Switch Fixes

I've owned the Switch for about 2 months now, and I think I'm ready to talk about what could and should be done to fix it.

First of all, fix the UI. It looks bad; cheap; not great. It looks like what I imagine the GameCube OS would look like if it had not had anything to do with a cube. So what should it actually look like? Well, I'll show you.

Hey, would you look at that. It's the Wii U Menu.

The Wii U Menu is well-designed. It can show 15 main things at a time compared to the 3 that the Switch can show. You could say that the Switch only shows 3 at a time because it has to work on a tablet, but all 15 things show on the Wii U GamePad just fine, no problem. The Switch uses the same screen size with a higher resolution; the Switch should at least show 6 at a time.

Another thing that needs to be fixed is similar, but not the same. The menu needs themes. The way it is, the 2 colors shades aren't cutting it. Add themes. I want my Dreamcast theme, Nintendo.

Another thing that needs refining is the eShop. It's near impossible to find anything in it at this point. It has a search system, but the games themselves are categorized poorly. I feel that the Wii Shop Channel categorized things well; It divided things into Virtual Console games, WiiWare games, and apps. So what the eShop should do now is to divide it into Virtual Console games like the NEO GEO AES and Arcade games, eShop exclusives such as the Jackbox Party Pack and Sonic Mania, and retail games such as Arms and Super Bomberman R. Apps would be added later. Then each of those categories are divided by genre, release date, and company. If it was divided like this, I'm sure it would be much easier to use.

Finally, fix the friend system. Replace friend codes with usernames and add a Discord system. The friend codes are too long and randomized for it to be easy to remember. You'd have to have it written down somewhere. I can say "Add me on Xbox Live: Storm9CP" much easier than I can say "Add me on Switch: SW-1802837501918723905 or whatever" From what I hear, things like Netflix and YouTube and Discord are all ready to be launched and Nintendo just has to allow it. So why doesn't Nintendo just allow people to use Discord on the console instead of their dumb mobile phone app?

Going on a bit of a tangent with the mobile phone app, most people complain about it draining their battery. That's fair, but I'm more concerned that it's using more bandwidth. Is it? I have no idea. But if it is, that's no good.

Anyway, that's about all I have for now. Goodbye!

What Sonic Generations Should Have Been

This is less about the game itself and more about the surrounding details, okay?

Spoilers.

Sonic Generations was released in 2011 to pretty much unanimous praise. But do you know what platforms it was on? Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo 3DS. Do you know what platforms it should have been on? Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and PS Vita (as a launch title). The 360/PS3 version is great, but the 3DS version? Not so much. And with the Wii and Vita also available, the game itself could have been so much more.

First of all, we'll start with the PS3 version.

It features levels from all main series Sonic the Hedgehog titles- Sonic 1, 2, 3K, Adventure 1 & 2, Heroes, Next-Gen, Unleashed HD, and Colors. Is this a bad lineup? Let's take a look at the levels chosen.

Green Hill
Chemical Plant
Sky Sanctuary
Speed Highway
City Escape
Seaside Hill
Crisis City
Rooftop Run Day
Planet Wisp

Yeah, I'd say this is a good lineup. It's missing a few key games, though; Sonic CD, Sonic Advance, Secret Rings, stuff like that. Now let's look at the 3DS version.

The 3DS features only 7 stages instead of 9. They are from Sonic 1, 2, 3K, Adventure 1 & 2, Rush, and Colors DS. We could've gotten more, but let's see what levels were chosen.

Green Hill
Casino Night
Mushroom Hill
Emerald Coast
Radical Highway
Water Palace
Tropical Resort

Oh, of the 7 levels, 3 are first levels. 4 if you divide up 3 and Knuckles. That's not the greatest.

So those are the 2 versions. What do I propose we do with the game?

For the PS3, not much. The game is very creative and has good control. What I would add is Stardust Speedway from Sonic CD, Hydrocity from Sonic 3, Westopolis from Shadow the Hedgehog, and Radiant Emerald from Sonic R as a race level.

For the 3DS, change the levels and the art design. The Modern Sonic levels looked good, but the Classic ones look too similar; they should have had more of a Sonic Advance style to differentiate it.

What levels would I pick? Here's a list.

Green Hill - Sonic 1 on Game Gear
Aqua Lake - Sonic 2 on Game Gear
Sunset Park - Sonic Triple Trouble on Game Gear
Cosmic Casino - Sonic Pocket Adventure on Neo Geo Pocket Color
Ice Paradise - Sonic Advance 2 on Game Boy Advance
Toy Kingdom - Sonic Advance 3 on Game Boy Advance
Water Palace - Sonic Rush on Nintendo DS
Haunted Ship - Sonic Rush Adventure on Nintendo DS
Tropical Resort - Sonic Colors on Nintendo DS

And then the Wii. Why wasn't there a Wii version released? Sonic Colors was probably finished in early 2010 or even late 2009; they could have had time to finish a Wii version of Sonic Generations. They even had an engine built for Sonic Colors that they could have used. All they had to do was design the levels and add Classic Sonic. And since it's on the Wii, it can have different levels and give people a reason to buy both, just like Sonic Unleashed. How would that be built?

