Devolver Digital has revealed that Reigns: Game of Thrones is heading to Nintendo Switch next week. You’ll be able to get your hands on it from 11th April.

Developed in partnership with the TV show’s network HBO, the game is a spin-off in the Reigns strategy game series. You’ll be doing everything in your power to claim the Iron Throne as Cersei Lannister, Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and more favourites from the show, carefully navigating the complex relationships of the Seven Kingdoms.

The first two games in the Reign series have actually already been released on Switch in a double pack called Reigns: Kings & Queens. We thought that the games were already like a weird blend of Game of Thrones and Tinder when we reviewed them last year, so perhaps this is a perfect fit?

If you want to learn a little more about it, we’ll leave you with this lengthy description from the Nintendo store. The game will be available from 11th April for $3.99 / £3.59.

A Formidable Cast: Rule from the Iron Throne as Cersei Lannister, Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, Sansa Stark, and more. Change between each king and queen you unlock to face challenges and mysteries unique to their story.

Impose Your Will: Swipe left or right to change the fate of the Seven Kingdoms forever as you hear the impassioned pleas and unpredictable demands from the people of Westeros. If a particular character becomes bothersome, tear their card in half to unburden Your Majesty with their concerns – but at what cost?

Reenvision Westeros: Melisandre’s visions are your playing field and extend beyond the TV series to imagine the many fates of those that would sit upon the Iron Throne. Rebuild the Great Sept of Baelor as Cersei or discover the path of the Seven Kingdoms if Sansa Stark had married Jaime Lannister.

Regal Mini Games: Even the most powerful rulers need to set aside their worries and partake in more trivial matters now and then. From jousting to tavern brawls, these distractions aren’t without consequence!

A Grander Reigns: Fans of the Reigns series will be delighted with the biggest, deepest entry in the series that does not simply retell the stories you know but rather lets you create new adventures at your whim.

Iconic Soundtrack: Decide the fate of Westeros and those that reside in your land to the soaring score of the HBO series by Ramin Djawadi.

Today’s Deal: Save big on bunch of games with the RE-PLAY 2019 Sale, in support of War Child UK! Partners participating in this sale have pledged a portion of their proceeds from the sale to War Child UK. *

War Child UK returns with RE-PLAY, the unique fundraising campaign that shines a light on the giants of old and reconnects gamers with favourite titles from their formative years, supporting the right to play for some of the world’s most vulnerable children.

The RE-PLAY sale celebrates all things retro; from classics to modern pixel-art titles running from April 4th at 5pm Pacific to April 11th at 5pm Pacific.

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends April 11th at 5pm Pacific.

This week at Bungie, we’re getting ready for some high voltage.

A storm is brewing. Next week, we’ll kick off what we’ve been calling Arc Week. Our goal for this happening has been to take the element that makes our sandbox crackle and put it under the microscope. The most noticeable update is that we improved many Arc subclass paths from the time before Forsaken. The week will also feature Arc Singe and Arc Bounties to synergize with your updated abilities. To provide a proving grounds for all this new energy, Mayhem will be available in the Crucible to let you experiment with your enhanced Arc abilities using shockingly short cooldowns.

Arc Week will also feature one of the most powerful Arc weapons ever created, the Thunderlord Exotic Machine Gun. If you weren’t able to complete the quest to obtain Thunderlord last year, you will have from April 9 to April 23 to revisit the Cosmodrome and add it your collection.

A Spark Can Give Life… or Take It

Arc Week buffs up several Arc subclasses. Designer Dan Gniady has all the details on what changes you can expect.

Dan: After the release of Forsaken, the sandbox team wanted to revisit some older subclass paths and freshen them up a bit. This entailed tuning for balance as well as quality-of-life fixes. We’ve also added new functionality to a couple of subclasses. In update 2.2.1, we’re focusing on Arc subclasses for Titans, Hunters, and Warlocks to kick off Arc Week. That said, we also made a couple needed changes to non-Arc abilities. Let’s get into it.

