(News)

Those who bought the Season Pass for BioShock Infinite and were starting to worry whether or not they had wasted their money, you can rest easy now, because Ken Levine has announced that DLC for BioShock Infinite is in the works. In fact, the first piece of downloadable content is already out today (on PC, at least). It's essentially a free-for-all challenge mode in which you have access to every ability, weapon, and powerup in the game, are given parameters for a mission, and are told to go nuts.

     "So I thought, maybe we can do something where we give the player the opportunity to just play with the full toolset, and all of the powers and upgrades and everything, and create far more challenging gameplay for them. So with that in mind, we gathered up the people really specialized in combat on Infinite and essentially told them the gloves were off, you guys can make whatever you want."
     -Ken Levine (featured in Polygon)

The next two DLC packs are story-driven, and are something I'm particularly excited about. They're meant to shed some light on the overall story of BioShock by sending you underwater; that's right, you're goin' to Rapture. Burial at Sea is a two-parter DLC setup that sends Booker to Rapture when it was in its prime way before even the events of BioShock 2's multiplayer. The second part of the Burial at Sea DLC will still, of course, be in Rapture, but this time, you'll take the reigns of Elizabeth.

     “We decided we wanted to shift things around a little bit for the third one, so the player character in the third DLC, you get to play Elizabeth and the gameplay is quite different as her. She’s not the tank that Booker is. And you’ll see how all the stories come together.”
     -Ken Levine (featured in Polygon)

The challenge mode DLC, Clash in the Clouds, is out now on PC for $5, and the PS3 and 360 versions are supposed to launch within the next day for $5 and 400 MSP, respectively. Date and price were not given yet for the Burial at Sea two-parter. Trailers for the DLC packs are embedded below.

(BioShock Infinite is on Steam, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Check retailers for pricing.)
 
(News)

Nintendo of America have announced that the all-black model of the 3DS XL will be coming overseas on August 11th, which just so happens to be the same day that Mario & Luigi: Dream Team comes out in the US. Perhaps this is their way of apologizing to us for not getting us that snazzy Year of Luigi XL model. The model was rumored to be coming to America after Cartoon Network aired an advert for the aforementioned Mario & Luigi game that featured the black system and leaked clippings of Toys 'R' Us promotional magazines had a deal on it for said console for $20-$30 off. Turns out the rumors held true.
 
(News)

The 2008 Wii entry in the Super Smash Bros. series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, gathered hype for its massive story mode, seen as a crossover featuring all the game's characters. However, Sakurai wasn't exactly happy that the cutscenes in said story mode were leaked to YouTube before the game's launch, so in the next Super Smash Bros. installment for Wii U and 3DS, he's nixing the story mode altogether.

     "Unfortunately, the movie scenes we worked hard to create were uploaded onto the internet. You can only truly wow a player the first time he sees [a cutscene]. I felt if players saw the cutscenes outside of the game, they would no longer serve as rewards for playing the game, so I've decided against having them."
     -Masahiro Sakurai (featured in Weekly Famitzu; translated by Kotaku)

Instead of having a story mode that consists of hard-to-make cutscenes that Sakurai now deems as a waste of development time, he plans on having one intro cutscene per character. While I was hoping for a sequel-type deal to the Subspace Emmisary in SSB4, I'm keeping in mind that Super Smash Bros. Melee got along just fine without any sort of in-depth story mode, so the next entry in the Smash Bros. series should be fun nonetheless. It's also worthy noting that Sakurai didn't say how long the character intros were; perhaps they could be entire fleshed-out videos? Sakurai also pointed out that the 3DS version will have some sort of exclusive feature alongside the regular VS mode in his featured article. It'll be interesting to see what the final product looks like as Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for 3DS hits in 2014.
 
(News)

Ubisoft's Rayman Legends was meant to hit Wii U exclusively late last year, but was delayed when the higher-ups decided to port the game to Xbox 360 and PS3 as well to land more sales. A few months back, it was announced that the game would also be getting a PS Vita port, and now they've added yet another platform to the mix: Rayman Legends will launch on PC on September 3rd along with all the other versions. People who preorder this version will get a free copy of Rayman Origins, the game's prequel.
 

(News)

In 2011, the original creator of the hit football simulation series, Madden, Robert Antonick, sued the publisher Electronic Arts. While EA holds rights to the Madden franchise, they supposedly had been using the same core coding for the entries in the series between 1990 and 1996 after Antonick had left the company without getting his permission to use his programming. The court ended up ruling the case in Antonick's favor, landing him $11 million.

So what's he gonna do with the money? Sue 'em again, of course! Antonick will now be filing a second lawsuit against EA, this time for the Madden games up to now since 1996. It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out.

 
(News)

If you're planning on stocking up your Wii U eShop account with money soon, now's your time to do it. Nintendo is giving out an extra $5 of eShop credit to those who add $50-$99.99 to their account, and an extra $10 for adding $100. This deal is only applicable to the Wii U eShop and the funds must be in by July 28th (this coming Sunday). The codes will be given on August 2nd. Funds added from eShop credit cards also count towards the promotion. Click here to see the official informational site regarding the deal.
 