Well it would work very similarly to Sonic Colors. Running in the same engine and having a few shared cutscenes with the PS3 version. The levels would be as follows:

Green Hill - Sonic 1 on Genesis
Mystic Cave - Sonic 2 on Genesis
Stardust Speedway - Sonic CD on Sega CD
Hidden Palace - Sonic 3&K on Genesis
Windy Valley - Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast
Pyramid Cave - Sonic Adventure 2 on Dreamcast
Egg Fleet - Sonic Heroes on Nintendo GameCube
Deep Woods - Sonic and the Black Knight for Wii
Sweet Mountain - Sonic Colors for Wii

The Wii version would support the GameCube controller and the Classic Controller, but they are not required. You know what would be required? The Nunchuk. Sonic Colors didn't require the Nunchuk and the controls suffered for it. D-pads are not good for controlling characters in 3D Space (except for games like Bug!). The controls for the GameCube controller is the same as Sonic Colors or Sonic Unleashed Wii. The 2 schemes can be swapped in the menu. The Wii Remote & Nunchuk controls are as follows.
The stick moves Sonic.
The D-pad moves Sonic in Classic Stages if you so desire, or rotates the camera in Boost Stages.
A and 2 are jump/homing attack.
1 and Z are boost/spindash.
C is to ground pound.
+ and - are to pause.

The Wii version also supports multiplayer modes like race and battle from Sonic Heroes. A nunchuk is required for both players.

And finally, the Vita version.

For the Vita version, I would make it the same as the proposed 3DS version from above, but with updated graphics and textures. It would also look nicer due to the 544p OLED screen on the Vita. Hopefully that's enough to get people to buy it. That's why I would buy LEGO Batman 2 on the Vita- It's the 3DS version that I like, but with a better resolution.

So what would you have liked to see for Sonic Generations? Tweet me @Icystorm9 telling me (if you care). Goodbye!

Minecraft for 3DS: Update 2

So Minecraft for 3DS is finally here. I'd like to talk about what I'd think of it.

First off, let's start with the home screen. It looks nice. The logo is on the top and the menu is on the bottom.

Top Screen on the Home Menu - pic by YouTube user CharzBall

The bottom screen doesn't have a "Singleplayer or Multiplayer" menu because there is no multiplayer at this point in time. They plan to add that. I think that should be in the game from Day 1; multiplayer is a big part of the game. I hope multiplayer doesn't require an update in the physical version. Anyway, this game does have a menu similar.

Anyway, that's how I would have done it exactly. Well, not exactly. DKC Returns 3D has a digital manual that can be accessed from the 3DS Home Menu and I think that would have been a better way to do it. I actually did make concept art that looked similar, but I didn't post it for some reason. At least not that I can find. Oops.

Press Play and you can begin the game. After it reads the SD card, you arrive at the World Menu.

Does this look familiar?

So far Minecraft on 3DS is hitting all the right notes except for multiplayer. Other Ocean even added new features that mine didn't have; the ability to rename worlds from the menu. Smart.

Anyways, tapping a world will bring you to that world. And that's where we talk about the controls. I made a chart comparing the current controls to the sets I made back in December.

So as you can see, Other Ocean did a good job adapting my new 3DS controls to their version of the game. I also heard that there's a set of touchscreen controls, but I couldn't find anything about what they might be. I assume they're similar to mine (which is based on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare DS) or to the Club Penguin games on Nintendo DS.

So now I'd like to talk about how the touchscreen was utilized.

If you take a look, you can see that the touchscreen has the hotbar, XYZ coordinates, and map, as well as a set of buttons for inventory, crafting, and armor. XP, health, and hunger are on the top of the upper screen. This is similar to how I designed mine, but with a few changes.

Mine, for comparison.

On mine, there are 3 tabs for inventory, crafting, and armor instead of buttons. Health and hunger are on the bottom screen and XP is on the very bottom of the top screen. Mine doesn't have XYZ coordinates. I should add that to the pause screen. And in my version, the map is accessed by pressing Select instead of it being available all the time. I think my map system and touchscreen OS is better; but Other Ocean did a good job using the 2 screens to their advantage. Take notes, 4J Studios. A quick update allowing access to my inventory/map system would be greatly appreciated.

And now, exclusive features.

Minecraft for New 3DS has a few unique features that are as follows:
1) World sizes are bigger than they are on the Wii U, but smaller than they are the Switch.
2) The game comes with 5 free skin packs preinstalled.
3) The map is not an item; it is available from the start.

World sizes being bigger may or may not be a good thing. Minecraft for New 3DS is in the middle in regards to world sizes on game systems. Above it are the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. Below it are the Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, and PS Vita. I think the world size on Wii U was perfectly fine. If the 3DS had the same size of worlds, Other Ocean and 4J could have worked together to make a cross-save feature, similar to how the Vita and PS3 can.

The skin packs are cool, but it would have been much more worth it if they had used my idea to create custom Nintendo skin packs exclusive to the 3DS.

The map being available from the start is something all console versions have, but it takes up an inventory slot and can be lost. In my Minecraft for 3DS post, I remedied this by making it accessible by a button instead. Other Ocean seems to have read my site and implemented it in a similar manner. Now the map is always displayed on the touch screen. This is useful, but like I said before, I think my design is better.

So I think that covers it all. I think Minecraft for 3DS is a good version of Minecraft, but definitely wait for a physical version; the digital copy takes up something like 3600 blocks of storage. (That's 3.5328 GameCube Memory Card 1019's.)

