10th Anniversary of Minecraft

If I have to name my all-time favorite games or game series, it would be The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Unreal, but also Minecraft. Rarely ever had a game captivated me as much as this one and while I haven't played it in some years, it still has a very special place in my heart, where I have many fond memories of playing Minecraft both alone and with friends.

And by now the game is already ten years old, celebrating an entire decade of existence. Well, I haven't played the game before 2011, where I first tried the Beta and was already fascinated by its atmosphere. However, at the time the game didn't run as well on my computer, so I hadn't played it for long at the time. But with version 1.1 in the following year things changed, where Minecraft became my biggest gaming addiction for two years, until Hyrule Warriors came in 2014 and stole my attention.

While I've played on some multiplayer servers, for the most part I was dedicated to my own world, building a second home there, where you can find some glimpses of this in the screenshots of this post. And this is part of why Minecraft was so fascinating for me: it's your own world.

I love playing Zelda games for the exploration, but Minecraft takes things further by randomly generating a world and letting you change it piece by piece. While there are some templates of how the worlds are created and you have certain repeating constructs like villages, mine shafts and so on, it's all always unique and exploring in Minecraft never gets old. And it never stops, because the worlds are potentially infinite. You can spend a lifetime exploring everything in one world and still won't be able to see it all.

For me it was the first real open world game that I've played, several years before Breath of the Wild, and it was so good because it just puts you in the middle of the world and lets your own curiosity take over. The early Survival game is quite exciting, where at night monsters come out and you want to create a shelter to stay safe. Slowly, but surely you get better gear and are ready to explore more, fight stronger foes and so on.

But once you've found a place that you like, you can settle and build a house, a farm, a village, an underground facility and whatever you like. I've dedicated my main area to farming everything possible, where I have a mob, sugar cane and slime farm under my house, a villager trading center, collections of all animals, fields for all plants, flower farms, an Iron Golem farm and so much more. You could say that I've overdone it, but that was part of the fun and Minecraft really lives from your own goals.

This special combination of exploring, fighting monsters and building your own world is even something that I've wanted since the GameBoy Color games, where I liked playing Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages & Seasons, but also Harvest Moon. At the time I've imagined how nice it would be to build my own farm around Mabe Village on Koholint. And Minecraft kind of gave me this in a very ambitious way.

Simply reminiscing about the game makes me feel really nostalgic, where I even went back to the game after all those years for the 10th Anniversary. But I've stopped playing when version 1.8 came out, where by now we have version 1.14 and lots of things have happened since then. It's amazing how they keep adding to the game, still developing it after all this time, improving it on all ends.

But it also feels quite overwhelming, if you haven't kept up with it... Some of my aforementioned farms and creations don't work anymore due to the (recent) changes to villages and other elements, where I really need to study all the changes in detail to make decisions on how to go on here.

Sometimes it feels like it would be the best to simply start over, enjoy a fresh game in a new world without all the weight of all what was done before. But at the same time I've achieved so much in my old world, like an Enderman farm in the End for near endless Ender Pearls supplies, where I would have to do so many (sophisticated) things a second time, instead of focusing the new things.

And there are so many new things to discover. I really like the additions from the "Update Aquatic" for example, especially the new Trident weapon - it's so good that I hope that it will be part of the moveset for Steve in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, if he really makes it into the DLC... And it already inspires new projects, where I want to build a Drowned farm using a Zombie spawner.

Village & Pillage

Last month the "Village & Pillage" update just got released and I've tried some of its additions in a New World, where chance had it that I spawned right next to one of the new Pillager Outposts, not far from a village, so I could try the new Raid mechanics:

It's really crazy and the village gets swarmed with all sorts of hostile "Illager" mobs. It's nothing you could survive early in the game, but a fun idea nonetheless.

For my old game world, however, I had to go back to version 1.3.2 to complete my villager trading center project for Enchanted Books - something that wouldn't work the same way in version 1.4 and beyond, at least not way I intended it to. I even will have to figure out how to keep trades going in 1.4...

But overall I like how you can now directly influence the profession of new villagers now by placing the profession blocks and how villagers are now looking for beds instead of many, many doors. It just feels like they completely overdid things here and some of the profession blocks seem somewhat unnecessary or weird. Like, why would we need a "Smithing Table" without any functions for a Toolsmith, if there already is the Anvil in the game?

