The second, and currently last, announced DLC pack for Nintendo’s hit racer Mario Kart 8, is now available to download. The new DLC pack, which was originally announced for May, was confirmed to be hitting early on the April 1 Nintendo Direct, and includes eight brand new tracks, three brand new characters, and four new vehicles.

Like the first DLC pack, which was The Legend of Zelda themed, the new one, too, is themed after a specific Nintendo franchise- in this case, the new DLC pack is themed on Animal Crossing. Two of the three new characters are from the Animal Crossing games, and the headlining track is also an Animal Crossing track.

However, also like the first DLC pack, this new one also features some crossover with other Nintendo franchises. F-Zero makes another appearance in Mario Kart, as the series’ iconic Big Blue track is among the eight new tracks being made available for players. Other tracks include lots of classic courses from previous games in the franchise, including Baby Park from Double Dash, which has often been called the best Mario Kart track of all time.

The Mario Kart 8 DLC can be purchased either for $7.99, or as part of the DLC bundle for $11.99. The latter option gives you access to sixteen new courses, six new characters, and eight new vehicles, so it is an absolute steal.

A free update for the game has also gone live alongside the DLC, and it adds a brand new racing mode to your game- 200cc, which includes racing through all courses at some ridiculous speeds. 200cc racing can be dangerous without a vehicle with good handling, and a driver with good judgment about braking.

Mario Kart 8’s new update and DLC aren’t the only major updates to Nintendo games that were made available today, however- if you own Super Smash Bros. on either 3DS or Wii U, you can now purchase Mewtwo as a DLC character. Mewtwo has already been available to players who own both, the 3DS and the Wii U versions of the game, and for free; now others are also free to join the party.

For more information on Nintendo, stay tuned to GamingBolt.

As Nintendo’s crossover fighter, Super Smash Fighter, grows from just being a celebration of Nintendo, and to a celebration of gaming at large, the possibilities of further inclusions into the Smash roster grow more and more. Being on the roster of Super Smash Bros. is always a big deal- hence, so many third parties voicing interest in having their characters included in Smash via DLC. And with Nintendo themselves opening the doors to third party characters, the possibilities are now literally infinite.

Which makes this datamine of the files included in Smash Bros. via a recent update so interesting- it appears Nintendo themselves are expanding the roster via first and third party characters. The datamines have revealed files that indicate that Fire Emblem’s Roy and Street Fighter’s Ryu may both be added to the game some time soon, via DLC.

That would certainly be worth seeing- Roy would be the third retired veteran being added back into Smash after Mewtwo and Lucas (Roy was originally in Super Smash Bros. Melee). Ryu on the other hand would be the first instance of a character from a conventional fighting game series being translated to Smash Bros. mechanics.

Will this happen? Nintendo has been very opening about adding more characters into the series, so it’s not totally out of question. We’ll keep you posted.

Masahiro Sakurai is a veritable genius- the man has worked on some of the most unique games of all time, and with Nintendo, he is a formidable force- he is behind some of Nintendo’s most recognizable and successful properties, including Kirby, Kid Icarus, and of course, Super Smash Bros.

It is also known that he is an exacting perfectionist- so much so that he literally decides to go through every single aspect of his games’ development for himself, because of how much control and perfectionism he demands. He does the job of an entire development team all by himself, and sometimes works nearly eighty hours in a week when he is working on a game (particularly Smash Bros.)

We’ve known all this- we’ve also known that most stressful for him is developing Smash Bros. (which he has now sworn off three separate times- after Melee, after Brawl, and now, after the newest installment that just released on 3DS and Wii U), but like Kojima, he keeps coming back. However, this time, things might be more serious.

Writing in his regular Famitsu column, Sakurai recently expressed a desire to quit not just Smash Bros. development, but game development as a whole.

“It was very tough this time around… I doubt I’ll be able to go on making games if it continues like this,” he said. However, probably realizing how grim he sounded, he added, “But, I consider myself lucky that so many people seem to enjoy [Smash Bros.]”

The man needs a break, and at this point, he has earned it- he is behind one of Nintendo’s most consistently successful franchises, so if he wants to just go on vacation and do nothing, or maybe develop a game with less pressure and expectations, like Kid Icarus between Brawl and the new Smash Bros., then he should be allowed to do that. Oh, and he should probably start delegating responsibility instead of doing everything himself, and maybe take on a less involved role, such as that of an overseeing producer, as well.

I just hope he decides he wants to return to game development. He’s too talented for us to lose.

Thanks, Kotaku for the translation.

