The Arsenal: Mario (Super Mario Bros.)

This is the first of the articles in The Arsenal, where I look at the best weapons and/or items that a character has access to. This article’s spotlight character is Mario, the main character of the Super Mario Brothers series. We will be looking at Mario’s various items and power-ups to determine the best ones he has available to him. Unlike my other list articles, this one is not numbered or rank-based, but instead will be based on different categories. What different niches can be filled with the best items or power-ups?

Best Offensive Power-Up- Fire Flower

First appearing in the original Super Mario Brothers, the Fire Flower is one of Mario’s classic power-ups and one of the most effective. In the normal Super Mario platforming games, the flower lets Mario throw fireballs, but outside of the main series it is implied that it can do more for the red-clad plumber. With Mario being shown with fire attacks outside of fireballs in the Mario Sports series and the Super Smash Brothers series, it is implied that it can give Mario full pyro-kinetic abilities.

Best Defensive Power-Up- Metal Cap

One of Mario’s few defensive power-up items, the Metal Cap is first seen in Super Mario 64 and still makes appearances as the Metal Box in the Super Smash Brothers series. After Mario breaks open the green and white box that contains it, the silver cap temporarily turns Mario into metal. It makes him impervious to damage, allows him to withstand water pressure so he can sink to the bottom of bodies of water, and allows him to cross areas filled with poison gas.

Best Land/Water Movement Power-Up- Penguin Suit

Mario has a few suit power-ups and many of them can affect his abilities on land and in water, but the most effective one for land and water movement is the Penguin Suit. First seen in New Super Mario Brothers Wii, the Penguin Suit (which some people might say looks ridiculous) lets Mario walk on icy surfaces without sliding, slide on ice and water without sinking in, and swim efficiently through water no matter the conditions. It even lets Mario throw ice balls, allowing Mario to freeze enemies into ice blocks, which can then be thrown or used as platforms.

Best Aerial Movement Power-Up- Cape Feather

There are a lot of power-ups that allow Mario to fly from the Wing Cap to the Super Leaf to the Tanooki Suit, but after looking at their abilities, the one that stands out from the rest is the Cape Feather from Super Mario World. Not only can it be used with a spin from Mario to knock out enemies, but it also provides unlimited flight abilities. The cape also makes an appearance in Mario’s move-set in Super Smash Brothers where he can use it to reflect projectile attacks.

Best Size Power-Up- Mega Mushroom

Mario has access to several size changing items to help him grow or shrink. He also has access to several mushroom items that have different effects. While the Super Mushroom is the most well-known of these items, the more effective of both of these types is the Mega Mushroom from New Super Mario Bros. When Mario grabs this extra-large mushroom, he grows to a gigantic size that can stomp and smash through any enemy or obstacle in his way. It only lasts for a few seconds,

Best Invincibility Power-Up- Invincibility Leaf

The Starman from the original Super Mario Brothers may be the most iconic power-up to grant Mario invincibility, but the Invincibility Leaf from Super Mario 3D Land grants him that and more. Not only does it give him invincibility, knocking away any enemy that touches him, it also grants him the abilities of the Tanooki Suit, allowing him to tail whip, glide, and turn into a statue. It even lasts for the entire level that it’s found on and when the level is finished, Mario still has a regular Tanooki Suit to use.

Best Non-Power-Up Item- Ultra Hammer

As the only item on this list that is not a power-up, the hammer is a recurring item in several Mario games, most notably the RPG games like Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi. Mario can use them to smash through obstacles, hit large switches, and combat enemies. The most powerful form of this piece of equipment is the Ultra Hammer from Paper Mario, which can smash through blocks made of wood, stone, and even metal. While Mario has other non-power-up items like the FLUDD water cannon from Super Mario Sunshine, they don’t pack the same power as the Ultra Hammer.

What did you think of this list? What items would you have given Mario? Which characters do you think have an arsenal worth looking at? Let me know in the comment section and thanks for coming.

10 Game Genres That People Want Nintendo to Try

Since the Wii era of Nintendo consoles, people have been noticing more and more that there are several kinds of games not commonly available on Nintendo’s platforms. Third-party developers usually come to fill these voids if first or second-party studios are unwilling or unable to themselves, but with Nintendo’s recent home consoles lacking in third-party support, this gap has just become more noticeable. With third-parties seemingly reluctant to work with Nintendo, it seems as if it’s up to Nintendo themselves to try to fill this void and several fans have made it known what kinds of games they want to see.

