Fire Emblem: Awakening, along with Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Shin Megami Tensei 4, and Pokemon X/Y, is one of the most anticipated 3DS games this year. The beautiful asian bodybuilding superstars at Nintendo graced us with a demo today, and goddamn it, I've been waiting to get my hands on this. so let's begin, shall we?


Oh my sweet merciful baby christ, look at that art. If that art was a woman, I'd make love to it.

Fire Emblem: Awakening, while on my radar for a good long while, has mainly eluded me in terms of "spoilers" and info on the game, mainly before I picked up the demo all I knew was that Fire Emblem was coming out for 3DS and I was spending 40 bucks on it.

So obviously, it came as a surprise when I loaded the demo up and saw a character creation screen. Although the demo itself gives you literally no real customization other than stat buffs, I was still kind of taken aback by this choice. I'm pretty sure the other games didn't do this. It's been a while since I've given Path of Radiance a spin on the ol' Gamecube, so I dunno.



So as it turns out, there actually is a bit of story they added in the demo, rather than just some hand picked combat scenes, which I was expecting.

Y'know that dinky little avatar you half-created for this game? You actually kind of created a side character... I think.

A boy/girl with amnesia (you) suddenly wakes up in a field (stop me if you've heard this one.) to the curious faces of 3 shepherds in full body armor. (I know, right?) These three shepherds are Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick. These characters, at least from this demo, actually seem like pretty good, fleshed out characters. You also meet two more characters and a mysterious space butterfly man with a familiar name later on in the second mission of the demo.


Welcome to the own zone. Chrom's gonna tear you up, I feel bad for you son.

On the gameplay side of things, the game is similar to other Fire Emblem/Advance Wars style games. You move individual characters around a space on the playing field and attack, use items, cast spells, and whatever else. There is also a rock/paper/scissors mechanic present in different characters and how their attacks are effective against a certain enemy. It can get pretty deep, but it's wholly not very intimidating. This is coming from a guy that plays very, very little strategy games.

The new mechanic introduced in this game is a kind of buddy system where you can put two dudes or dudettes (I don't discriminate, dawg.) right next to each other for them to engage in an attack together, you can also put a character in the same space as another as a support. These pairings can also get stronger and produce more buffs if the bonds between the characters are strong. Kinda like Persona!


Fire Emblem: Awakening sports some killer graphics for the 3DS. Looks good, man.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is going to be a real treat, if this awesome demo is any indication. The graphics are really nice, the art-style is fantastic, the game plays and feels great, and the story seems like it will certainly heat up as the game goes on.

I was pretty pumped for Fire Emblem: Awakening before this demo came out, and having played it, I am beyond ecstatic to play the full product.

Fire Emblem: Awakening launches for the 3DS and 3DS eShop on February 4, 2013.

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If you liked this blog or any of my others, why not give me a dang follow? I'll love you and smooch your bum tenderly if you do.

You can add me on Miiverse! My username is YosemiteHam

You can also follow me on twitter @YosemiteHam

If you want to get to know me or just speak words, feel free!

-Nicky

Hello Destructoid, it's such a great feeling to see your beautiful faces again.

I've recently received a laptop from ol' grammy grams, so obviously the first thing I do is write on my favorite website on planet earth made by humans with large dongs.

So allow me to tell you about my holiday.

On the final day of school before winter break, My pal Dylan and I proceeded to break school rules in the most beautiful way. We got a whole bunch of people in a computer lab instead of class and proceeded to have a 16-person LAN match of Counter-Strike 1.6.



A picture of the CS match in question. Not pictured: The single Indian tear rolling down my face.

After I made my French II final my bitch, I rested for the holidays.

Days came and went. Snow still didn't fall, because you know, fuckin' Tennessee.

The supposed end of the world extravaganza passed, and I drank a lot of eggnog and had tummy aches. The days right before Christmas were very peaceful and fun, and Christmas eve passed with a general feeling of content.

And then it happened.

I got a Wii U.


A big boy (me) and his brother with a magic box. Not pictured: The sinking realization that I'll have no friends to play with for a while. Shit.


I was so excited. This is the thing I've been most excited for since it was announced at E3 about two years ago. I had my fair share of doubts and skepticism, but it's here in my hands. It was an unbelievable feeling.