LEGO Series' That I Want to Return

Lego Series' That I Want Back and Why: A Thread

— Josh (@Icystorm9) August 22, 2017

LEGO Pirates of the Carribean is cool, but it provides a much darker tone than what LEGO Pirates always did in the past.

— Josh (@Icystorm9) August 22, 2017

Of course I spelled "provides" incorrectly.

The LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean sets always tried to replicate the movie, and there's nothing wrong with that,

— Josh (@Icystorm9) August 22, 2017

but the LEGO Pirates themes were always plain fun. They're much more bright, colorful and interesting.

— Josh (@Icystorm9) August 22, 2017

You know what? I'll just write a blog post about this.

— Josh (@Icystorm9) August 22, 2017

The Brick Bounty is one of the greatest sets of this decade.

So I've already talked about LEGO Pirates, but now I'd like to talk about LEGO Castle. LEGO Castle is a series that was launched in 1978 and ran until it was discontinued in 1997. It was then revived as LEGO Kingdoms (my favorite of the Castle themes) in 2007 and was renamed to LEGO Castle in 2013. LEGO Castle was discontinued AGAIN in 2014 to make way for LEGO Nexo Knights, a theme that I frankly think isn't that appealing. LEGO Castle was always a great series, but now we have Nexo Knights, which is okay at best. Since I'm not sure if Nexo Knights and Castle can coexist, cancel Nexo Knights. Castle has always had interesting sets. The sets where you build an actual castle have always been my favorite.

Take a look at this beast of a set that I incorrectly named when downloading.

An often overlooked set in the past is the LEGO Space. Despite having a main character from this series in The LEGO Movie back in 2014, The last dedicated Space series was LEGO Space Police, which was discontinued in 2011. And that's unfortunate, because there is a lot of potential for this series with different designs for space ships and the moon and the launch pad and stuff. And that leads me into the next one.

The LEGO City Set "Utility Shuttle" is actually in my Amazon list right now.

Alien Conquest was awesome. I really liked the design of all the spaceships and all of the aliens. There are nearly infinite possibilities for sets here as long as there are creative people at LEGO. I don't know if Alien Conquest can coexist with Space, but if I had to pick one, I'd mash them both together and call all of the sets LEGO Space. Nice and simple.

I actually built the Alien Mothership with my cousin back when it was released. It sits on a shelf in his game room now.

Next we have LEGO Western. LEGO Western was an awesome theme. I would pay 80 bucks for Fort LEGOREDO if I had the option, despite the fact that it should realistically be 70. Every set in LEGO Western is unique and creatively crafted. Sets like Rapid River Village and Sherriff's Lockup are so cool and look nice, not to mention the fact that you can do so much with the sets. Here's a picture of Fort LEGOREDO just to show you how great it is.

Who wouldn't want this set?

Pharoah's Quest was also a cool series. The sets had lots of detail, especially in the decals and printed pieces. The mummy figures and vehicles were always great. I still have my mummy minifigure from the Cursed Cobra Statue and it's one of my favorites in my collection. One thing that Pharoah's Quest did better than nearly every theme is that it felt grand and large, despite the fact that it wasn't, honestly. The few sets released for it made it feel like it went on for much longer than it actually did.

I wish I could've afforded this back in 2012.

And finally, can we all agree that LEGO Atlantis was awesome?

What The Wii U Should Have Been

I'm not going to act like I'm smarter than the dozens of people that were working at Nintendo from 2011 to 2014. But now that I have history to reflect on, I think I have a few ideas that would have helped the Wii U not only sell better, but have a better library in the long run. I also got these ideas from other people that I know.

First of all, bundles.

What they should have done is have 3 bundles. The Basic, Standard, and Deluxe. The Basic Set is red and comes with just a Wii U Pro Controller, AV Cable, HDMI Cable, and Mini-USB Cable. It would cost $250 at launch.

Couldn't find a good image of a custom red Pro Controller online, so this will have to do.

Because it doesn't include the GamePad (which cost either 60 or 80 dollars to make, I don't remember), the price could be reduced significantly. But as a result, all games would need to do one of two things.
1) All games need to support the Pro Controller in one way or another.
2) All games that require the GamePad need to be clearly marked.

I think the second one is the best option, so the games requiring the GamePad won't be restricted because of the Pro Controller requirement. And if the second one were the case, I'm sure many more games would support the Pro Controller from the start.

The Second Bundle is the Standard Set. It costs 300 dollars and comes with everything that the current Basic Set comes with. It comes in 2 colors- white and red.

Nice looking console, isn't it?

The memory would be 16 gigabytes because I said so.

Then finally we have the Deluxe Edition. That's the same. It comes in either Black or White, just as the already-existing Deluxe Edition.

So those are the 3 bundles. I'm gonna go make some grilled cheese and come back to talk about the next part, reaching out to 3rd party developers.

Ah dang, I'm out of cheese slices. Oh well. So as I said, this section is about reaching out to 3rd party developers. They had a good start by getting SEGA games Bayonetta 2 and Sonic Lost World as exclusives, but they needed more. If they funded more exclusives or ports of 360 games, then the Wii U would have had the same advantage the Dreamcast would have had. If they had given companies like Rockstar and Activision money to make exclusives and port their older games, then the Wii U would have not only had the new games, but the best versions of these older games, as well as exclusives. And I think that would have pushed a good amount of people over to Nintendo's side this previous generation.