Best PS4 Game

After a hyped up launch, millions of units sold, a solid indie policy and tons of high profile games teased at Gamescom 2013, E3 2014 and then the recent PlayStation Experience, it was somewhat disheartening to see only a few stand-out titles for the PS4 this year. One of the most anticipated games was DriveClub which launched with a multitude of issues and was ultimately in good shape a good two months after release.

It’s not all dire though – the PS4 still had some great games and a very successful year overall. 2015 is looking to be even better with exclusives like Bloodborne and The Order: 1886 kicking off the first quarter of the year. That’s not even including the blockbuster Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End that will release later in 2015. What stood out this year though? What was the top PS4 exclusive that earned our respect? It was a close race but the victor seemed obvious.

Nominees:

• InFamous: Second Son
• Dragon Age Inquisition
• The Last of Us Remastered
• LittleBig Planet 3

Winner: inFamous Second Son

Say what you will about the overall quality of Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Last of Us: Remastered but the former’s definitive experience is on the PC while the latter is simply a re-release of last year’s Game of the Year. LittleBigPlanet 3 was a good game but suffice to say, it didn’t quite live up to the hype of its predecessors.

That left Sucker Punch Productions’ inFamous: Second Son. Right off the bat, the world looked gorgeous and we were immersed in a brand new storyline with plenty of intriguing powers to play around with. The moral dilemmas and missions weren’t as properly evolved as one would have liked but in terms of running around and wrecking shop with superpowers, inFamous: Second Son was a blast.

Best Xbox One Game

Though Microsoft’s eighth generation console didn’t beat Sony’s out in terms of sales, it certainly owned the year with its exclusives. In Q3/Q4 alone, we got Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overdrive and Halo: The Master Chief Collection to play around with.

Forza Horizon 2 wiped away the bad karma of Forza Motorsport 5 by giving us a wide open world to explore, stunning visuals and an excellent balance of arcade and simulation racing.  There was so much to go through with all the cars to customize, events to complete and random quests to fulfill that you’ll feel the hours melt away.

Another big name release that turned heads – both in good and bad ways – was Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall which provided arguably some of the freshest fun in shooters that we’ve had in ages. Whether it was the sheer balance of gunplay, the fluid parkour mechanics or the crazy Titan battles, Titanfall attempted to reinvent the wheel while appealing to both new and experienced shooter players.

Then there was Grand Theft Auto 5, which arrived on the Xbox One and PS4 with plenty of grandeur and looked even better than what the previous generation delivered. Did we mention first person murdering? Because first person murdering – and first person tumbling out of an airplane – is awesome.

So with so much going for the Xbox One, what title ultimately ended up winning? The result was pretty much a no-brainer (though it was incredibly close).

Nominees:

• Sunset Overdrive
• Forza Horizon 2
• Titanfall
• Grand Theft Auto 5

Winner: Sunset Overdrive

Maybe it’s the customization mechanics. Maybe it’s the over-the-top inside humour and references. Maybe it was the colourful pastels. We’re pretty sure it was because of the guns and bizarre enemies and co-op mechanics and open world.

Whatever reason you want to give, it’s obvious that Insomniac created something special with Sunset Overdrive. Mixing parkour mechanics with a kitschy bombastic art style and an insane arsenal, Sunset Overdrive reminded us that you can throw away grim story-telling, realistic combat and grisly visuals to just have fun.

Everything in the game comes together so well and gels perfectly with the atmosphere. No single element overpowers the other and Insomniac will be delivering even more content in the coming months with its Season Pass DLC. If you’ve ever wondered what a hipster, grindhouse, action adventure, open world escapade was like, then take a trip to Sunset City.

Best PC Game

Judging the best PC game was tough. Do we look at the various AAA releases that came to PC and ultimately ended up being the definitive versions to play in terms of visuals? Do we look at efforts like Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun: Dragonfall which reignited our passion for the turn-based, isometric RPG genre like no other (besides proving the power of crowd-funding to deliver excellent games)?

Or do we just look at the games we had the most fun playing on PC?

It’s a tough choice to be sure, especially given the number of third party games that suffered from issues at launch. Assassin’s Creed: Unity was a flop and still needs extensive work to correct its frame rate. Watch Dogs warned us of the dangers of too much hype. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was excellent but not the full-fledged Vault Hunting experience we had hoped for. Thankfully, there was still a strong palette of releases to choose from.

