Captain Falcon

Your Avatar is special in that they can change into almost any class available to their gender. Most other units have 2 side class branches they can change into. Once an unpromoted unit reaches level 10, they can class change into one of the other two types (unpromoted) and it resets their level back to one and adjusts their base stats accordingly for the class they are now in. This may increase or lower your stats and you also need to watch out for stat limits as defined by each class type. If a promoted unit class changes before they reach level 10, they will only have the option to change to an unpromoted class type, and this is where you will likely see the ipact of stats caps, but if they wait until they are level 10 promoted, then they can class change into another promoted type without the need to waste time in the unpromoted class. I hope that's clear.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next round is live! Audio 1. Rival Schools - Ville +1 2. Strider - Dog-amoto +1 3. Dead Rising 2 - Ville +1 4. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters - Dog-amoto +1 5. Street Fighter 2010 - Ville +1 6. X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse - Cube +1 7. Viewtiful Joe - / nando / +1 8. Goof Troop - MoogleViper +1 Normal rules apply... start your guessing!

But if you felt the first was so bad as to skip the second, wouldn't you be advising him to reconsider the purchase of this game as well? To be honest, I don't think there is that much in them that you could love one and hate the other but the sequels over ambitious nature is sometimes to it's detriment.

This is your 24 hr notice - a new round shall begin tomorrow evening around 19:00ish hopefully.

I just found out one of my fav bands are on the soundtrack for this and whilst the start threw me off a little, I think it's a great song. Is the game full of actual songs or are they just for credits/special sequences?

9 is also worth mentioning in the same breath as 2 and 3. It's just as tight in terms of level design but scales back the NEED for Rush and makes him more an assistance than necessary which can be an issue at times in 2 and 3 when you run out of Item/Rush usage - the return trip to Needle Man's stage in MM3 is awful for this as can be Wily Stage 3 in MM2. You can see in 9, and more so 10, how they've taken level design ideas out of games 4-6 and just reapplied them with a slight twist for a better end result than their original incarnation. It was probably easier to take them from the lesser known games than to go straight for 2 and 3. There is a Mega Man Thread over in the general section for this kinda talk though. Also MMX is the dogs dangly bits and anyone who says otherwise needs a slap :p

Do you have a PC capable of playing these games? Steam often have all 3 parts in the sale for pretty cheap and it's normally less than this even now it's discounted here too. THen again, I'm not sure how Steam prices work out when converted but the GBP price is cheaper. The first Trine is pretty good and worth playing but the sequel and expansion are bigger and more clever but not always to their advantage. The levels are shoter in the first game and it's no where near as visually stimulating despite still be incredibly pretty by any other measurement. I also felt it had the stronger soundtrack but the Goblin Menace is pretty good on that front. I thought this level shows of both its still beautiful graphics and incredible music. Some areas and some dialogue relate to the first game but nothing that get upset over missing out on. On thing it does handle better is the item progression model. In this game, you unlock skill points as you gain Experience and you can re-assign those skill points whenever you want. Consequently, because the solution to a puzzle isn't always easy to grasp because the game has no idea what skills you actually have. In the first game, you unlock basic skills as you progress and then can upgrade those whereas here, both basic and upgrades are linked to the same skill point pool. So you might find yourself "fudging" solutions in a way that ultimately doesn't prove as satisfying as in the first game where there is typically one clear way with each character on how to get by. Each level can still be got by by one character alone but it's just not always clear how and the solution may force you to completely swap your skills around until you have enough points to have most active at once across all members.

I have four of them at the moment but am only using the obvious one. I guess I was perhaps a little quick to label them underlevelled. I guess as individuals they aren't so bad but if they made up your team, I suspect I'd be struggling. I guess they have the benefit of having more skills early on though. I hadn't paired him up with anyone yet, and hadn't used Nowi at all but I've got them supporting each other now so I'll see what comes of it. As Gibbs mentions, it's a rare drop and can be found on Event Tiles or as reward from the Villagers in Champions of Yore I. I managed to acquire 2 of them but he's almost out of use of the first. One thing I'm not entirely convinced about is whether it works on Enemy turns or not. It could just be luck that that is never when it drops but I'm not sure or that I just didn't notice/remember.