Some ports they could have had if they paid a small amount to the game developers:

Madden 25 (Electronic Arts)

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Activision)

(i honestly got lazy w/ this one) Dishonored (Bethesda Softworks)

Battlefield 4 (Electronic Arts)

(Didn't actually design this, blame someone else) Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar Games)

Resident Evil 6 (Capcom)

So now that I've touched on ports that they could have funded, I'll talk about exclusives that they could have funded.

Yakuza 1 & 2 Remastered technically already exists and is an exclusives, but it's only available in Japan.

Jet Set Radio 3, boiii

Another LEGO game, like LEGO City Undercover, such as a LEGO Pirates-type thing, would be greatly appreciated. I would buy that.

Why don't they pay EA to be competent for once? That would be a sight to behold.

And finally, the thing that everyone whines about - marketing.

If they had advertised it correctly, then the Wii U could have been saved, even without the previously mentioned changes. I remember for Thanksgiving 2014 or 2015 (I don't remember), I went to my cousin's house. He has cable, so I watched The Simpsons on FXX. And do you know what I saw? I saw ads for the PlayStation 4. I saw them all the time that weekend. Do you know how many ads I've seen on TV for the Wii U? None. And that's dumb. The Wii U has many features that are unique to it, too. Like full backwards compatibility. And 5-player support. The Pro Controller, the best controller of the 8th generation. All of the great 360 games that are best on the Wii U. And most of all, all of the great exclusives like Pikmin 3, Splatoon, Sonic Lost World, and Runbow Pocket. With all of these great things, you'd think they'd advertise a lot, and you'd think they'd advertise smart. But that didn't happen.

But what's done is done. And the Wii U is done. Nintendo is likely not making any more Wii U things ever again. But that's okay. Because of the Wii U, we now have the Switch. Nintendo had to fall to learn how to make the Switch such a great platform. And I'm glad that they did.

Last Minute Updates

Hey guys. So the Wii U is practically done. So this post is just a small list of what I would like for a final update for the Wii U, as well as the 7th-gen consoles. I'll be going in reverse chronological order of release date.

The Wii U

For the Wii U, I would like a few things. First, update it so it can play games from all regions. I don't know how difficult it would be, but I suspect it would just trick the game into thinking it's from the same region as said game. That would be cool.

Another thing I would like is that the console does not need the GamePad to operate. In the future, these will be lost or damaged; it will be very important that these 2 are not codependent. If we could just use the Pro Controller at all times, the menu automatically sets itself to this, and there's just a warning before any game that can't use the Pro Controller, that would be great.

It would also be nice to unlock DVD support. It's a surprisingly useful feature.

The Wii

The Wii has similar issues to the Wii U. The first issue is region locking. I hope that they unlock regions, although it's less important here. This includes the Wii Shop. I want to play Rush Rush Rally Racing, assuming it's still up.

Then I would like an update that lets it play CDs and DVDs. We know that it can do this, because you can install a program that runs DVDs via SD card. I think it would be fairly easy to do.

That's about all there.

The PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 is easy because it plays all CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray Discs; is almost entirely region-free; and is very USB-friendly.

But it isn't entirely region-free. One game is region-locked. From what I've heard, region encoding is an option, but Sony didn't require it. So if they disable the region encoding for that one game, that would be great.

The Xbox 360

Don't mind that the controller is sideways. The image was edited that way and I don't care to fix it.

The 360 has a few issues that I would especially like to fix, as well as some smaller ones.

For the biggest update, make it so you don't need an Xbox Live connection to sign into an Xbox Live account. That may not make sense, but let me explain. If you have an Xbox 360 with Xbox Live, your account is likely linked to Xbox Live. If you sign into that account without internet, it will take some time trying to connect before sending you to the internet settings. Once the servers go down, it won't be able to connect and you'll have to do this every time you start the console. That will get annoying after a while. It would be cool if they just made it so all profiles were offline profiles.

That leads into my next point; condense the menu and remove ads. Because since the Xbox Live servers are down, every single page will say "Connect to Xbox Live" instead of anything useful like your games and settings. It would be much more useful if they just made everything on one page towards the end.

I would also like them to remove region lock.

Finally, fix the DVD menu system so that you can navigate with both the left and right stick. This may seem like a minor complaint, but when I watch DVDs, I'd rather only have to hold the controller with one hand instead of two. It feels much more like a TV remote then.

So that's about all that I can think of right now. If I think of any more, I'll update this post with some more things. They might be in bold or something, I don't know. Goodbye!

Twitter's Broken Account Recovery System

I'm not going to be advertising this post on my Twitter account, @Icystorm9, for one reason: I have been locked out of that account.

On Wednesday, June 14th, I sent a picture of a hedgehog to fellow user @Official_Leda before I headed to town for the day. So I went to town, got some food, and went to the library, which is where I was going to be hanging out that day. When I got there, I logged into the public WiFi so I could read my Twitter timeline. When I tried to open the app, though, I got a big old popup saying that my account had been locked.

No big deal, I'll just prove that it's me by stating my birthdate and some other information that others cannot see. Oh, that's not how I can unlock my account. I have to change my password using either my contact email or my phone number.

