ShareThis
Gotta beat ’em all
New details have been revealed for a new mode of play for Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 entitled Pokémon World Tournament. Players can look forward to this exciting feature when the games ship on October 7th, playable on all DS and 3DS systems.
The new Pokémon World Tournament includes the following:
Compete Against Classic Gym Leaders: Enter the Pokémon World Tournament, an exciting battle arena where players will be able to take on numerous Gym Leaders and Champions from previous Pokémon video games. Fans of the series will be able to battle trainers like Lance, Champion from the Johto Region, and Volkner, Gym Leader from the Sinnoh Region. Players can also use a variety of battle styles and moves found in Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2 against these classic opponents.
Battle Format: Players will enter the Pokémon World Tournament and be challenged to defeat all the Pokémon World Tournament opponents in order to win. Featured battles include single battles, double battles, triple battles and rotational battles. Also, using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service, The Pokémon Company International will choose a select number of the top players and their Pokémon teams who are participating at the 2012 Pokémon Video Game World Championships and distribute them for battle in the Pokémon World Tournament. More details about this distribution will be announced later this year.
For more information about Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2, visit http://www.pokemon.com/blackwhite2.
Sources: Nintendo PR and YouTube
Tekken it slow
Ever since the long gap between Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl, fans have worried that we may not see the two announced sequels for a few years, pushing the 3DS and Wii U games to as late as 2015. With the recent announcement of Namco Bandai’s involvement in the much-anticipated titles’ development, some fans have now started worrying about the potential inclusion of Tekken characters, among other representatives of Namco franchises. While a character like Pac-Man could be a perfect fit for the series, it remains to be seen if the company has more ideas.
Producer Katsuhiro Harada confirmed the new Smash Bros. games as being a “big priority for the company,” including the Tekken team and developers from other Namco Bandai franchises, making the titles a “company-wide” effort. Perhaps, with the jolt of energy Smash Bros. is receiving, we could be seeing these new fighters in holiday 2013 or early 2014 (hopes for the former).
Source: Now Gamer
Injustice rises
Injustice: Gods Among Us was confirmed for Wii U at the end of May and now NetherRealm Studios’ creative director, Ed Boon, has provided a fifteen-minute look at the fighter. The new gameplay footage showcases Superman, the Flash, Batman, and Solomon Grundy. The title’s changing environments and characters’ signature moves are highlights here.
As much fun as the regular Smash Bros. series has been, it has ultimately witnessed the dead horse and stick scenario. This can ultimately be witnessed by two advents: the fact that even people who talk about the game can only think of changing the character roster as a ways to differentiate the game itself. Don’t get me wrong, an improved and steadied character roster is by no means a bad thing, but I was taken rather aback by recent comments (I believe in one of the previous news-releases here at the Dojo) that a recent “leaked” screen-drawing for the “next” Smash Bros. game lacked “detail.” When viewing the picture itself, you’ll see nothing other than the main-stays of the Smash Bros. genre (who have all appeared in the past two, if not three games) all sharing and interchanging the space within the frame. What is puzzling about this, in and of itself, is that there is nothing to definitely say that this picture is even related to the new Smash. Bros. release. If there were seven characters we knew, alongside three we did not, all sharing that space, alongside an auto-graph of someone from the Smash team, I would agree that it would have been a “test” to see what kind of preliminary reaction it would have received from the community. But it was a slide that had the Smash Bros. characters on it that we’ve seen in almost every game. Saying that it lacked detail is equivalent to lamenting that the still-shot was not moving. If anything, I believe it was absolutely loaded with detail, if it were to suggest anything regarding a new Smash Bros. game at all. In that, by taking it down (and perhaps back) to the basics (with regards to animation), it would be a reference to how they’re approaching the game as a whole (in terms of game-play and such). Which brings me to the second advent, which I am actually quite shocked no one has made mention of around here. By acquiring Namco, creators of a couple of the most legendary three-dimensional fighters of all time (Tekken and Soul Calibur), they are indeed making an iteration of Smash Bros. that will be in the third dimension. It would only make sense, seeing as that is what their primary strength is. And perhaps, again, alluding to the original sketch of just a few of the original members of the Smash Bros. ensemble, they are looking to start afresh with the same line-up size of characters as the original Smash Bros. had. That, to me, would make the most sense. Much more than, “Wow! We’ve got the whole Namco team with us on this one! Let’s get Pac-Man in there stat!”
Again, this is all with the assumption that the team of Smash wants to actually do something different. And although they have certainly stated just as much, taking this kind of risk with one of your most popular/key franchises, may not be worth the gamble. Then again, that being said, an innovative camera system, many of the same game-play principles of the original series, but in a fully three-dimensional game environment? Especially do-able with the power of the 3DS. I would straight-out buy a system for this game alone if that were the case. It is all conjuncture though until an official announcement is made, and knowing how Nintendo (and its affiliate teams) work, we may very well not know until the fourth quarter of 2014.