But it was using motion control to do the exact same thing as was previously achieved with buttons. Swing the Wii-Remote left/right instead of holding left/right on the stick and pressing B. Controlling the Beatle could have easily been achieved by just using the stick to as joystick for flight as in every flying game to every grace a platform anywhere. It was an alternative way of control but was used to create an experience that was ultimately the exact same as all the ones that came before it. And once the novelty goes away, which it does once you become accustomed to the controls, you're left playing a game that fails to make an significant mark on the series history. And it's not like the controls were even an improvement. They offered a few more options, like diagonals strikes, but not much and the game bled the concept for all it's worth buy making every fight with the enemy a matter of simpling swiping in the direction the opponent wasn't blocking. It holds potential for some great gameplay ideas but SS was content to pass them all by having settled on just one idea alone. The twin world concept of ALTTP however was far more innovative in terms of what it brought to the table. The way it forced you to swap between its sections at certain points made you plan your route through each bit until you had the correct tools to navigate at will and how it offered more puzzling opportunities - like how to get into Swamp Palace and Ice Palace. You could see bits in one world that could only be got to by venturing into the other. As far as a gameplay concept goes, that outstrips shoehorning conventional controls on to motion based ones just for the sake of saying you've done it. And whilst OoT doesn't play with spatial awareness in quite the same way, since you're always forced through the Temple of Time, the symmetry and lack thereof, between the past and future is ultimately very similar in nature. As for LA's claim to fame simply being portable, I think it was more than that. In terms of design, it's island/fantasy nature away from Hyrule freed the designers of being bound to Hylian lore. If something didn't make sense, and LA is all over the place, it didn't matter and actually served to make the game more unique and different - to give it its own identity. And then there is the other view of seeing it as a piece of software. An uncomprising piece of software that delivers almost everything its 16-bit brother had done but with a monochrome screen and a pitiful amount of memory. The machine had shrunk considerably, but the scope had not. You could argue the limitations meant the scope had increased relative to its host hardware. It showed how much of the game was down to clever design that could be adapted to lesser machines. GB games didn't have to be watered down experiences and they didn't have to sacrifice their portablity either - that's LA's real trick.

I managed to see the trailer earlier. I liked it, and thought the music was really cool, but I couldn't help but feel it was being pitched as a GTA style game instead of it's own take on the sandbox genre. He says he has control of the city and will use it against them and instead of seeing him do this in a bunch of different ways, we see one clip of the bollards raising as already been demonstrated at the PS4 event and then it's just vehicle chase sequences and shoot outs. The Bike phyiscs looked a bit fudged and in general all the motoring clips looked a bit poor though I'm not sure if it's due to bad vehicle models or what looks to be a lack of lighting tricks - either way, it just doesn't look up to the same standard as the rest of the footage.

I haven't seen a raft of complaints or issues raised about localization but the game hasn't been out long in Europe for people to check everything... and there is an awful lot to check. And stuff like the DLC can't be checked until it's available - such as with the image above. Someone in game described a situation like "a fart in the wind" which I was surprised about - I'll admit it also did provoke a juvenile chuckle. Someone also used the word "arse" too which made me hit the R button to check the text log to ensure I hadn't just imagined it.

It placed number 5 on the Wii U individual chart and that's not exactly a tough one to get to the top of. Sonic was top, likely due to discounted sales, then Lego City, NSMBU, NintendoLand and Injustice in fifth and yet LCU doesn't make it into the top 40 so the contribution of the Wii U version of Injustice would be negligible.