(News)

Club Nintendo has finally unveiled this year's Elite Rewards, and they're all very well worth it. All eight rewards are listed below in list and picture format. Keep in mind that some rewards are exclusive to Platinum members and you must be at least Gold to get any rewards at all. The list shows what the lowest tier is to be able to recieve the prize next to the prize name. You must also redeem your reward by August 15th before the offer expires.

  • 2014 Club Nintendo Calendar (Gold)
  • Super Smash Bros. (Wii VC [N64]) (Gold)
  • WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase (WiiWare) (Gold)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (3DS VC [GBC]) (Gold)
  • Super Mario Land (3DS VC [GB]) (Gold)
  • Sakura Samurai (3DS) (Gold)
  • Triple Poster Set (8-bit Luigi, Pikmin 3, LoZ: The Wind Waker) (Platinum)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Original Soundtrack (Platinum)
 
(Recommendation of the Week)

Sorry about the lack of RotW articles during the past month; I've been on multiple vacations and haven't had the time to try out any new games. However, thanks to the Steam summer sale, I've been able to get back to an old childhood favorite, Castle Crashers.

Created by The Behemoth, Castle Crashers is a crazy and adventurous 2D beat-em-up built with RPG elements and with a heavy focus on 4-player co-op. The game's story focuses on a knight or a set of knights, each with their own unique set of magical skills, going after an evil force who kidnapped their kingdom's four princesses across a massive world with a huge amount of levels all filled to the brim with insane enemies and quirky situations. Starting the game gives you access to the original four knights (shown above), each one representing a different magic element. As you progress through the levels by beating the crap out of every enemy you come across, you gain experience points and, after leveling up, get to add skill points to Strength (melee attack power), Magic (unlocking new/stronger spells), Defense, and Agility (running speed and arrow-shooting distance). Each knight's experience points are unique to itself, meaning players can max out the knight of their choice, then start fresh with a brand-new inexpereinced knight if they so desire, and unlockable characters are given out as you venture further. New weapons and animal companions (called Animal Orbs) give knights stat boosts or extra skills that help them through their quest. To master the game, players have to learn the combos knights obtain after leveling up that consist of alternating between the Heavy and Light Attack buttons while occasionally throwing in some magic. Don't let this scare you off if you're new to beat-em-ups; the combos are very simplistic. Items like potions, arrows, bombs, and sandwiches are thrown into the mix to add even more variety to the gameplay. While it's possible to play all the way through alone, it is definitely an experience meant to be played with friends; the four player co-op allows for some hectic fun traversing through the world and Castle Crashers is jam-packed with humorous moments best enjoyed together.

The boss battles and situations presented in Castle Crashers are absolutely insane, but in a good way. For example, as you progress through one of the first levels of the game, you hear a loud consistent thumping sound. The local animals in the forest hear it, too; in fact, they're so frightened by it that they literally start shitting themselves right then and there. The boss battle in the next level takes place on a river in which you and your friends are fighting a massive rabid Catfish. ...literally. It's a cat with a fin on its back. It spews furballs and everything. While beat-em-ups can get repetitive at times, Castle Crashers mixes it up with these boss fights, as each one of them has a special strategy to taking them down, and the aforementioned RPG elements keep it fresh as you go. Each environment is uniquely designed as well, which prevents the backgrounds from getting stale, and each level has its own set of enemies which shows off the game's very creative and unique art style. What's special about this game's soundtrack is that every single track was designed by a different person on Newgrounds, so every level has an individual musical piece to fit its individual setting. ...Not to mention the soundtrack as a whole kicks all kinds of ass.

Castle Crashers is some of the most fun you can have with you friend(s), and it's available on multiple platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and, as of just last year, Steam. See if you can nab Castle Crashers at an insanely low price on Steam during the Summer Sale, or pick it up for your respective console if you want to. While the price on Steam will be varying within the next few weeks, the regular price is $15, as is the PSN version, and the Xbox 360 version goes for 1200 Microsoft Points.
 
(News)

The classic Game Boy Color game Shantae was planned to have launched on the North American 3DS Virtual Console earlier this year, but was delayed for unknown reasons. Doesn't matter anymore, because Shantae will now officially launch next week on July 18th. Judging by other GBC Virtual Console games, it will most likely be $6.
 
(Special Article)

Since I really don't have much else to do this summer, the fourth installment of The Remix Collection is now complete! No new franchises were included, however; in fact, some were cut in comparison to the last volume. To make up for it, though, each franchise featured has a full set of four songs each, making this the first RXC to do so, and this volume has four special mixes at the end. Check out the downloads page to nab The Remix Collection - Volume 4 and load it onto your music players!

(As always, the songs in the RXC are not made by me unless otherwise stated in the song description. The Remix Collection is simply a gathering of various remixes, medleys, and mashups across YouTube and Newgrounds. Every artist is given credit for their work; please go to their channel or page to congratulate them on their work if you like what you hear.)