Nominees:

• Dragon Age: Inquisition
• Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor
• Titanfall
• Alien Isolation

Winner: Dragon Age Inquisition

Bioware outdid itself with Dragon Age: Inquisition. It could have attempted to deliver a compelling medieval fantasy RPG with a larger scale than the second game and gameplay that improved on the first. Instead, Bioware went all out in terms of scale, side-quests, detail, characters, companions and writing.

It connected to earlier events and happenings in the franchise. It gave us a customizable Skyhold to raise our armies. It let us send armies out to complete missions. It gave us a co-op multiplayer experience that seemingly solved the issues that plagued Mass Effect 3.

It gave us a gorgeous, fully-realized world that was just plain fun to play in.

The tactical camera and mechanics felt like a more natural fit for PC but in terms of pure, overall quality and top-notch visuals, Dragon Age: Inquisition stood as the best PC of 2014.

Best Wii U Game

In a year where major developers and publishers failed one after the other to release error-free games, Nintendo stayed consistent with its releases all throughout.

It’s funny that with all the doom and gloom that plagued Nintendo coming into 2014 that it would ultimately end up delivering the most number of quality exclusives.

Bayonetta 2 finally arrived on the Wii U and turned out to be an even more bizarre but still highly memorable experience than the first game. Mario Kart 8 rekindled our hatred for our fellow man and his possession of the Blue Shell but made it all better with its excellent multiplayer, track design and music. And while Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze didn’t stand out the most, it was still an excellent platforming experience that one simply had to play.

All of these paled in comparison to our pick for Best Wii U Game of the Year.

Nominees:

• Super Smash Bros for Wii U
• Bayonetta 2
• Mario Kart 8
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
  

Winner: Super Smash Bros. Wii U

Online play! Customizable Mii fighters! Amiibo support! Eight-player Smash! There are plenty of buzzwords you can throw around to hype up Super Smash Bros. Wii U. However, it all comes down to the fact that the game is just plain awesome.

You have a wide range of characters to choose from, with series classics like Mario and Star Fox to new additions like Mega Man and the Animal Crossing Villager; there’s a new set of challenges to complete with rewards to be earned for the single-player crowd; and really, do we even have to sell you on the multiplayer?

Nintendo has had a great year in terms of sales and games. We’re confident that 2015 will be great but after the release of Super Smash Bros. Wii U, Nintendo has set an extraordinarily high bar to conquer.

Best Indie Game

You just can’t stop the indie movement. Sony unveiled various indie properties for its consoles, which included the awesome Velocity 2X and upcoming efforts like The Tomorrow Children and Everybody Goes to the Rapture. Microsoft didn’t lay dormant and made a quick recovery from last year’s indie debacle to introduce efforts like Inside, Cuphead and Ori and The Blind Forest while continuing to tease us with Below. PC gamers had more than enough to enjoy this year with The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and The Talos Principle which will also be heading to the PS4 next year.

That being said, while we enjoyed the utter competitive madness that Towerfall: Ascension provided, the heart-breaking and emotional story-telling of Valiant Hearts: The Great War (which isn’t technically indie but was created by a small team with limited resources at Ubisoft, much like Child of Light), and sheer action platforming excitement of Velocity 2X, there was one indie experience that defined 2014.

It was a game we had looked forward to for a long time and thankfully, it released across a variety of platforms.

Nominees:

• Shovel Knight
• Velocity 2X
• TowerFall Ascension
• Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Winner: Shovel Knight

Everything about Yacht Games’ Shovel Knight is a win. The theme, the 8-bit graphics, the music, the sheer difficulty that threw us back to the days of the original Mega Man and Castelvania titles – Shovel Knight manages to mix all these elements together and magically appeal to players of all ages. The appeal of the game isn’t in its nostalgia or quirkiness – it’s in the fact that games can be distilled to a select few elements. And when you make those elements simple and satisfying, people will have fun regardless of which games they prefer.

Shovel Knight should have released in 2013 but subsequent delays made us doubt whether it would even be out this year. Yacht Games delivered though and if it that weren’t enough, we’ll be getting a battle mode for four players, campaigns for three other Knights featured in-game, a challenge mode and much more. PlayStation players will even be able to fight against Kratos when Shovel Knight arrives for PS3, PS4 and Vita next year.

Your lesson for the new year? Embrace the shovel, even if it looks a little less HD than you’re used to.

Best Handheld Game

The home consoles may have their disappointments here and there – this year perhaps more than any other – but one can always count on the handheld realm to deliver. The rising popularity of smartphones and tablets, not to mention the resources being poured into gaming on Android and iOS, hasn’t dulled the quality releases one can expect on handhelds like the Nintendo 3DS.

