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2017: Looking Back at Some of Goomba Stomp’s Best Nintendo Articles

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2017 has been a busy year for Nintendo, which has made it an equally busy year for the staff at Goomba Stomp covering Nintendo. Goomba Stomp has covered everything from The Nintendo Switch to nostalgic favorites such as Diddy Kong Racing. Here is a collection of Nintendo articles, chosen by our staff, to highlight the fantastic year that Nintendo has had. Enjoy!

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‘Breath of the Wild’ Isn’t Nintendo’s Crowning Achievement But a Gem in the Crown

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is easily the best game to have come out so far in 2017, and will more than likely rightfully claim Game of the Year and similar accolades come award season at the end of the year pretty unanimously.  While Breath of the Wild is the best game I’ve played in years, too many critics and fans have been over zealous when singing the game’s praises and lavishly raving about the title.  That may sound insane coming from a self-proclaimed Zelda fanatic, and I’m not arguing that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild isn’t a near flawless, playable work of art or that a ‘ten out of ten’ is an unmerited score for the game… (read the full article)

‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ will leave you in a state of rapturous, awestruck bliss

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a masterclass in open-world design and with its release comes a true watershed moment in gaming history. The result is nothing less than magical. It artfully blends the best bits of the franchise’s thirty-plus year history and produces a sandbox so full of mystery and so full of adventure, it could take you well over 100 hours to uncover most of its secrets. There’s just so much to do that publishing a full review this early would do the game an injustice. What we have here is the most ambitious title in the history of the franchise; an epic journey that quivers with anticipation, wonder, surprise and excitement. It never gets old. It never gets tiring. There’s not a minute that goes by in which you’ll want to put down the controller because Breath of the Wild keeps players constantly curious and fascinated by the world around them. There’s truly something unusually, haunting and engrossing about the game and whatever your opinion on the Nintendo Switch, Breath of the Wild is arguably one of the greatest games ever made… (read the full article)

‘Metroid Prime’: Dissection of a Masterpiece

There’s no question that Metroid Prime is an immersive and timeless masterpiece which is as well polished as any release by Nintendo. While the GameCube was known for classic games with timeless art styles, such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind WakerPrime is perhaps the only major game in Nintendo’s history that can tout timelessness as well as realistic graphical fidelity nearly fourteen years after its original release… (read the full article)

‘Metroid: Samus Returns’ Damn Well Lives Up To The Unsustainable Hype

The Metroid franchise deserves all, and any, praise it has received over the years, if only for launching a winning formula, and one of Nintendo’s greatest franchises. From the NES debut, to the Super Nintendo classic, to the underrated handheld entries, and the 3D debut, with the Prime series, the Metroid games have, for the most part, been providing fans with countless hours of high-quality entertainment. Nintendo’s sci-fi series helped pioneer the idea of non-linear exploration, and, even after 30 years, its influence on the industry is still felt. In the three-plus decades since Metroid first launched, there have been countless imitators, many forgotten and some beloved, yet despite the number of games that can trace their lineage back to Samus Aran’s first adventure, none, in this critic’s eyes, have come close to equaling the level of artistry found in the best of the Metroid series… (read the full article)

 

The Many Firsts of ‘Metroid Prime’

This is just a fraction of the overwhelming praise Metroid Prime received when it released this day, 15 years ago. After skipping the Nintendo 64 console entirely, fans were apprehensive about the franchise’s transition to first-person 3D, to say the least. However, those apprehensions were blown away upon the game’s release as they witnessed the title revolutionize the Metroid formula in such a way that still remained true to the series’ roots… (read the full article)

‘Super Mario Odyssey’ Review: Brilliantly Bodacious, Ingeniously Incredible

Super Mario Odyssey is arguably the most bombastically big video game release of this entire year (being rivaled only by another Nintendo home run: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). With such an overwhelming degree of anticipation surrounding it, and knowledge that the probability of it failing to reach the lofty expectations of Mario fanatics the world over is more unlikely than the announcement of an Animal Crossing title set within an abattoir, it comes as no surprise that Super Mario Odyssey is brilliantly bodacious, ingeniously incredible, and wonderfully wild from beginning to end… (read the full review)

Mario and Movement- The Evolution of a 3D Platformer

Movement in a platformer is probably something you don’t think about too much. Not necessarily things like how to make a jump, but rather how fun that jump is to make, or how that jump affects the design of the game world. Mario is one of the quintessential platformer franchises in both 2D and 3D, and Odyssey is one of the smoothest experiences I’ve had playing this genre, Mario or not. This is because Super Mario Odyssey builds itself on a 20 year legacy of experimentation, success, and failure in terms of design choices for 3D Mario titles. Each of the main 3D games brought something new or tried to experiment with things that previous iterations had not done yet. So, let’s take a quick look at how design and movement were used in the main 3D Mario games… (read the full article)

