#in competitive play for the record. if u play smash bros on wii u with me we can play any stage u want including fucked up custom ones

[skyburger]

its very funny to me that smash bros players talk about it the way they do like its not just the nintendo fighting game

[jawbreakers2015]

Player Profile: EGMadness

winner of the Michigan Masters 2019 side tournament and current arcade mode speed running record holder (art by @fridgeot)

What names do you go by?

Robo Bonobo and EGMadness EGMadness has been my tag for the longest time, it's basically my initials with an "-adness" at the end, I thought it sounded nifty at the time. Robo Bonobo is a newer tag I'm transitioning into because I think it's even more clever and it reflects my robot character favoritism.

How did you get into Lethal League?

I believe the original was recommended to me on Steam a loooooong time ago and I just took a shot in the dark with it because the trailer looked sick. Definitely a gamble I'm glad I took.

What’s your current Lethal League experience?

Only 44 hours recorded in the original, but around 160 clocked in Blaze thus far. Won the only tourney for it I've entered (the previous year's Michigan M@sters side tourney, in fact), and I'm floating around 4th Division in ranked this season. I'm currently grinding hard to help me get that pot bonus, though! See me in 1st Div by the end of March.

Who are your main/side/counter character picks?

I'm a Doombox one-trick. I'm too stuck on DB's float movement to be able to use anyone else, flying's just too much fun! I've been trying to learn Dust & Ashes just to branch out, but I have a lot of double jump and glide tech to perfect before that pick comes anywhere close to competitive viability for me.

What are your favourite character outfits?

Eaaaasily Prime Poppa Doombox. Gotta rep the red, white, and blue. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Also sometimes Safety Weapon if I'm really feeling it.

What are your stage preferences?

I like cramped stages like Scrap Desert and Room 21. They really complement Doombox's vertical angles and let me suffocate my opponents easier.

What input method do you use?

Keyboard! Only fighting game where I actually prefer it. Started playing the original Lethal League on it years ago and it just stuck with me.

The tournament is played on PS4, do you have a solution for that?

Whoops! I didn't even think about that, thanks for letting me know! Looks like I'm ordering an adapter off of Amazon tonight. I was under the impression adapters would be part of the officially-provided setups.

Who do you hope to meet at Michigan Masters?

Melleracappeller, my favorite Lethal League player of all time. That man's got the sauce, paper, juice, and clout.

What made you pick up speedrunning the arcade mode?

I saw Buffet Time's arcade run at Awesome Games Done Quick while I was browsing YouTube a while back, and I felt like I could do better. I was just finishing polishing up my world record times on my main speedrunning game (Madness Retaliation) at the time, so I was in a particularly competitive mood as I watched the run; I couldn't just sit there and think that I would do better, I had to know I would by proving it. When I finished watching the run, I decided to open up the game, practice, learn, and really get serious about arcade running. I don't make a claim like 'I could do better' without being willing to back it up!

What other games do you play?

Mostly fighting games. The other big competitive fighting game that I'm grinding at the moment is Super Smash Bros. Project+, a super sick Brawl mod that you should 100% check out if you have a Wii, a copy of Brawl, and a 2 gigabyte SD card on hand. Also Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Six Stars. That game is FIRE. I will shill it until I die.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

I would like to urge anyone with the desire to get the Lethal League ball rolling with their local FGCs to do anything they can to make sure that the game is at events, be it casuals or tourneys. The most important part of scene growth is exposure, so don't be afraid to get your setup moving! I haul my PC tower setup to my university every other Friday just to make sure that the games I want to see played get played. Be the change you want to see in the FGC!

You can watch EGMadness on twitch.tv/egmadness and youtube.

[defeatedbyamerechild]

What are the villains’ favourite Nintendo games? (Other than their own, of course)

OK, so this was a pretty hard one for me because, from Nintendo, I only play Pokémon. I have zero experience with Nintendo games in general. But a friend of mine who is a Nintendo fanatic helped me out! So here we go…

First of all, not all of the villains play games, so… Ghetsis and Giovanni totally don’t play any games at all, and I think Lusamine and Lysandre also don’t play much, and when they do, I suppose it’s cellphone games or computer games. The thing is, I don’t see them owning consoles, which is usually a problem for Nintendo games as fas as I know. The videogame guys are N, Colress, Guzma, Archie, sometimes Cyrus and Maxie.

N: He will play anything. He loves any games! His favorite thing is playing with friends, so he loves Super Smash Bros (his favorite) and likes playing Splatoon with Guzma. He also really likes Super Mario Party. He loves Zelda Ocarina of Time, which is why he gave Cyrus a copy, and also likes Majora’s Mask a lot, and he really liked Breath of the Wild. So, yeah, he really likes any games!

Colress: He likes a lot of games, so he sometimes plays Mario, Zelda, Kirby, and he often plays Smash with N. But his favorite series is definitely Metroid. He fell in love with Metroid Zero Mission, but his favorites are the first person ones, specially Metroid Prime: Echoes and Metroid Prime: Federation Force. Rarely, he will play Splatoon with Guzma, but it’s not his favorite thing.

Guzma: Guzma also enjoys games a lot, I’d say his favorite Nintendo game is definitely Splatoon (1 and 2). He loves it! He loves the aesthetic and the idea, he loves the gameplay and he love competitions. He’s also really good at it! He loves playing competition games with or against N and Colress, it’s a habit of theirs. He likes Mario Kart quite a lot, and also enjoys Metroid games, just like Colress.

Archie: He enjoys light-hearted games with cute visuals and happy stories mostly, he likes to play games for fun, so he doesn’t care if they are hard or easy. He really likes Kirby games, specially Kirby Triple deluxe and Kirby Blowout Blast. Also, he enjoys Yoshi’s Woolly World a lot. But of course, if you give him a Zelda or a Mario game, he will enjoy that too, and he really likes Splatoon for the visuals. He usually plays it with Guzma, and usually loses when playing against him, but he doesn’t care.