After Chapter 13, you can buy all the Second and Master seals you want if you have the cash. The merchant will still appear on the map though and have them for better rates so keep you eye out for her. I did a bit of grinding early on trying to strengthen my bonds with units but I just ran into the situation whereby they became over powered for the regular maps and that's still the case but I have few side quests open at the moment and they are providing a good challenge - when a promoted enemy is using a forged killer weapons, you need to keep your eyes peeled but then going back to unpromoted iron weapon users is a joke. I criticalled a enemy for 156 damage the other day. I also found a decent money making venture - giving Donnel Leif's Blade. His super high luck coupled with Armthrift means most attacks won't drain the weapons use (Armthrift activation is luck*2) and the sword drops small bullion (worth 1000G) on kill as a percentage equal to luck. It only has 4 base damage but it has a 30% critical chance which goes well with Donnel's Skill and Luck and Strength. Cha ching!! I've started finding some of the kids now but I'm not sure whether I want to go to the trouble of using them or not. They seem a touch under leveled and I've grown attached to my current troops and have a compliment of 15 guys who have to get swapped in and out to fit the small unit allowance on maps as it is. I wasn't very happy with Lissa's stats so when she hit 20, I reclassed her to a Troubadour - promoting to Sage seemed pointless as she has too low magic to be of real use as an attacking unit and too little Strength for War Cleric. The extra range movement is more useful than a potential offensive option. I wasn't sure whether to have Cherche stay with her Wyvern or change to Griffon but I kept her with Minerva as the promotion gains for stats were better and she can use lances too. She might be weak to magic but she's proving to be a real heavy hitting tank. I've got her coupled with Gaius gong for that S rank. You're certainly in for a treat with this one. I've yet to beat it but it is certainly feeling like the most complete FE game to reach Western Isles to the point that going back might feel difficult if you aren't already used to the older designs. Whilst it tales elements from all the games and mashes them together, and has it's own, their inclusion has been handled with more skill than the games they were taken from originally.

Fighting games live and die by their communities - it's not a solo experience where it ultimately doesn't matter what machine you're running on. It's about playing together with people and since getting people together in the same room requires a lot of planning, it ultimately comes down to the online. And the vast majority of the fighting community will have an Xbox and/or PS3 with a long list of known contacts they can face against as well as the wider audience of gamers out there. It's been built up by Street Fighter 4, MvC3, Mortal Kombat 9, Virtua Fighter 5, Tekken 6, etc and the idea that they would all rush out and buy a new console for a game they could get on their existing machines for which they have expensive controllers already is preposterous as sales of TTT2 demonstrated. All credit to Netherealm and WB for even bothering with the Wii U version in the first place. No links to the iOS game won't bother anyone and compressed videos are hardly an issue even if the single player mode does feature a greater emphasis on story, like MK9 - some reports have the Wii U version featuring the quickest load times. The Wii U version could have been the best by some note but it wouldn't have made a difference - just like it being a slightly weaker version won't have made a difference either. Poor sales are nothing to do with it's quality as a piece of software and far more to do with it's target platform. The community will likely stay where they are until a massive hitter lands on the next wave of machines and the only one with enough clout to shift them will likely be a new Street Fighter. Fighting games are starting to lose their new found popularity again and that's the series that I feel has the widest appeal to reach outside the hardcore fighting game crowd to bring new people in. At which point they will move on mass assuming they don't end up going the PC route. Nintendo and fighting games haven't really gone together since the SNES.

So can anyone explain why NES games in the Wii U are £3.49 but cost £4.49 on the 3DS? Especially when they cost 4.99€ across both platforms on the mainland. Is this a short term promotional thing?

Well there is a rumour going around at the moment concerning a 360 SoC which could be included into Durango and give it full backward compatibility without compromise as well as be used in conjunction with the all new hardware for better performance. It will also be the thing that powers the Set Top box style 360 device.