Obviously the first two big launch games I got were New Super Mario Bros. U and NintendoLand. (I'll talk about this one in another blog post) This was another thing I was a bit skeptical about, but slowly realized that these are two very good games that, while not entirely worth it, are good enough to tide me over until the next big Nintendo game blows my shit away.

The Wii U is a success when it comes to my family. It's being used every day by all members of the household, whether it be for Netflix and Hulu, some gaming, or for it's internet browser and Miiverse. Especially the Willem Dafoe Miiverse.


My favorite Dafoe picture in all of Miiverse. Not pictured: Me realizing Miiverse is possibly the greatest venue of creative comedy in recent memory. Gotdamn.

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Hey, why not include a review-ish thing in here too?



New Super Mario Bros. U is the first Mario launch title in a long time, and while it's not exactly the next Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario Sunshine, it's still an immensely satisfying and beautiful game.

The first thing many notice about the game is "HOLY BEAVER TITS, HD." and you'd be right. Holy beaver tits indeed. When I found out about a 2D Mario game issuing in an age of HD for Nintendo, I was a little disappointed, but it's easy to see how much work went into this game. The game is a 2D sidescroller and looks wonderful. There is an immense amount of detail put into all the environments and enemies.

The music is also great, although it's typical Mario music, I'm still happy with it. It's all the booty-bumpin', turtle-twerkin' goodness you're used to. I'm very satisfied with how this game looks and sounds.



The game is also dick-crushingly hard. Now, hold on for a second. I know this game is probably easy as shit for people that have grown up with the series, and while I have grown up with Mario, I started at Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. So I'm boss as fuck at the 3D Mario games, but the 2D ones never cease to tear my shit up. I'm just not very good at them.

With that said, the fact that I farmed lives like a motherfucker and stumbled my way to see this:



was an amazing feat for myself. I was so damn proud that I finished this motherfucker and smacked Bowser's buster ass to oblivion that I actually yelled "YES!" like a toddler that just ate a good fuckin' cookie.

Then I found out about Star Road.

Fuck that. No. Let me revel in my victory.

So I'll get back to you, NSMBU.

Good show, Nintendo. Good show.

Now where the hell is Super Smash Bros?

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If you liked this blog or any of my others, why not give me a dang follow? I'll love you and smooch your bum tenderly if you do.

You can add me on Miiverse! My username is YosemiteHam

You can also follow me on twitter @YosemiteHam

I fucking love you, Destructoid and if this laptop holds up, expect many more blogs on here from me to you.

-Nicky

When people join the lovely community here at Destructoid, usually they introduce themselves and take some time to get accustomed to and make some friends here.

I somehow skipped that step. Whoops.



So yeah, I'm Nicky Austin, I am a senior in high school, and I would love to shake your hand.... lovingly.

Have a picture of me in a suit.



Obviously, I like video games and I like writing, so here I am on Destructoid writing blogs for fun and somewhat practice for school papers and possible careers. How that whole writing about video games for money thing will work out, I have no goddamn idea.

Some of my favorite dumb video games are Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Mother 3, God of War III, Viewtiful Joe, Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery EP, and Counter-Strike. I have grown up with Nintendo, so naturally most of my favorites are Nintendo franchises or games that came out on a Nintendo console.

I am not one of those obnoxious peckerheads that run around pissing their corduroy overalls about every New Super Mario Bros. release. I try to be very open minded about games on other consoles and try find dumb shit to shove into my PS3 to enjoy, but every once in a while, I always come back to the Gamecube or the Wii and play some Wind Waker or Viewtiful Joe.



I am also a half-musician. I say that because I am in a band. I consider myself only half of a musician because I can't play any instruments. So, of course, I sing. However, I didn't come out of the womb singing "The Queen of The Midnight Aria" or some shit. I just worked really hard to be able to sing somewhat decently. I am in a band (kind of a post hardcore thingamajig) called Rise to Retribution. I'm the plump dude in the middle yelling frantically into a microphone.

And no, if I befriend you, I won't send you any Facebook invites to any dumb Knoxville hardcore shows.



So that is, basically, the only things you could want to know about me before wanting to message me or anything. Thanks for reading this post, if you did!

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Even though it totally looks like it, I am so not trying to plug myself or my projects. I just want to make myself more approachable to people on this wonderful website.



I intend on trying better to find things to talk about on here so I can keep being hip and happenin' around here.