Cyrus: He’s not that much into Nintendo’s games. Cyrus prefers to play puzzle games and he likes dark, intellectual, sometimes even phylosophycal thematics. (He really likes both Limbo and Inside, for example, and he got really disappointed at Fran Bow, because he was enjoying the first part a lot, but disliked how the story was developed. He also really likes Soma.) But talking about Nintendo, N once gave him a Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Cyrus actually enjoyed it, so maybe that’s his favorite. He also sometimes plays competitive things with N, Colress and Guzma, like Super Smash Bros for Wii U, but that’s mostly because they ask him to, it’s not something he would normally feel like doing.

Maxie: He’s really not good with 3D games. Also, he’s ok with side-scrolling, but not good at all with top-down or first person views. That said, he sometimes plays one of Archie’s Kirby games, but I guess his favorite is Super Mario World for SNES, he’s already played it several times, but still enjoys it. Specially when he gets to beat his own time record. He also absolutely can’t handle any sort of competitive stuff, because he gets really mad (He is a pretty sore loser). But Maxie doesn’t really play games that often.

That’s it, now have some drawings! haha Because I took too long to answer this and you scamps deserve drawings for putting up with my delay! XD (And splatoon visuals are fun to play with)

(I didn’t draw Maxie as an Inkling because he doesn’t like competitive games or 3d games, so he can’t play Splatoon.)

[satoshi-mochida]

Nintendo announced various new information about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate during the game’s final Nintendo Direct broadcast today, including playable fighters Ken from Street Fighter (echo fighter) and Incineroar from Pokemon, Piranha Plant from the Mario series as a free limited time offer downloadable fighter due out a couple of months after launch, a Fighters Pass including five paid post-launch downloadable fighters, and much more.

Get all the details below.

-HadoKEN!: Hailing from the Street Fighter series, Ryu’s rival Ken joins the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster as an echo fighter. This Ken is based on his appearance in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. While he has some similar moves to Ryu, Ken is a slightly faster fighter and has a different shaped Hadoken.

-Incineroar: The final fighter to join the battle in time for the game’s launch is Incineroar, the advanced evolution of Litten, who made his first appearance in the Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon games. Incineroar uses pro-wrestling moves, culminating in an epic Final Smash called Max Malicious Moonsault, based on his Z- Move from the Pokemon games.

-Spirits: In the world of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, many video game characters lose their forms and become “spirits” that serve as a power-up of sorts for a player’s main playable fighter. There is a massive number of wildly different spirits, ranging from Chibi-Robo to Dr. Wily to Tails to Revolver Ocelot, with the giant list of characters going on and on. Players can equip primary and support spirits to power up or add additional abilities like speed or strength to their fighter during battles. Mixing and matching spirits will help players get the upper hand against certain opponents, adding quite a bit of strategy to battles. Equipping a spirit is similar to equipping a charm or accessory in an RPG. It’s a way for players to enjoy a massive amount of additional video game characters outside of selecting them as playable fighters.

-Spirit Battles: The main way to acquire spirits is to win Spirit Battles. After winning a Spirit Battle, players will have to complete a roulette challenge to acquire that spirit.

-Leveling Up Spirits: By battling with spirits by their side, players can level up spirits, giving them extra power and sometimes unlocking enhanced forms. The more leveled up and trained spirits are, the more powerful and useful they are.

-Spirit Combinations: With an insane amount of spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, thousands of combinations can be formed. Players will be constantly surprised and excited by all the spirits that pop up in the game. Because players might collect an abundance of spirits, the game will offer recommendations for primary and support spirits, making the selection process a little bit easier.

-DLC: New fighters, stages and music will be coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate through the end of February 2020 in the form of paid DLC. For only $5.99, players can purchase one set, which includes a new playable fighter (not an Echo Fighter), a new stage and a variety of music tracks. By purchasing a Fighters Pass for $24.99, players will get access to five yet-to-be-announced sets, which is five new fighters, five stages and multiple music tracks, as they release. Players who purchase a Fighters Pass will also receive an in-game outfit based on Rex from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 starting Dec. 7. Pre-purchasing the digital version of the game with the Fighters Pass in Nintendo eShop or on Nintendo.com before 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 6 will earn My Nintendo members 425 bonus Gold Points, or double the usual amount. The bonus points will be issued on the game’s launch day.

-Early Purchase Bonus: Piranha Plant takes root! The iconic enemy from the Super Mario series is coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for early purchasers. Players can purchase the digital version of the game or register their physical game card on a Nintendo Switch device by Jan. 31, 2019, to gain access to this new fighter when it is available around February 2019 at no additional cost. Piranha Plant, together with a new stage and music tracks, will be available for purchase as DLC in the future. Fans can pre-purchase the game and secure the Piranha Plant reward starting today by visiting http://smashbros.nintendo.com/buy/.

-New amiibo: All the new fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – including DLC! – will get their own amiibo figures. This includes Ken, Incineroar and Piranha Plant, as well as the recently announced Simon Belmont and King K. Rool. The currently scheduled release timing is as follows, with details about future figures on the way:

Inkling, Ridley and Wolf – Dec. 7, 2018

King K. Rool, Ice Climbers and Piranha Plant – Feb. 15, 2019

Isabelle, Pichu, Ken, Young Link, Daisy – 2019

-Adventure Mode: World of Light: There may not be a single-player adventure quite like Adventure Mode: Subspace Emissary from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but something has caused the numerous video game characters in the game to lose their bodies and transform into spirits. While today’s Nintendo Direct video provides some sneak peeks, Masahiro Sakurai, the director of the Super Smash Bros. series, wants to keep parts of this new adventure mode secret until the game launches…

-Assist Trophies: In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, assist trophies do exactly what their name suggests – they assist players in battle! Each assist trophy is based on a recognizable video game character and unleashes a variety of different powers, both offensive and defensive. The total number of assist trophies in the game is 59, representing characters like Guile from the Street Fighter series, Isaac from the Golden Sun RPGs, the Fly Swatter from Mario Paint and Spring Man from ARMS.