Sounds like a job for Donnel and Kellam to me - wouldn't phase them when paired up. I'm not sure whether I want to get the map packs or not. The money one sounds useful if you want to spend ages reclassing troops and getting all the various skills you want onto your team and so burn through Second and Master seals and probably serves you better than the pack that features the Silver Card. And I'm sure the EXPonential Growth map could be useful for post game training. My issue stems from stuff like how the Champions of Yore set all feature the exact same map, the Isle of Talys - I notice it doesn't appear on the world map. I get they wanted to use old maps to relate to the characters but then why do Roy and Micaiah have the exact same map for their DLC - even if they do change the music. Having had a look at the DLC, it seems a good chunk of the maps of throwbacks and usually 2 of the 3 maps in a set are the same. At least the third in a pack also has a skill on most of them in addition. In some ways, it feels like they are trying to monetise the creature campaign of Sacred Stones. In that game you had a two 10 floor dungeons that could reward you with bonus items not easily found, including the elusive Boots, whilst offering a higher challenge and rewarding you with bonus characters. Given what they do give away through Spot Pass, the DLC seems a little steep in comparison and even more so when compared to how much you get in the base game for the retail price. It certainly isn't helped by our DLC prices being 40% more expensive than in the US.

Are you takling couple as in marriage or purely in terms of pair up? Isn't weapon burn through, or efficiency, ultimately tied to the attacking strength/magic stat? More power means more likely to take an enemy down in 2 hits in which case a thief and a pegasus knight would hardly seem to fit that description over say Chrom and a pegasus knight... although Chrom doesn't seem to pass on much strength as part of his pair up. And with Falchion having unlimited use, he sure doesn't need to worry running out of weapons. For me, Sully/Stahl and Donnel/Kellam have probably proved the most effective partnerships in terms of swinging the tides of battle.

He's where Chrom was before except by the game's reasoning, he was still considered underleveled which meant I could still use him to batter everyone that came near him. No joke, he's using a tree branch and still doing massive damage - I just couldn't bring myself to give him a proper weapon when he clearly doesn't need one and I had it taking up space. Lucius Mk II? I've not had Libra support anyone yet but I can just imagine how the conversation with walking libedo, Virion, would go. I'm hooked up with everyone's favourite flame haired merchant...

Yep, just double checked and you can fight them again - I even recruited her and it will let me fight her again. The stats are only affected by your difficulty setting so shes still just as weak when bringing her back again. If the team on your map is too strong, just select Dismiss from their menu to get rid of them and open up the space for Risen/other teams/merchants if you need them... or you just want to use the shop on that spot. Also, think about what spot on the map they appear. If they pop up on a awkward map, such as a desert one which you won't have open yet, just Dismiss them and bring them back until they are on a map that suits you better.... or at least doesn't leave you at a disadvantage. But if Florina's team is too weak, then I suggest you download the proper DLC map for Free as Gibbs mentioned, as the enemy is around level 8 on that... although they have remarkably good stats for level 8 compared to most encounters. This map has two villages you can visit and collect stuff you can either use or sell for money. Plus, as I said in another post, the enemy units will always go for your computer controlled allies before attacking you, provided they are in range, so you can use that to your advantage. The next team up from Florina is Nino and whilst she is level 10 unpromoted, her team are all level 5 promoted and you won't get a look in. Matthew and Serra are both in the teens and unpromoted but still rather stat blessed for their level and not to be taken lightly.

The only negatives against Sony's show were that it was perhaps a little long and they gave way too much focus to Wonderbook otherwise they had a decent showing last year and comfortably beat out MS and Nintendo even if Ubisoft were the real star. Got to say, I'm a little gutted. The Nintendo Directs are ok and all, but there is no sense of occasion. There will never be a Nintendo Direct that features an orchestra playing a medly of Zelda songs. Much like they can't send out a whole beevy of ladies carrying 3DSs so that everyone in the audience gets to sample the goods there and then instead of waiting for E3 to officially begin. Getting to hear the audience reaction almost pulls you into the conference room itself. The hush that falls over the crowd as the lights go dim, and you steady and silence yourself as well careful not to move an inch incase you miss something. You're about to be hit with a trailer for a game you're totally unaware of and you know the whole gaming world is watching along in awe - I loved that initial unveil of Other M, and Zelda TP, for just that. You don't really get any of that with the ND presentations. I find the almost clinical nature of the ND less inviting. E3 feels like an invitation into the world of Nintendo whereas ND feels like them talking bits out of their world and trying to drop it into mine - and given my world sucks, I cheerish that escapism that only E3 delivers. If they truly are swapping the big show for a bunch of smaller ones like their 3DS showcase last year, then really they might as well not bother at all as that was just as woeful as the main event.

