At the end of yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, Nintendo revealed that Isabelle was going to be a fighter in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. This was a neat surprise for the most part, but also a bit of a disappointing one, especially given how the trailer seemingly showed off a new Animal Crossing title right up until the big reveal. It was a bit of a tease for fans, and one that initially seemed like a Nintendo troll on par with Dedede’s appearance in K Rool’s debut trailer.
Fortunately, it turns out that wasn’t the case.
Oh no. Cause straight after Isabelle’s Smash reveal, Nintendo announced a whole new Animal Crossing game was in development for the Switch as well!
Yep. after many requests (and a fair bit of speculation), Nintendo officially revealed that a new Animal Crossing game was in development for the console, with a release date set for 2019. Here’s the ‘trailer’ with the announcement for the game:
Which doesn’t really have much to show off at all. You’ve got a logo, you’ve got a release date… and that’s basically it really. No gameplay footage, no information on new features, no music samples… all in all, it’s basically the same situation as with Metroid Prime 4. A big ‘trust us, it’s coming’ deal that leaves your imagination to fill in the blanks.
But hey, at least it’s official now. We may not have any actual information, but at least we know Animal Crossing is in development for the console and that the series will be getting more games on non-smartphone systems. That’s better than nothing at any rate.
So what do you think about it? Are you happy to see Animal Crossing get revealed for the Switch? What do you think the game will actually have in terms of new features, characters and mechanics?
Have your say on the matter (plus many other gaming ones) over in the comments below, or at the Gaming Latest forums today!
Well, another Nintendo Direct, another Smash Bros newcomer reveal! This time, it’s for Isabelle, the dog secretary/assistant from the Animal Crossing series, who joins Super Smash Bros Ultimate as the second rep for the series.
Here’s her trailer from the Direct:
Plus her character trailer from the official site:
Obviously, both are pretty relaxing, as befitting for a series like Animal Crossing. No one gets killed in them either, which is also a nice change of pace after Ridley and Simon Belmont’s brutal reveal trailers.
Yet that’s not the only change to the Smash formula here. No, Isabelle is an… interesting character mechanically speaking. Why? Because her moveset seems to be halfway between a clone and a unique character. Some moves are shared with the Villager, some moves are taken from other characters, and some moves seem to be entirely unique altogether. It’s a neat setup, and provides a bit of uniqueness that’d be all too easy for Nintendo to leave out.
So watch the trailers and tell us what you think about her as a character. Are you happy to see Animal Crossing get another rep in Smash? Was Isabelle the right choice for that rep? Heck, who do you want to see make the jump to newcomer for this game in general?
Tell us your thoughts on the matter (and more) in the comments below or on the Gaming Latest forums today!
Which is why (just like with every other Direct), we’ll be covering the whole thing as it airs in a liveblog here at Gaming Reinvented. Yeah it won’t be the most detailed coverage, and yes it’s unlikely we’ll be posting trailers as they come in (thanks to Nintendo’s boneheaded decision to air the thing at 11pm UK time), but we’ll be covering it none the less.
Either way, you can find players for the various regional Direct streams below:
US:
Japan:
UK:
As well as links to various media platforms Nintendo is hosting it on. Pick whatever one you feel like watching..
And as expected, this led to much speculation about when the Direct would eventually be aired. Would it be the next week? Maybe the one after?
Heck, maybe the Direct may have been pushed back even further. No one really knew for sure, and your guess is as good as ours in regards to its situation.
However, now it seems we may have a date for it! Yep, thanks to a bit of Splatoon 2 datamining and teasing social media announcements, it seems the Direct may be set to air on the 13th of September 2018. Or for those not looking at a calendar, this Thursday for short.
This is because of two things. Firstly, this social media post by the developers of the (currently) Japan exclusive title Platinum Train:
In said post, they mention a surprise announcement for the game that’ll apparently be made this Thursday. This lines up pretty well with the format of a Nintendo Direct, since such an announcement would feel right at home in the indie section of a Direct presentation.
So that’s piece of evidence number 1. But it’s not the only one, and to be honest, we feel it’s the second bit of evidence that seems more convincing here.