-Mii Fighters: When playing as a Mii Fighter, players can customize their outfits and voice options. Some new Mii Fighter outfits have also been added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

-Wireless and Online Play: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lets players battle together with friends and family members via local wireless* or online**. “For Fun” and “For Glory,” which existed in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, are no longer options. Instead, matchmaking is based on three factors: Preferred Rules, which lets players choose their rules for battle and pair up with others with similar preferences, Global Smash Power, an online leaderboard that pits players against others with a similar score, and Proximity, players who are close to each other geographically.

-Two-Player Co-op: Two fighters are better than one! When playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate online, two players can team up on one Nintendo Switch system online and take on other teams with the same setup.

-Smartphone Features: With the Nintendo Switch Online app*** on smartphones, players can voice chat with others in battle arenas. A mobile service called Smash World is also being developed. Instead of focusing on stats, the new service allows players to post and watch videos, as well as other fun features. More details about the service will be revealed in the future.

-Elite Smash: Once a player’s Global Smash Power is high enough, she or he will be invited to compete in elite in-game battles. These VIP matches are for the best of the best and offer some serious competition.

-Smash Tag: Everyone who competes online will need to create a unique Smash Tag. By beating a fellow fighter, players will receive their Smash Tag to display on their profile. Collecting a bunch of Smash Tags is a great way to show off high-level Super Smash Bros. Ultimate accomplishments.

-Short Messages: Players can select pre-determined short messages, assign them to the control pad and send them to other players before and after battles. The game offers a wide selection of varied preset messages.

-Spectator Mode: As in previous games, players can watch other players battle in Spectator Mode. Analyzing the battles of other players can be helpful in learning new strategies and techniques.

-Background Matchmaking: Players can play other modes while they search for an online battle. Not every mode will be available while waiting, but it’s a great way for players to keep occupied between online battles.

-Battle Arenas: Players can create custom battle arenas when playing online that allow them to compete against other players in a more intimate setting. In a battle arena, there are options to join a battle, wait in line or spectate.

-Other Features: There is a wide variety of other modes and settings in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, including:

Help – Living in the easy-to-access dashboard, Help mode offers in-game guides and tips.

Mob Smash – This mode lets players battle an army of fighters on different stages. Players can even select the music tracks associated with a given stage that they want to listen to while battling.

Replay – Players can save replays of their battles and even create shareable videos from them.

Tips – This menu offers quick tips and tricks that players will see on loading screens. When viewing, the tips can be sorted by category or fighter.

Challenges – By completing specific challenges, players earn in-game rewards. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the challenges are arranged to look like a comic book.

Battle Records – The Records menu tracks battle history, with the option to view battle data separately for online and offline play.

Shop – Players can redeem in-game currency for music tracks, spirits and a variety of different items.

Language Support – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate supports 11 different languages. Applicable fighter voices and names are specific to whatever language is selected.

Custom Balance – When battling against other players on the same system, players can adjust the strength of their fighters. This completely optional feature comes in handy if players want to adjust strength to ensure a fair fight.

-Early Hands-On Events: Fans can check the game’s site for information about a variety of upcoming hands-on events. At these special events, players will have the chance to choose from all 74 fighters.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is due out for Switch on December 4.

Watch the latest set of videos below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct Archive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fccgHnBQ0YM

Ken and Incineroar Reveal Trailer

https://youtu.be/cpuBNp27jVw

Piranha Plant Early Purchase Bonus Reveal Trailer

https://youtu.be/o_D8pzASxyw

World of Light Reveal Trailer

https://youtu.be/WShCN-AYHqA

Character Highlight Series

Ken

https://youtu.be/9_tQRugeXik

Incineroar

https://youtu.be/eE6Agn9d89U

Piranha Plant

https://youtu.be/3sZsk8VHY2g

[thatguysamaniac-blog]