Now my phone number was not an option, since I got a new one just a few days prior and I forgot to update it. And the email address wasn't an option, since I forgot the password and the mail.com support team is also the least helpful it could possibly be. I actually tried to change my Twitter account's contact email, but Twitter has this stupid rule that only one account can be assigned to any email address at a time. That's an issue; I have another account assigned to that email (@CPSecretsofCP, my most popular blog's notification account). So I didn't want to bother changing the emails of 50 different accounts. Since I didn't want to, I didn't.

But I could have fixed this if I wanted to. Most of that was my fault, except for Twitter's one account per email rule. That should be fixed. But even that can be forgiven; neither Twitter nor I expect any normal person to have more than one Twitter account, so this shouldn't be too big of a deal.

But do you know what cannot be forgiven? Their support system. They don't have an email address that you could easily contact and have your issue solved relatively simply. You have to file a stupid ticket. Pick a category and describe your issue.

Look at this trash. You can't even talk to support until you pick a category. What happens if your issue doesn't fit into one of these categories? Well, I guess you're out of luck.

So alright, I don't like this method, but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes, right? Okay. So I'm filling out this stupid ticket, which looks a bit like this.

So I fill out this form. The first question, "Where are you experiencing this issue?", is very vague. The question itself isn't, but the answers are. TweetDeck is not an option. It doesn't ask what type of device. I can't pick "Twitter App for Motorola Moto-G XT1028." I have to pick "Twitter for Android," because I definitely have the latest version of the app. I try not to do that. 

So anyway, I pick Twitter for Android, and now there's a box where I have to describe why I should get my account back, as if I should have to explain why I should have access to my account and I totally didn't click "don't have access to either of these" less than a minute ago. Then I type in my name, my main email (icystorm9here@gmail.com, yall should email me some time), and my new phone number. I'm human, so I click the checkbox. Then I click send. All good. I should get my account back in a matter of hours.

But that's not what happens. I wait. I wait. I wait some more. I wait over 48 hours for Twitter Support to send me an email with how to reset my password. After 2 entire days and then some, I'm tired of this. I send another appeal, making it more clear that I can't access my old phone number or icystorm9here@doglover.com, even going so far as to explain in detail why that is not an option. I then fill out the form again, making sure that everything is exact and nothing can be misread or misunderstood. I click send. I wait another 2 days. Nothing. Well how about another day after that? Still nothing. How about one more day? Nothing. Whatever, I'll just wait a few more hours. My account was locked on Wednesday, June 14th, at approximately 11:30 AM. I sent my first appeal in that same day at 12:13 PM. It is now Tuesday, June 20th, at 9:37 PM. I have yet to get a reply back from support. I am filling out yet another appeal. This is what the "Description of Problem" box reads.

"My account has been locked for 6 days now. Over 150 hours. A little over 9154 minutes. I cannot change my password because I changed my phone number and forgot to edit my settings. I lost access to that email a while ago, but I didn't bother because of your awful rule that only one account can use a certain email address at a time. So now I'm locked out and I have no way to change my password. I've filed 3 appeals so far and I haven't gotten a reply from a single one of them. I can prove that I'm me; the link in that bio (bit.ly/IcystormsIgloo) is a blog that I own. I can post about how I was locked out of my account. Remember, this is my personal blog and only I have access to it. I am writing a post at this very moment about how and why I cannot log into my account via the methods given to me. Go read it. Please. I'm tired of your unhelpful support tickets and ignoring of my appeals."

So I guess I'll see what happens next. I may have to call their support phone number in a few days, but the wait is supposedly 18 minutes, and that takes up a good amount of PagePlus credit. Just please, Twitter, give me access to my account again. 

E3 Wishes and Expectations - Capcom

Hey, here's a pic that I stole from the trailer for the Mega Man Legacy Collection, which makes sense, because that game is in this post.

I hope Capcom can bring some cool things to the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

First of all, I want more info on the Mega Man bundle that's coming out. I'm hoping they announce ports for the Wii U, Switch, Vita, and 3DS, with the 3DS being the least important to me of the 4.

This smart fellow right here agrees with me.

I also hope Resident Evil 7 is announced for the Switch. That would be great. I don't expect any extra features, but just being able to play that game wherever would be great.

Speaking of Resident Evil, if Nintendo talks about the Switch Virtual Console, Capcom should announce that Resident Evil 2 for the N64 (or possibly even the GameCube version) will be available. That would be neat.

Also, they need to announce a new Capcom vs. SNK game, for all 3 major platforms and the Vita. That would be amazing. I would buy that 50 times over. Actually, no I wouldn't; but you get the point. Capcom, make a new Capcom vs. SNK.

I actually have no idea what to expect from Capcom. There's so much they could do. I think they'll talk about the Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 a bit, but other than that, I don't have a clue. I guess I'll just wait to find out.

E3 Wishes and Predictions - Electronic Arts

I wish Electronic Arts would go out of business, but that's not happening, so here's what I want from them at E3.

Electronic Arts should clarify if Fifa 18 on the Switch runs in Frostbite or not. That's very important information to state. I hope it does run in Frostbite, but I don't know.

Then I want more information on Star Wars Battlefront 2, so I know if it's worth buying or not. I also want a port to the Switch, but we'll see.

Here's the cover of Battlefront 2 from the Battlefront series that people actually like.

And finally, Mass Affect Andromeda for the Wii U. Even if it's a cut down version, it's at least something. And the Wii U can definitely run graphics like that; heck, the OG Xbox probably can.