Striker Code of the Juggernaut (Bottom Path)

Notes: This path is all about punching enemies to get better at shooting them and shooting enemies to get better at punching them. We want to further incentivize engaging in this loop and make doing so move visible and flashy. Shooting an enemy should make you feel like you are primed to strike with melee. Punching an enemy and releasing your rage will make you feel like a more focused shot.

Frontal Assault:

• Now increases all weapon damage for the duration of the buff
• 25% against combatants
• 20% against players
• Duration increased from 10 to 16 seconds
• Buff timer is now displayed on the HUD

Knockout:

• Melee damage bonus increased from 25% to 60%
• Now also triggers once you have dealt 60% damage to a target
• Any damage done after 60% will refresh the timer
• Still also triggers off shield pop
• No longer consumed after 1 melee attack
• Duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds

Arcstrider Way of the Warrior (Top Path)

Notes: This path thrives on striking with precision and timing and is heavily melee focused. To enhance this loop, we are giving it a bit more nuance with a higher potential payout. We want to allow for more room to execute and engage with both the path to success and the benefits once you do succeed.

Combination Blow

• Bonus melee damage can now be stacked 3 times (requires a melee ability kill for each stack)
• Buff increases melee damage by 60% per stack in PvE
• Buff increases melee damage by 22.7% per stack in PvP
• For comparison, this ability used to be 1 stack and increased melee damage by 50%
• Kills with this ability now heal 40 health in addition to starting health regen

Deadly Reach:

• Increased buff duration from 6 to 8 seconds
• Buff is no longer consumed by a melee hit

Arcstrider Way of the Wind (Bottom Path)

Notes: This path is about quick movement and thriving under pressure. We want to increase your ability to survive while at low health and enhance your elusiveness so you can be more confident when in danger. This way, you don’t just get a bonus when you’re injured, you have more control over what state you are in, and you can make more risk/reward choices.

Disorienting Blow:

• Increased the disorient distance by 50%
• Increased duration of disorient on players from 1.5 to 2 seconds

Focused Breathing:

• Increased dodge recharge bonus while sprinting by 100%

Combat Meditation:

• Increased bonus grenade and melee regeneration while bloodied by 25%

Lightning Reflexes:

• Increased damage resistance while dodging from 25% to 40% in PvP
• Increased damage resistance while dodging from 63% to 70% In PvE

Stormcaller Stormtrance Super (Top and Bottom Path)

• Damage scales up to 150% over 5 seconds of continuous use of the attack
• Updated FX and audio to support this functionality

Stormcaller Attunement of Conduction (Top Path)

Notes: This path focuses prominently on chain lightning, but we also want to better sell the fantasy of being a god of erratic and dangerous energy. We want you to be delighted and surprised by the chaos you cause. On top of that, we should make the choice of using your abilities something to better strategize around, and reward you for doing so.

Chain Lightning Melee

• Can now chain up to 5 times, up from 1, and each individual target can be hit twice
• Chain damage decreased from 50 to 31 damage per chain hit

Arc Web

• Can now chain to many (many) more targets, and back and forth between targets
• The amount of chaining varies based on use, and I will leave it to you all to discover!
• Increase chain range from 10 meters to 12 meters
• Chaining Arc damage now reduces the cooldown of your grenade
• Works with Arc Web chains and chains from Chain Lightning Melee
• Earn 3% energy per instance of chain damage in PvE
• Earn 10% energy per instance of chain damage in PvP

Stormcaller Attunement of the Elements (Bottom Path)

Notes: Currently this path focuses on creating drone buddies for allies and staying close to them to dish out more Rifts and the buddies therein. Generally, Arc drone is short-lived, and you need to stay close to your Rift to keep it around. Now you will be able to take your pal further and, if you stick with friends, will be able to have it around much more often, making this path more potent as support.

Electrostatic Surge:

• Increased bonus regeneration rate of Rift by 600% per nearby friendly Guardian
• This sounds insane, and it’s a big boost you will definitely feel, but it was previously very low.
• Extends Rift duration from 15 to 20 seconds
• Added a UI notification for when the buff is active

Arc Soul:

• Extended duration by 50%.