While looking for images of anthropomorphized versions of the new pokemon with their tits out, we stumbled upon some clickbait. Not just any clickbait, metacritic showing us a definitive fact based, unbiased top 50 games of the 2010's: 1. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2010) 97 2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch, 2017) 97 3. Red Dead Redemption 2 (PlayStation 4, 2018) 97 4. Grand Theft Auto V (PlayStation 4, 2014) 97 5. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch, 2017) 97 6. Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360, 2010) 96 7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360, 2011) 96 8. The Last of Us (PlayStation 3, 2013) 95 9. The Last of Us Remastered (PlayStation 4, 2014) 95 10. Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360, 2010) 95 11. Portal 2 (Xbox 360, 2011) 95 12. God of War (PlayStation 4, 2018) 94 13. Batman: Arkham City (Xbox 360, 2011) 94 14. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS, 2011) 94 15. BioShock Infinite (PC, 2013) 94 16. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (Xbox 360, 2010) 93 17. Divinity: Original Sin II (PC, 2017) 93 18. Super Mario 3D World (Wii U, 2013) 93 19. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (PC, 2010) 93 20. Persona 4 Golden (PlayStation Vita, 2012) 93 21. Persona 5 (PlayStation 4, 2017) 93 22. Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360, 2012) 93 23. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PlayStation 4, 2015) 93 24. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii, 2011) 93 25. Rock Band 3 (Xbox 360, 2010) 93 26. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PlayStation 4, 2016) 93 27. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch, 2018) 93 28. INSIDE (Xbox One, 2016) 93 29. Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox One, 2018) 92 30. God of War III (PlayStation 3, 2010) 92 31. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PlayStation 3, 2011) 92 32. Bloodborne (PlayStation 4, 2015) 92 33. Celeste (Switch, 2018) 92 34. Super Street Fighter IV (PlayStation 3, 2010) 92 35. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PlayStation 4, 2015) 92 36. Undertale (PC, 2015) 92 37. Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS, 2013) 92 38. Divinity: Original Sin II - Definitive Edition (PlayStation 4, 2018) 92 39. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U, 2014) 92 40. Journey (PlayStation 3, 2012) 92 41. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii, 2012) 92 42. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch, 2017) 92 43. The ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PlayStation 3, 2011) 92 44. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine (PC, 2016) 92 45. LittleBigPlanet 2 (PlayStation 3, 2011) 91 46. Overwatch (PC, 2016) 91 47. Bayonetta 2 (Wii U, 2014) 91 48. Forza Horizon 3 (Xbox One, 2016) 91 49. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (PC, 2019) 91 50. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition (Switch, 2019) Richie:  I LIEK THE DUBBLE ONES! The Last of Us x2 Divinity: Original Sin II x2 Play count: 16 off that list, that's also eight twentyfifths, which is roughly how much of my massive dick your mom can take. Cunzy: Now, we all know the issues with a crowd sourced list. It's dumb. It's like putting together a list of best fruit, or favourite socks. However, every now and then it's useful to pull the wang out to measure it against the communities' wang and see just how weird and misshapen our is (we share genital appendages) by comparison. Play count: 9! What an alternative darling I am! Richie: I mean they are great, and you know they will be, but you have to draw the line somewhere, So you have to choose and say, "Nah I wont play this", better the time sink you know, right? And you choose your reasons, you skim an article, and find the thing that is slightly wrong and then activate your inner drama queen to say "OMG that is not a game I want to play I cant believe they dont have Fred Durst doing the voice of the main character" or something equally nuts. And there is plenty of them on that list that I simply refuse to play for these reasons. And I guess that's fine? Time is finite, I cant go back ten years and play all of the PS3 games I never played? Can I? Cunzy: GUILTY CONFESSIONS, A.K.A those games you know are great but just never got around to: Mario Odyssey, LoZ (the whole franchise), Red Dead (series), Mass Effect (series), Persona (series), Divinity (series), Souls (series)... where do I hand my gamer card back? Richie: Also Overwatch... Do people actually play it, or is that there just because people fiddle with their genitalia to fund cosplay camgirls? Cunzy: Yes, watch me throat this widowmaker dildo on my stream now. Richie: So do we disagree with this list? Well, to be fucking honest I'm not going to research it myself, I'm not sure I have played much more than 50 games this year, as far as i can recall, I played a lot of Diablo 3 and Fallout/Skyrim... but yeah I'm sure the above is good... Actually fuck that, Games of the decade for me are... Every iteration of pokemon that came out in the last 10 years, X/Y, Sun/Moon, Black/White, Sword/Shield, Flaps/Scrotum. Skyrim SNOW VIKING DRAGON SHOUTING Animal Crossing, Shake the tree for Nook. Lego Everything, play, collect, repeat Hyperdimensions Neptunia. Ultra Japanese anthropomorphised consoles as Anime girls. Vert is best Waifu.  Fallouts So many plus expansions, Chandler as a bad guy is special.  Diablo 3, Clicky loot loot  WoW Classic, because...  FFXIII-2, Timetravel-bocolina  Tomodatchi Life, Make your friends on the DS into miis, interact with them, cry alone at night Smash Bros. Repeatedly main Peach till she becomes top tier, yaay Jackbox games, All Gems, probably the best multiplayer gaming actually this decade.  Doki Doki Literature Club, MO-NI-KA Batmanzes, grapple glide Southparkgames, play the stories you have watched and add a weak RPG element. Dragon Ages-s, Way better than mass effect Every Naruto game. Like lego, but with anime ninjas Barrel Scrape: the game, where you frantically look at your steam collection for the games you have most played, and check the dates of your 360 games to see if they fall into this category I played 18 games it seems? Cunzy: *gasps for air*, wipes synthetic jizz from Lollipop Chainsaw skirt. Ten years is a long time. Here's my top 18 games of the decade. Silent Hill Shattered Memories 2010 Silent Hill without the combat and all the more psychologically chilling because of it. Great setting, theme and story. One I regularly come back to and still brick myself.  Endless Ocean 2 2010 Expanding on the first one in every way, shame there aren't more nature lovin' games in this ilk.  Monster Hunter Tri 2010 The only one in the series to have kept my attention despite it being the 'wrong one' according to many in the MH community.  Lost Planet 2 2010 Probably one of the games with the most comprehensive couch co-op mode and ridiculous bosses to team up against. Absolutely bonkers story, giant monsters and jetpacks. What more do you need? Dead Rising 2 2010 I wasn't too bothered with DR3 and DR4 despite absolutely loving the first game. They seem to have crossed the line between goofy but po-faced and just silly apocalypse zombie killing. DR2 arguably gives you a playground more memorable than Willamette and stays on the 'serious' side.  Dead Space 2 2011 One of my favourite gaming franchises I think, excellently built world that is complemented by the tie in anime, comics and spin-off games.   Resident Evil Revelations 2012 It was a good decade for Resident Evil with almost every game seeing multiple ports, re-releases and remasters. It's a close call between Resident Evil 2 and Revelations on the Nintendo 3DS for my favourite of the decade but this one really got it's biohazardous talons-with-eyes into us especially raid mode. Revelations 2 is fantastic co-op but the raid mode side of things isn't as fluid as the original Revelations. Criminally, aside from a brief VR foray into Resident Evil 7, we errr didn't play it.  The Last Story 2012 Oh, I fell in love with this game and despite the small geography of Lazulis City it felt like a living city with many surprises tucked away. Great soundtrack to boot.  Fire Emblem Awakening 2013 Another series that had a rock solid decade starting with Awakening then the rest of the 3DS trilogy, an excellent Warriors game and even Heroes wasn't too bad. Although Fire Emblem Three Houses is the superior game, it's the cast and the support system pioneered by Awakening that has this in my top 18.  Tomb Raider 2013 Sometimes the context in which you play a game is as important as the game itself. A weekend in 2013 with fellow Tomb Raider fans blasting through this excellent and long awaited reboot is fondly remembered. Last of Us 2013 It's hard to put a finger on just one thing that makes this game phenomenal but there's not been much like it since.  LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2013 There were some great LEGO games this decade from opposites LEGO Worlds and LEGO Dimensions to movie tie-ins and a strong series of games based on the Marvel and DC comics. The Marvel trilogy in particular was outstanding.  Everyone's Gone to the Rapture 2015 With age, the more energetic games can leave me wheezing with exhaustion just thinking about playing them and EGttR is a perfect respite from the shootbang games. Honestly, I'd be keen to play more games just like this. The English countryside setting in particular made it extra special.  Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 2017 Honestly, who actually puts Mario Kart on their top games list? Well thinking about it and looking at play records it's probably the perfect couch multiplayer game but with a real challenging depth to those looking to break records and get a hold of those elusive gold kart components.  Splatoon 2 2017 Cheating slightly here by including Splatoon 2 and the Octo Expansion as one entry. I'm really not a huge fan of the central competitive gameplay of Splatoon, although I've put in the hours, but the single player side of things are a worthy first person puzzler(?) in their own right.  Into the Breach 2018 When the options paralysis sets in, which is often, I just spin up Into the Breach. Three hours and a few runs later I'll question why I don't play this game even more often. Hundreds of hours in and still challenges to do, runs to try.  Super Smash Brothers Ultimate 2018 Part game, part nerdy love letter to gaming, part video game museum.  Pokemon Sword and Shield 2019 Okay as Richie pointed above any of the pokemon mainline series could have filled this slot but the last one makes most sense. Twas also a good decade for the spinoffs. I enjoyed Pokemon Conquest a huge deal, put an embarrassing amount of time into Quest as well as Picross, Rumble, Duel, Go and mystery dungeons.  And there we have it, lists, we'll be back at some point in the future with more lists, perhaps with a list spanning the last 2 decades, to present you with our Game of the Century (spoilers, it's SSX Tricky). Also if anyone has a word to describe my above rant about the act of proactively dismissing something despite knowing it will be good to avoid committing to the time sink, please let me know. We live in a time of labels, there must be a word for this! Love and where do you even start with persona! Richie + Cunzy X

