered in this fog and this makes traversal through the island almost unbearable. Which is a shame, because I really like the aesthetic of the island. It presents itself as very eerie and mysterious. Throw in some abandoned ships and sea creatures and I’ll be bound to enjoy the look.

In between meeting these factions, you get an important quest that the Children of Atom have useful information and you need to go get it. Once you get to the computer that has what you need, it sends you to this virtual world and you find out that there’s puzzles separating you from potentially having fun again. On PS4, this area runs like crap and the puzzles aren’t fun whatsoever. It’s basically just horrible filler that made me angrier at the game just for including it. It almost felt like the game was wasting my time. Just take a look for yourself.

Source: HarryNinteyFour

The other two factions you meet along the way are The Children of Atom, who are nuclear energy addicted crazy people with no real relevance to the storyline and Arcadia, who are a group of Synths. Most of the important quests are linked to Arcadia as DiMA, the lead synth is the character you’re dealing with a lot of the time. None of the newly introduced characters are necessarily interesting either, most of them are one track minded and don’t add anything to the story other than “I’m a synth and synths are great” or “I’m not a synth and I hate synths” until much, much later in the expansion.

However, every character in this expansion seems to have two things in common. One being, their hatred of the fog and the other being how much the Children of Atom suck. The game doesn’t do much to sway your opinion from this and it ultimately ends up with the player not necessarily caring about what happens to them. *HEAVY SPOILERS, SKIP A FEW SENTENCES AHEAD IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOLIED* Which is why I ended up blowing them up to smithereens the second I had the chance to. Right when I was almost finished with the game they give me this decision, so I finished all of my side quests with them and quite literally, blew them to the wind. Now, the really unfortunate thing about this is that there’s no repercussions for this decision whatsoever other than one line of dialogue. When I went back to Far Harbor, it went a little like this. The leader said my decision to do this was unbearable and wasn’t justified. That conversation ended and I started another one with the same character. She then began to praise me for all of the fantastic work I had done for them so far. It was a very polarizing minute and a half.

Since this is probably the last time I’ll be playing Fallout, there was nothing keeping me from doing whatever horrible actions I wanted to do. I feel like now, more than ever the game needed consequences for your actions but I literally eradicated an entire faction for no good reason other than wondering what could happen. *SPOILERS OVER* The finality of this expansion was something I think worked against it substantially. Even if they plan on making more expansions, which they do, they make this whole expansion feel like one last trip back to the wasteland.

Source: Kotaku Australia

Source: Kotaku Australia

The expansion ends on a high note and actually wraps the character arcs up a lot better than I was anticipating. However, they don’t necessarily give you any reason to go back to the island. It ends with you leaving in the boat that you came in with and I think it ends like this for a few reasons. One, so they can load in a whole new island because the game already runs like crap without the added island to it. And the other being because it thematically fits. I ended up finishing all of the side quests before I saw the ending and it felt like that was the way to play this properly. By the end of it I had a good sense of accomplishment in my pocket and the way it ends gave me a sense of relief. Unless you care about settlement building or want to find secrets, there’s no reason to go back after you finish the main & side quests which took me roughly 12ish hours give or take.

Paragon: Another MOBA Comin’ to Town

For the past few years, Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (MOBA) have become increasingly popular. With League of Legends and DOTA 2 being at the top spot in terms of popularity, SMITE and Heroes of the Storm are starting to make their mark. Paragon is currently in Beta and I managed to gain some in-game experience from the first Free Beta Weekend. I personally hate fighting against AI, but that was my majority experience due to my “ability to wait”. Each individual playing the Beta had already received an invite via email, so the chances of experiencing a full lobby of players are kinda slim. (Insert sad face here)

The game will be a PC and PS4 exclusive.

Epic Games

This company is behind the scene’s of the well-known Gears of War series, which is one of the most graphically amazing games of our time! I’m more than confident that Epic Games will make this game beyond worthwhile. I also want to make it crystal clear that Epic Games truly impressed me. Why? They are pouring in effort and addressing problems to make the MOBA community a better place.

Graphics

Oh, my lord.. The graphics… The all-mighty gods of the gaming world have answered our prayers! *As you read this article, you begin to faintly hear “Hallelujah” in the background* Every visual aspect of Paragon is ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL. I consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics, but oh man.. I cannot point out a single flaw about the game’s appearance– the up-close look at heroes, detailed minions/mobs, the eye-opening scenery of the battleground, the clean design of the game lobby. Just see for yourself!