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate x Minecraft - Challenger Pack Concept

If you're talking about adding Minecraft contents to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in form of one of the five Challenger Packs, you often get met with anger, because it seems that part of the Smash community really doesn't like the idea of the Minecraft avatar as a playable fighter in their favorite game, mostly because of the aesthetics.

The bargaining often ends with saying that a stage should be enough, because the possibility of Minecraft contents being added to Smash Ultimate is still in the air, ever since Vergeben first mentioned this about a year ago - the guy who accurately "predicted" Ridley, Simon, Isabelle, Ken and Incineroar. He couldn't place the Minecraft contents, which were missing during the release, but has heard about a boss, where it's possible that they might add the Ender Dragon as another boss to the game with the DLC.

But even without the words of so called leakers, it's not unlikely that both Nintendo and Sakurai might want Minecraft in Smash. Nintendo loves Minecraft. They have released a Creeper Edition of the New 2DS XL and Minecraft is on the three most recent Nintendo console with lots of Super Mario skins. Miyamoto openly wishes that Nintendo had made the game (source) and Sakurai loves to play Survival Minecraft (source).

And I personally love Minecraft myself. I have very fond memories of playing the game both alone and with various friends during my time at the university. It was my first real open world game before Breath of the Wild and I wouldn't want to have it any other way, because Minecraft embraces complete freedom. The freedom to explore as you like, to do what you want and to make your own mistakes while facing the dangers of the dark. The freedom to build your own house, underground facility, farm or island in the sky...

It's such a complex game with nearly unlimited possibilities, but yet so simple at its core. It's a game to be enjoyed by audiences of all ages, where it has become the childhood favorite of an entire new generation of gamers. Minecraft is today what Super Mario used to be for my generation. So, it would be a great honor for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to have one of its Challenger Packs devoted to this successful game, which has the charm of Nintendo's old classics. And with the 10th Anniversary of Minecraft coming up, it would be the perfect time for this crossover.

While it's possible that they might add only a stage or some other small collaborations in the form of additional Mii Fighter outfits and Spirits, the core of the DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be the five Challenger Packs, bundles of a fighter and a stage. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U offered similar bundles for whenever they had added a fighter from a new franchise (Street Fighter, Final Fantasy and Bayonetta), where it's likely that most, if not all of the five Challenger Packs will be for 3rd party franchises, considering that most of Nintendo has been covered by Spirits already.

So, if they are really working on Minecraft contents for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it most likely will be the full package and might even receive the best efforts from Sakurai's team. A stage alone also wouldn't be entirely satisfying. While it certainly could capture the essence of exploration and the magic of Minecraft's randomized worlds, it could not properly represent all the things you can do in the game. Only a fighter can do that.

In the following we will discuss the possible contents of a "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate x Minecraft" Challenger Pack:

The Stage: New World

Like the Super Mario Maker stage, it would be randomized, starting you in a different biome each time you play on the stage. This part would be a walk-off stage with a randomized layout and a day and night cycle, where at night different monsters come out, like Zombies, Skeleton and of course Creepers. Players can destroy the block based terrain and even pick up the blocks like items to place them somewhere else.

This would be the simplest concept, but they could take it even further by scrolling or morphing the stage. Players could potentially dig their way into a randomized cave system. This could either be a normal cave, a mine shaft or a part of a Stronghold. The transition could even happen in different ways, e.g. the Ender Dragon swooping through the stage, erasing the ground.

The stage could take the players even into the Nether or the End potentially, where in the background Steve shows up and opens the respective portal. The End would be more like a traditional Smash stage with a platform in the dark void and probably would feature the Ender Dragon as a stage boss. The Nether part will have a lava floor similar to Norfair. Both realms then lead back to the beginning via portals, where everything starts over.

Overall there is enough potential for multiple stages here, where a randomized Minecraft overworld stage would already be amazing enough.

The Fighter: Steve & Alex

The big DLC fighters that come bundled with a stage all seem to offer some sort of new gimmick. Ryu had the Street Fighter inputs, Cloud had Limit, Bayonetta had Witch Time and now Joker got Arsene. Three of those are even triggered by the Down Special. If a Minecraft fighter gets into Smash, this gimmick should be obvious: placing blocks. The Down Special would here be used to place blocks below you and pillar up. These blocks can be destroyed by other players with attacks, but you can do so quicker with your pickaxe (Neutral or Side Special).

