PAX Aus 2015: Nintendo Impressions and Event Recap

With PAX Aus over for another year it’s time to look back at the showing Nintendo had and we’ve even got some impressions for you. There wasn’t a whole amount at the event to report on, most of the games were already out but the people and the events have always been the important part of the show.

Nintendo Booth Report

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash

This is a game that I was excited when they first announced it at (Nintendo Direct/E3). It looked like the classic Mario Tennis that I fondly remember on Nintendo 64. Shortly through the announcement, I notice something that might have concerned me; the use of a mega mushroom to make a character mega sized and disrupt the balance of the classic tennis formula. After playing a few games of this, I realise that this encourages novice players to have a better advantage against veteran players and it also adds a bit of chaos when the larger character is hitting strong shots. Not all is bad.

At this year’s PAX, the demo I had a chance to play consisted of singles and doubles matches. They lasted for 1 set, 2 games – nice and quick to get the matches going. The full roster was not available, so you have the classic Mario v Bowser alongside with Peach and Toad for doubles.

The controls were similar to the recent iteration of the game: Mario Tennis Open on Nintendo 3DS. There were two control methods available at the time: Wii U GamePad and Wii U Pro Controller; but it will support more control options such as a Wii Remote held sideways. Not more has been said about whether there will be motion controls or not, but I was not able to confirm.

Overall, I am really excited to play this as it is a great multiplayer game back in the days of Nintendo 64 and I hope that this will entice new players to join in on the mayhem that we once had with these new additions but hey, it has online too! Can’t complain about not having friends to play with.

– Billy

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U amiibo Partner Battle Tournament Recap

One of the main events from Nintendo at this year’s PAX was the Super Smash Bros for Wii U amiibo Partner Battle. The general idea was that it was a tournament where you participate with your amiibo in a 2 v 2 v 2 v 2 in an – player Team Smash. Ideally, the best outcome was to train your amiibo to the level cap (50) and bring it in, but there has been one or two amiibos that were not Level 50 (one being Level 1!).

I had the chance to participate in the event with my Level 50 Shulk amiibo under the name of ‘Bakscratch’, a pun on one of his signature special moves. There was a big turnout for this event with a player cap of 64 and they had to cull players without amiibos in preference to those with amiibos.

The rules were set out to 3 stock, Big Battlefield only, no items except Smash Ball. Although the character customisation was disabled, it is quite odd that the amiibo customisations were in effect. So you could have had such customisations like slowly healing when crouching from the items or using a different moveset.

Sadly, even with such upgrades, I did not make it to the finals, they were a strong bunch. From what Iíve been told, my amiibo felt like jumping around rather than deal strong hits and final blows. I have not trained him well ñ I did make it to the semi-finals though!

It was great fun and especially with Nintendo pushing more into the competitive scene, they should bring back the Connection Tours (nudge nudge wink wink), maybe Splatoon next time.

– Billy

FAST Racing NEO

When I heard that Liverpool Studio was being shut down, I was saddened by the thought that any new Wipeout games would be a long ways off, caught up in copyright and ownership issues. F-Zero is pretty much a no show, so the whole anti-gravity, way-too-fast racing genre was looking a little hollow.

So when I heard about FAST Racing NEO, my ears definitely pricked up. So when I saw the playable demo at the Nintendo booth, I knew I had to give it a shot, and I was seriously impressed.

As if it wasn’t hard enough to concentrate on 100 things while racing, like air brakes and other racers, you also have to ‘shift phase’ between blue and orange to take advantage of the corresponding boost pads on the track. Trying to match up colours to the right phase was kind of reminiscent of long notes in Rock Band or Guitar Hero, and quite often I’d either forget to switch, or remember when I was already in the right spec, slowing me down as if I were driving on dirt.

The visuals were also impressive, but I feel the motion flow effect is mostly a fudging, using lower resolution textures closer to the camera, perhaps to save on rendering. The speed of the vehicles will distract you from a lot of the visuals anyway, with big landmarks in the distance taking focus.

As I’m writing this, I have the website open, with a slideshow of screenshots flicking past, only making me much more excited for the game to come out!

– Troy