What you see when you spawn in a match (Screenshot by me)

What you see when you spawn in a match (Screenshot by me)

I took a screenshot in spectator mode

Screenshot taken in spectator mode, which is why the teams are displayed

How could you deny such pleasure from seeing these screenshots?! (Or maybe it’s just me)

Heroes

So far, there are 16 playable heroes and I’m certain more will be added throughout their release. After playing multiple MOBAs, it would be cliché and obvious to call the heroes “unique” because each MOBA has its own set of different heroes. They wouldn’t be different characters if they were all similar. However, there seems to be is no lore for the heroes! It was worth mentioning because everyone knows the character’s lore is “important” in a MOBA, right? lol

One of the unique Heroes in Paragon

One of the heroes, Muriel, available to play in Paragon

To view more information about the heroes, click here.                                                           or here! Decide your path 😀

Gameplay

What I enjoy about this MOBA is the incorporation of the elevated surfaces. The map isn’t one flat area with walls, comparable to a maze. Paragon has a third-person POV, so you are actually IN the action. It is similar to SMITE‘s camera view, but I find the gameplay more intense. The heroes’ skills may be a factor, to be honest. The skill effects, overall, make it look like you’re in a movie but without the cinematic angles. On top of that, the music adds that epic, desire-to-win vibe. Getting into the actual gameplay, it felt slow-paced although it took the average amount of time to finish a game. After waiting a long time to successfully experience a Player vs Player match, the match ended in 42 minutes.

Not only that, but the health/mana potions refill (3 charges) every time the player is back at base. I find it neat because you don’t need to constantly invest your money on pots! Also, unlike League of Legends, creep score (last hitting minions for more money) is not important. All you need to do is walk over orange orbs obtained by fallen nearby minions! Since today is Memorial day, I’d like to take a moment to remember the minions who served for our team. (I’ve always felt bad for minions. They blindly fight to death for people who don’t care about them!)

Players can also collect various cards to form decks and further use in game, which is awesome sauce!

There are many cards to collect and use

There are many cards to collect and use

These are some of the ones I’ve collected so far. As of today, there are a total of 259 cards sectioned off into categories: Order, Intellect, Corruption, Fury, Growth, Universal. Builds are already being formed and tested as we (technically I) speak!

Call of Duty: Why “Boots on the Ground” Should Stay in the Ground

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s reveal trailer is now officially one of the most disliked video on YouTube, second only to Justin Bieber’s “Baby.” There are four major reasons for this.

One: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered is being “sold” as a pre-order bonus for Infinite Warfare. Now that’s a total scumbag move, probably the worst example of pre-order bs and all but, that’s not what we’re here to talk about!

Two: people are upset about the direction the series is headed wanting a more traditional “boots on the ground” shooter experience from Call of Duty.

Three: people just despise Call of Duty. There’s been this long running thing where Call of Duty is the face of all that’s wrong with gaming. Even though there are PLENTY of games with a worse record than Call of Duty and before this new Modern Warfare Remastered pre-order business their record was relatively clean.

Aaand four: The trailer was just kinda bad.

Today however! We’re here to discuss that second category and why I think the future is the best place for Call of Duty to head from both a design and thematic standpoint.

1. Design:

Call of Duty is a “twitch-based first-person-shooter” this means it’s all about testing how fast a player can understand the situation in front of them and whether or not they can execute what’s needed to succeed. Now in earlier Call of Duty’s since the games were set in a modern setting you would only really fight on flat stages where you primarily just shifted your sights from left to right to fire, only adjusted upwards to aim for the head or to hit someone at a slightly higher elevation.

Notice most combatants will just approach you on the same Z-Axis.

In recent iterations of the franchise they’ve recently started upgrading the amount of mobility the players have. With jet-packs and sliding maneuvers added players are now required to adjust their sights more dynamically in order to properly engage enemies. This adds some much needed depth to the series and depth is always good especially when it’s simple to understand. The added mobility adds much needed “outplay” potential for both players in a fire fight and such depth just isn’t possible in a “boots on the ground” experience without becoming Counter Strike.

