Zippo's Nonsensical Ramblings and Other Stuff

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the first brand new 2D Mario in over a decade, but if you think this game is going to be a walk in the park, then y ou're in for a rude awakening. It's a Mario game, so of course it's going to accessable for everyone, but I'm hearing that Nintendo has ramped the game's general difficulty up quite a bit. So much so, that humorously, the game has apparently been absolutely decimating testers and people working/localizing the game. Talk about a challenge! In fact, internally, Nintendo has called Wonder "The Next Super Mario Bros 3."   In terms of control, physics, and core difficulty, SMB3 is apparently the main game Nintendo decided to base Wonder off of. Also, I'm not sure how many people who read my blog have actually played Mario 3, but it was HARD.  Those last few worlds will wreck your shit, I'm serious. We can already see the inspiration in a few ways. Firstly, take a look at the trailer once again. Notice how much ...

Hey, so, as everyone here is very well aware of by now, the Super Mario Bros. Movie was a humongous, rip roaring success, it's become the highest grossing movie of the year, with nothing even coming close to it, in terms of gross.  As it just so turns out, the rumors you have all have been hearing are true.  In addition to the very obvious Mario sequel and the Donkey Kong film, which you heard first from me a long time ago, I can independently confirm from my own sources that a Zelda movie and Luigi focused spinoff are  all in production at Illumination.  From what I'm hearing, Zelda will be an amalgamation of very different Zelda games, rather than a straight adaption of like, say... Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, etc.  Also, yes, Link will speak.  This all sounds great, right?  Well, not just one, but two problems going on right now.  The WGA (Writers Guild Of America) are currently on strike in the world of filmmaking and telev...

Just when I was about to publish another entirely unrelated article, this scoop just randomly drops into my hands.  In the latest Nintendo Direct, Nintendo just out of fuckin' nowhere, announced a brand new game starring Princess Peach. The theme of the game looks to be a stage play, which is in turn, a clever reference to the genre defining classic, Super Mario Bros. 3.  That said, Nintendo only give us a very brief glimpse of gameplay of this new adventure.I've got a few more details on the game, but let's tackle the elephant (Ha! Get it?) in the room first.  People were wondering who were the developers behind this mysterious game, and I've been given the answer.  TA-DA! It was under our noses for weeks.  It is indeed Nintendo's most prestigious (in my opinion) team, residing in Tokyo, working on the game. If you've been wondering where in the hell Nintendo's team has been for the last six or so years, EPD Tokyo is currently working on at least four diffe...

Looks like some interesting developments have happened in the last week, let's get into it.  On Sonic's birthday, a new trademark popped up, with the title "Sonic and Friends". That's definitely not something we've heard or seen before.  What could this be? A new TV series? Spinoffs focusing on Sonic's ever-growing supporting cast? A return to his days in education?  While those are all good guesses, nah, I don't think it's any of those.  Allow me to put on my tinfoil hat, if you would... I believe that the Mario and Sonic series, for now, is over.  I think this is Nintendo and SEGA parting ways, for now.  My theory is that this is going to be a revival of SEGA's Superstars/All Stars series, this time in the form of the Olympic games.  Sonic "at the" doesn't sound grand enough, so this is the way to go. "Sonic and Friends" doesn't sound far off from the from and Sonic "and All-Stars", now, does it?  There...

Well, well, well... What do we have here?  HA! I know people were giving up hope, but nah, a Sonic Central is on it's way, on Friday, just in time for the blue blur's (and mine, funnily enough) weekend birthday bash, no less.  What to expect here? Well, mostly updates on things that we've heard about, like Sonic Superstars and whatnot. Something tells me, that they've actually got a surprise or two under wraps, though.  Call it a hunch. Anywho. That's in about 48 or so hours. Looking forward to seeing what that is all about. More soon. 