For this article, I have looked in several forums related to this topic to find out just what kinds of games that gamers want to see on Nintendo consoles and, by extension, what kinds of games they want Nintendo to make. I will also be detailing some of the ideas these people stated, to give an idea of what some gamers are thinking about.

1. First-Person Shooters

First-person shooters are the most highly requested genre for Nintendo to make a new game in, with multiplatform games like Call of Duty and Battlefield and Xbox series like Halo and Gears of War still at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds. While Nintendo already has the Metroid Prime games, others have been quick to state that it is more of a first-person adventure game and doesn’t really count. Nintendo also has Splatoon, but gamers have also stated that they want a first-person, not third-person, shooter, even more so, one with a mature tone and storyline.

Suggestions have ranged from a remake of the Nintendo published GameCube shooter Geist to a main console sequel to the DS game Metroid Prime Hunters, with selectable characters replacing swappable weapon sets. Some have also suggested a modern revival of the NES light gun game Wild Gunman as a Wild West online FPS, acquiring the rights to series like Perfect Dark or TimeSplitters, or even just making a brand new IP in the genre.

2. Traditional 2D Fighters

While Nintendo already has a successful fighting game series in the platform fighter Super Smash Brothers, a lot of people want Nintendo to make a more traditional 2D fighting game, similar to Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, or The King of Fighters. This niche used to be filled by Killer Instinct when Rare was part of Nintendo, until the developer got sold to Microsoft. Several requests have been made to Nintendo for this kind of game to be made. They include acquiring the rights to the Bloody Roar series from Konami and Hudson, working with Capcom to make Nintendo vs. Capcom, or reviving series like Urban Champion or Joy Mech Fight as traditional fighting games with complex mechanics as seen in pro tournament games like Street Fighter.

The Wii U game Pokken Tournament, a Pokemon fighting game developed by Namco Bandai, is scheduled for release in March 2016, but time will tell if it’s the fighting game fans are asking for.

3. Open World/Sandbox Adventures

The draw of an open-world game is having a large wide open area where you can go anywhere and do anything you want within that world, even if what you want to do is cause mayhem and spread chaos. That is the reason games like Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row, Just Cause, Skyrim, and more have become so popular in recent years and that is why a lot of people imagine what Nintendo could do with an entry in this genre.

Alongside the calls for a new IP exploring this genre, made by an internal Nintendo studio, several Nintendo titles have been stated as candidates for the open-world treatment including a Legend of Zelda title with a large world to explore (which many people think the upcoming Wii U title is going to be), an F-Zero game focusing on Captain Falcon’s bounty hunting career alongside his F-Zero races, a revival of the NES title Mach Rider as a gritty sci-fi open-world driving game, and an open world western based on the Dillon’s Rolling Western series.

4. Western RPGs

For this genre, it seems the biggest influences here are the success of games like Skyrim, Fallout, The Witcher, and Mass Effect. While some of these games may offer the freedom of choice seen in open-world games, they are more known for having complex characters that the player can interact with and deep and branching storylines that the player can affect with the choices they make, either in dialogue choices of actions in gameplay. This is one of the genres that make video games more like interactive movies.
Mostly, gamers want Nintendo to have a new original IP in this genre, preferably with a western director at the helm. Commonly stated developers have included Bethesda, CD Projekt Red, Electronic Arts and others. As far as adapting existing Nintendo properties, two of those mentioned were GameCube title Geist for a supernatural themed world or NES title StarTropics for a quirky, lighthearted storyline and characters.

5. Visual Novel

For gamers who want a good story and characters more than anything else from their gaming experience, visual novels are one of the best genres to turn to. With games like Ace Attorney as the main example, it is seen as a low budget was to release a new game with a good and engaging story. Nintendo has several series that could fill this niche with a new entry like Detective Club, Hotel Dusk, Another Code, or Tokimeki High School, but with Nintendo’s focus more on creating innovative game controls, some people think it’s unlikely that they would focus on making a simple visual novel game. They think that Nintendo would try to make some new control scheme that would separate it from others in this genre, but say they would welcome it if it actually helps the storytelling process.

6. Real Time Strategy

Though real-time strategy is a genre more associated with PCs, with game consoles becoming more powerful, many want to see RTS games used more on consoles and Nintendo is no exception. As far as Nintendo goes here, some say that Pikmin could count for this genre, but some say that this is a single-player action strategy game while they are asking for a competitive multiplayer game with complex mechanics, similar to StarCraft or XCOM. Ideas have been thrown around for RTS games based on series like Advance Wars and The Legend of Zelda and even a game based around wars between various Nintendo villains and the armies they would lead. The Wii U gamepad was thought to be able to work well for a genre like this, being able to just select a unit to manipulate with the controller’s touchscreen, but with the Wii U fading out, most of this talk has switched to the NX.