http://www.thatguys.co.uk/2020/01/top-50-games-of-decade-commentary.html

[goarticletec-blog]

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has so much competitive potential

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/super-smash-bros-ultimate-has-so-much-competitive-potential/

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has so much competitive potential

Captain Falcon’s helmet on display.

Josh Miller/CNET

If you’ve played Super Smash Bros. throughout the years, chances are the new World of Light adventure mode or single-player gameplay aren’t what’s exciting you.

The game series — starting with the Nintendo 64 in 1999 — has constantly grown its single-player options, from adding Adventure Mode in Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Gamecube to the epic Subspace Emissary story in Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Nintendo Wii.

For the new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which arrives on Dec. 7 for $59.99 ((£49.99, AU$89.95), Nintendo introduced a new story mode called “World of Light,” where a force called Galeem blasts a light and captures every character in the game except for Kirby, who now has to save the world.

If you’re not familiar with Super Smash Bros., it’s a fighting game among video game characters where instead of depleting your opponent’s health bar, you try to knock them off the stage. The more damage you do, the easier it is to knock them out.  

Super Smash Bros.’s bread and butter rests on its competitive play. It’s why years after the Nintendo 64 was discontinued, elite Smash players are still having combo contests, as if it were the dunk contest at the NBA All-Star game.  

So when Nintendo invited several members of the media to a four-hour hands-on event with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I went straight for the competitive gameplay.

The first booth I went to had four players in a free-for-all setup, items and stage hazards on. This more resembles playing with friends hanging out — it’s funny to see paddles from Pong as an Assist Trophy pops up on the screen and smacks Yoshi around the stage.

This is what Nintendo originally envisioned for the Super Smash Bros. series — a fun party game where random items across video game history come in and add to the chaos.

But if you’re like me, these matches are almost never fun until you get to the final one-on-one with the best player in the room. That’s where every Smash Bros. game shines, and I would get a taste of that each match after surviving an onslaught of Final Smashes, Pokéballs and Assist Trophies.

I wanted more of that one-on-one feel, the energy you get from a match at a local tournament or a money match with a fierce competitor. That’s when I spotted Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada, 22, and the fourth best Super Smash Bros. Wii U player in the world.

You might also recognize him from this year’s E3, where he easily defeated three celebrities at the same time.

We played head to head for about an hour, with Nairo destroying me the majority of the time. Most people wouldn’t think this is fun, but it’s the most enjoyable experience I had that whole time.

Super Smash Bros. has always been about tension and adapting, learning your opponent’s tactics, and figuring out how to counter it. It’s why the best players in the world don’t always stay at the top — the competitive scene is always developing new techniques to knock off the top player.

Across the Smash Bros. series, Nintendo has constantly adjusted the scale to fix the skill gap. In Melee on the Gamecube, it’s difficult to be competitive if you haven’t already mastered the game. In Brawl, Nintendo added features like random tripping, which nearly ruined the competitive scene.

With Smash Ultimate, Nintendo gives beginners many tools to get better, without making it too easy for competitive play. Take air-dodging, for example.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee, if you dodge in the air, you’re immobile and can’t do anything else until you land on the ground again. In Brawl and the Wii U versions, you could dodge in the air as much as you wanted, sometimes making combos more like a guessing game.

With Smash Ultimate, you get one air dodge, and a lot of lag after it — but you still have options, whether it’s to attack or escape. Little changes like that really add to the competitive potential.

From a 7-second clip that Nairo uploaded, competitive players were already breaking it down frame by frame to see if I could have escaped a killing combo.

Learning about Smash Bros. goes beyond the match, as top players rewatch footage the same way football teams do. Again, it’s fine if you’re not obsessed with Smash Bros. and willing to break down a 7-second clip, but if you are, Smash Ultimate is going to be really fun.

It also feels like there’s more of a focus on balancing the massive roster of 70 characters.

Strengths and weaknesses of all the characters are a lot more pronounced. King K. Rool, the Donkey Kong villain, is strong and has good recovery options, but has a shield on its stomach that cracks and temporarily paralyzes the player after three bad hits.

Simon Belmont, from Castlevania, has a long range because of his whip and good defensive options, but his mostly vertical recovery is a glaring weakness.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is much better at balancing these pros and cons between characters, and leaving it up to players to figure out the match-ups.

Of course, figuring out the match-ups can be much harder when you’re against one of the best players in the world. Every time I thought I figured out Nairo’s strategy he immediately adapted and countered in punishing fashion.

But I never felt like the game was broken or that there was no way I could beat him. The game leaves a lot of potential to be competitive, if you’re willing to take the time to learn.

For the record, I won one match, though I’m convinced he was going pretty easy on me.

