Extra Joy #7 - Wii U Nintendo Direct

Yesterday, Nintendo announced a whole ton of stuff at their latest Nintendo Direct conference all about the Wii U. Things we haven't heard of before, things we wanted and things we didn't know we wanted until now. Bombs were dropped and we came from the battlefield cover in ash. So naturally, we decided to talk about it in podcast form. It might be shorter than our average Extra Joys but hey, if you want to know what we thought of all the news, it might be worth a listen.

You can check out the downloadable MP3 version here.

Let's Podcast - Super Smash Bros. Next

So recently, the six of us got together with David and Steven to discuss the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game. Obviously, literally nothing is known about the next Smash so all we did was speculate. Which is all we did before Brawl so it was a lot of fun to just all get together and discuss it again but this time, for you viewers at home. It's a long one so let it play in the background or something.

Also, sorry for the echo. My mic sucks.

First video is below, link the others can be found at the end.

The Eleven Stages I Want In The Next Super Smash Bros.

Well, my last two lists have been about the best and worst stages to ever be featured in the Super Smash Bros. series so I might as well talk about the stages I’d love to see in the next installment. With such a huge selection of characters and franchises, I find it hard to believe Nintendo would ever be pressed for ideas for stages. Personally, I’m of the belief that every character in the game should have their own stage for when you fight them in Classic or All-Star mode. I remember finding it very strange that Young Link’s home stage in Melee was Jungle Japes.

What happened to you, man? You used to be cool.

So, in an attempt to come up with ideas for stages to be added into the next Smash Bros.,I give you my list of the eleven stages I’d love to see. Why eleven? Because I came up with one last minute and didn’t want to get rid of anything. Now, it was hard coming up with this list. There’s tons of ideas for stages I’d love to see, many of which from the franchises that already get the most stages. I tried to be fair and give each franchise one stage but I couldn’t do it so there’s two Zelda and Mario stages on the list anyway, OH WELL! 

The Five Worst Super Smash Bros. Stages

Last time we met, I made a list of my ten favorite stages in the Super Smash Bros. series. As I’ve mentioned previously, the stages are just as big of a part of the series as the characters. Every stage has a different personality, a different familiar location from the world of Nintendo and often times, different gimmicks. 

Consider Venom number 6.

However, unfortunately, those gimmicks can sometimes be annoying. Some stages use gimmicks in very minimal ways such as the walls in Shadow Moses Island or the Banzai Bills in Peach’s Castle. But sometimes they can get a little annoying and over the top such as the Pokémon from Spear Pillar or the entirety of the WarioWare, Inc. stage. Some stages have great concepts behind them but ultimately fail to impress like Venom, 75m or New Pork City. However, many of these stages aren’t “awful” just not very good. I’m looking at the five stages I absolutely hate, nay, refuse to play on. This is my list of the five worst stages in Super Smash Bros.

Matt's Top Ten Favorite Super Smash Bros. Stages

The Super Smash Bros. series is one of the most popular of Nintendo’s franchises and for good reason, it’s a great series. But beyond the gameplay and how much fun the games are, they’re so popular because it brings together all of Nintendo’s other franchises. What other game can you see Mario duke it out with Kirby? Or pit Ness against Captain Olimar? Gamers everywhere hype themselves up so hardcore about the next Smash Bros. that discussions of what characters should and will be included in the next begin the same day the last game was released. People love that stuff.

Seriously, this is the worst stage.

But what about the stages? Nintendo has a lot of memorable and iconic locations from their games too. Stages often go overlooked in favor of the characters but they are just as much an important part of the series. So far, Nintendo has put together some real winners with the line-up of stages and locations. Sure, not all of them are great, some of them are pretty boring (Peach’s Castle, Yoshi’s Island), some of them are great in concept but not in design (75m, New Pork City) and some of them are just plain bad (Brinstar Depths, Rumble Falls). But today, I’m taking a look at the best of the best. Which stages from the past three Smash Bros.’s games stand out the most in my eyes? What are my favorites? Well, let’s find out.

Top 10 Songs in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

There are a ton of songs in Brawl. A ton. The sheer quantity vastly overshadows the quality. The amount of songs in conjunction with the ability to pick and choose which one plays on what stage and how often . It's arguably the best video game soundtrack even. Narrowing it down to a select few in order of how much I like them is incredibly hard. So I decided to set a rule. It has to be music that is rearranged specifically for Brawl. That means nothing like Dragon Roost Island or the remixes made for Melee. It can be a totally original piece made for Brawl. Just not something that they just brought over in it's original form. It's also kind of hard to explain in a lot of words why I like these tunes so I only included a little blurb with each entry.

With that, here's my list of ten favorite songs that are in Brawl...

VGM of the Week #7

Back to me, huh? Well, last time I picked a song from Super Mario 3D Land, which was released that same day. This week, however, no major releases are coming out so I'm going with what could very well be my favorite piece of music ever in a video game.

Now, nobody can deny, Super Smash Bros. Brawl has the best soundtrack of all time. It's almost unfair, new and old compositions of over 300 songs from over 40 gaming franchises? It's insane. With all those tracks to choose from, you'd think my favorite would be from one of my all-time favorite game franchises like Mario or Pokémon but actually, no. One song blew me away more than any other; The Underworld from Kid Icarus.


This track is so catchy and upbeat, I can't help but love it. And when the drums kick in during the breakdown towards the end? It's soooooo good. Not to mention, it was composed by Shougo Sakai, who has worked on many other games such as Kirby Squeak Squad, Super Smash Bros. Melee and the entire Mother 3 soundtrack, as well as Hirokazu Tanaka, who worked on the original Kid Icarus soundtrack. It's a great tune from a great soundtrack and perhaps my very favorite of all time.

The Top Six Characters I Want in the Next Smash Bros. that Have No Chance of Making It

When it comes to Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series, it seems like the one thing everybody always talks about is the roster. No matter what gaming site, blog or forum you visit, you’re bound to find a topic dedicated entirely to fans discussing and debating which characters deserve to be in the game, who they think will be in the game and who they want in the game. We here at Adamant Ditto have plenty of discussions about it, in fact, before Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released, it was all we talked about.

Everybody has their own opinions and favorites when it comes to Nintendo characters and it’s not hard to see why. Nintendo more so than any other gaming company out there has so many lovable and unique characters, there’s always going to be some character that people feel was unfairly left out. Though sometimes, it can be a little ridiculous. Just because a character is cool doesn’t mean they stand a chance of being playable. You may be a big fan of Umbreon or Agent J. from the Elite Beat Agents but chances are, they weren’t even considered.

Though thinking about it, we'll probably get Wesker instead.

So that’s what I’m looking at today. I’m counting down the top six characters I want in the next Smash Bros. game but have no chance of making it on the roster. Now keep in mind, this isn’t my list of my most wanted characters, there’s plenty I want in the next game that I feel actually stand a decent chance, such as Krystal, King K. Rool, Lil’ Mac, Starfy, Mega Man, I could go on and on. Yet, there are some characters I want to see that I know have no chance whatsoever of ever being playable. So without further delay, let’s begin the list.