7. Japanese RPGs

Another game genre driven by deep storylines and engaging characters making games seem more like interactive movies if done right, Japanese RPGs, or JRPG for short, usually contain storytelling conventions, gameplay mechanics, and character archetypes that are more commonly found in Japanese-made games than western-made ones. A lot of gamers want to see JRPGs arrive in a large way on Nintendo home consoles, not as Virtual Console games or indie games that call back to the classic era, but as main console releases. Nintendo has recently provided a new entry in the Xenoblade Chronicles series from Monolith Soft, but that’s just one series.

Gamers have suggested partnerships with several developers including Square-Enix, Mistwalker, XSEED, Atlus, Namco Bandai, and others with experience making well-known JRPGs. Remakes or remasters of games like The Last Story or EarthBound have also been suggested, along with new entires in games like Golden Sun influenced by more complex RPGs like Persona, the Tales series, and Final Fantasy. The public has even suggested a Kingdom Hearts style Nintendo crossover game, like Super Smash Brothers as an RPG.

8. MMORPGs

Along with real-time strategy, MMOs are among those genres that have been exclusive to PCs until advancements in game console technology seem to make it more possible. Several ideas have been thrown around for a Nintendo MMO, especially ones based around Nintendo’s current franchises. In a Pokemon MMO, several players could travel the region or regions in the world, catching and raising their Pokemon and battling other player Trainers, while Legendaries or villain teams like Team Rocket could serve as area bosses or sparking special events that multiple trainers could participate in. A Zelda MMO could have several heroes from different races stepping up to save Hyrule from evil after Link goes missing. A Super Smash Brothers MMO could have avatars help the canon characters of different Nintendo worlds solving different crises and possibly gaining new equipment based on these different series.

A whole article could be made just speculating on what Nintendo MMOs based on different series could be like, but the main draw for this genre is being able to interact with other players while adventuring across a wide-open world.

9. Survival Horror

Survival horror games have been a genre that Nintendo has rarely touched over the years. Nintendo tried this back in the GameCube era with its first-party game Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, a highly praised game, and in the current Wii U era with Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, released to mixed results. Neither were really paid much attention to and went largely ignored. With many blaming to Nintendo’s approach to marketing (or lack thereof) for these games, fans of survival horror want to see more of the types of games the other consoles are seeing arriving on Nintendo.

Nintendo currently does not have much to offer here aside from another Fatal Frame game (which may be given a low-key release like the last one) or a sequel to Eternal Darkness (unlikely seeing what happened to the original developers), so many see Nintendo publishing a new IP as the only alternative.

10. Toys to Life Action Games

Requests for this mainly stem from how Nintendo has handled its Amiibo line of NFC figures. While Activision, Disney, and now Lego all have their own toys to life games released to massive success, Nintendo has yet to give a similar experience with their Amiibo figures. Most people who buy them simply buy them as collectibles to display on a shelf, because the few games that do integrate Amiibo functionality either handle it in a small capacity (like Super Smash Brothers 4) or are not interesting enough to hold players’ attention (like Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival).

Fans have suggested that Nintendo take some cues from the other big toys to life games and release an action RPG game that use Amiibo figures to access different characters in the game, perhaps as a stand-alone sequel to The Subspace Emissary from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Some have even suggested a Nintendo MOBA to use this functionality. Playable characters don’t even have to be limited to Smash Amiibo. The Inklings from Splatoon, the Yarn Yoshis, the characters from Animal Crossing, or even third-party Amiibos like Shovel Knight could have some kind of functionality in a game like this from playable characters to unlocking extra missions.

There were several ideas stated for new genres for Nintendo to work in and these were only ten of the most popular, so what do you think? What genres do you think Nintendo should make a new game in? Say what you think in the comments below and thanks for viewing.

10 Game Releases That Could Make Smash 5 Bigger Than Ever

With Corrin and Bayonetta now added to the DLC roster for Super Smash Bros. 4, the game now has its complete roster. No more DLC announcements. These are the last ones for this game. Those fans that had someone in mind that they wanted to see make the Smash roster will have to wait to see who makes it in Smash 5 (after Sakurai takes a long break first. He’s earned it.).