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Review Game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Smash Bros. has always been a showcase for Nintendo’s other work. Since introducing the 12 core stars of the N64 original - each representing Nintendo’s biggest franchises and most beloved cult hits - the series has consistently ballooned to include characters old, new, forgotten and tangential. Items, Assist Trophies, stages and soundtracks have become part of the firmament, with almost every one a reference to something someone out there will remember; an unnatural history museum, if you will.

But Super Smash Bros. Ultimate feels different. Suddenly this feels more like a museum built to celebrate Smash Bros. itself.That’s most obvious in its key hook - the game comprises every character the series has ever included in its playable roster, plus a couple more for good measure. That’s 65 all told, not including the newly-coined “Echo” characters like Dark Pit, Lucina and new addition Daisy, each too complex to be a palette swap, but too similar to be counted as a whole new roster pick.

It’s an almost absurd number of characters for a fighting game - Nintendo Treehouse’s Nate Bihldorff jokingly says balancing that many characters is exactly the kind of task that puts him off becoming a developer - but it’s necessary to get the point across. For the first time, Smash Bros. isn’t trying to impress by including the characters you know from other Nintendo games - it’s impressing by including characters you know from Smash Bros.

By this point, I’d wager most people know the Ice Climbers better as Smash characters than NES platforming heroes - the fact they’re back feels strangely special. The series’ fixation on Link comes to a head by including three entirely separate versions of the character in a single game for the first time - Toon Link, Ocarina’s Young Link, and regular ol’ Link (available in Green Tunic and Champion Tunic guise). Somehow, series mastermind Masahiro Sakurai even convinced Konami to let him re-include Solid Snake, complete with a performance from original voice actor David Hayter (although Nintendo won’t tell us if it comes from existing recordings or a new session).

Hell, even one of Ultimate’s brand new roster picks, Metroid’s Ridley, is a Smash Bros. in-joke - fans have been clamouring for him to be playable for over a decade by this point. It was all worth it for the hilariously strange sight of him clapping for the victor with his horrible pterosaur hands when he loses a match.

Amazingly, after going hands-on with the game I can say that nostalgia for the series itself actually benefits the gameplay. I laughed out loud when I realised that I remembered how to play Ice Climbers because my Melee muscle memory had kicked in. That’s not to say these are just uprezzed models from the old games - I equally know I’m going to have to relearn my beloved Little Mac, who feels a little less clumsy, but loses the sheer, brutal efficacy of the Giga-Mac transformation Final Smash I had access to in Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. Like returning to a childhood home years later, everything feels the same, but different.

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Ultimate doesn’t quite repeat its roster trick with the rest of Smash Bros.’ key components. The game definitely won’t include every previous stage, and it’s still not clear - even to Nintendo Treehouse - if every past item and Assist Trophy will make it in. That’s not to say there isn’t a pleasure to getting to play overhauled versions of previously 3DS-only stages like Tortimer Island, and there will absolutely be returning arenas from the older entries, rejigged with modern looks and in-play tweaks. Again, it’s about making the series’ hallmarks feel new again.

It’s not all backward-looking, however. There are brand new treats in store for Nintendo obsessives. Sakurai and co. have continued their amazingly nerdy work by reflecting the old and the new of the Kyoto gaming institution.

Take Sukapon, the Rayman-like robot from Japan-only Famicom fighter, Joy Mecha Fight. Before now, its only appearance in a modern Nintendo game was in, well, Super Smash Bros. Brawl (as a humble sticker). Now, it’s an Assist Trophy, using its floating limbs to pummel fighters across multiple levels of a single stage.

On the more modern side, Inklings are studiously implemented to feel familiar to players of Splatoon, even while in a completely different genre of game. Coating other players or the stage itself in ink offers an advantage, and their range of borrowed weaponry makes them feel versatile at range or up close. It’s not a slavish implementation, though - you don’t have to have painted the floor to drop down and refill your ink in squid form, for instance.

That careful implementation comes straight from the top of development: “It's because Mr. Sakurai loves video games,” says Bihldorff. “Obviously, he's a great appreciator of Nintendo and our franchises, but he just loves video games in general. I guarantee you [the new Bomberman Assist Trophy] is treated the same way as any normal fighter in terms of accuracy, making sure all his moves are true, and all his design is the way it's supposed to be. He really values that.”

That extends to the game’s stages too, and I played two new additions in the form of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Great Plateau Tower and the Splatoon-inspired Moray Towers. The former is pretty simple, a Battlefield-like condensed bottom level with an upper platform revealed by dealing damage to the tower’s spire itself. I did find myself a little distracted (in the best way) by the game’s Old Man character repeatedly landing on and jumping off the tower with his own glider.

Moray Towers is more interesting, reflecting a portion of the brilliant Splatoon 2 map with a series of switchback ramps, potentially splitting players across multiple levels but always enticing them into ridiculously tight brawls on a single section of the map. In a gorgeous little touch, the whole stage is splattered with paint just before you begin - more proof of Sakurai’s own Nintendo fandom.

Since Melee, it’s been clear that the backward-looking “museum” element is only a part of Sakurai’s ambition, however. The Nintendo Direct made a few high-level tweaks very clear - perfect shields, a formalised ‘short hop’ ability (achieved by just pressing jump and attack together) and the return of directional air dodges - but, on a wider scale, Ultimate is undoubtedly aiming to be a more robust competitive experience.

“There is a very, very strong and healthy competitive scene,” says Nintendo’s Bill Trinen. “[The developers are] definitely looking at the way that those [professional] players play and, just like the way they look at the way casual players play, they take an amalgam of information and blend that together to make the uniqueness that is Smash Bros.”

Even after 20 minutes with the game, it’s obviously a faster, more technical game than before. Characters buzz around stages, both moving and reacting faster, and a four-player match becomes a hive of activity - it will take some getting used to for less skilled players (and, to be totally clear, I mean me here). In a neat touch, 1v1 matches will now see fighters do more damage to each other, to keep up a more frantic pace of K.O.s, even across larger stages. Nintendo won’t say it outwardly, but it feels extremely clear that the dominance of Melee on the competitive scene is something it wants to end after December.