Notice the combatant flying through the air and another about to pounce standing on the tank.

2. Thematics

Call of Duty is dumb. I mean this in the best of ways. Call of Duty is a simple game about seeing who can shoot each other in the face before the other. Call of Duty is a dumb action movie with player interaction so the stories and settings should reflect this. A futuristic story lends itself to all the absurdity Call of Duty deserves. In Call of Duty’s most recent iteration Black Ops 3 the developers are seemingly starting to understand that. This game sports a roster of characters all pulled straight out of action films. Men, women and robots with dumb special abilities and dumb taunts. It’s fantastic.

Look at um’ LOOK AT ‘UM!

A “boots on the ground” experience, while still fantasy, holds more weight to it as it is based on real experiences that real brave men and women have. In other words you gotta show it some respect. Let Call of Duty be dumb please.

If you are still looking for that “boots on the ground” experience luckily for you within the same week as the Infinite Warfare trailer a Battlefield 1 came out sporting a World War I inspired setting. If that’s not a message from the gods then I don’t know what is.

Stardew Valley: A Better Harvest Moon Experience than Harvest Moon

The first game I had on the Gameboy Advance was Pokemon Ruby. For many months, it was also the only game I had on the Gameboy Advance. After I had thrown about 300 hours of my life into it I started to think, “Wow. Maybe I should look into getting another game or 2 for this.” Lucky for me, my best friend at the time had been playing this “Cool new game!” called Harvest Moon: More Friends in Mineral Town. Being only 11-years-old at the time, I thought it sounded stupid and I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around how she was having so much fun with it. That is, until I played it myself. It had a very addictive quality to it—there was so much to do and you wanted to do it all. I couldn’t put it down and at the time I never quite pieced together what about it made it so charming. That is, until I played Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is a country-life RPG/farming simulator game made by ConcernedApe (Eric Barone) back in February of this year. More than being simply Harvest Moon inspired, Barone has said in multiple interviews that the original idea for Stardew Valley was to be something like his perfect Harvest Moon game.

The inspiration taken from Harvest Moon is clear right from the start of the game, as it shares a similar premise to most in the franchise: You’re growing bored of modern life and you’ve suddenly inherited a farm. Now go be a farmer. The originality this game has it also clear from the beginning of the game, however, as it does something that no other Harvest Moon game does despite many fans wishing it: It allows you to customize your character entirely, which is a very nice touch and only deepens the feeling of this game being so personal.

Image Source: Game Informer

Perhaps the best thing about Stardew Valley is the freedom this game allows you. Although the game encourages you to be a farmer (by, well, giving you a farm) there are plenty of other options available to the player: Mining, fishing, forging, and adventuring, for instance. Right off the bat, this game sets you loose in a world with dozens of new things to try and in any order and for however long you please. This freedom ensures that no two players will play this game exactly in the same way and adds a layer of interest to this game and discussions on it. There’s no linearity in this game whatsoever: You do what you want when you want.  As for gameplay for these different activities, it’s kept very simple and minimal—as it should be in a relaxing game like this.

If the sense of freedom in Stardew Valley isn’t the best part of the game, then the characters are. The idea of Stardew Valley is, “You’ve moved into a farm in a small town. Make a living.” so naturally, making friends comes with that—you can even get married in this game. (And for bonus points, all the marriage candidates—both men and women—are available to you regardless of your gender) All the characters are written to be both incredibly unique and incredibly realistic. The more you talk to them and give them gifts, the friendlier they’ll be toward you (as measured by the hearts in the game’s menu) and their dialogue reflects that. All the characters have different events that can be triggered when they like you enough, as well.

The events are easily the next biggest highlight of this game—every character has very unique events, all which help you learn a lot more about the character. At the same time, all of the events seem pretty realistic, and like something you’d do with a friend in real life. Non-marriage candidates don’t have as many events as the potential marriage candidates, in fact some characters only have one event, leaving much to be desired in their character development. As characters grow to like you their dialogue will change to reflect this much more friendly atmosphere you now share with them, but that still only leaves the player starving for more time with them and to know more about them.