Now let’s talk about some non-Arc Changes, as well…

Voidwalker Nova Warp Super

Notes: Clearly we swung a bit hard when we hit this previously. This should serve as a nice middle ground to settle into.

• Reduced initial charged detonation energy cost by 20%
• Reduced energy cost of holding the charged detonation by 7%
• Reduced time required to fully charge the charged detonation from 0.9 seconds to 0.7 seconds
• Reduced Dark Blink cost by 20%
• Increased base Super duration from 18 seconds to 22 seconds

Dawnblade Everlasting Fire Perk

Notes: Similar to the Striker, we wanted to make sure this perk didn’t allow for infinite Supers in certain activities. We’ve increased the amount you get back upfront but put diminishing returns on it so you can’t go forever. This will still be a Super you can extend much longer with skill.

• Tuned the amount of Super gained from Everlasting Fire
• Initial return increased from 10% to 13% Super energy
• Return then decays linearly over the course of 30 kills from 13% to 0.75% returned per kill

You may be asking “What about Spectral blades???”

We know it’s out of bounds and are working right now on a few tweaks to bring it back in line. We’ll let you know the details once we’ve finished play testing and tuning to lock in on what the changes will be.

That’s all for me this time. As always, we look forward to you getting your hands on these changes and letting us know what you think. Happy electrocuting everyone!

Patch Note Preview

Next week, Update 2.2.1 will be deploying on April 9. Here is a preview of some changes you can look forward to along with the Arc Week rollout.

Catalysts

Warlock Bloom Ability

Xûr

Infusion

Gambit Prime Weapons

Gambit Prime

Quests and Bounties

Strong Resolves

Our Player Support team is keeping track of all known issues in the game. If you see something they aren’t tracking, make a post on the Help forum letting them know.

This is their report.

Destiny 2 Update 2.2.1

Next Tuesday, on April 9, Destiny 2 will undergo maintenance and Update 2.2.1 is scheduled to go live. No downtime is expected during this maintenance; however, players who have not yet updated to version 2.2.1 by 1 PM PDT will be returned to the title screen.

Please see below for the timeline of this deployment window:

9 AM PDT (1600 UTC):

• Destiny 2 service maintenance is scheduled to begin with no expected downtime.
• Update 2.2.1 will begin rolling out across all platforms and regions.
• Destiny Companion features will be unavailable on web, mobile, and third-party apps.

1 PM PDT (2000 UTC):

• Destiny 2 service maintenance is scheduled to conclude.
• Players who have not yet installed Update 2.2.1 will be removed from activities and returned to the title screen.

1:15 PM PDT (2015 UTC):

• Destiny Companion features will be re-enabled on web, mobile, and third-party apps.
• Console players who encounter issues updating to 2.2.1 should reset their console and try downloading the update.

Destiny 2 Update 2.2.1 Resolved Issues Preview

With the upcoming launch of Destiny 2 Update 2.2.1, we’d like to take the opportunity to follow up on a sampling of player-impacting issues that have emerged in Destiny 2 over the past several months. The following known issues are expected to be resolved after the launch of Destiny 2 Update 2.2.1 on Tuesday, April 9.

• Like a Diamond Triumph: Players who became eligible for the “Like a Diamond” Triumph during the window when it was not available will have this Triumph unlocked retroactively following the 2.2.1 update. Impacted players will receive a notice in game when this fix begins rolling out to their accounts.
• Acting Bad, Looking Good Pursuit: The “Acting Bad, Looking Good” pursuit is not completing for players using a full set of Ancient Apocalypse armor.
• Obsidian Crystal: The Obsidian Crystal doesn’t always drop for players on the Unidentified Frame quest step for Izanagi’s Burden.
• Wish-Ender: Players cannot see behind walls with Wish-Ender while invisible.
• The Vow Infusion: The Vow cannot be infused above 650 Power.
• BrayTech RWP Mk. II Infusion: BrayTech RWP Mk. II cannot be infused above 600 Power.
• Stronghold Power Ammo: Stronghold consumes Power ammo when blocking with Black Talon.
• The Weight of Guilt: The Weight of Guilt emblem does not display its purchase price after it has been unlocked for purchase from Lord Saladin.