But what do I expect from Electronic Arts? Well, let's see.

The Switch version of Fifa 18 is running in the Xbox 360 engine. Battlefront 2 is only on Xbox One and PS4, not the Switch, and it's not as good as the original Battlefront 2. Mass Affect Andromeda is being forgotten; nobody will even mention it.  They'll probably talk about Madden and some other boring sports games or something. That's about it.

I don't like Electronic Arts; but I hope they can at least have an interesting show.

E3 Wishes and Expectations - Ubisoft

So Ubisoft is going to be at E3. What do I want from Ubisoft?

First of all, I want to know more about Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition for the Switch. I want to know what's different from the original for the Wii U and the Vita. 

I also want to hear if there's a new Just Dance game coming out. I probably just disappointed a bunch of hardcore gamers, but they're fun at parties. They shouldn't be 40 bucks, though.

I also want Ubisoft to announce the Switch version of Fractured But Whole. I wouldn't buy it, but the more games on the console, the better. Wii U and Vita ports wouldn't hurt either.

And I hear the company is making a brand new series, and that game is going to be announced at E3. I hope it's a story-heavy adventure type game, like Uncharted or The Last of Us. If it is, I hope it's on all 3 main platforms, like I do with a lot of 3rd party games. If it's a reasonable price and on the Switch, I might buy it.

But what do I expect from this company? Well, it turns out that there's already a lineup that looks something like this.

I have never heard of The Crew, much less The Crew 2.

So it looks like there's a new Assassins Creed game (which is easy to predict). Those are released every year.

I've never heard of The Crew 2, so I don't know what that is.

Far Cry 5 will have more details released. I personally don't care too much about that game, but a lot of people do, so I see why they include it.

I still hope that Mario + Rabbids crossover isn't real.

There's Fractured But Whole information being released. I don't think it will be on the Switch at launch, but maybe a bit later.

And there's the untitled new IP. I think it will be pretty cool and interesting, but I frankly don't know at this point.

So it sounds like Ubisoft will have a pretty neat show. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Come back to this site later to read about what I want from Electronic Arts. Yuck. 

E3 Wishes and Predictions - Activision

Here's what I wish for and expect from Activision at E3 2017.

So what I hope for is that Call of Duty WWII is announced for the Switch and Wii U, and then we get a bunch more info on it.

I also want some more info on Crash Bandicoot, although I have a feeling that's in PlayStation's set.

That's really all I hope for from Activision. This is going to be a short post.

I expect more on Call of Duty WWII, but I don't know if it will be released for the Switch, and I'm 100% sure that it's not coming to Wii U. That's a shame.

I think we'll get something on Crash Bandicoot, be it from Activision or Sony.

This may be the most promising company in this series based on what I want compared to what I get. We'll see.

Gee, that was short. Come back later to read about Ubisoft, I think. Bye.

E3 Wishes and Predictions - Sega + Atlus

Oh boy, it's my favorite company in the gaming industry, Sega. I'm going to talk about what I want from them and what I expect from them. Oh, and Atlus is there too.

So there are 3 "tiers", in a sense, of what I want Sega to announce at E3, each one being more believable than the last.

The thing I want the most is for Sega to announce a new console that's as powerful as the Scorpio with internal support for Dreamcast, Saturn, and Sega CD games, with the original controller ports and VMU slots on the side. The Saturn would need original hardware (since it's pretty hard to emulate Saturn hardware), but the Dreamcast and Sega CD games would run through emulation. It would also support Genesis and Master System cartridges, but you need to buy an adapter that plugs in through USB 3.0. This console would be just as popular as the PlayStation 4 (or at least the Xbox One) and feature some amazing first party titles within the first year. Jet Set Radio 3, Crazy Taxi 4, Space Channel 5 Part 3, Sonic Unleashed Remastered (both the PS2 and PS3 versions together), a new Panzer Dragoon, and Yakuza. Nearly all multiplats would appear on it; it would have tons of 3rd party support. It will be wildly successful and Sega's back in the hardware business; the price will be $409.99.

I drew one of these in the first post of this series. Go look at it if you want to see it.

So that's the most unbelievable of the 3.

If that doesn't happen, I'll settle for this. Sega announces a new console that's about as powerful as the PS4 Pro and supports Sega CD games through emulation, but you need to buy a new controller that looks like a Saturn controller, but wireless; there are no ports on the side for original contollers. It has a few Genesis games in the store and some of the Sonic games and Crazy Taxi 1 & 2 at launch, as well as Phantasy Star Online 2 and a bunch of 3rd party games as launch titles. It will be super popular and everyone will buy it.

I frankly think Project Dream is poorly designed, but I don't have a better design scanned to my computer right now. This one is the closest to what the lesser of the 2 planned consoles would be like.

That's more likely to happen, but it's still very unlikely.

Or, I'd be fine with this.

Sega announces a new Sonic and All Stars Racing game for the Vita, Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. They also announce Jet Set Radio 3 for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. There's more about Sonic Forces, and Sonic Mania has a playable demo. Phantasy Star Online 2 is getting a western release for PS4; Xbox One, Switch, and PC versions are coming some time later. I would be fine with that. That would be alright.

But what do I expect from Sega? More on that later.

