The real issue with Nintendo that the lack of a Wii U version of Minecraft best summarizes, though, is their general stubbornness and seeming inability to provide the most obvious things that their fans want. Minecraft has sold over 30 million units to date. Most recently it sold over one million units on the PS3, despite the fact it can be run by most new millennium computers, and has been available for the 360 for some time. It’s a game that reaches across generations, and has become a bestseller on every platform its touches.
This Nintendo title can offer lots of fast-paced multiplayer fun for you, friends and strangers. Thanks to Turf Mode, Ranked and Salmon Run, you and others will be able to enjoy plenty of splatisfying action. Because you play with a team of people there’s a need for teamwork and going through tough battles alongside one another bonds can form. While there hasn’t been much new in the last few months for Splatoon 2, there’s still a large amount of users at different levels of skill to make things interesting. You could easily play round after round all day and experience something new each time in each location. Also, maybe it’s time you pick up a new weapon just to change things up. Splatoon 2 keeps things fresh for those in search of online interactions.
Minecraft has been around so long that it’s easy to take it for granted. The decade of its existence has seen it explode from an indie project to financial juggernaut, but at the heart of all the licensing has been a game that’s never stopped growing its list of features. One of the biggest parts of Minecraft’s longevity has been its multiplayer options with endless servers available almost since the beginning. The reason for this is simple — it’s fun to build things with friends. Whether or not that means everyone works together on a massive project or people go off and do their own thing in a communal area doesn’t matter, so long as there’s something new to see. Working with a group where everyone’s online, working alone or just tooling around the world sightseeing, it’s all better when doing it in a shared world. The thing about Minecraft, though, is that it’s become so generic it’s easy to forget how entertaining it is. Over the years I’ve obsessed over Minecraft, walked away for extended periods of time, come back, then left again. I’ve explored single-player worlds and gotten involved in multiplayer servers, and the one constant is that each time I play there’s something new to do. There are endless worlds stretching on forever made of giant blocks that, despite their size, are still enough to suggest the shape of almost anything you want to create, and the nice thing about Minecraft’s ubiquitous nature is just about everyone is already familiar with it. Now may be the best time to dig out an old log-in and see what huge, inspiring, strange, ridiculous, epic creations you and a group of friends can come up with.
The lack of plot means the action needs to carry the game, which Minecraft Dungeons nicely pulls off. It’s a fairly stripped-down entry in the genre, with no character classes or specializations, but instead focuses on character customization through loot. At the start you choose a character skin, none of which have any advantage or disadvantage over another, and then through the course of the adventure find gear to fit your play style. There are six slots to fill, three of which are for action accessories assigned to the controller face buttons and the others being the equipment of weapon, armor and ranged, and while it’s tempting to go for straight power over anything else, it’s better to find things that suit your play style.
The problem is that VR is such an incredibly tempting target that it’s nearly impossible to not experiment with applying it to the FPS experience. (For the sake of argument, lets call any first-person game you move around in an FPS experience, even if no shooting is involved.) The incredible presence is still wonderful even after repeated exposure, and who wouldn’t want to feel the full sense of scale of the world they’re gaming inside? VR Minecraft? After the hundreds of hours I’ve put into that game it sounds like the best idea ever, except for the small issue outlined in the previous paragraph. On the plus side, Microsoft and Mojang haven’t ignored the problem, and while one viewing mode is self-defeating and another a guaranteed ticket to quick nausea, the recommended VR controls actually work. It’s awkward and jerky, but actually allows the game to be played with no discomfort.
He’s not the only one who thinks so. A quick Google Image search of “Minecraft Maps Wii U” reveals a host of fan made mock ups that make it clear why a Wii U version of Minecraft would not only make sense, but may result in the definitive version of the game.
Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode 5: Order Up! shapes up to be an incredible introduction to the Order of the Stone’s newest adventures, but still manages to fall a little short. Telltale introduces new concepts, characters and worlds, but their biggest mistake was shoving it all into a single episode. Had they created a separate season talking about the events of Sky City and expanding a little bit more on the environments and characters, this episode would have been much more successful. That being said, however, this episode does deviate from previous installments as being much more adult and changes the characters as once being small time builders to being full-fledged heroes risking their lives to save common folk. Hopefully Telltale will continue to capitalize on that aspect of the characters and convey it in the following episodes.