Ender Pearls could be used for the Up Special, where you throw the pearl in an arc and then get teleported to where it hits at the cost of some percent. The trusty block sword could be used for his normal attacks, where a Diamond Sword could deal the devastating Smash Attacks. Other tools and weapons from the game like the bow, shovel, axe, trident or even potions are available to fill any remaining moves, so there is lots of potential for a moveset here.

The Final Smash could ever be lighting a pile of TNT or summoning the Wither, where both would be equally devastating to your surroundings.

The main issue people seem to have with a Minecraft fighter in Super Smash Bros. usually isn't the moveset potential, but the overall look, despite the fact that we have characters like Mr. Game & Watch playable already. But if you take a look at the Minecraft Dungeons trailer, seeing a Minecraft fighter properly animated doesn't feel so alien after all and could still fit into Smash with its own charms. He would stick out for sure, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, making this a truly unique entry.

The fighter would have "Steve" as a the default skin, much like Minecraft itself does, but there are countless possibilities for alt costumes here, including those from the official Super Mario Edition, where you have a majority of the Mario characters including Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser and Toad, of course. But they could go for other Nintendo characters like Link or Zero Suit Samus, which all would be easily distinguishable from the actual fighters thanks to their blocky appearance. And even other video game characters altogether are possible, like Master Chief or Banjo...

The female default skin, "Alex", should be part of this as well, but with so many options for alt costumes of both genders, they might even go as far and make her an Echo Fighter. In this case the Challenger Pack would come with both a new Fighter and an Echo Fighter similar to Simon and Richter in the main game. She wouldn't have to be all that different from her male counterpart, but it would be worth it for the possibility of having 16 Minecraft skins together alone.

Another good reason would be the Classic Mode...

Classic Mode & Spirits

With a Classic Mode route for Minecraft it's clear, where it ends: in the "End" with the Ender Dragon as its boss. Well, if they are cheap yet again, they could just use Rathalos on Final Destination to emulate the battle, but depending on how much effort they put into the Minecraft DLC, both the End and the Ender Dragon could become a boss stage of their own.

(If they are planning on adding a Boss Battle mode later on, this could even be the reason, why they are holding it back: the game doesn't have all its bosses as of yet.)

The rest of the Classic Mode could use other parts of the Minecraft stage, depending on how much the stage actually offers. But existing stages could represent certain parts of the Minecraft world, e.g. Norfair could be used to represent the Nether and the Great Cave Offensive as an underground cave.

As for Spirits, the typical / most popular Minecraft enemies and mobs would do the job here:

• Zombie
• Skeleton
• Creeper
• Villager
• Wolf
• Enderman
• Ender Dragon
• Ghast
• Wither
• ...

There's lots of iconic entities in the game, so there is more than enough material for potential Spirits.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Stage Builder Released!

Finally, one of my favorite features in the Super Smash Bros. series has returned to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: the Stage Builder.

image source

It looked quite amazing with yesterday's Smash Direct, but the actual release was a little more disillusioning. The main reason for this are the backgrounds. Being able to choose from all the normal stages' backgrounds is probably the most wanted request for the Stage Builder and always has been. And in the Direct it looked like you can do exactly that, where all the Omega and Battlefield variants of stages could have been used as a resource.

But it turned out that you can only choose from between twelve backgrounds, which are static versions of some of the normal stages in the game. And that's super disappointing.

Well, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth and overall it feels like an improvement over what we had in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. In fact it seems to be an enhancement of said editor, where they've added multiple layers, simple shapes and for drawing and the ability to move and rotate objects during the game.

There are also a series of new interactive objects: Portals, Bumpers, Ladders, Bomb and Explosive Blocks, as well as Windy Areas. Springs and Cannons return from Smash 4, but it doesn't seem like you can create their large counterparts anymore. You can also freely draw with lava and ice now and there is a "bouncy rubber" texture, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.

Talking about textures, those don't seem to be as nice as the ones in Smash 4 and they leave a lot to desire, just like the backgrounds. But maybe they'll add more of both in the future.

Also, only the ladders and ice floors returned from the Stage Builder in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, sadly, but that editor still had many more interesting features like drop blocks, spikes or conveyor belts. The pre-defined structures were also pretty nice...