When it came to the characters that made the roster for Smash 4, some people complained that some more representation was needed in different areas, whether they were asking for more female characters, more villains, more characters from a certain franchise, or whatever. To maximize a character’s chances of making it in the roster, it helps to be relevant around the time the game is being developed, so for some of these concerns, maybe some new games should be released.

For this article, I will list ten ideas for video games that, if made and released before the next entry in the Super Smash Bros. series, may allow for more or different characters to get a chance at the roster. Focus will mostly be on the upcoming NX home console and whatever their next portable console will be but there are a couple of Wii U entries here too.

1.       Super Mario NX: Wart’s Castle

One of the games that everyone says Nintendo’s upcoming console, currently codenamed the NX, should get on or around launch is a new 3D Mario game. Some people say that Super Mario Galaxy 3 could be this game, but a lot of people are asking for a game more similar to Super Mario 64, with a large open hub world with secrets to uncover that can branch out into different levels to explore. To take this a step further, what if this game featured the prominent return of a character a lot of people have been asking to make a return for a long time? What if, instead of Bowser, the main villain in this game was Wart from Super Mario Bros. 2?

There have been some people online who have pointed out that a lot of the characters from Super Mario Bros. 2 have been seeing very few appearances in the Mario series. A new game would bring these characters back into prominence, even more so if that game was a launch window title for a new Nintendo console. The game could include SMB2 enemies like Phantos and Pidgits and the SMB2 bosses like Mouser and Tryclyde as area bosses, and at the end of the game the final boss is Wart, having crossed from the dream world into the waking world in a quest for power. The game could even take place at a new castle that Wart has taken as his new base of operations.

2.       Donkey Kong NX

There are were a few franchises that Nintendo fans were underrepresented in Smash 4 and Donkey Kong was one of them. Several fans of the series were hoping to see Dixie Kong (a female character) or King K. Rool (the series’ main villain) added with Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, but they were passed over. A new game in the series could help to assert that other characters in the series could be worth consideration for a Smash roster. This new game could be portrayed in two ways. The first is a 2D platformer similar to Donkey Kong Country 2, where Diddy and Dixie have to save Donkey Kong after he gets kidnapped by King K. Rool (or some other villain who could be given the spotlight). The second is a 3D platformer similar to Donkey Kong 64, where a villain threatens Kong Island and DK, Diddy, and a bunch of their friends have to stop this threat to their home.

3.       The Legend of Zelda Wii U/NX

A new entry in the Legend of Zelda series is coming soon. What has everyone wondering though is if it will be a Wii U exclusive or will it also be available on the NX. Whatever it releases on, just like every other Zelda title to come since the N64 era, this game is likely to have a stand-out character that will grab everyone’s attention. With Shiek, Skull Kid, Vaati, Midna, Ghirahim, and more, whichever new character the new Zelda game gives us is likely to grab a lot of attention and likely to have a lot of people asking for their inclusion in Smash 5.

4.       Metroid Prime Hunters 2

Metroid is another series that has a lot of people calling out how underrepresented it is in Smash. A problem here could be how the Metroid series has been handled in the past. While everyone loves Samus Aran and she is in no way a bad character (Other M aside), the series has focused so much on her that no one else is major enough to warrant an appearance outside the series. The only other major character from this series is Ridley and when it comes to Smash, Sakurai has stated that Ridley would be too big to accurately portray as a Smash fighter. Maybe that is what they are attempting with Federation Force, to give someone besides Samus the spotlight.

Another possible solution could lie in a sequel to the DS game Metroid Prime Hunters. While the game’s execution had some problems, it had an interesting concept. Gamers could play as not only Samus, but different bounty hunters as well, with their own unique sets of weapons. A sequel to this game on the NX or even Nintendo's new handheld could allow some different characters to rise to popularity, more so if they are given expanded stories and abilities from what they were given in the first Hunters game.

5.       Pokken Tournament

Pokemon is one of Nintendo’s largest series, both figuratively and literally with about 700+ creatures at this point, and that shows with Smash 4 having six Pokemon characters in its playable roster. The popularity of a certain Pokemon plays a large factor in their chances at making the Smash roster and, while the anime surely does a lot for a character’s image, another thing that could help is a fighting game specifically for Pokemon characters.

With Pokken Tournament soon to be released for home consoles, we get to see Pokemon battles Tekken-style, especially with Namco Bandai as the developers. Players not only get to see different Pokemon in matches, but also how their moves can be applied in ways that the main series games don’t show. Not only could this boost some monsters’ popularity, but also affect how their moves are portrayed if they make it into a game like Smash.