For the complete list of resolved issues and patch notes, please keep an eye on our Updates page once 2.2.1 is live.

Movies

Here are some movies. You like movies, don’t you? Well, of course you do. Everyone likes movies. That’s why people make them. We like movies so much, we watch a lot of them. These were our favorites from this past week. In fact, we liked them so much, we’re adding emblems to the collections of the filmmakers. People will see those emblems and say, “Where did you get that?” They say, “I made a bad-ass movie. Who are you?”

Movie of the Week: Intro

Honorable Mention: Let me Die

Hunter Emote

Titan Emote

Warlock Emote

A lot of feedback on Crucible and how it could improve comes in the form of suggested sandbox changes that would impact the flow of combat in PvP. As you can see from the section above, we are still committed to updating the sandbox as frequently as we can, and we have an update going out next week.

We have bigger Crucible changes being planned for later this year, but we aren’t ready to talk about those plans just yet. We hope to share more with you sometime this summer. In the meantime, we will continue to provide updates to matchmaking, QOL fixes, Sandbox balance, and Glory changes.

<3 Cozmo

The Fedora distribution is a full featured operating system with an excellent graphical desktop environment. A user can point and click their way through just about any typical task easily. All of this wonderful ease of use masks the details of a powerful command line under the hood. This article is part of a series that shows you some common command line utilities. So let’s drop into the shell, and have a look at cut.

Often when you work in the command line, you are working with text files. Sometimes these files may be quite long. Reading them in their entirety, while feasible, can be time consuming and prone to errors. In this installment you’ll learn how to extract content from text files, and get the information you want from them.

It’s important to recognize that there are many ways to accomplish similar command line tasks in Fedora. The Fedora repositories include entire language systems for parsing and working with text, as an example. Also, there are multiple command line utilities available for just about any purpose conceivable in the shell. This article will only focus on using a few of those utility choices, to extract some information from a file and present it in a readable format.

Making the cut

To illustrate this example use a standard sizable file on the system like /etc/passwd. As seen in a prior article in this series, you can execute the cat command to view an entire file:

$ cat /etc/passwd

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin

daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin

adm:x:3:4:adm:/var/adm:/sbin/nologin

...

This file contains information on all accounts present on the system. It has a specific format:

name:password:user-id:group-id:comment:home-directory:shell

Imagine that you want to simply have a list of all the account names on the system. If you could only cut out the name value from each line. This is where the cut command comes in handy! This command treats any input one line at a time, and extracts a specific part of the line.

The cut command provides options for selecting parts of a line differently, and in this example two of them are needed, -d which is an option to specify a delimiter type to use, and -f which is an option to specify which field of the line to cut. The -d option lets you declare the delimiter that separates values in a line. In this case a colon (:) is used to separate values. The -f option lets you choose which field value or values to extract. So for this example the command entered would be:

$ cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd
root
bin
daemon
adm
...

That’s great, it worked! But you get the printout to the standard output, which in a terminal session at least means the screen. What if you needed the information for another task to be done later? It would be really nice if there was a way to put the output of the cut command into a text file to save it. There is an easy builtin shell function for such a task, the redirect function (>).

$ cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd > names.txt

This will place the output of cut into a file called names.txt and you can check the contents with cat:

$ cat names.txt
root
bin
daemon
adm
...

With two commands and one shell function, it was easy to identify using cat, extract using cut, and redirect the extracted information from one file, saving it to another file for later use.

Photo by Joel Mbugua on Unsplash.

In this final part of our three-part series, we reach the conclusion everyone has been waiting for. The ultimate goal of using LDAP (in many cases) is enabling desktop authentication. With this setup, admins are better able to manage and control user accounts and logins. After all, Active Directory admins shouldn’t have all the fun, right?

WIth OpenLDAP, you can manage your users on a centralized directory server and connect the authentication of every Linux desktop on your network to that server. And since you already have OpenLDAP and the LDAP Authentication Manager setup and running, the hard work is out of the way. At this point, there is just a few quick steps to enabling those Linux desktops to authentication with that server.