Even the PlayStation Vita has a relatively good year with Velocity 2X, PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate, Soul Sacrifice Delta and plenty of ports like Minecraft and Child of Light. The 3DS dominated as usual though with Bravely Default finally hitting the West, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Kirby Triple Deluxe and Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth. Nintendo didn’t have as many first party hits like it did last year but the 3DS still stood strong with lots of quality releases.

Which one earned the right to be called the Best Handheld Game of 2014? As it turns out, Nintendo did have one AAA release up its sleeve.

Nominees:

• Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS
• Pokemon OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire
• Persona Q: Shadow of the labyrinth
• Velocity 2X

Winner: Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

Big surprise, right? Super Smash Bros. on the 3DS was notable for being the first real iteration of the franchise to hit handhelds and it helped fill the void till the Wii U version released this year.

Despite lacking features like 8 player Smash and spiffy visuals, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS still featured fun online play and Mii fighter support. If you wanted to hop into a random match with strangers with varying elements and plenty of chaos, Super Smash Bros. presented an excellent solution on the go. The 3DS version also featured its own exclusive content with StreetSmash and Smash Run. The latter was essentially the challenge mode for players that offered tons of different variations and competitions besides the actual racing aspect against friends.

Amidst all these variables, Nintendo managed to maintain what makes Super Smash Bros. so much fun. Gameplay is fast and responsive, and you’re never not having fun (unless you’re playing as Little Mac during his Final Smash, in which case we feel for). For all of its cel-shaded madness, the 3DS version is still a great addition to the Smash Bros. franchise in every single way.

Best Expansion Pack/DLC

We’ve come a long way from the days of expansion packs providing dozens of hours of new content but we’re also a long way from the Oblivion Horse Armour DLC that caused so much controversy.

Downloadable content and for that matter Season Passes have become the de facto way to obtain new content for a game in this day and age. Some games like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare simply provide new maps, weapons and a Zombies mode while Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel throws new levels, new characters, new challenges and a level cap increase for the devout.

There were a few returns to the old way of doing things. Bungie dubbed its DLC for Destiny as “expansions” and delivered hours of new content and gear while Blizzard’s Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls was an entirely new campaign and set of gameplay options (though it took a while and a major patch for it to truly come into its own). Then there was The Last of Us: Left Behind which served as a prequel to the original story but delivered its own hard-hitting narrative. And don’t even get us started on Amiibos.

Which DLC or expansion stood out the most this year though?

Nominees:

• The Legend of Zelda DLC pack for Mario Kart 8
• The Last of Us: Left Behind
• Amiibo for Super Smash Bros for Wii U
• InFamous: First Light

Winner: The Legend of Zelda DLC pack for Mario Kart 8

Nintendo isn’t usually a company that pushes for DLC. With the Wii U gaining an added presence this year with multiple hit releases, it brought out DLC for games like Hyrule Warriors, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. Wii U. The stand-out DLC pack for this year came in the shape of The Legend of Zelda DLC pack for Mario Kart 8 though. Just what made it so special?

Along with three new characters including Link and Cat Peach, four new vehicles and new parts. That’s not all though – you get two new cups with the Triforce Cup and the Egg Cup. Some of the tracks here are remixed versions of tracks from previous games in the franchise and some – like Hyrule Circuit – are brand new. When you consider how much content that is for just $7.99, The Legend of Zelda pack delivers insane amounts of value.

Even better, if you purchase it along with the upcoming Animal Crossing DLC, you’ll pay only $11.99 and receive roughly double the amount of content. The Last of Us: Left Behind may have the better story and characterization but The Legend of Zelda DLC for Mario Kart 8 provides countless hours of entertainment for solo and competitive players alike.

Best Multiplatform Game

In trying to choose the best multiplatform game of the year, it was important to highlight games that were equal across all platforms. No, being uniformly awful doesn’t count.

It was tough to judge Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 5 because while it is a great experience on all four of its target consoles, two of those console versions released last year only. Also, the game wasn’t built from scratch for all four – it came out on Xbox 360 and PS3 first and then was remastered/ported to the PS4 and Xbox One.

As for Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions have several differences from the current gen platforms, the most prominent one being a scaled down Nemesis system. Titanfall is probably the only game that translated all of its mechanics to the Xbox 360 version thanks to having a dedicated team working on that version. Then again, it only released on three platforms. So which game won? The answer is quite obvious.

Nominees:

• Dragon Age: Inquisition
• Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
• Grand Theft Auto 5
• Titanfall

Winner: Dragon Age Inquisition

Bioware’s Dragon Age: Inquisition released on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC. Granted, the game isn’t perfect – it has its share of bugs – but compared to, say, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, it’s not nearly as bad.