6.       F-Zero NX

With only one character in the Smash roster with Captain Falcon and no new games in the series in a very long time, F-Zero is not only one of the most underrepresented franchises in Smash, but in Nintendo in general. It may not be a stretch to say that a lot of people know Captain Falcon more as a Super Smash Brothers character than an F-Zero character. The best fix to this problem would be to create a new game in the series and the debut of a new console would be a good opportunity to re-introduce gamers to this long-dormant franchise.

Not only that but the same kinds of abilities that the Super Smash Bros. games gave to Captain Falcon could also potentially given to other characters in this series. A re-imagining of the F-Zero series could potentially make it as an over-the-top, adrenaline fueled, sci-fi racer, where everyone important has super-fast racing machines and outrageously crazy attacks.

7.       Fire Emblem: Warriors Across Time

This entry isn’t so much about adding new characters as it is narrowing down who and how many to focus on, because Fire Emblem now has six characters in its part of the Smash roster. This suggestion isn’t so much a new Fire Emblem game as it is a spin-off game like Hyrule Warriors. Giving Fire Emblem the Dynasty Warriors treatment like The Legend of Zelda got would bring in characters from across the series from the classic games to the modern era. From there, developers might be able to focus on which characters would seem popular enough to bring back into Smash.

8.       A returning old or obscure IP

This one isn't so much a specific game as it is a general idea, but it is worth mentioning.

Nintendo has a large roster of IPs available for their use and to add some more variety to their roster, a very good thing to do would be to revive one of their older IPs and bring it into the modern era. Kid Icarus got that treatment and most of the people that played it agree that it was a great game. Not only was Pit given new abilities and equipment and a nuanced personality, but the series was also given a new world to explore and new characters like Viridi, Magnus, and Hades. A revival of an old series like Ice Climber, Mysterious Murasame Castle, StarTropics, or any other lesser known or classic titles, would open up whole new series to use and update their characters in the process.

This could also apply to more recent obscure games as well, like Dillon’s Rolling Western, Disaster: Day of Crisis, and Code Name S.T.E.A.M. A major game in these or other series for either consoles or handhelds would give Nintendo a reason to introduce a different IP into the Smash roster.

9.       A new original IP

Speaking of different IPs, while it would help Nintendo to revive one of their old or obscure IPs, creating a completely new one wouldn’t hurt either. It’s become sort of a running joke online to say that Nintendo only has three or four titles that they regularly use, and some of the people that make those jokes want to see Nintendo make, not necessarily new gameplay styles, but new worlds with new characters and deep stories. Though the two could go hand in hand, it’s the latter that they’re paying more attention to. What kinds of games the public wants Nintendo to make is a topic for another day, but as far as Smash is concerned, it could only benefit from having a new property to explore.

10.   Nintendo vs. Capcom

This is technically a third-party game, but since pretty much half of the game is Nintendo content, it counts here. The amount of fan-made rosters you can find online for a Nintendo vs. Capcom fighting game show that a lot of people want this to happen. Seeing Nintendo’s all-star roster against Capcom’s all-star roster, while potentially bringing back some obscure characters from both companies, would only drum up a lot of publicity for both developers. As far as Smash goes, this game could give Nintendo’s characters (and Capcom’s characters that cross over into Smash) new attacks, new interpretations of old attacks, and new personalities.

These were only ten out of a lot of potential suggestions, so what do you think? What game do you think should be released before Smash 5 to make it the best Smash game yet?

10 Nintendo Series That Could Use Adaptations in Other Media

In an article I wrote a long while ago on a video game review site, I talked a lot about Nintendo and the difficulties they were having with their public image (and in a way, still are having). Some of the topics mentioned were how the Wii U has been doing this console generation, the scarcity of Amiibo figures, and their handling of Let’s Plays on YouTube. Towards the end of the article, I mentioned a comparatively minor issue, but one that stands out when you think about it.

Except for the Pokemon series and character cameos in movies like Wreck-It Ralph and Pixels, Nintendo doesn’t really do much with their characters and franchises outside of video games. Movies, TV shows, comics, official merchandise; there was a flood of it in the 80s and 90s and still a little bit in the early 2000s, but now, the flood has slowed down to a trickle. Seeing these franchises and their characters in other ways besides just the games can expand the influence these characters have on pop culture.