For instance, not only has the ranked rotation pool that was due to start on the day after the Direct been removed, but the current setup for ranked matches has been set to continue until September 14th instead. This implies Nintendo pushed back the changeover to account for the Direct being postponed, and set it up so things change over on the new Direct date instead.
Over the years, we’ve interviewed a fair few famous YouTubers here at Gaming Reinvented. We’ve talked to Guru Larry about his videos on retro gaming and gaming trivia. We’ve discussed the state of the industry with SidAlpha, and we’ve spoken to more music remixers that possibly imaginable, with everyone from Loeder to BlueJackG and Tater Tot Tunes getting their own interviews here on the site.
So if you ever wanted to know what makes a good Mario Kart custom track, how the shortcuts for the shortcut challenge were picked or just how different the Mario Kart Wii online scene is now that Nintendo’s official servers are a thing of the past, keep reading!
Starting off with a personal question. Who are you?
My name is Troy (TWD98 on YouTube), I’m 24, I live in Southern California and I’ve been running a Mario Kart based YouTube channel since 2007.
And what’s with your username? What does TWD98 mean exactly?
The Walking Dead and born in 1998 obviously!
Nah, not really. It’s actually my initials and favourite number! I have a video on my channel describing why the 98 is my favourite number. Long story short.. it stems from a karaoke high score I had when I was 8 years old.
How did you get into video games anyway?
My older brother had a Super Nintendo and we used to play Street Fighter ALL the time. I played as Ryu and he used Ken. Occasionally, I switched to M. Bison. We also loved to play NBA Jam, Super Mario Kart and then I played Tetris and Pokémon Blue/Red on my Game Boy!
What about Mario Kart? Where did your history with that series begin?
I was 4 or 5 years old, and played Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo. However, it wasn’t my favourite game or anything. I didn’t even get the N64 one.
No, it was Mario Kart Super Circuit that really got me interested in Mario Kart. I used to play it on my Game Boy Advance non-stop, I loved all the crazy shortcuts that game had and it felt like a better version of the SNES one!
Double Dash was a game I loved to play for fun with friends but I never got into playing it solo because I wasn’t a fan of the lack of the “Jump” button and lack of shortcuts. The DS one came out when I was in 5th grade and I played it non-stop until 8th grade, I was addicted. So many Multiplayer matches with the neighbourhood kids.
Did you play the games on a serious level before Mario Kart Wii?
Not at all really. I was in a Mario Strikers Charged clan very briefly at one point, but that’s about it.
For the matter, what were your thoughts when Mario Kart Wii was first released back in 2008?
Well, it was the first game I ever actively followed prior to its release date. From the moment it was announced at E3, I looked online for new info for it every day back in middle school because it was the successor to my favourite game ever, MKDS (SM64 was a close second).
Initial thoughts: This is the greatest thing ever. 12 player online that works well, weekly tournament competitions, time trial leaderboards and WR ghost download options, a growing online community etc.
On the other hand, after 2-3 months, I completely lost interest in the game and returned to MKDS. The drift bothered me because I couldn’t manually charge mini turbos. At the time I was extremely casual with Mario Kart Wii so I was using Dolphin Dasher during the summer of 08.
However, that all changed when I came across a YouTube video with really catchy music titled Top 10 Mario Kart Wii shortcuts by Rolation in like November 08, and that really peaked my interest in the game.
That’s what inspired me to give Mario Kart Wii another go, and it all went up from there. Sadly I can’t find the video now though, and I think it may have got taken down. Do remember he was using the Bullet Bike in it though.
Anyway, when I came back in December 08, I began using Mach Bike, started downloading WR ghosts and practicing the shortcuts and lines and then by spring 09, it was the only game I was playing.
That’s how it went from ‘this game is pretty fun (but not on par with MKDS)’ to ‘this game is even better than MKDS.‘
Onto a few mod questions now then. How did you get started with Mario Kart Wii mods?
When MrBean35000vr released the first batch of playable custom tracks and a tutorial on how to mod the Wii. I remember my excitement when Mushroom Peaks loaded on my game. It opened up a world of possibilities to me for MKWii.
What were your thoughts when you discovered CTGP Revolution?
CTGP Revolution may have only been in its beginning stages at the time, but I saw the potential immediately. Since then, I can say with confidence that it’s surpassed even my wildest expectations.