Well, I've only been able to test the new Stage Builder a little bit and it's certainly nice to have for a free feature, but I still wish that they would consider some more options for the sake of creativity.


PS: I've also tried Joker and he's alright. The real highlight of the DLC seems to be his stage, though. Mementos is super stylish and Ann in the background is a real eyecatcher. I wish I could place her in the background of my own stages. :D (It's also perfect how her Spirit is represented by a red Zero Suit Samus.)

Got the Young Link amiibo

Another addition to my amiibo collection has arrived today:

It's not my favorite, but it's nice enough. Since he is based on Ocarina of Time, this Young Link feels different enough from the Young Link amiibo part of the Zelda series, who is based on Majora's Mask.

So far I have gotten three of the new amiibo for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Ridley, the Piranha Plant and Young Link, where I've gotten Ridley together with the game and the Piranha Plant in February:

Yes, fight that Deku Baba, Link!

That's one amiibo from every release wave so far, where I might continue this trend. I want the Dark Samus amiibo as well, of course, and I might also be getting the Isabelle amiibo for an inside joke and because she's adorable. And if Minecraft is really part of the Challenger Packs, I will be getting the amiibo for the fighter as well, because I love the game and it would probably look really cool.

If Nintendo were to re-release some of the Zelda characters, where except for Toon Link everyone has gotten a makeover in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I would be getting those as well. Especially amiibo for the new Zelda and Ganondorf would be nice to have.

But right now it seems like we're getting three new amiibo every two months with Isabelle, Pichu and probably Joker coming next.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Stage Builder Confirmed!

By accident... Nintendo posted a new commercial for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate today, where in the beginning you can spot the "Stage Builder" mode the bottom right of the menu.

I'm super excited right now, because the Stage Builder was one of the biggest omissions in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for me personally. In general I dislike the lack of new stages, but in the least I will be able to build my own.

There now remains the question what it can do. I'm not expecting too much here, because in the end even the most bare-bones Stage Builder is better than no Stage Builder at all. But ideally it would combine the features of both the previous Stage Builders from Brawl and Smash 4 Wii U, where you can use the handheld mode of the Switch to draw stages, but also use conventional input on a grid combined with many pre-defined stage pieces.

It would also be great to have access to most backgrounds (and textures) in the game, so you can build your own stages for the different franchises. With Omega and Battlefield variants of every stage available, it shouldn't be hard to implement this. They only would need to let us access these backgrounds and textures. In the very least there should be more than just a handful of backgrounds to choose from.

Otherwise the game already has various stage elements to offer. The cannons made it into the Bonus Game of Classic Mode. Spirit Battles offer stage variations like flaming floors. And of course the normal stages have things like ladders or moving platforms. All it needs is making these features accessible in the Stage Builder.

But let's see... It's probably best not to expect too much here, so we don't get disappointed in the end. It's already fantastic that we're getting a Stage Builder to begin with.

In any case a Nintendo Direct or Super Smash Bros. Direct should happen soon, where this gets showcased alongside Joker and maybe also the upcoming Smash World app, which could go hand in hand with the new Stage Builder, where you can showcase your stages via the app as well.

Rumor: A Link to the Past Coming to Switch?

According to these tweets, both Metroid Prime Trilogy and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past got registered in Best Buy's system. The former shouldn't be a surprise, but the latter certainly would be. And the new Link's Awakening is already there, so this might not be a simple confusion with the title.

This is very curious, since we're already getting the Link's Awakening remake and SNES games will come to the Nintendo Switch Online service eventually, maybe even this year. Also, a remake like this would have been best on the Nintendo 3DS, where we already have A Link Between Worlds and they could just use that game's graphics, enemies and everything to remake A Link to the Past entirely without any bigger efforts.

So, it seems very odd that a remake of A Link to the Past could be announced for the Nintendo Switch soon. But let's wait and see what this all will be about.

The Original Linkle

kazzykazycom on Twitter has just recently published some images of a Japanese magazine from 1986, which depicted Link as a girl (more images in the link):

Hot! I guess, if you only have played the game at the time, it's easy to be confused about Link's lengthy sideburns. In a way this would be the opposite to Metroid, where you might expect to play as a girl, but end up with a male protagonist. But seriously, Nintendo should consider the option. Link looks really good as a girl.