Incidentally, Nintendo also won’t say a word about a single player mode right now - we only got to play a cut-down version of local multiplayer (and, guess what, Nintendo won’t talk about online yet, besides saying it’ll be included).

What they will tell us, repeatedly, is that Ultimate is a brand new game, created specifically for Switch, but there’s no denying its similarity to the series’ last incarnation. From menus to visuals, this is an iteration on the Wii U version in particular. It’s not a huge problem - as ever, Switch’s versatility adds value by itself - but those looking for something truly different won’t find it here.

But that’s probably not the point. Since Melee, Masahiro Sakurai has said that the next Smash Bros. game will probably be his last. Each entry has been the biggest, arguably the best and, probably, the most exhausting to make. Each one has felt like a rundown of Nintendo’s history, a successful advance on the series’ weirdo mix of fighting and pinball and, yes, a slap in the face for those who want a playable Waluigi. All of that remains true.

But ‘Ultimate’ is a subtitle that definitely suggests we’re reaching an endpoint - if that’s any indication, then the next Smash Bros. will be a museum not only to celebrate Nintendo, or Smash Bros., but Sakurai himself. It’s already beginning to feel like a fitting tribute.

[barbosaasouza]

This Weekend in Esports: What to Watch from March 23-25

Welcome to This Weekend in Esports, a brief overview of what to watch in the world of competitive gaming for the coming weekend.

For this weekend, the Overwatch League is wrapping up another stage of the regular season, League of Legends begins its spring playoff season, and the Esports Arena Las Vegas opens up in style.

Overwatch League - Stage 2 Playoffs

Game: Overwatch When: March 25 Where to watch: Twitch.tv/OverwatchLeague

The second stage of the Overwatch League regular season is wrapping up this weekend. While the standings will carry over through the next stage of competition, it's time for another three teams to advance to the Stage Playoffs, where they will compete for a bonus prize pool.

The New York Excelsior and London Spitfire being in the mix is to be expected. The Excelsior, in fact, will likely walk in as the favorites again. But it's a race to the third spot, with the Philadelphia Fusion leapfrogging the Los Angeles Gladiators earlier this week. Entering Friday, the Fusion and Gladiators hold identical 6-3 records with Philly holding the tiebreaker advantage by a single map.

Right behind them is the Seoul Dynasty, also sitting at 6-3. The Dynasty are arguably in the best position right now, as they next face an underperforming Florida Mayhem squad. That's followed up by the Fusion, who face a tough task against the Los Angeles Valiant, who aren't in contention for the Stage Playoffs, but are looking to climb the overall League standings. The playoff picture won't clear up until the very last game on Saturday, when the Gladiators face a squarely middle-of-the-road Boston Uprising team, who continues to push themselves to the next level.

League of Legends - Spring Playoffs

Game: League of Legends When: March 24-25 Where to watch: Twitch.tv/RiotGames

The Spring Split is in the books and now it's time for the playoffs. No team is more shocked with how the playoff picture unfolded than Cloud9, who fell right out of a first place tie and now find themselves with the 5 seed facing off against Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng and Team Liquid. This is great news for Liquid, who stunned Cloud9 with a comeback win last weekend. As goes Doublelift, so too does Team Liquid, so all eyes will be on him to see if he can propel his team to victory.

Meanwhile, despite its massive roster upheaval, Team SoloMid seems primed to cruise to the finals again. At least at first glance they do. But it's easy to forget that Clutch Gaming handed TSM a 2-1 loss earlier in the regular season. Clutch enters the playoffs as a heavy underdog, but with a win over TSM already under their belts, they're going in ready to shock the League esports world.

Smash Masters League - Battle for Vegas

Game: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U When: March 24-25 Where to watch: Twitch.tv/ESASmash

The Esports Arena Las Vegas is officially open for business. And if Thursday's Grand Opening party wasn't enough excitement, it's time to Smash!

The Battle for Vegas kicks off the Smash Masters League, a year-long circuit set to unfold over the course of 2018. If playing to return for December's championship isn't enough incentive, there's also $25,000 on the line. But the Smash 4 world may look a little different than it has in recent months.

For those who haven't followed what's been going on since December's 2GGC Championship, Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios is momentarily retired. That means the Smash 4 scene is the wild west at the moment, with everybody else jockeying to grab the title of best player in the world. That includes 2GGC Champion Leonardo "MkLeo" Perez, Evo champion Saleem "Salem" Young, Nairoby "Nairo" Quezada, and a streaking Gavin "Tweek" Dempsey.

The winner of this tournament will go a long way towards taking that crown as the new best Smash 4 player in the world. But let's look at this another way. If the excitement for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch suddenly gets ZeRo's competitive juices flowing again, he can still come back at any time. And if that's the case, it's best to get a headstart now and try to get as far ahead of him as possible.

So what will you be watching this weekend? Join the conversation and let us know in the comments.

This Weekend in Esports: What to Watch from March 23-25 published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

[technewss15-blog]

Bayonetta 2 Adds Small Features To Switch Port

Last night at The Game Awards, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announced that Bayonetta 1 and the Wii U-exclusive Bayonetta 2 would be coming to the Switch as a two-game package. Platinum Games then explained a few Switch features that are being added to Bayonetta 2.

The additions are nothing earth-shattering, but they’re neat. Remember Bayonetta 2’s online Tag Climax mode, a co-op arena-based competitive mode that almost no one played? It can now be done over local wireless, so if your friends have a Switch and a copy of the game, you can engage in Tag Climax mode locally.

The game now supports amiibo, including but not limited to the two Bayonetta amiibo from the Smash Bros. line. Platinum’s post did not explain what they would do, specifically, but unlocking costumes seems like a logical use.

Finally, Bayonetta 2 will support the Switch’s video capture function, a feature that has to be manually added to games and is not just default as part of the system’s operating system. If the video capture is anything like the current games that support it, it will be limited to 30 seconds, which is not a ton of time, but better than nothing.

The Bayonetta 1 and 2 ports will be releasing on February 16 exclusively on the Switch. Bayonetta 3 was also announced last night for the Switch, though any expected date was not given.