And remember, Sega and Atlus share a booth at E3. So what do I wish from Atlus?

To be honest, I don't know a thing about Atlus. I hope for stuff from them and that's all I can say.

But what do I expect from Sega? What about Atlus? Well according to Sega Bits, it's going to be a boring E3 for the both of them. It's mainly stuff we already know about. There's stuff about Yakuza 6, Sonic Forces, Shin Megami Tensei, and Radiant Historia. You can read about that by clicking this link.

So what's next? Activision? Oh well. Show up later to read all about what I want and expect from Activision. Or don't. I don't really care all that much.

E3 Wishes and Expectations - Nintendo

Nintendo is currently my favorite out of the 3 console manufacturers in the industry. Supposedly, their E3 booths are pretty big. I expect they'll have some amazing things to show.

So first, what I wish for.

It would be really cool if Nintendo could show off what Retro Studios is supposedly working on. Be it Metroid Prime, Donkey Kong Country, or some new Nintendo IP, I'll likely be excited.

I hope they'll have some sort of New 2DS XL booth that shows off what the newest iteration of their handheld can do and why it's cheaper. (Speaking of handhelds, did you know that 2014 is the only year that we didn't get some sort of new Nintendo handheld since 2008? 2009 had the DSi, 2010 had the DSi XL, 2011 had the 3DS, 2012 had the XL, 2013 had the 2DS, 2015 had the New 3DS XL, 2016 had the standard-sized New 3DS, and 2017 has the New 2DS XL. I expect next year we'll get the standard new 2DS.) I want to know what processor the 2DS uses. I want to know if it's compatible with both 3DS and Nintendo DS games. I want to know if the camera is better than older models. How does the internet work compared to the others? Does this one come with a charger? What about faceplates? There's lots of information I want to know before I go out and buy a new system for 150 bucks; E3 would be probably the best place to show it off before it's released, especially if they livestream their event.

I hope they'll talk about Skyrim on the Switch, discussing mod support and such. This would normally be at Bethesda's booth, but this is a port of a game from last year; I think they would rather focus their time on their newer games like Doom and whatever new game they're likely to be showing off.

I hope they announce some really cool new IP that they've been working on that everyone wants to play. I have no idea what that might be.

I hope they spend a bit of time talking about the Virtual Console. I've actually been thinking about the Switch Virtual Console for a while and I think I have a good idea on what to release.

NES
Super Nintendo
Nintendo 64
GameCube
Sega Master System
Genesis
Saturn
TurboGrafx-16
Neo Geo AES
Arcade
Game Boy
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Sega Game Gear

So that's just a little wishlist of mine. I don't think any of these systems will have a large library to begin with; I wouldn't doubt if Saturn and GameCube had only 2 or 3 titles each if they are released. But basic confirmation would be nice.

I plan to make another post about this later; maybe next week, maybe in a year; who knows.

I hope they talk about Pokken Tournament DX a bit; I never played the original and the Direct wasn't as informative as I had hoped.

Finally, I hope they'll talk about the last batch of Wii U games being released. It would feel very coldhearted (for lack of a better word) to not even mention the Wii U only 5 years after its release.

What do I expect from Nintendo though?

I expect more on Super Mario Odyssey, since they've clearly stated that's happening.

I expect they're going to announce some new game; I hope it's not that Mario RPG: Rabbids Invasion thing that the internet seems to think is totally confirmed.

I expect a bit about the Virtual Console, but not much. They may announce, NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis support; and we're lucky if we get even that.

I think we'll get a small amount of info on the New 2DS XL, but nothing on the Wii U. I disagree with any decision to do that, but it does make sense to focus more on the Switch and 3DS.

I guess that's all from me. Show up tomorrow for stuff on other companies.

Reminder: If you're interested in getting a Wii U, Nintendo is selling refurbished ones for 175 bucks with Nintendoland. It's available by clicking this link.

E3 Wishes and Expectations - Sony

Oy, welcome to my blog. So this is part of my series on the Electronic Entertainment Expo. This is what I really want from Sony and what I expect from Sony.

So what I want from Sony is to announce a bunch of really good exclusives like Gran Turismo, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank maybe, as well as discuss Crash Bandicoot Remastered and their exclusive Spiderman game coming out. A new God of War would be cool, a new Twisted Metal game would be cool, and showing off Parappa the Rapper game would make me a bit excited, even though it's not really my thing. 

If Sony could tell us more about Shenmue 3, that would be great, but if that's anywhere, it's in the Sega + Atlus show. But it is a PS4 exclusive, so who knows.

On the Vita side, there are tons of things they could show. If they could encourage Activision to remake just Crash 1 for the Vita, that would be an amazing thing to show off to promote their handheld. A Gran Turismo game would also be cool. I like Gran Turismo. And if they could add more PS1 games to the PSN Store, that would be great; I just don't know how many of PS1 games they could add without running dry or running into licensing issues.

The Vita is amazing, and it's region free, so you should import one of these blue beauties from Japan.

But what do I expect from PlayStation?

I think they'll spend just a bit of time talking about that super cheap gold PS4, which is an amazing $249.99 USD.

And then I think they'll talk about Crash Bandicoot N-Sane, although that might be on Activision's stage. But since the original Crash trilogy is pretty much the mascot of the PS1, I think it'll be on the PlayStation stage.