Image Source: Stardew Valley wiki

The only major problem in the character writing in this game comes from after you get married. After you get married, you can no longer get the other marriage candidates any farther than 8 (out of a possible 10) hearts full in the menu. (If it’s not already obvious, 10 meaning that you maxed them out.) Not only this, but if you want to give any of them gifts for any reason, including their birthday, your spouse—regardless of who it is, what day it is, of anything—will get angry.

Most of this games problems lie around the same area. As mentioned before, there’s a lot to do in Stardew Valley and you’re free to do it in any time and order you so please. That said, most of it can be completed within ~50-60 hours. It’s around that time, around the ~30-40 hour mark, that you’ll start feeling bored of the game since you’ve likely discovered all the surprises and events by the time. By this time, you probably know exactly what your favorite townspeople are gonna’ say on certain occasions. You’ve probably done most, if not all, of the achievements you wanted. You’ve probably tried everything this game has to offer by this time, and the game starts to lose its freshness very quickly.

Barone realizes that this is a common complaint with the game, though: Earlier this month, he announced that he’ll be working on patch 1.1 which will give you more dialogue with your spouse, create more events with non-marriage candidates (and even add 2 marriage candidates), add more secrets and surprises to the game, and even add a multiplayer version of which we still know nothing of. Arguably the most notable thing he said he was in the process of doing was getting a console release of Stardew Valley.

In the spirit of (most) Harvest Moon games and Animal Crossing (from which it also takes a lot of inspiration) Stardew Valley should absolutely be on a handheld console—more specifically the 3DS because the layout could be transferred easily (I imagine you can just put the menu and the backpack on the bottom screen). Being such a personal game, playing it on a hi-def TV with a PS4 would feel too grandiose for the modest and charming world of Stardew Valley.

Image Source: Steam Community

With having so much to do and total freedom in when and how you’ll do it, it’s no wonder that Stardew Valley is such an immersive and addictive game. It’s a game that you can play entirely how you want, and beyond being incredibly fun, is also incredibly relaxing. It’s major flaws come in its little late-game content and the occasional bug—usually nothing major, however, there has been multiple cases of people (including me) losing their save data on more than one occasion toward the game’s beginning. As long as you back up your saves though, this isn’t an issue.

As it was intended to be, this game truly feels like an improved Harvest Moon game–so much so that it shouldn’t be called a Harvest Moon game since they have many major things that set it apart. (EX: The lack of linearity and customization options Stardew Valley has) An incredibly solid, well-crafted game, and downright charming game, I’d give Stardew Valley an 8/10: Something I’d absolutely recommend to anyone who needs to relax for a bit or enjoys Harvest Moon/Animal Crossing-esque rpgs.

Three Days Remain: The Majora Effect

Since Nintendo’s beloved The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was released, its defining hallmark was the fact that the game ran on a steady three-day timer. Your objective, as the young Link, is to save the world and return a powerful, evil mask to the Happy Mask Salesman. In three whole days. At 6 AM, on each day you experience in-game, you’re presented with a screen that ominously reminds you just how many hours you have to complete whatever you’re doing, save the world, and return the mask. With a whopping four dungeons, a multitude of side quests, and a great trouble thrust upon your shoulders, three days seems like… not long enough.

The first thing seen entering Clock Town. (Image from YouTube.)

The main thing is that as Link, you gain access to the Ocarina of Time after completing the first cycle. After all, this game wouldn’t be a true sequel without some callbacks to the first. After you get the ocarina, you’re free to control the flow of time. The Song of Time allows you to skip forward, slow the passing of time, or return to the beginning of the three-day cycle. You can now use time to your advantage. Anything you collect or progress will be reset upon returning to the beginning of the cycle, though if you’ve beaten a dungeon you don’t have to do it all again, just the boss battle.

So let’s say, in your first play through, you’re in the final hours on the third day, and the timer is counting down the minutes until midnight. You’ve completed a dungeon and helped Anju and Kafei out with their quest, but there’s still more to do. You’re not done calling out to the four giants just yet. So you warp back to day one. Save the game, start over. Your restockable items like bombs and rupees fly out of your pockets as you fall through a spiral of clocks, winding backwards.

Link falling through time after playing the Song of Time.

It’s just like a weird dream I had once! (Image from Zelda Informer Wiki.)