‘Super Mario Odyssey’: Distinctly Japanese, Uniquely Nintendo, and Fundamentally Fun

At 24 years old, Shigeru Miyamoto was a drifting renaissance man. A recent art school graduate, Miyamoto was, by his own admission, a lackluster student. His talents comprised a wide range of artistic skills, from painting to playing the banjo. He was fascinated with making toys and other contraptions, a seemingly useless skill that would bear fruit later in life. In 1977, a chance meeting with then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi (a friend of Miyamoto’s father) resulted in the young man acquiring a job as a staff artist for Nintendo… (read the full article)

‘Super Mario Odyssey’s’ Ten Most Difficult Moons

Super Mario Odyssey is a joyous romp through a variety of charming and colorful locations that is impossible to play without wearing a constant smile on your face. Well… almost constant. Read some reviews of Mazza’s latest 3D outing and a fair few of them will probably claim that the game is too easy for the most part… (read the full article)

Translating Anime Worlds Into ‘Super Mario Odyssey’ Kingdoms

With Super Mario Odyssey being out for just over a week, the world has had the chance to experience first hand the wonder of its varied and eclectic kingdoms. New Donk City is a literal urban playground packed so densely with surprises you practically trip over them. Shiveria is a winter wonderland complete with underground yeti races. Then there’s the wackier Mount Volbano, with its gourmet aesthetic and eye-popping color scheme. The list goes on and on… (read the full article)

Joy-Conspiracy Theory: From NES Classic Edition to the Switch

Before its announcement, codename NX, the Nintendo Switch was one of the most eagerly awaited pieces of hardware in recent memory. The rumor mill was turning out countless theories as to what the console would be, the media was in a frenzy constructing click-bait articles, and everyone and their mom was waiting to see what the next Nintendo console, the one that in their eyes would truly make or break Nintendo for real this time, not like the Wii U, or the Wii, or the DS, or the GameCube, or the N64, or any of the other consoles that the public thought was heralding the end of Nintendo.  Nevermind that the Wii U, if underselling, was turning a profit and Nintendo owned the portable console market with the sensationally successful 3DS.  Fans and haters alike waited with baited breath to see what Nintendo’s next project would be.  And then, when everyone was anxiously awaiting any information on NX, Nintendo did something unexpected…they took to social media and announced the NES Classic Edition… (read the full article)

It’s Not Nintendo’s Fault: It’s Ours

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that last week’s Nintendo Switch reveal disappointedoutraged, and dampened the hype for a lot of vocal Nintendo fans, fans who have expressed their frustrations on social media, hammering new titles such as ‘1-2-Switch’ with a vitriol unseen since the dog days of the Wii’s motion-control dominance. A melancholic spirit of doom and gloom seems to have descended upon the Nintendo fandom in the past week, it’s inception the belief that Nintendo somehow mishandled the presentation and missed out on a golden opportunity to market the Switch to new customers. That statement is false, however. It wasn’t Nintendo’s fault for how the reveal went over with fans. No, it was our own… (read the full article)

The Origin and Evolution of the Fire Emblem Series

In recent years, the Fire Emblem series has become one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises worldwide. Fire Emblem: Awakening, released in 2013, launched the once niche tactical role-playing series to new heights, bringing a whole new audience into the fold. Still, the franchise’s history reaches way back to 1990. From the Famicom to the Switch, Fire Emblem has had an incredible journey filled with highs, lows, and evolution. Without further ado, let’s look back at the history of Fire Emblem by looking at the mechanics and characters that made the series what it is today… (read the full article)

‘Diddy Kong Racing’ – Still the King of Single Player Karting After 20 Years

Kart racers are inherently designed to be played with friends. Traditionally featuring on-screen mayhem punctuated with bright colors and charming sprites, the genre is not for serious gear-heads or fans of simulation. Typically, you sit yourself on the sofa with a bunch of mates and let the chaos commence. That’s a typical scenario, but Diddy Kong Racingisn’t a typical kart racer. In fact, if you want to truly enjoy DKR you might as well kick your mates out – you’ve got a giant pig wizard to take down… (read the full article)

The Wii-eulogy: Remembering the Gamepad

It is with great sadness that I write in front of you today to remember a console, a much-loved console, hindered by a lack of software and a convoluted introduction way back during E3 2011. With its predecessor’s inclination toward capturing the casual market through intuitive motion controls and dynamic marketing campaigns, the Wii U always had big boots to fill. Now, in 2016, with the gift of hindsight rendering the comparison between Wii and Wii U sales reductive, it is here where we can focus on what Nintendo’s black sheep did right, or at least what it was trying to achieve. It is here where we remember the Gamepad… (read the full article)