I expect them to not talk too much about the Vita, if they talk about it at all. Sony doesn't care about the Vita, which sucks, because it's a really amazing platform with tons of potential. Oh well.

Seriously, buy a Vita.

E3 Wishes and Expectations - Microsoft

So the one company I'm most excited to see (and will likely be the most disappointed with) is Microsoft with the Xbox division unveiling the Xbox Scorpio, a new console from Microsoft that includes 4K gaming with a wonderful framerate and the ability to do a lot more than the Xbox One ever could.

What I hope the Scorpio is, is a super powerful console that can play Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One games using original hardware. (Okay, maybe emulation for the OG Xbox since I would prefer to play all of my OG Xbox games on the OG Xbox anyway; it has a better controller than the Xbox One.) Aside from that, it's supposed to have an LCD screen on the front. With that, I'm assuming that the Dreamcast emulator for Xbox One will use that for VMU displays, although I'm not sure how well that would work. Then I might finally buy an Xbox One.

That is, if it's just an Xbox One.

If it's a new console for a new generation (which I don't think it is), then I hope it can play a bunch of good games with exclusives that I'd actually care about (which the Xbox One does not have), a few Xbox One games (so I can play the one Xbox One exclusive I care about, Halo Wars 2), and all OG Xbox games. And who knows, maybe some Sega Saturn games through emulation or something.

Either way, I think the controller needs to be fixed. The menu and perspective buttons or whatever they're called need to be changed back to Start and Back. There was no reason to change that. Also, the triggers feel very loose on the Xbox One controller and it makes me uneasy, like I'm going to break them. If they make them more substantial, that would be better.

Ehh, the PS4 triggers would be preferrable. The Xbox One triggers feel very loose, like they're going to break off at any moment.

— Josh (@Icystorm9) April 15, 2017

The D-Pad on the Xbox One controller is also awful. I personally felt that the D-Pad on the original Xbox controller (the one that everyone hates) is the best. And since they can totally do this, they should make it nearly identical to that on the Wii U Pro Controller, which is, in my opinion, the best D-pad on any modern console, and the Saturn D-pad would be a bit unconventional on that type of controller.

But what I think I will get is just a more powerful version of the Xbox One S, which would be a shame. If that's what it is, I would not buy that, probably ever. Oh well.

So next time I'll be talking about Sony, I think. So show up later, or just read that one if it's already posted. Okay bye

What I Expect from E3

Hey guys. This is just a set of blog posts I'll be posting over the next few days discussing what I expect and what I want from a bunch of big companies at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017. 

I plan to talk about the following companies:

Microsoft

Sony

Nintendo

Sega + Atlus

Activision 

Ubisoft

Electronic Arts

Capcom

So I'll get on that now.

This drawing took ~3 minutes to draw, don't kill me for it.

A New Header

So this is what the header looks like when I post this post.

A few hours from now, there will be a new header.

The current one says 2013-2015 on it. Oops.

Icystorm 9's New Hairstyle

The Case of the Stolen Lei

One day, Icystorm 9 was eating a tasty plate of air.

On his way home, he saw the Advent Calendar. He remembered that he had not gotten his daily prize from the tree.

So, with the date being December 24th, Icystorm 9 opened the 24th box on the advent calendar tree.

It was a new lei, made out of poinsettias and their leaves. He thought it was cool. But when Icystorm 9 tried to wear the lei,

Someone with a low, raspy voice said,

Icystorm 9, seeing no problem with an accusation by an unknown source, went to seek the Meme-loving Squidy.                                                                                                      

Icystorm 9 travelled to a squid’s favorite place, the Underwater. There he found his favorite squid.  

Icystorm 9: Did you steal my new lei?
Squidy2008: Does it look like I’m wearing a lei to you?
Icystorm 9: You must have seen me coming, and you’ve hidden it here somewhere.
Squidy2008: Where would I hide a lei in the Underwater?
Icystorm 9: You have a point, but it could be buried or under a rock or something. 
Squidy2008: Why would I even want your stupid lei?
Icystorm 9: I don’t know; but if it wasn’t you, who took it?

Icystorm 9 took Squidy’s advice and went to see Sanik teh Hedghog and the fastest place on the island, the Ice Rink.

Icystorm 9: Did you steal my new lei? 
Sanik: Wat possible use wood i hav with an lei?
Icystorm 9: Good question. But if you didn’t take it, who did?
Sanik: I dosent know, but may be you can look bak @ all the things u found leeding up 2 this poynt.
Icystorm 9: Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt.

So it was the Illuminati. Off Icystorm 9 went to go find out why they did it.

Not seeing anyone on the main level, Icystorm 9 went to the rooftop, where he found the leader of the illuminati.

And the leader of the illuminati just so happened to be….

HIMSELF

From the 10th Anniversary Party, of course.

Icystorm 9: Hey, I know you. You’re me from a long time ago.
Icystorm 9: That’s correct. And now I run CPI, the Club Penguin Illuminati.
Icystorm 9: Do you just sit on this rooftop all day?
Icystorm 9: …...maybe.

Icystorm 9: Give me my lei back.
Icystorm 9: No. It belongs to me. And by me I mean the one of us that currently has the lei.
Icystorm 9: I’m going to tell the police.

So the police arrested the Anniversary Icystorm 9 and the regular Icystorm 9 went home to watch old music videos for 14 hours, just like normal.

The end.