That being said, the game works great across all platforms. The visuals are excellent despite the scaled down resolution on the PS3 and Xbox 360. There’s been no content cut or gameplay shortened in any way. Aside from some graphical differences, you’ll be picking up the exact same game on the Xbox 360 as you would on the Xbox One and similarly, for the PS3 as you would on the PS4.

Despite the PC being the superior platform, Bioware managed to properly optimize Dragon Age: Inquisition for the platform but the PS4 and Xbox One still look quite good in comparison. For that reason – and many others – Dragon Age: Inquisition is our Best Multiplatform Game of 2014.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, like the Codex conversations in Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii, Paletuna’s Guidance sees some inane and humorous chatter between Paletuna and Pit about what is going on on screen, especially taking digs and jabs at each of the characters fighting. It adds a lot of flavor and character to the game, and now, it might have also hinted at incoming DLC characters to the game, in spite of director Sakurai’s insistence that there won’t be any post game DLC.

The exact exchange that highlights the new fighter says:

Pit: Who is that?
Palutena: I have no data on this fighter. I can’t believe it.
Viridi: It must be an intruder from another dimension.
Pit: Whoever it is, the goal remains the same. To fight and win.

Of course, this could be referring to just Mewtwo, who has already been confirmed for inclusion in the game, for players who bought both, the 3DS and the Wii U versions earlier this year, but at the same time, it also seems to, by its ambiguity, open up the possibility for future DLC characters and maybe even modes.

That would be great.

But the one that immediately stands out, to my mind, is the one that, at first glance, would seem the most banal or the most obvious one- the play time stat. It’s not because of how much time one spends in the game, though that is, of course, impressive. No, this statistic stands out because Smash Wii U, like all previous Smash games, breaks it down to ‘Time Powered On’ (which would technically register as play time in any other game, or indeed, in the Wii U’s Activity Log), and ‘Time Spent Playing.’

And then you notice just how much the two numbers actually differ by, and you realize, with a start, something you should have known all along- at this point, Super Smash Bros. is more than a game. It’s a veritable museum of all things gaming.

That air of celebration, of nostalgia, of tribute, of inspiration, of evocation, of festivity, has always permeated Smash Bros., of course. Indeed, to a very large extent, a celebration of all things Nintendo has always been the point of Smash Bros. But right from the get go, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U establishes that it is taking this conceit of being a celebration, a theme park for all things Nintendo, beyond any game previous, beyond even other Smash Bros. games.

It’s evident right from the get go- the intro movie starts, the main Smash theme starts playing, and no longer are you assuaged by the serious, orchestral overtones of Brawl, a game that tried to take itself and its existence too seriously. Instead, this Smash Bros. theme is fast, fun, festive, but more importantly, gamey. It sets the tone for what is to come.

And then you are presented with the menus, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. There were some doubts, when Nintendo chose to release Super Smash Bros. for 3DS before this game, that somehow, the release of that game before this one would end up compromising the perception of mystery and endless content, at the very least, that Smash Bros. games have always been known for. Amazingly enough, that is not the case, because the Wii U game matches the Wii U game line by line in terms of content, and then, incredibly, nearly doubles all of that to present a package that is so bursting at the seams with stuff that it’s easy to simply feel a bit lost.

"And then you are presented with the menus, and it's easy to get overwhelmed."

It all works like a theme park, really. That’s what this Smash Bros. game comes across as, a true Nintendo Land. There’s the central Smash mode attraction, where you can get down to instantly duking it out using any of the unlocked characters in up to four player fights, either against CPU opponents or locally, or some combination thereof. There’s Smash World, which is Smash Bros.’ frenetic take on the frenzy that Mario Party usually brings with it to the table.

There are Event matches, that present you with very specific objectives you have to meet on the battlefield to qualify as a victory, such as taking down a certain number of enemies without exceeding a certain amount of damage taken for yourself. There is the revamped Classic Mode attraction, which now allows you to control the intensity of the experience to a ridiculously granular experience by borrowing the Intensity Meter from Sakurai’s 3DS hit, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and has you face a series of opponents from the Smash roster, until, finally, you face off against the Master Hand and Crazy Hand- and if you’ve managed to survive until this point on higher difficulties, variations thereof that are absolutely balls crazy.