Games That Changed Our Lives: ‘Wind Waker’ is Link’s Greatest Adventure

I’d like to take a moment to point something out about the feature you’re about to read. Firstly, I don’t normally use ‘I’, but this is something very near, and dear to my heart as both a gamer and a person. Apologies for using ‘I’, but I couldn’t write this feature without it really. ‘I’s’ aside, this article is basically going to be me arguing the case as to why The Wind Waker, released in 2003 on the Nintendo GameCube, is the greatest Zelda adventure to date, and exactly why I think that… (read the full article)

Why Nintendo Is Smart To Avoid Achievements

Last month, our managing games editor Mike Worby argued that its high time for Nintendo to adopt achievements. All the competing systems in the past decade have incorporated achievements, ever since Microsoft introduced them in 2005. Nintendo have been the only major console developer to not adopt the system in any shape or form… (read the full article)

What today’s 3D Platformers can take from the past

For console gamers in the mid-90’s, no genre shown brighter than the 3D platformer. Nintendo relied on Super Mario 64 to sell the Nintendo 64, much like they are relying on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to push the Switch now, and their sterling second-party studio, Rare, doubled-down on the genre through Banjo-KazooieBanjo-TooieDonkey Kong 64, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Meanwhile, PlayStation brought Crash BandicootSpyro the DragonGex, and Ape Escape to the table. The well dried up as quickly as the flood began, however, and platformers were jettisoned as a relic of the past by the end of the following console generation…. (read the full article)

Games That Changed Our Lives: ‘Pokémon Go’

On my best days, I can go to the grocery store, confidently maneuver a cart down the aisles, and comfortably engage in light conversation with the cashier at checkout. On my worst days, a trip to the grocery store feels impossible. That’s what social anxiety does — it makes you feel so insecure, so frightened by social interaction, that every other person in the world might as well be a Mean Girl. It’s harrowing, crippling, debilitating, and it envelops you so deeply within your own neuroses that you can’t see through them until its petrifying spell wears off…(read the full article)

‘Pokémon Gold and Silver’ Remain the Greatest Pokémon Games

At last estimate, there were 802 pokémon in the Pokémon World, with Marshadow the latest to be discovered. Back when Pokémon Gold and Silver were released, there was a measly 251 pokémon; an additional 100 pokémon were added for generation two. With so many new dynamics added to the latest Pokémon games, it might be surprising to find that Pokémon Gold and Silver remain the strongest titles in the series, and even more astonishingly, how the successors were influenced more by Pokémon Gold and Silver than they were Pokémon Red and Blue… (read the full article)

To the Moon and Back: Where Should ‘Pokémon’ Go Now?

Pokémon Sun and Moon mark the second new generation of Pokémon introduced on the Nintendo 3DS and the third overall generation featured on the handheld, matching the long-winded DS run. While the DS featured more Pokémon games overall (a staggering nine total main series games), Sun and Moon pushed the franchise further than it’s ever been pushed, expanding upon the concept of what a Pokémon game could be, and all but pushing the 3DS hardware to its limit. All of this to say that with consideration that Nintendo has new, portable hardware on the market, Pokémon’s time on the 3DS is presumably drawing to a close. In a post-Pokémon Sun and Moon world, where do Game Freak and the Pokémon Company take the franchise next? (read the full article)

‘Mario + Rabbids’: Good As The Sum of its Parts

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was already interesting from its many leaks, but when revealed as an XCOM: Enemy Unknown-like at this year’s E3, the gaming public lost their collective minds. On the surface, the fact that Nintendo characters were entering overwatch or hiding behind cover with the camera swinging around dramatically, was creative and unexpected enough to allay concerns over the Raving Rabbids being involved… (read the full review)

Endless in the Best Way: ‘Disgaea 5 Complete’ Review

There are few names that really ring off in Strategy-RPG circles: Final Fantasy TacticsAdvance WarsValkyria Chronicles. Amongst them firmly sits Disgaea, a franchise that’s been almost exclusive to Sony barring 2008’s Disgaea DS. Despite being well respected by fans of the genre, however, Disgaea never really took off in the West in the same way Tactics and Fire Emblem did. Nippon Ichi Software has therefore taken a bit of a gamble by localizing and porting Disgaea 5 Complete to the Switch. And you know what? It’s paid off in spades… (read the full review)

Humans by birth. Gamers by choice. Goomba Stomp is a Canadian web publication that has been independently owned and operated since its inception in 2016.

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