You go up to any NPC you helped out or at least talked to in your previous cycle and they spit back that same first line of dialogue. To them, those three days didn’t happen. You didn’t help them out. For all they know, this is your first time in Termina, and you’re just stopping by for the carnival. You’re not here to save them. They don’t even know they’re in danger. Majora is still out there, in mask form, and for all they know, it’s having a nice picnic in the mountains.

For years, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around this situation. To me, Majora’s Mask holds some of the most intricately designed backstories in The Legend of Zelda‘s in-game universe. Clock Town feels like the small, rural town that I imagined I’d grow up in. Everyone knows each other and for the most part, they’re pretty friendly towards one another. Then Link, an outsider, swoops in and saves this tiny town from an imminent doom that they don’t know about.

And after everything, even during the time that Link is scrambling around to try and fix whatever problems everyone’s going through, he’s forgotten about. After the carnival, nobody remembers him, though he’s collected the masks as tokens of the memories he’s shared with the townsfolk. In the long run, it’s not even about saving the world for Link. Termina is just a pit stop on the road to finding his friend. He didn’t have to help the Happy Mask Salesman, he didn’t even have to care about anyone in the town. He could have called it a day and left.

Majora’s Mask forces players to think about things other than them in the game. Sure, you could ignore the side quests and focus on the four dungeons, but no matter what you do, there will always be someone that needs help. They may not always remember, and you may not even gain anything from it, but you will remember. Even now as I play through the game, I do my best to memorize the steps I have to take for every single side quest so that I won’t forget anyone next time. Majora’s Mask is the only game to ever give me characters I care about so much that I’d draft an entire game guide in my memory for their sake.

Majora’s Mask is all about making the player question their own morals. (Image from Google+)

The fact that the game is on a timer makes your decisions have more weight. Regardless of your course of action, it’s impossible to help everyone in one cycle. Someone will be left behind, and someone will be forgotten about. In the end, I’d much rather finish the game and have Link be forgotten by the citizens of Clock Town than fail to help them when I’m able.

Gaming’s Undervalued Treasures: Alien Hominid

Alien Hominid box art. Image courtesy of Hardcore Gaming 101.

Image courtesy of Hardcore Gaming 101.

Alien Hominid is a nice throwback to run n’ guns
Alien Hominid is the definition of an homage, as it pays tribute to is the genre of run n’ guns.

Shooting out on the highway! Image courtesy of Nintendo City.

Shooting out on the highway! Image courtesy of Nintendo City.

Run n’ guns are generally simple; they feature one, two or four different soldiers/cyborgs/aliens/etc. and they either will move forward horizontally, or in Ikari Warriors vertically, or shoot everything in their path. Explosions and bullets will be flying all over the screen when playing a run n’ gun, giving the player a sense of adrenaline only over-the-top 80s action movies can deliver.

Fan favorite franchises like Contra and Metal Slug are synonymous with the genre. Alien Hominid plays a lot like the latter, but contains the difficulty of the former. Being released for consoles in November of 2004 as a budget title and published by Q3 (Who? Exactly.), it’s no wonder Alien Hominid was overshadowed by other juggernaut games released at the time. Games released the same time as Alien Hominid were Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Halo 2, World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2 and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Alien Hominid did not stand a chance against those giants. Which is a shame, since it was good enough to be part of that upper class of games that year. Heck, it was even better received than the newest Contra installment, Neo Contra, also released in 2004.

An example of the quirky art style. Image courtesy of Moby Games.

An example of the quirky art style. Image courtesy of Moby Games.

Alien Hominid also has one of the more unique art styles found in any video game. The simplistic and cartoony graphics, along with some solid gameplay which thrives on two players, make Alien Hominid a run n’ gun absolutely worth checking out. Even after the guns have been put down, there are more than a few throwback mini games to keep the player busy as well as some silly unlockables.

Alien Hominid  has an interesting background
Dan Paladin, otherwise known by his online name “synj,” is the brainchild behind the lunacy of the artwork. A longtime contributor to Newgrounds.com, Paladin’s boxy, yet overly animated, style is the first thing players are going to look at. Newgrounds’ co-founder, Tom Fulp is also one of the developers behind Alien Hominid, as his love for old school video games shines in the game’s action.

The duo actually released Alien Hominid through Newgrounds.com as a “beta.” Newgrounds users were only playing the first level, but compared to a lot of Flash based games on the site, the game felt bigger and played with more polish.