For this article, I will try to figure out just how some of Nintendo’s big franchises would work with adaptations to other kinds of media. I’ll be focusing on three main types: movies, TV shows/anime, or comic books/manga, how they would be presented in these mediums, and how likely they may or may not be for certain mediums.

1. Super Mario Bros.

When it comes to Nintendo properties to adapt, this would probably be one of the most obvious. Super Mario is so big that even people who don’t play video games have at least heard of it.  This franchise has already had comics, a few animated series, and that one movie from the 80s, but with a new age, people are probably ready for new adaptations. It has a basic story of two heroes (Mario & Luigi) rescuing the princess (Peach) from a monstrous villain (Bowser) in a magical land filled with magical power-up items, a wide variety of landscapes, and crazy creatures.

As long as producers don’t tweak the setting too much, like they did with the 80s movie, an animated Super Mario Brothers movie or show could work in modern times. As far as something like a comic goes, Archie Comics already has comic book series based on Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man. It may not be too much of a stretch to imagine them producing a Super Mario comic series.

2. The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda is another obvious one that we may get from Nintendo if they decide to adapt their properties. The game is a story about a battle between good and evil in a medieval fantasy kingdom and a story like that could easily be adapted to movies or TV, especially in this day and age with works like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones being such big successes and Warcraft being one of the latest video games to get the summer blockbuster treatment.

I won’t say much about comics here since, in a way, it already has some recent comics in the form of the manga adaptations by Viz Media. Not all of the games have been adapted (no Twilight Princess or Wind Waker for example), but some of them have. In those Viz manga though, the writers give Link a bit more of a personality besides the silent protagonist from the games and speaking lines to match beyond his usual grunts and yells. If the producers of a movie or animated show decide to have Link talk, they may want to take some notes from these manga.

3. Metroid

As one of Nintendo’s more mature and action oriented series, the story of intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran seems like a perfect fit for a summer blockbuster or an action-packed comic series. Seeing Samus Aran in live-action exploring a planet and battling monsters with her Power Suit’s various weapons would be a big treat for viewers, whether they’re fans of the Metroid series or they just love action movies. As a TV show, it may not work as well. The Metroid series up to this point has mostly had Samus as its only prominent character, so producers would have to change a lot about it to make it work. Not to say that a Metroid TV series would be a bad idea, but there would be some changes that fans would have to accept.

4. Star Fox

Star Fox would probably be one of the best Nintendo properties to adapt. The game is about the Star Fox team, led by Fox McCloud, piloting their Arwing space jets to fight against the forces of Andross and other forces that threaten the peace of the Lylat System.

As one Internet reviewer pointed out, a Star Fox movie would be an action filled space fight story, like a sci-fi version of Top Gun starring anthro animals. A premise like that would easily work as a TV show or a comic book as well. They could have Andross as the main villain for the first movie or the first season, then bring in other villains or create new ones for the team to fight in subsequent ones.

5. EarthBound

EarthBound, known as Mother 2 in Japan, could make for an interesting animated series. Colorful and lighthearted on the surface, but with a deep story and dark themes underneath, the general story is about a brave kid with psychic powers going on an adventure in the modern world to save it from an alien menace, helping people along the way and meeting up with other kid heroes, meeting up with other kid heroes and helping out people along the way. It could be worked as a sort of cross between Adventure Time and Teen Titans, with focus on both the different environments and action-packed combat.

6. Animal Crossing

The Animal Crossing games as they are would probably make an okay slice of life series. You’re a person moving to a quiet forest town inhabited by different animals, and become the mayor of the town if you’re playing New Leaf, but otherwise, there’s no real plot. The games continue with you making friends with the townsfolk, participating in town events, improving the town, and generally enjoying small town life. A manga or comic could even be possible with this kind of premise. This, however, may not make for a very interesting movie unless things were changed or characters are added to create a type of conflict.

7. Kid Icarus

The way Kid Icarus is presented with its recent game Uprising, it seems good for just about any kind of adaptation. With another story pitting the forces of good against the forces of evil, the flights through the sky our angelic hero Pit takes when assigned a task by Palutena followed by his traveling on the ground towards his objective are filled with action and the dialogue between Pit and Palutena or the several other characters in the story has lots of humor and personality. The basic plot is simple enough that kids and younger teens can follow it without a problem and the personalities of the different characters in the plot are complex enough that older teens and adults can still be engaged by them.