It’s certainly come a long way, haha!
Favourite Mario Kart Wii custom tracks included there?
Plenty. Mainly the ones that have confusing layouts, are visual eyesores and don’t cater to new players/vehicles that aren’t the Mach Bike.
Either way, Mario Kart Wii mods have come a long way. Are you surprised at how far the scene has progressed? Or how much more professional the custom tracks of today are?
As far as clans go, the scene is still mostly the same. In that sense, it hasn’t seemingly changed much in a decade.
Still, it’s alive and pretty active, so that’s nice to see.
As for custom tracks, well those have surprised me immensely. So many talented creators are making them now, and I hope to make a track or two of my own in future as well!
Finally on the modding side of things, why do you think Mario Kart Wii has gotten so many mods anyway? No other games in the series have gotten nearly as many custom tracks or characters…
It sold the most (37.10 million copies) and its irreplaceable. No other Mario Kart game will be this popular, so it’ll live on for quite a while.
Onto YouTube stuff now. What made you decide to start up a channel?
My parents wouldn’t let me play video games anymore during the school week (in high school) because it was unproductive. My dad said I need to find a way to make it productive. I was like… “how?”. He came up with the idea to make YouTube videos so I bought a camcorder and shortly after, a Dazzle.
Did you have any other ideas for channels before this one?
Nope.
How confident were you that your channel would succeed?
I didn’t care if it succeeded or not, it was my ticket to be able to play Mario Kart Wii during the week while in high school and talk to my clan teammates! To be honest though, I found that I did enjoy making videos quite a lot and by 2011, I started taking YouTube a bit more seriously.
Obviously now we all know it did, with 114,000 people watching your videos as of this moment. How does it feel to have such a large YouTube following?
Humbling. I remember that when I had around 15,000 subscribers, I thought I was going to max out at only 30-40k subscribers (because I thought that was the number of people in the online community).
Let’s talk about a few of your series now. For instance, what made you decide to start Rate That Custom Track?
I saw Ray William Johnson with a show called “Equals 3” and he showed other people’s videos and made fun of them in a light humour kind of way. Justin and I were in the same AP Euro class and I was like, “dude I’m gonna do what Ray William Johnson does but for MKWii custom tracks, do you wanna be my co-star?” and he loved the idea.
How do you choose what tracks to cover there anyway?
I would pick random ones on the fly, at least for the first 7 or 8 episodes. Indeed, a lot of the time we actually recorded 4-5 tracks, with 1 or 2 being cut out because they were boring to watch.
But I started planning out the tracks I was going to cover later on.
Have there ever been ones you planned to make videos on, but decided against discussing for whatever reason? Maybe due to uninteresting track design or what not?
For RTCT? Probably, I can’t remember any off the top of my head.
And how have your standards there changed over time? I’m guessing your criteria for a good custom track may have changed a bit over the years…
Absolutely. I didn’t care about it giving good races before. In fact, I really enjoyed the more difficult courses because they were easy to win when you had practiced them.
Now though, I appreciate the more Nintendo like ones instead, due to how much less I play the game nowadays. For me, a good track is easy to complete a lap on but difficult to master, which is why I feel Sniki does a great job with his own tracks. They appeal to both casual and hardcore players in about the same way as Nintendo’s own tracks.
Any tracks you would have rated differently had you made a video about them today?
Yeah, I honestly didn’t take the ratings too seriously but I liked it that way.
There’s also Troy vs Custom Track, where you try and beat the staff ghosts for a custom track in order to master it. What inspired you to make these videos?
I thought it’d be easy to reach 9999 VR on custom tracks, but that wasn’t the case at all. Because of this, I felt I needed more to practice the more difficult tracks a bit more, since it’s hard to improve on them with only two Race to 9999 VR episodes a month. So I started the series to get better at tracks like Melting Magma Melee and Final Grounds in the hope of performing better on them online.
Similarly, how do you choose what tracks to take on here?
I choose the difficult ones. Especially those I know are complex and have strategies that can let you win online races more easily. For example, in CTR Cortex Castle, you can EASILY break away and win if you can do that shroomless cut.
So I wanted my weakest tracks to become my strongest ones.