Paladin and Fulp, along with their friend John Baez, started the Behemoth, an independent video game developer. Alien Hominid was a success on Newground for a couple of years, with it being featured on their main page predominately and was later released as the Behemoth’s first game. The Behemoth later went on to develop Castle Crashers and Battle Block Theater.

Alien Hominid doesn’t break down walls, but instead crashes through them in spectacular fashion
Alien Hominid has an easy to follow story, much like an classic run n’ gun. An FBI agent shoots down a UFO carrying our little yellow hero and he crash lands on Earth. The FBI try to cover this up in a hilarious, not so subtle fashion, but the alien is not having any of it. From here on out, the alien starts his (her? Its?) sadistic quest to get revenge.

Alien Hominid intro. The one guy who caused this. Image courtesy of Moby Games.

The one guy who caused this. Image courtesy of Moby Games.

The presentation of the game is very familiar to those who have watched Flash cartoons hosted on Newgrounds. It has a vibrant color scheme, with yellow and green being the big stand outs. The animation is not Disney quality, but has a kinetic energy to it that is more along the lines of a classic Tex Avery cartoon. Character’s eyes will bug out and mouths will drop right down to the floor. Characters will look minimalistic when they are idle and but it adds to the charm of it all. Bosses are over-the-top goofy as well. However, the level of gratuitous violence is what sets it apart from classic cartoons and more along South Park.

The FBI trying their best to cover up the incident. Image courtesy of Hardcore Gaming 101.

The FBI trying their best to cover up the incident. Image courtesy of Hardcore Gaming 101.

The alien will be biting heads clean off of the FBI agents, slicing and dicing them and even shooting them in areas where no man should be shot. The alien and the FBI also have no qualms blowing up everyone’s cars on the highway. It’s not overly gory or done in a tasteless manner though, as it still has this cartoonish edge to it all. Still, not exactly a kid’s game with all the beheadings going on.

The gameplay does not bring the newest food to the table, but instead makes a classic meal exceptionally well. Alien Hominid has a simplistic control scheme of jump and shoot. There are other moves in the game, such as the ability to throw grenades, use a melee weapon (borrowed directly from Metal Slug) and dig underground as a stealth tactic, but for the most part, players will have to make sure the Alien Hominid is shooting, jumping and dodging. It helps the controls are consistently fluid and responsive.

Alien Hominid

EXPLOSIVE action and HUGE bosses are found aplenty! Image courtesy of Nintendo City.

Metal Slug is Alien Hominid’s main source of information, even down to the “How to Play” screen that shows the player the controls. Even the sense of humor is similar. The whole tongue-in-cheek manner of the story and presentation will certainly create some laughs among the players.

On the side, there are a couple of old school minigames made with Atari in mind. The most prominent, Super Soviet Missle Mastar is an excellent parody of Cold War era paranoia.

An enormous difficulty curve may not be for everyone
Similar to Metal Slug, Alien Hominid showcases an immense level of difficulty. It is not Contra: Hard Corps level difficult, where bosses being thrown at the player every few feet, but it does require a level of skill. Make no mistake, Alien Hominid is not the most difficult game of all time, but it is certainly no cakewalk either. This is where it might scare some players, but if they are used to the overly difficult nature of run ‘n guns, then they can brush this off.

Alien Hominid boss

Alien Hominid may be one of the few games with a pudding boss. Image courtesy of Nintendo City.

One of Gaming’s Undervalued Treasures
From a little Flash game to big retail release to even an HD re-release on the Xbox 360, Alien Hominid is proof that anyone with a creative vision for video games can make it in the field. An imaginative and energetic art style and tight gameplay which harkens back to a cult hit video game series, make Alien Hominid one of Gaming’s Undervalued Treasures. It is an absolute blast throughout and can be enjoyed with two players, like any old run ‘n gun. Alien Hominid may be punishing, but sometimes it hurts so good.

It is not terribly obscure, as copies on Amazon don’t break the bank and the game is now available as a download but if any lower tier game was released around holiday 2004, they would be lost in the shuffle too.