8. Fire Emblem

This may actually be one of the tougher series to adapt and still keep original. Focusing on a war between different kingdoms in a medieval fantasy world in its different incarnations, Fire Emblem places focus on the interactions between different characters as they fight through different battles. The problem here may be in how people not familiar with the series may see it. With its setting it can easily be compared to other medieval works, like Game of Thrones or Nintendo’s own Legend of Zelda series. If a producer doesn’t emphasize how it is different from these other works, it may be seen as a copy of these other series. An adaptation of Fire Emblem can still potentially be good, but a studio would have to really work at making it stand out.

9. Xenoblade Chronicles

This is a game series that may be hard to adapt, into a movie anyway. For a TV show or a comic, it might work, but not for a movie. It has a very deep story and engaging characters, but that may be the problem. The Xenoblade games have such long stories that stretch over such a long time period that adapting them to movies would mean cutting out significant portions of it or splitting it up anthology style. An anime series or manga would probably be able to tackle this without sacrificing too much of the story.

10. Splatoon

As Nintendo’s most recent big hit, a lot of people are talking about Splatoon. The game turned shooters upside down with its non-traditional gameplay, eccentric characters, and colorful atmosphere (figuratively and literally). The game is split between two different gameplay compnents: the single-player mode and the online multiplayer mode. In multiplayer, you have two different teams competing against each other in Turf War battles or other game modes. In single-player, you guide your character through several different stages to recover the Great Zapfish stolen from the city of Inkopolis before the city runs out of power. Whether an adaptation focuses on one of these or a cross between both, Splatoon could make for an interesting anime, comic or western animated show.

These are only ten of various Nintendo series that Nintendo has available to work with and there may be a follow-up article here discussing more Nintendo series. What do you think? Which Nintendo series do you think should expand outside of video games? Let me know in the comments and thanks for coming.

10 Characters That May Not Make It To Super Smash Bros. 5

Super Smash Bros. 4 now has the biggest roster of the series with 58 playable characters, counting the 7 DLC characters. With the NX (or whatever its new name will be) on the horizon, there is a chance we may see a fifth game in the series on the new console. It probably won’t come too soon since the fourth game is still fresh in everyone’s minds but some people are already thinking about what could be changed about the roster.

I can’t see too many more characters being added to the Smash 4 roster, because then it may become too big for some people. So there is a chance that some characters may get cut in favor of new characters.

This list is in no particular order and was determined by observing several factors like the characters’ roles in their series, popularity in their series, relevance in the modern gaming community, and uniqueness in the Smash roster. Also, I am not saying that I necessarily dislike any of these characters, just that I could possibly understand why they might get removed from the future game’s roster.

1.       Dr. Mario

Currently the series with the most characters in Smash, numbering at seven, the Mario series may be the first one the developers look at if they want to cut some characters out. Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser are all essential to the series so they are probably staying. Bowser Jr. is a series mainstay at this point and his alternate costumes are the seven Koopalings so he is (or they are) probably staying too.

However, less important to the series is Dr. Mario, a version of Mario used in the Dr. Mario puzzle games. While he was in Melee, he was originally supposed to be an alternate palette for Mario until some tweaks in gameplay made Dr. Mario different enough to warrant him getting his own characters slot. If the developers decide to de-tweak him, they could make him into an alternate costume for Mario again and free up a character slot.

2.       Rosalina

Originating from the Super Mario Galaxy 3D platformers, Rosalina is another character in danger of being cut. Since her appearance, Rosalina has been a popular character and she has appeared in several Mario spin-off games. While a strong case can be made for keeping her in the roster, she may also be replaced if a new Mario game gets released that causes another Mario character, old or new, to rise in popularity.

3.       Sheik

The Legend of Zelda is another one of the Big Four series that have a large number of characters in the Smash 4 roster, having five characters. As such, it is also one of the four series likely to have some characters cut. Three of those characters, Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf, are essential characters to the series, so they’re likely to stay.

Sheik, however, may not. She may have been in the Smash series since Melee, but outside of Smash and Hyrule Warriors, Sheik hasn’t had a major role in a game since Ocarina of Time. She may stay since she is still a popular character with a unique move-set, but she may also be replaced by a popular character from a different Zelda game, like Skull Kid from Majora’s Mask, Midna from Twilight Princess, Ghirahim from Skyward Sword, or whichever new major character the upcoming Zelda game for Wii U is likely to give us.

4.       Toon Link

The fifth Zelda character in the Smash roster is Toon Link, a version of Link used in the cel-shaded Zelda titles, like Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks. While he is the rep for a sub-section of Zelda games, he still plays almost exactly like the regular Link. He may stay in the roster but there is still a small chance that he may be removed from the roster or made into an alternate costume for regular Link. At the very least, there is a chance that his move-set may be changed to make him more of a unique character.