There is the Master Orders and Crazy Orders attraction, where the Master and Crazy Hand give you specific orders to achieve within the parameters set in a match, and you have to complete them in a crazy risk/reward setup. There’s the All Star Mode, where you battle gaming’s biggest stars in reverse chronological order, starting from 2014, and going back all the way to 1980. There are the Multi Man Smashes, which challenge you to take on hordes of enemies with the deck increasingly stacked against you, until you get to Cruel Smash, and it’s impossible to even get one hit landed.

There is the Home Run Contest, which challenges you to beat up a boxing bag, and then smash hit with a baseball bat as far as you can, to set a record. There is the Target Smash mode, the revamp of the old mode from previous Smash games that works like a Smash Bros. take on Angry Birds. There is the Trophy Rush mode, where you pay for the chance to win more trophies in a frenetic time attack mode. There is, of course, the simple training mode where you can just get used to new characters. There is, of course, the main attraction of the event- the absolutely crazy Eight Man Smash mode, which sees you and up to eight other players (either locally, or CPU controlled) duking it out on the same map, and giving the chaos of Smash Bros. an all new meaning.

And this is all without me mentioning the suite of online modes, which let you battle in ranked matches (For Glory), and unranked ones (for fun), with friends or with strangers. This is without me mentioning the Salty Bets-esque Spectator mode, where you ca watch other players battle online and bet the in game Coin currency on who will win. This is without me mentioning the ‘Conquests’ that Nintendo holds twice a week online. This is without me mentioning the over 500 Trophies that you can unlock.

This is without me mentioning the obscene amount of characters to unlock (you start with 40, and end at 50) which includes Nintendo’s own all stars catalog featuring heroes both past and present, as well as third party favorites such as Sonic, Pac-Man, and Mega Man, and then are challenged to master each mode with. This is without me mentioning the Challenges you can complete, which unlocks even more stuff. This is without me mentioning the stage unlocks. This is without me mentioning the soundtrack pieces you can unlock (the final soundtrack has over 400 pieces in it), or the timed NES and SNES demos that represent the games the characters in the game originally come from, titled Masterpieces. This is without me mentioning the ‘Milestones’ (think achievements) you can achieve. This is without me going into the map editor mode. Or the Photo Mode.

What I am saying here is, there is a lot to do in Smash Bros. Wii U. It’s actually unreal. You can spend hours just fiddling away in the Sound Test menu, listening to the gorgeous remixes of classic tracks. You can spend so much time in the Stadium modes, or in Classic or All Star. You can be doing so much in the game, and not even have had one proper fight yet.

"What I am saying here is, there is a lot to do in Smash Bros. Wii U. It's actually unreal."

So, yes, Smash Bros. Wii U is loaded with content. Point established. Which is fine, but all that content is meaningless if it doesn’t play well. So how does Smash Bros. Wii U play?

It plays wonderfully. Only time will tell whether or not it has the longevity that the legendary Super Smash Bros. Melee enjoys even to this day, and that Brawl ultimately failed to achieve, but the game is certainly like an apology to those who felt miffed by Brawl, while also doing its best to make sure that fans of Brawl’s more casual and friendly style of play don’t feel alienated by a sudden move back to a more demanding style of play.

The series’ traditional, eccentric and unusual take on fighting games, which focuses on ringouts rather than knockouts, returns. Smash Wii U plays faster than Brawl, but slower than Melee. It’s had all the frustrating random elements from Brawl, such as tripping, removed. Edge guarding mechanics have been completely changed, leading to a more active style of play, and changing a big part of the Smash Bros. metagame. Characters have been rebalanced, so none are as broken as Meta Knight or Pit were in Brawl, and new characters have been adequately bestowed with unique strengths and weaknesses. Final Smashes still exist, but as always, can be turned off.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U does an amazing job of simply appealing to you incredibly well, no matter what your stance was on either Melee or Brawl, and a large part of this owes itself to how flexible the game ultimately is. You don’t want to just battle on Final Destination, but you are tired of the random elements in other stages that make it impossible for you to enjoy a proper skill based match? No problem, turn on Omega Mode, which flattens each stage to a single platform, turns off stage hazards, but keeps the aesthetic and music- perfect for one on one confrontations, without the monotony associated with just battling on Final Destination for every single game.

Don’t like using the Wii U Gamepad? That’s okay, you can use the Wii U Pro. Or the Wii Classic Controller. Or the Wii Classic Controller Pro. Or your Nintendo 3DS. Or the Wiimote. Or the Wiimote/Nunchuk. Or even the Gamecube controller. Like playing with a certain controller, but don’t like how the buttons are mapped? No problem, go ahead and remap every individual control to your heart’s content. Want just some items on, but not others? Done. Handicaps? Done. Timed matches? Done. Stock matches. Done. Timed stock matches? Done. Want to play on Onett but listen to Fire Emblem’s Together We Ride while you do that? Done. You want it? You got it. There is literally nothing Smash Bros. Wii U won’t let you do.