Also, Twitter is a thing. I'm @Nicky_RTR

In middle school, I was a huge fan of anime. Like, a HUGE fan. I watched all the cool shonen shows (Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, Naruto, etc.) and obsessed over them for months and months. Since entering high school and approaching my senior year as we speak, one show has always stuck with me and it's one I still keep up with every week.

The name of this show is One Piece.

One Piece always had a rocky history with the United States, beginning with the bastardization of the show by Saturday morning juggernauts 4Kids Entertainment, and continuing with poor advertising and reputation of being "just another kid's show", but what most don't know is that within this show about a rubber pirate boy is a story of heartbreak, triumph, and dreams.

Funimation Entertainment, the rad dudes behind the localization of shows like Dragon Ball Z, Tenchi Muyo, Lupin the Third, Case Closed, and Yu Yu Hakusho, have since picked up One Piece and re-dubbed the series in English for all of us One Piece fans.

Anyways, I have some really cool news for you guys.



At this week's Otakon convention, Funimation announced the license of different shows and the biggest piece news is that they have finally garnered the rights to the classic movie Akira. Among the other announcements was the news that One Piece has been picked up for a fifth season.

This is particularly exciting for me as this is my favorite season of the show so far. It's full of action and really epic scenes, including a full out Marine vs Pirate battle royale.

The other piece of news is that they have also picked up the critically acclaimed movie One Piece: Strong World.



Strong World is an awesome animated film that chronicles an off-course journey by Luffy and pals to save one of their beloved crew mates, Nami.

In my opinion, this is one of the best anime films ever made, due to it being written by the author of the manga himself, Eiichiro Oda. It is really breathtaking to look at, and it's story is pretty simple and insane as well.

I've never been one to be obnoxiously excited for an anime series, and most anime fans annoy me in general, but I can't help but be giddy when it comes to One Piece. Forgive me, Destructoid.

To preface this post, I will take the time to say that I have also reviewed the other games in this series: The NES game with the most heart, Mother, and the quirky SNES journey, Mother 2 / Earthbound.

Now, on with Mother 3.



March 9, 2008. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released to the masses of Nintendo fans eager to beat each other up online via terrible internet server connections, and at the same time, unassuming gamers were introduced to a new character that seemed like a clone of the Ness we all know and love from Earthbound.

This boy's name was Lucas, and Lucas was in fact not a mere clone of Ness, but a deeper character. A character that suffered. A character that rose from his timid personality to save the small world he knows and loves.

The world of Mother 3.



Mother 3 is a Game Boy Advance RPG that came out in 2006, twelve years after Mother 2's story had concluded, and fans were waiting tirelessly for this one. Unlike it's predecessors, Mother 3 is kind of a mix of the modern times of the other Mother games and the fantasy we know in games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Mother 3 is also a lot more story driven, but I will get into that a little bit later.

Mother 3 plays an awful lot like Mother 2, it's totally fine with me though, because Mother 2's gameplay was damn near perfect. However, Mother 3 added the dash mechanic, and something else that ascended the gameplay into an upper echelon of pure, unadulterated fun.

What this game added was a combo system that works together with the game's immersive and toe-tapping tunes to make the gameplay just a little more fun and addictive. The player can combo by tapping the A button after selecting the fight command to the beat of the battle music to inflict up to 16 hits on the opponent and send them flying into oblivion. The game has many, many battle songs so you can work on your combos while you are leveling your characters up. This combo system is one of the many reasons why Mother 3 succeeds.






The music was also an incredible aspect of the game. The game's music has some of the coolest songs in the entire series, and for my money, some of the best music in all of video games. (see "Natural Killer Cyborg", "Strong One", and "Love Theme") The music also really nails the emotions of the tender, sad parts (there are many), pumps you up when you are battling a tough boss, and goes completely silent where it really counts.

Mother 3 is also one of the most beautiful 2D games of the past decade. The graphics are very colorful and pleasing to the eye, and the locales are all robust and very interesting to look at. The enemies are very cool looking, especially the pigmasks, chimeras, and the main villians. The main heroes are also nice to look at, and rightfully so, since you will be looking at them a lot for 20 or so hours.



There is one very important aspect of the game that I have neglected to talk about so far in this review. The story. In my opinion, the story of this game is one of the most well written, emotional, and all-around best told stories in all of video games.

The story of Mother 3 starts with the twins, Lucas and Claus playing with some dinosaur pals at their grandfather's house and their dear mother sending a letter to their father, Flint, in the faraway town of Tazmily. The story really starts rolling when the pigmask army starts a forest fire in the town of Tazmily, and the villagers work together to put it out and keep each other safe.