5.       Dark Pit

Introduced in Kid Icarus Uprising for the 3DS, Dark Pit is basically an edgy anti-hero version of Pit, the angelic archer protagonist of the game. Dark Pit is one of three characters, along with Dr. Mario, that were meant to be alternate costumes for different characters (in this case, Pit), but were given their own character slots after small tweaks in gameplay made them different enough from their base characters. All that needs to happen is for Dark Pit to get un-tweaked and he could get re-introduced in the next Smash game as one of Pit’s alternate palettes.

6.       Zero Suit Samus

Zero Suit Samus is basically what Samus Aran looks like without her armor on, first seen in Metroid: Zero Mission for the Game Boy Advance. She wears a blue skin-tight bodysuit and is equipped with a Paralyzer gun/energy whip (and as of Smash 4, jet boots). This is probably one of the less likely characters here to get cut and the Metroid series already has very little representation for such a major Nintendo series, but there is still a chance that the developers may give the Metroid characters a second look when they realize the characters for it are Samus and... Samus again.

7.       Jigglypuff

The third of the Big Four franchises involved in Smash Bros. is Pokemon. There are currently six playable Pokemon characters. Three of them are Charizard, Lucario, and Mewtwo, three of the most popular Pokemon in the series. Unless one of them experiences a sudden drop in popularity and gets replaced by another super-popular Pokemon, they are likely to stay. The fourth one here is Pikachu. While he’s not the most popular Pokemon, he is the mascot of the franchise, so while he may not be the first pick for some people for a crossover fighting game, it does make sense for him to be there.

Apart from those four above, one of the two Pokemon that may get cut in the future is Jigglypuff, one of the original first generation Pokemon. Jigglypuff has been in the series since the first game, when Jigglypuff was still a prominent character in the Pokemon anime. While Jigglypuff is no longer a recurring character in the anime, she is apparently still a popular character in Japan, which is how she made it into the roster in the fourth game. But, she isn’t that popular outside of Japan, so who knows how long that will last.

8.       Greninja

The sixth Pokemon in the Smash roster, Greninja is the final evolved form of one of the Generation 6 starter Pokemon. Greninja proved to be one of the most popular Pokemon introduced in Gen 6, putting him around the same level as the other popular Pokemon entries, but he is also relatively new, so there may be a chance that he’ll get replaced if another Pokemon rises in popularity when the next generation of Pokemon games comes out.

9.       Lucina

The last of the Big Four series to have a large number of characters in the Smash roster is Fire Emblem. The recent rise in popularity in this series is very surprising to some Nintendo fans, as the series was relatively obscure for a long time. Then, when Fire Emblem Awakening turned out to be a big hit, it’s like the series got its second wind. It is now big enough that the Smash developers saw fit to include six characters from the series into the game.

The number of characters here may bring it more attention when the developers decide who to leave out of the Smash roster for the next game. Marth is the legacy character for the series, so he may stay, Ike and Robin are representing different eras of the series and have unique playstyles to differentiate them from other sword-wielders or FE characters, and Corrin looks to be heading in the same direction.

One of the ones left out here is Lucina, who, like Dr. Mario and Dark Pit, was originally supposed to be an alternate costume for a different character, until changes in gameplay made her too different from her base character Marth. If the developers undo the small changes, they could re-integrate her as a costume for Marth, like originally intended, and give the empty slot to a different character.  It is also likely that she may stay, since she was one of the most popular characters from Fire Emblem Awakening and she is even making appearances in other games..

10.   Roy

The sixth of the Fire Emblem characters, Roy was originally included in Melee along with Marth, but was cut from the Brawl roster before returning in Smash 4 as DLC. He was popular among Smash fans and helped the Fire Emblem games make their way into the western market. However, some people playing the current Smash game think that Roy plays a bit too similar to Marth to the point of being a clone of him. While he may be a popular with fans of the Melee roster, he may also be taken out to make room for a more unique character.

This was the list of ten characters currently in the Smash 4 roster that may not make it into the roster of the next game. Just as there is a chance that any of these guys may be cut or any characters not discussed here, there is also a chance that none of them may get cut and we’ll just get new characters added onto the roster we now have.

If anyone’s reading, what do you think? Do you think any characters here have a chance at getting cut? Let me know in the comment section and thanks for coming.