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.

The next generation is almost here, folks. A new generation of a "war" between companies with tech to show off, and games to play on them, A new generation of fanboys singing the same praises about their favorite video game company they did 5-6 years ago.

And I'm saying that none of this really matters.

This new generation seems to be one of choice. The next generation will no longer be directly competitive, but one of 3 companies with different practices and different strategies. By that, I mean that now all 3 companies have slowly but surely changed in some degree.

Also, prepare for some really shitty mock-ups of what may be the next generation.



Let's take Microsoft for example. In the days of the original Xbox, they were very dedicated to the hardcore and had some real games to back it up. Hell, I almost bought an Xbox. This somewhat carried over to the Xbox 360 in it's first two or three years with some very interesting and impressive games at the time, games that spawned some of the best selling series this generation.

As of late, however, (Late, being the past two and a half years or so) Microsoft introduced the Kinect. This was a very promising piece of technology that wowed every single person watching that E3 conference at the time. However, that potential was sacrificed when Microsoft decided to use their Kinect to market to the casual market very strongly. This was very similar to Nintendo's Wii strategy... This was worse though.

Microsoft has then made some moves and such to suggest that they will go for a cheaper, more family friendly approach to their new console. This will make for some immense financial success, but I feel they may lose a bunch of fans as a result. Just as Nintendo did... But worse.

I feel Microsoft needs to find that precious middle-ground to win over everyone with this new product. They also need to revive or create some new software IP's to keep their exclusive line-up exciting, and not so boring and repetitive.

Nintendo, on the other hand is trying the opposite...



Nintendo's last generation with the Wii was very rocky. They went for a wider, more casual approach and definitely won a lot of families over, they however turned off many potential hardcore consumers. Nintendo fans were in the middle, though. The Nintendo-created games for the Wii were some of the best this generation, but there were too many terrible cash-grab games to make fanboys completely satisfied. I even bought a PS3 because of Nintendo's not so hot generation with the Wii.

Nintendo sees this though, so with the Wii U they are taking action. Nintendo plans to completely win over hardcore consumers with their new console, it will be powerful, it will be smart, and it will be online. Nintendo is sure to have a bit of a rocky start getting used to all this online, hardcore, HD stuff, but it will be worth it in my opinion.

Nintendo always brings innovation to the table with anything they work on, and I think with this new tablet controller, they will do some really rad stuff. However, Nintendo will effectively be doing a balancing act in this generation with both the hardcore and casual consumers. They, like Microsoft will have to find that sweet, sweet middle ground. Nintendo's just going about it the opposite way as Microsoft.

Sony, however, has been very consistent, but can they win over more consumers?



Sony has always been consistent in bringing hardcore games to the table for hardcore fans, and powerful hardware for those techies out there. They also like to sprinkle in some casual ideas along the way, like the Move and Wonderbook... yeah.

Sony has gone on record as saying that they don't want to be the cheapest or the fastest, but to be the best; in both hardware and software. This will definitely set them apart from Microsoft and Nintendo in the PlayStation 4 being an absolute beast, and presenting technology that is well worth it.

What Sony has to do in my opinion is to bring an idea that will win over some casual consumers, because they really need it with the financial trouble they have been in recently. Other than that, they are very good at bringing a lot of games to their customers very consistently.



So, all in all, all three of these companies are going about their respective console strategies very differently, and really, this generation is barely about which is more powerful and more capable, it will be about preference. The console "war" is almost a defunct idea. It will now be a matter of appeal rather than power, because these strategies are so vastly different. The new generation will be underway this holiday, and I can not be more excited to see how this all plays out.

Today, that lovable hunk of a man, Jonathan Holmes raised the question of "Videogame Hipsters", This is my overly drawn out response.

On many occasion, I have been called a hipster on the subject of both music and video games. I listen to many underground bands, yes you got me there I guess, but I don't listen to this music because of how it makes me look, it's because it's the fucking music I like. So what if they have 47 albums and like 23 fans. If the music is good, I will listen to it regardless of who they are.

The same goes for video games. Unless you lived under a rock, everyone knows that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword came out within days of each other last year. This caused stupid debates between me and my friends over which game was better.



I've been a Zelda fan all of my life, and Skyward Sword looked amazing (and lived up to it), so obviously I said Skyward Sword will probably be the better game over Skyrim. Every single one of these guys were convinced that Skyrim was the greatest video game to ever exist, so instinctively they called me a hipster for the sole fact that I liked Skyward Sword better than Skyrim.

After both of the games had come out, no one's opinion changed. I actually do not like Skyrim very much. It just feels like Oblivion with dragons, and that still doesn't quite interest me. My friends still think Skyward Sword looks dumb. The thing that separates me from these friends is the fact that I played both and compared the games to each other.

There are a lot of games I don't really like that I get panned as a hipster for simply not liking. Games like Call of Duty and New Super Mario Bros. Do I care? No, No I do not.

So the moral of the story is, like what you like. No one can and should be able to tell you what you like and don't like. The very idea of Videogame Hipster or Hipster in general should be written off as complete bullshit.