Even better than the DLC is the SpotPass feature. When on your World Map, hit X and select Wireless. Select SpotPass to turn it on, make sure Wireless mode is engaged on your 3DS, and afterwards, choose Bonus Box. From here, you can download Bonus items including the Bonus Teams. You might need to select Update first of all. The teams are composed of one unit from a previous FE game, still with generic chracter models though unlike the true DLC ones, and if you select them, they will appear on your map somewhere. As Dem0 has mentioned, there are 10 teams out from "Fire Emblem" and one from "Sacred Stones" which must be random because I have Marisa and not Seth. Select "Fire Emblem" and you should see a list of characters. Most of them are surprisingly strong but the Pegasus Knight Florina has a team that is only around level 4 unpromoted. Now you can fight them on the world map. You won't gain much in the way of items because there are no item drops - you will only get them from the event tiles (the sparkly things you can stand on) - but you can use it to harvest exp and even recruit the lead character once you've killed everyone. You can also repeatedly summon teams indefinitely so once you beat them, you can go back into the menu and bring them back to fight again. And because there are so many different teams with differing strength levels, which you can check on the world map before fighting them anyway in case they are too strong, this is a great source for leveling characters at a whole range of skill levels. As for myself, made some good progress and done chapters 9, 10, 11 and SS4. The music that players in Chapter 9 (which is used again in 11) and 10 is unbelievably good - especially the battle version. I really need to hunt down a copy of the soundtrack... So first up, I got Donnel to level 11 as a villager and class changed him to Mercenary. If any unit in the history of FE didn't need the underdog skill, it's this guy. He seems unfairly powerful and now he's up to level 14 with max strength, speed and luck and hardly lacking in skill or def he makes everyone else look distinctively average. If that wasn't enough, he has level A support with Kellam to send his strength over the edge and make him truly indestructible to physical hits. My Stahl, at level 17 has Hp 37, Str 20, Mag 2, Skill 15, Spd 18, Lck 13, Def 21 and Res 4. He's like a Knight, except he's on horseback, and so has the great movement alongside the resiliance to take a beating as long as it isn't magic based. I've promoted Chrom and Avatar along their normal class lines, so Great Lord and GrandMaster and most of my other units are knocking on the door of level 20 promotion. I've hooked Lissa up with Ricken - I always felt Avatar was too old for Lissa (well, my version of Avatar is) but that meant I could hook myself up with the cutest girl in the game - that I'm aware of, hope I didn't settle down too early.

That sounds like my first couple of chapters and after I dropped Chrom, and Avatar, for Risen encounters to spread the experience around. And that right there is why FE is such a personal experience. Even though they both share the same growth stats on your version and mine, your Stahl has taken a lot of work whereas mine has shone peerlessly amongst my troops from the beginning - even better than Chrom. I might duck out of Chapter 9 and do a run of the DLC map again to see if I can get a few more levels out of Donnel and swap his class. Not that she needs it but it also provides a load of exp too for Lissa since she ends up burning through a chuck of her heal staff - got forced into using my physic staff last time and had to buy a new one for emergencies.

Ah right, just sounds like a distribution difference then. Chrom is such a bad ass that in some ways, I don't feel he even needs the xp right now - same goes for my Stahl. I also let him hold the soothing sword so he can heal for free when not attacking - then I switch back to Falchion so I don't use it up.

Right. I've tried to keep all my units as level as possible instead of letting any single character hog it all though Chrom and Avatar did start off taking a lot of the glory and Lissa naturally gets a lot due to the need to heal but that's ok. I was just wondering if I'd somehow missed a boat load of xp that has seen all you guys promote a bunch of units.