The Omega Mode, in particular, probably came as a boon to Sakurai and his army of developers, because it is evident that, freed from the constraints of balancing at least a few stages for competitive play (why bother, when every stage can be flattened via Omega Mode?), they went absolutely nuts. Nuts. The new stages in Smash Bros. are insane, featuring gorgeous backdrops, amazing stage hazards that mix things up every single time, and new objectives, particularly one memorable Metroid stage where you can recruit Ridley to fight by your side, and another where throwing enemies into the lava can lead to instant knockouts. All of these are mixed with some returning favorites, including, yes, Onett, Pokemon Stadium, Skyworld, and many, many more. And of course, the series staples- Battlefield and Final Destination- both return too, with the latter looking stunning, and being the absolute best incarnation of the franchise’s signature stage yet.

"With as much going on on screen at once as eight players, dynamic stages, multiple items, explosions, and knockouts, the game never skips a beat, and continues to run in a stunning 1080p of resolution delivered at a steady 60 frames per second that never, ever slow down. At a time when even Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games fail to deliver on that promise, Smash Wii U almost seems to be making a statement."

So much for how it plays. But how does it look, how does it sound? This is, after all, a gaming market where people break their game down to literally an individual line or pixel on the screen.

It looks gorgeous. With as much going on on screen at once as eight players, dynamic stages, multiple items, explosions, and knockouts, the game never skips a beat, and continues to run in a stunning 1080p of resolution delivered at a steady 60 frames per second that never, ever slow down. At a time when even Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games fail to deliver on that promise, Smash Wii U almost seems to be making a statement- yes, the Wii U may be weaker than those two consoles, but it is perfectly capable of delivering on the kind of crazy visuals that you would want, and here is proof.

And indeed, Smash Wii U is proof. While there is no doubt that purely from a technical perspective, this is not as demanding a game as, say, Far Cry 4, a combination of an amazing art style and some adept technical mastery come together to make Smash Wii U one of the best looking console games currently on the market. As with Mario Kart 8 earlier this year, Smash Wii U is a statement of intent, and a reassurance to Wii U fans- you don’t need to worry about being left with as visually inferior games as you were in the Wii era. With Smash Wii U, Wii U currently has one of the best looking ones, on the contrary.

"The takeaway is that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is a perfect game. "

All of this is, of course, backed by a stunning background score, that feature tunes and pieces from Nintendo games, previous Smash Bros. games, and of course, Sonic, Mega Man, and Pac-Man games, re-mixed and given new life. All of this without even mentioning the new, original tunes that this incarnation brings to the table with it, including a main theme that is quite possibly the best one in the series’ history yet.

And then there is the online- in a surprising departure from tradition, in a year full of games that launched with almost unplayable online modes, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U delivers on a smooth online mode, that almost never gets in your way or compromises your play session. The suite of modes includes options to play with friends (which lets you fully customize the setup of the game just as you would with a local game), strangers in ranked or unranked games, 1v1 or 4 player Smashes, with or without teams, a spectator mode, online sharing, Smash’s take on the leaderboards concept… it’s actually a pretty extensive list, and it all works, with almost minimal lag, which is surprising especially because this is Nintendo, and also because Super Smash Bros. for 3DS was plagued by vicious lag spikes.

Of course, you may run into the odd game where there is some lag, but the chances of that are no higher than they would be in literally any other game on any other system, and might in fact be lower- in over 100 online games, I remember having only two with any sort of lag, of which only one was actually bad enough to impede play. That’s a very good record right there.

I’ve said so much, and I haven’t even yet gotten the chance to talk about the two new things that this game brings with it to the franchise. One is, of course, character customization, which was already featured in Smash 3DS early this year, and works pretty much the exact same way (and even connects with your 3DS game, allowing you to bring over customized fighters and Miis into the Wii U game). The other is the much touted Amiibo functionality, where you can buy one of the many NFC powered Nintendo figurines on offer, and scan them and bring them into the game. Amiibos work surprisingly well- much better than I expected them to, and well enough that I’m probably going to end up with more of them than I anticipated.