Let’s Talk: What to Expect in DayZ

BAM to the zam through the pituitary gland! I’ma go straight in and say DayZ is worth getting if you like survival games. There are definitely a TON of zombie-related games like Call of Duty zombies, Left 4 Dead, The Walking Dead, Dying LightPlants vs Zombies to name a few. Whether it’s single-player or not, we just wanna feel the thrill, test our survival skills, and gore is always a plus (at least for me). Let’s put the dim, flickery spotlight on DayZ for a moment, shall we?

Current Status

DayZ is still in Alpha through Steam since Dec 16, 2013. Based on their twitter profile, they plan to release it on Xbox and Playstation in the future.

The devs at Bohemia Interactive seemed to be slacking and the whole community was convinced the game would never go into Beta, but the devs are picking it back up again!

Gameplay

I wouldn’t consider it much of a zombie game, since you have to worry about other players way more than the actual zombies. The biggest threat a zombie could be is giving away your position. But before this all happens, I have to mention that it’s a pain to get into the “good” servers (amount of lag based on the host). There is a 50 player maximum in a server, which means it can be a pain to get into the same server as your buddies. Another thing– it can take an insanely long time to cross each other’s paths. Sometimes you gotta die a few times to finally meet them, too. There will be times where another player begs you to kill them, so don’t be surprised! The map is HUUUUUGE!! There is no default auto-run key, so you gotta set a macro for it. Because, believe me, your hands start to ache.

Interactions

Talk if you don't want to die

You could end up in this situation (Image taken from official DayZ website)

I can’t say this enough, but communication is extremely vital in this game. State your intentions immediately. Your ability to negotiate and the level of cooperation in both parties will determine your fate! After all that time and effort looting, it would be a shame to die and become a Bambie (aka fresh spawn) again. You never know what types of people you’re going to encounter, so it would be safer to listen to whoever has the advantage.

Note: if you’re looking for a chillax time, I recommend going to the”Roleplay” and “No KOS” (Kill On Sight) specific servers. Image below is a perfect example of how involved you can get in the community!

DayZ

My former DayZ family forming a circle around a fist fight. It was after a trial we held about a cheating wife having intimate relations with the man’s best friend

Aside from the cookie-cutter buildings, the graphics look noice. Imagine how it’ll look when it comes out of Beta! (hopefully soon)

Why I’m Confident Mother 3 Will be Localized by the End of the Year

When it came out in 1994, Earthbound was a massive loss for Nintendo of America, and it seems that it’s haunted them to this day in more ways than one. Right off the bat Earthbound was a major financial loss during its initial release—its poor sales are commonly attributed to its poor advertising, RPGs not being popularized in the West yet, and most of all, you could only buy the game in a special edition that came with the guide that cost $70. Needless to say, there weren’t that many people at the time who wanted to pay $70 for a game that they hardly knew anything about, so sales were atrocious, therefore Nintendo didn’t produce many carts of it, nor did they bother to release its sequel game Mother 3 that came out 12 years later.
You’d be hardpressed to find a fanbase so devoted despite how Nintendo of America has neglected them than American Mother fans. Earthbound became a cult classic a few years after its initial release—just long enough for carts to be nearly impossible to find since Nintendo of America stopped distributing them so quickly. When Mother 3 finally came out in Japan 12 years later, for the first time in a long time for many Earthbound fans, hope had finally seem to come back! And so they waited for the announcement that Nintendo of America would translate Mother 3, but that announcement would never come. The closest thing they would receive was Lucas being in Super Smash Bro’s Brawl on the Wii, but his being there was not a decision made by Nintendo of America.