Our Take As someone that got into video recording in the first place to post Bayonetta combo videos nearly a decade ago, I am pretty interested in making quick and easy combo clips. Hopefully they can increase the timer a bit, though.

Bayonetta 2 Adds Small Features To Switch Port was originally published on Tech News Center

[irgg]

Quickie:  Super Smash Bros. Melee

What can be said of a game that is over 15 years old?  Well… quite a lot actually.  Being the sequel to one of the most popular games on the N64, Melee had a lot to live up to; and boy, did it.  When the game came out, it was popularized as being a party game that you could play with friends and family as a casual experience.  However, most people know that Melee has become something much more than that. ��Without any patches or changes to the game since release, it is a miracle that a community so passionate has moved Melee from uncharted basement tournaments to the main stages of major, international tournaments.  How did this happen?  What part of Melee makes it so magically timeless and deep?  I hope to uncover that through this review.

I’ll start with the basics and move to the more intricate details later in this review.  First of all, the aesthetic styles that Melee brings to the player are simplistic in nature.  This is intentional and, might I say, genius.  The game is mainly comprised of cartoon styled characters that would look good at any time.  If something in the game tried to be too realistic, as time went on, the game would eventually look outdated; and while it is true that it is almost 2 decades old, it still looks very good.  I would compare it to titles that were released around the same time (like the original Halo), but that would be an unfair comparison in my opinion due to the scale of other games released at the time.

The next part of the game to mention would be the sounds and music.  There isn’t so much to talk about here really in terms of music.  While many of the tunes are enchanting, and at times downright contagious (I’m looking at you DreamLand 64).  The real magic of this game is the sounds that are produced.  The various smacks from landing hits, the pitter patter of the characters dashing around, the slashes of swords, the metallic clang of moves clashing with one another, and all that I haven’t mentioned are all so obviously chosen with care that it is difficult to describe with words what that means (but I will try).  You see, in a game that was meant to be a casual experience, the sound design suggests something entirely different.  I think a very good reference material to mention here is Core-A-Gaming’s review of Shaq-Fu (which can be found here).  The sheer amount of sounds and the different states that cause different sounds to play is outstanding.

Now, let’s veer off course for something personal.  Now, I tried to play Melee at a competitive level (and to some effect, I still do).  Throughout this process I noticed something that I found a bit delightful:  the barred entry for unskilled players.  Now, before you go crucifying me in your mind (or real life), hear me out.  Every fighting game has some sort of skill floor that you must get to before you can adequately play the game at a higher level than just “button mashing”.  Melee takes precision and skill and dedicating oneself to usually just one single character for at the very least a year.  There are so many situations and scenarios that you as a player are responsible for handling besides just neutral.  In terms of cars, Melee is manual transmission, and it will punish you for missing inputs harder than most fighting games (you can accidentally kill yourself, and even at top levels of play this happens).  What makes this beautiful to me?  Well, it keeps the players who have not practiced or players who simply don’t care to practice from succeeding.  Melee takes so much time to get good at, and there are so many things you can learn on your own even without an opponent to fight against.  As, hopefully, a future game developer, my ideals on this topic are totally the opposite of what they should be.  However, I’ll stand by what I’ve said because it acts as a nice filter and forces those who are truly passionate about the game to adopt a good mentality that nothing is actually “unbeatable” or “broken” and even if it is, you’ll have to adapt or just quit.  This might come off as a “cancerous” mentality or I’m being too closed minded because I obviously have ties to this game.

Well… it is a possibility but I’d like to defend myself here, or at least try.  So, let’s take a game further in the series:  Smash 4 Wii U.  Now, I did try this game for a couple of months.  I knew upon release that there would be tournaments for this game, so I practiced it a little and tried my best to find a main character.  Unfortunately, due to the decreased height of the skill floor that got rid of the tech skill I had come to understand I was completely unable to actually find fun in this game.  You see, the skills required to play Melee at a higher level simply add to the player’s options and increase the speed at which the player can act and move.  Since these elements were missing from Smash 4, I could not enjoy it.  I tried my very best to do so, but in the end it was impossible.  It was like trying to enjoy a food that you knew upon first taste that you didn’t (like when people tell you coffee is an acquired taste or something ridiculous like that).  It just was not going to happen.  A similar phenomenon occurred upon Brawl’s release, and while Brawl has the sales numbers to say it was the most popular game in the series, that simply isn’t true because Brawl is not played competitively to the extent that any other game in the series is (including the Nintendo 64 version!).

So, what makes Melee so magical then?  Well, I think as I’ve been writing I’ve been slowly figuring that out.  The magic of Melee is that it was an accident really.  When the game was released, Masahiro Sakurai did not foresee it becoming an eSport by any means (and in fact, did not  want any of his games to be played as eSports).  The mechanics of the game lend themselves to being infinitely deep.  A quick example is that certain combos work at certain percentages on certain characters but not others.  Every combo of the game can only be done in a very specific set of circumstances, and this set of circumstances is similar to a set of points on a circle; they’re infinite (or at least they seem that way).  You combine the intricacy of the mechanics of the game with a cast of eight to ten viable characters and you’ve now multiplied the number of circumstances by 100.  For many people who simply watch the game, this sounds ridiculous, but I can tell you that as a player for nearly 4 years now, every bit of this final paragraph is true.  To many casual onlookers, every Fox vs Falco match is the same regardless of player or stage or tournament, but in reality there are no two sets that look alike in the entire history of the game that have ever been recorded.  The game requires top levels of mental fortitude and concentration as well as insane levels of human performance, mechanical timings, and inhuman reaction times.  

I will admit that I am very biased, but I will also assert that anyone who gives Melee more than 20 minutes of thought has to agree that the game is at least deep.  Many will argue that it is unfair, and at times it can seem to be.  But, to me it is actually the most impressive accidental masterpiece in the history of gaming.  I will have to give Melee a solid 8.5/10.  With all of the praises I sung of the game, that score might seem low; but the game is not without faults.  If you’re curious to what those faults are, feel free to ask me about it (I’m not including it here since I’m a bit rushed for time since these reviews are done in less than an hour only).