Wow . I'm actually stunned. That direct was absolutely incredible. I cannot believe how good it actually was. The pacing, the confidence, how good the announcements actually were. Good lord.  A NEW PEACH GAME!!? WHAT THE FUCK? SUPER MARIO RPG REMAKE IS REAL AND IT LOOKS SO GOOD. ONLY FIVE MONTHS AWAY? Yoko Shimimora is a musical goddess and she is going to absolutely murder this soundtrack, again.  Sonic Superstars continues to look fucking great. Let's go. I need more of it ASAP. Move the fuck over.  Easy game of the year 2024 coming right through. Evening Star's first game is here and it blew my fuckin' balls off. Super Mario Bros. Wonder... Wow. They did it. They actually did it. 2D Mario is back and it looks absolutely stellar. Everything I told you people about the game came to fucking pass. I'm stunned. Genuinely. Fully playable Yoshi and Daisy too.  I need it.  I NEED IT. NOW. Mario fans. Pikmin fans. RPG fans. You ate good today. Chrono Trigger fans, don...

Well...this is probably gonna break the internet. Yup. The beloved, masterful SNES masterpiece, Chrono Trigger, is getting a FULL remake. In HD 2D. Details are scant at the moment, but it is coming to Nintendo Switch, not sure about other platforms at the moment. A new Nintendo Direct will likely be airing in about 48 hours. I don't know when this is being announced, but we can hope and pray that it's announced there. Chrono Trigger is absolutely one of the greatest pieces of art to ever grace this planet. I cannot wait to see this in action. My god. I am shaking from excitement. Update: A few more details.  Co-creators Akira Toriyama, Yuji Hori, Hironobu Sakaguchi and Yoshinori Kitase are all involved in this remake in some way, likely in supervisor positions. Square, from what I'm hearing, apparently were not gonna do this remake unless they had all of the original heads involved in this.  So yeah, you can say Square is getting the band back together. One last ride. 

Hey everyone. It's gonna be a good, fun week ahead. As many of you know, I try keep my blog as friendly and positive as possible. I need to get an annoyance off of my mind. And that is... YouTubers. Yes, I know you just rolled your eyes. There's a lot to say about them, but I'm not actually here for a wider discussion about them. It's the bad ones, the ones who spread misinformation and spin false narratives that I want to single out.  If you see an idiot saying "NINTENDO DIRECT CONFIRMED FOR NEXT WEEK!"  Ignore them, block their channel. If you see a nobody on YouTube saying "All of the CONFIRMED games for the Upcoming Direct" with games that are rumored?  Ignore them, block their channel. I say this, because you guys know how Nintendo Direct season goes. You give these people an inch, and they take 10 miles. Watch out for bad videos and yellow journalism. In fact, reassess every YouTube channel you're currently subscribed to, and ask yourself t...

For those that don't feel like reading my recent article... Indeed. I'm hearing that Nintendo is planning a Direct to air before the end of the month. Sources are leaning towards this being a Direct Mini, rather than a general, but Nintendo can go either way with the branding. What has been ruled out here is a partner showcase, so that eliminates that.  Expect new game announcements that'll get us from now to the end of the year. Nintendo has more in the tank than people think they do. Similar to last year, Nintendo has apparently asked Atlus to hold off on announcing their next major Persona release so they can announce it themselves in this direct. Nintendo might (Keyword: MIGHT) shadow drop this on a random day, or they might announce it 24 hours ahead of time, hard to say, we don't know how that'll go.  Stay tuned!

Hey, it's that time of year again. Direct Watch Season has begun. Nintendo has been pretty damn quiet since the release of Tears of The Kingdom. Given how big that game has been, they've let people have plenty of time to let the game sink in. Now that the game has been finished by a majority of people, it's time to start hearing about what's next.  Nintendo has to have something for the holidays, and they're also showing up at Gamescom in August. Let's go through a summation of rumored and confirmed games at the moment and then we can try to figure out what could be slotted for the  rest of the year. We'll see some of these soon, but not all of them, keep that in mind. Pikmin 4:  Obviously, this is currently, our one and only announced upcoming release for this year, and it's coming out in about a month. This sequel has taken 8 years to come out since it was first announced in 2015, so I hope it's genuinely worth the wait for you Pikmin fans.  F-Zero...