After that, the story keeps escalating on and on for a full 20 hours until it's heartbreaking conclusion, which you will have to play to find out. The main characters; Lucas, Boney, Duster, and Kumatora are all very likable and you really care for them as they go to save the world from the evil pigmasks.

The journey of our heroes is all well and good, but the story really shines through the quiet moments where you feel what the heroes feel. There were definitely some moments within the game's immense story that I was brought to tears.




Mother 3 is also the one game that broke my heart.

The game actually broke my heart twice.

The first time it broke my heart was with the incredibly beautiful, heart wrenching ending that nicely tied up the series as a whole (don't expect a Mother 4), and the second in the very fact that I'll never get to play it on the console it was meant for.

I really don't like to emulate much, but I made an exception for the Mother series, and Mother 3, over the course of it's incredible story, became one of, if not, my favorite game of all time. And it really leaves a hole in my heavy nerd heart that I will never get to play it on the console it was made for unless I learn Japanese.

Overall, my series of blogs on the Mother series has come to a close with one of my favorite games to ever exist, and by sharing my thoughts of these games with you all, I have become hopelessly addicted to blogging on this website, so if you liked these reviews and my other blogs, look forward to some more reviews and random musings here on Destructoid.

(All fan-art credit goes to Kurkoboltsi of deviantART)

After Mother's awesomely heartfelt conclusion, I wrote my article on my impressions on the game and dove headfirst into Mother 2 (or Earthbound as others know it).



Earthbound had always eluded me and taunted me. I absolutely loved playing as Ness in Super Smash Bros. and always wanted to play through his quirky story. I thought I would never get to play until I finally uttered a passionate "Fuck it." and downloaded the ROM and played to my heart's content. After deciding to play through the first game first, I was prepared to go for it.

And I had no earthly idea what I was getting into.

The enormous story of Earthbound starts on a not-so-quiet night when our hero Ness is awoken by a meteorite crashing near his humble abode. After investigating with his buttmuncher of a neighbor, Pokey, they encounter a bee from the future named Buzz-Buzz, before getting hilariously smacked to death, his final breath is that of a prophecy. A prophecy of a boy named Ness and 2 other boys and a girl saving the world from the one called Giygas, the embodiment of Evil. And so begins the story of Earthbound.



Let's just get this out of the way, Earthbound is simply one of the best gaming experiences I have ever... well, experienced. This game does everything Mother did but better.

First, let's talk about the graphics. This is a Super Nintendo game, and a gorgeous one at that. The colors are so wonderfully bright especially in the town of Onett and the far away kingdom of Dalaam. The sprites all look wonderful, and boy, do some of these enemies look awesome. I really dig the dinosaurs in the Lost Underworld, the Starmen, and Master Belch, one of the funniest bosses in video game history.




The music is also one of the better OST's I've heard. The tunes composed by Hiroshi Kanazu, Keiichi Suzuki, and Hirokazu Tanaka are all wonderful and fit the mood of many key scenes. There are also clever nods to songs such as "Johnny B. Goode", "Good Morning, Good Morning" by The Beatles, and even the name of the series (Mother) is derived from the intense feelings Shigesato Itoi felt after hearing "Mother" by John Lennon.

Now, let's get down to the gameplay. As I said, this game does everything Mother did but better. Itoi ditched random encounters in favor of being able to see enemies on screen before engaging in battle a-la Chrono Trigger. On top of this, when you beat a dungeon and have to get out the way you came, the enemies of the dungeon run away from you, and if you surprise attack them, you could get an instant win, very nice!

The game also has one of the coolest in-game mechanics I have ever seen. The scrolling HP-meter. with this brilliant idea, when a boss kills you, you have a chance to still win. If you manage to dispatch the nefarious dude before your HP scrolls down to zero, the HP will stop scrolling when you win, and you therefore survive. This feature has saved my ass too many times to count, and I wish more RPG's would implement this.

The game is not without it's flaws, sadly. The game's one true flaw lies in the story. Story is a very important aspect to me when playing games, and while this game is one of the most fun I have ever played, aside from the beginning and the last two hours, the story is almost non-existent outside of updating the roster of your party.



I recommend this game to any and everyone out there that has even a smidgen of interest in this game. It is one of the SNES's crowning achievements on nearly every front, and impressed me immensely. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play through Mother 3.