Image Source: Earthbound Wiki

When time passed and there was still no announcement, fans started to get angry. More importantly, fans started to get vocal. Threads about wondering where Mother 3 was became all too common in not just Earthbound and Nintendo forums, but video game forums as a whole. Notably, in an interview with Reggie Fils-Aime (Nintendo of America President) in 2007 he said, “…For example, I’m still being bombarded by Mother fans who are asking for [Mother 3] to be translated to English and launched here in the U.S.” Nintendo was clearly hearing the Mother fans, but they didn’t care to listen because of the horrible financial loss that was Earthbound—even though it had aged terrifically and is widely considered to be one of the best games on the SNES.
The next time America would hear about Mother 3 wouldn’t be until 2015 when Lucas was going to be added to Super Smash Bro’s 4 on the Wii U and 3DS—though again, his addition to Smash wasn’t a decision made by Nintendo of America. His release, however, got a lot of people wondering: Mother 3 turns 10 years old next year, and there’s a new group of Smash players being introduced to the Mother franchise through not only Lucas and Ness being in Smash, but the addition of Earthbound on the Wii U virtual console, and more importantly, the release of Mother 1 (retitled Earthbound Beginnings) which had previously been translated but never officially released in America because of poor timing (Which is why they decided to release Earthbound despite the myriad of production and translation snags that were had with it.) Nintendo of America seemed to finally be acknowledging the Mother franchise again—was there actually hope for Mother 3 all these years later?
On February 3, 2016 their prayers were finally answered when Emily Rogers—an employee for Nintendo who has been known to leak out information that thus far has been true (usually about when  NX/Zelda U news would be annoucned) tweeted, “Don’t be surprised if Nintendo celebrates a game’s 10th anniversary this year… just some food for thought.” followed by a tweet with a picture of Kumatora—one of the main characters of Mother 3. The Internet went into a frenzy wondering if Mother 3 had actually been confirmed after all these years.

Image source: SSL Forum

There’s no reason to discredit or doubt what she says, as her track record of leaks has been pretty solid. On the other hand, however, she’s never leaked anything even close to as major as the potential release of Mother 3. Personally, I only see that as more reason to believe her, though—if she’s used to only leaking small, generally unimportant details about what Nintendo of America is doing, then why would she dive into something she knows would set off a frenzy? She knows that all eyes will be on her now, and if she’s wrong about this, she’ll be one of the first people a mob of enraged Mother 3 fans who had shown a glimmer of hope would be hunting down. An English release of Mother 3 has become such an unbelievable concept that the idea that a Nintendo employee would leak something like that has to be believable—if she wanted to leak something huge just to mess with everyone it would make more sense for her to go after something bigger and more relevant like Zelda U—a game that she had previously been leaking small tidbits of information for, and would therefore be far more believable.
Shortly after these tweets were set free, another Nintendo employee, Liam Robertson, tweeted “I was asked to keep quiet, and then Emily decided to let the cat out of the bag herself. Hopefully this clears some confusion.”  “What I heard about Mother 3 (rumour) was that it was in the final stages of localisation in Nintendo of Europe a little while back.” “Emily sure likes to play around lol. My tweet wasn’t nearly this explicit and I got told off for it.” Tom Phillips of Eurogamer would later go on to corroborate them as well. She also recently tweeted that Mother 3’s announcement would likely be done at E3 in June—which would be a wise move on Nintendo’s part not only because their last E3 was considered to be a failure, but because this is also the first E3 for the new President of Nintendo, Tatsumi Kimishima. E3 is essentially the Olympics of video game distributors—if he were to have as lackluster of an E3 as Nintendo did last year, it would haunt his career (and PR) forever. If there were ever a time for him to bring out the absolute best of the best, it’s this E3. Nintendo has already announced that E3 will be mostly focused on Zelda U, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be entirely on that. Last year, for instance, although Star Fox Zero was the focus, it wasn’t the only thing we saw. Granted it was still almost entirely what we saw, my point still stands that there were a few other miscellaneous announcements. Zelda U could be the star of this E3, and the release of Mother 3 in English would make for a wonderful ending announcement to send Nintendo off on a good note.
I’m confident that Mother 3 will get announced sometime this year—more than likely at E3, but still sometime this year at the very least. If there were ever an E3 for Nintendo to do well at, it’s this one. More than that, Nintendo of America has been better about acknowledging the Mother franchsie by adding 1 and 2 to the Wii U Virtual Console and putting Earthbound on the New 3DS virtual console. They’re actively creating more Mother fans, and when they’re combined with the millions of insane Mother 3 fans who were already here, it would sell tremendously. Knowing that there’d be these same millions of Mother 3 fans demanding your head on a pike to be paraded through the streets if you were wrong, I don’t think anyone would leak anything about Mother 3 getting a translation this year just for fun—let alone it getting corroborated by two other reliable sources. It’s Mother 3’s 10th birthday this year, and Nintendo has always really liked celebrating major birthdays for their games— Super Mario Bro’s turning 30 last year for example, and even the 20th birthday of Earthbound by putting Earthbound Beginnings on the virtual console.

All the signs are pointing to it.
C’mon Reggie, give us Mother 3.