Essentially, you put your Amiibo on your NFC reader on the Wii U Gamepad. Once it is scanned into the game, you can name it, ‘feed’ it equipment to customize it, and then you can take it on in Smash mode, where it can either fight on your side or against you. Amiibos unlock things for you by fighting, just as you would, and as CPU opponents, are much smarter than what you get in game, potentially going as high as Level 50 (in game CPU opponents are capped at Level 9), and with a dynamic play style that learns from your own, learning to predict your moves, and counter them properly, and basically playing as a human opponent might. It works really well, and if you anticipate not having friends over to play with as often as you would like, is highly recommended.

What is the takeaway from all of this? The takeaway is that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is a perfect game. It does a million things, and it does all of them incredibly well. I’ve been trying to think of something that it does badly, and I came up blank. The most I could muster up was the lack of a ‘campaign’ mode like Adventure in Melee, or Subspace Emissary in Brawl, but the complaint rang hollow as the game offers you more single player content than you can possibly hope to master in any reasonable amount of time anyway, with so many other modes to make up for it. Smash Bros.

Wii U is the perfect game. It has a theme park like, arcade sensibility, with no pretension of being anything but a game, a game that celebrates video games, and all that they stand for. And it is a perfect video game because, very literally, if there is something you don’t like about it, it lets you change it to where you do. If, at all, you think yourself a video gamer and have any respect for the medium, you owe it to yourself to play this game.

This game was reviewed on Wii U.

There were probably a lot of people who wondered what the benefits of bringing a series that has always been so at home on Nintendo’s consoles, thanks to it’s big screen, couch co-op fun, to Nintendo’s challenged Nintendo 3DS handheld was. Well, whatever the reasoning may have been, the move has paid off in spades for Nintendo. After some record breaking performance in Japan, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS has now sold over a million copies in the US alone, in just a month since its release. Its lifetime global sales are slowly inching towards the 5 million mark.

The other good news that came with this was that super Smash Bros. for 3DS charted Number 2 in October’s All Format NPD Charts in the US, with the 3DS exclusive fending off multiplatform games such as Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and The Evil Within to keep its place.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS will be followed by what many consider to be the ‘real’ Super Smash Bros. 4, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. on November 21 in the US. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage of that game, and in the meanwhile, go ahead and check out our review for Super Smash Bros. on 3DS.

Yesterday, Nintendo gave us an information blowout on the upcoming, highly anticipated Wii U exclusive game, Super Smash Bros. Among the many things they talked about, somewhat hilariously and bafflingly, was quite a bit of time that they spent on Bowser Jr., and the Koopalings, all of whom are featured in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (the latter as the former’s alt costumes). What made it baffling was that they are already in the 3DS version of the game, and thus known about, so Nintendo spending any time on them was a bit confusing.

But that confusion aside, let’s actually talk about the trailer itself, which is hilariously chaotic, and which lovingly renders each of the Koopalings as they face off against the heroes of the Nintendo world. Especially given their appearance and prominence in Mario Kart 8 in addition to Smash Bros., this year seems to truly be the year of the Koopalings.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U launches November 21 in the US.

The newest numbers for weekly Japan sales are out, and surprising absolutely no one, Nintendo’s 3DS, fueled by the hysteria that the launch of the ‘New’ models brought on about, is at the very top, selling more than every other system on the market combined, and then some.

On the software side, things are equally predictable, with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, and Youkai Watch 2 all ensuring the 3DS does not slip up there either. The highest charting new entry is Chaos Rings for the PS Vita, which is a port of the popular iOS game by Square Enix.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Xbox One, which had a dismal launch to begin with in the region, is now competing with the Vita TV in its quest for irrelevance, and is selling less than a thousand units a week- the Xbox 360 took years before it reached this point. Microsoft has claimed that it is unhappy with the system’s performance in the region and that it is looking at reversing the trend, so let’s hope they do that soon. A competitive Xbox One in the region is good for everyone.

When Sakurai focused on the 3DS edition of the new Super Smash Bros. game, and unveiled a multitude of new, exclusive game modes for it, he did promise that exclusive modes would also be present in the Wii U game, but would be talked about at a later date. Now, with the release of the 3DS game safely behind all of us, he seems to be doing just that, as in a post on the Miiverse, he posted a cryptic picture that may be showing us two new, Wii U exclusive game modes for Super Smash Bros… without telling us anything more about them.

You can see the picture above (it was accompanied with just a cryptic, “Now, what mode is this…?!”); you can clearly see that at least part of both the mode names is blurred out, leaving us just with ‘Master’ and ‘Crazy’ who have traditionally been the bosses of Super Smash Bros. games. The picture also seems to indicate that these modes will be single player.

We don’t know much more about them, but we should soon. Hang on, and stay tuned.