There it is. Today was already nuts, then Atlus does as only fucking Atlus does and makes a big oopsie.  The Persona 3 remake leaked and the trailer is literally everywhere online now, ahead of it's official reveal at Xbox's show on Sunday.  It looks absolutely gorgeous, I'm liking how faithful it is to the original while featuring that modern Atlus flair, the character design has a huge step up across the board, and it's easy to see why Unreal Engine just works really well with Atlus games.  For whatever reason, the visuals and all of the minor artistic changes are making some people really fucking angry right now. I genuinely don't understand the issue here. These changes are so minor that most people won't even think about them 10 minutes after starting up the game. This isn't directed towards everyone of course, but man, some of these hardcore Persona nuts are some of the most entitled, close minded, nitpicky people I've ever seen in action. It's...

My God. I was already happy with Summer Games Fest, then Geoff decided to just fuckin' drop the gigaton bomb at the end of the show.  He actually got a trailer for Rebirth, and it looks absolutely incredible. This is what I'm talking about. Three years in and we're finally getting the real good shit.  The scale of the game is obviously much bigger than Remake, the areas we've seen so far are loving recreations of the original game, and just seeing even simple things like being able to ride Chocobos made me all giddy.  FFVII probably has my absolute favorite cast in a video game, ever, so even though it hasn't actually been that long, I feel like I missed them already.  The fact that they're about to get this out in just three to four years after Remake is fucking insane and it shows just how much Square has upped their game.  I have to buy a fucking PS5 now, don't I? Ugh . GIVE ME MORE MORE MORE NOW NOW NOW

  It's finally here.  Hard to believe, but after two and a half years, but we finally got our announcement of the next 2D Sonic.  Gotta say, my worries were proven wrong. The game looks fucking awesome. I'm genuinely shocked by how good it looks.  Funnily enough, this game is obviously not a Mania 2, but it looks like it's a follow-up to Generations/Forces instead.  Everything I heard about the game was right, except for one major thing, of course. That's Zippo luck for ya. The madmen actually went for the classic era instead of the modern era, I'm genuinely happy about that but that's definitely not something I expected, considering where we we are today with this franchise. Classic has a future, and it's not just merch, and I cannot explain in words how great that is. Geoff had a really good show, that's another huge shocker for me. There are so many new games I want to play. Games like Sonic and MK1 are playable this weekend, so actual impressions are...

8:30PM, last night, I start getting alerts and pings from all over. I jump out of bed, ready to see what the hubbub is all about, then I see it. The madmen. They actually did it. Many laughs and many sighs of confusion were had.  This is something I told you people about well over a year ago. No one believed me, of course, and I totally just forgot about it. Trust me, though. I didn't actually want to be right.  Make no mistake about it. This game is going to be a piece of shit, and charging even thirty dollars for this is a slap in the face. Nintendo wanted something to release in June for a quick buck. That's it. That's all there is to it. The fact that they didn't even show an actual trailer proves that they very well know that this game sucks. I'm disappointed they're actually going through with it, but this is a multi-billion corporation at the end of the day.  I'll just be in my corner laughing at people who actually buy this. 

Here we are. Choo choo!  The month of June is about arrive to it's destination, which means non-stop video game news and announcements are coming our way. Let's speculate. You heard the four letter word, "SEGA", and your ears perk up, right? They should. As I'm hearing that SEGA apparently has a bunch of announcements to make this month, they are one of the big studios to look out for. Based on rumors and current public knowledge, here are some titles that you should (read: should) start to hear about soon. I've gone and put anything that's inside information from me in bold, that should make it easier to separate that from me speculation. Jet Set Radio: This was leaked by Bloomberg last year, and we now have a leak of an early version of the game in action, and I'm extremely impressed. I'm a huge fan of the original two games and I have a lot of faith in this, considering the creator of JSR is officially back at SEGA. The only thing I can add...