I’m going to walk you through this process, using the Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 to demonstrate. If your desktop distribution is different, you’ll only have to modify the installation steps, as the configurations should be similar.

What You’ll Need

Obviously you’ll need the OpenLDAP server up and running. You’ll also need user accounts created on the LDAP directory tree, and a user account on the client machines with sudo privileges. With those pieces out of the way, let’s get those desktops authenticating.

Installation

The first thing we must do is install the necessary client software. This will be done on all the desktop machines that require authentication with the LDAP server. Open a terminal window on one of the desktop machines and issue the following command:

sudo apt-get install libnss-ldap libpam-ldap ldap-utils nscd -y

During the installation, you will be asked to enter the LDAP server URI (Figure 1).

The LDAP URI is the address of the OpenLDAP server, in the form ldap://SERVER_IP (Where SERVER_IP is the IP address of the OpenLDAP server). Type that address, tab to OK, and press Enter on your keyboard.

In the next window (Figure 2), you are required to enter the Distinguished Name of the OpenLDAP server. This will be in the form dc=example,dc=com.

If you’re unsure of what your OpenLDAP DN is, log into the LDAP Account Manager, click Tree View, and you’ll see the DN listed in the left pane (Figure 3).

The next few configuration windows, will require the following information:

• Specify LDAP version (select 3)

• Make local root Database admin (select Yes)

• Does the LDAP database require login (select No)

• Specify LDAP admin account suffice (this will be in the form cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com)

• Specify password for LDAP admin account (this will be the password for the LDAP admin user)

Once you’ve answered the above questions, the installation of the necessary bits is complete.

Configuring the LDAP Client

Now it’s time to configure the client to authenticate against the OpenLDAP server. This is not nearly as hard as you might think.

First, we must configure nsswitch. Open the configuration file with the command:

sudo nano /etc/nsswitch.conf

In that file, add ldap at the end of the following line:

passwd: compat systemd group: compat systemd shadow: files

These configuration entries should now look like:

passwd: compat systemd ldap

group: compat systemd ldap

shadow: files ldap

At the end of this section, add the following line:

 gshadow files

passwd: compat systemd ldap group: compat systemd ldap shadow: files ldap gshadow files

sudo nano /etc/pam.d/common-password

password [success=1 user_unknown=ignore default=die] pam_ldap.so use_authtok try_first_pass

sudo nano /etc/pam.d/common-session

session optional pam_mkhomedir.so skel=/etc/skel umask=077

Live presentations can be thought-provoking, inspirational, and powerful. A great presentation can inspire us to think about something in an entirely different way or bring a group together around a common idea or project. But not everyone experiences presentations in the same way. We may speak a different language from the presenter, or be a native speaker in another language, and some of us are deaf and hard of hearing. So, what if speakers could make their presentations better understood by everyone in the room? Now they can with live captions & subtitles in PowerPoint.

In honor of the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we’re announcing this new feature—powered by artificial intelligence (AI)—which provides captions and subtitles for presentations in real-time. Live captions & subtitles in PowerPoint supports the deaf and hard of hearing community by giving them the ability to read what is being spoken in real-time. In addition, captions and subtitles can be displayed in the same language or in a different one, allowing non-native speakers to get a translation of a presentation. At launch, live captions & subtitles will support 12 spoken languages and display on-screen captions or subtitles in one of 60+ languages.

Live captions & subtitles in PowerPoint brings:

• The power of AI to presenters, so they can convey simple and complex information across subjects and topics.
• Speech recognition that automatically adapts based on the presented content for more accurate recognition of names and specialized terminology.
• The ability for presenters to easily customize the size, position, and appearance of subtitles. Customizations may vary by platform.
• A peace of mind with security and compliance knowing that the feature meets many industry standards for compliance certifications.

The feature joins other accessible features in Office 365, like automatic suggestions for alt-text in Word and PowerPoint, expanded availability of automatic closed captions and searchable transcripts for videos in Microsoft Stream, enhancements to the Office 365 Accessibility Checker, and more.

Here’s what one of our customers had to say:

“We are constantly looking for new ways of ensuring that the Government of Canada sets the highest possible standards as an accessible and inclusive workplace. We welcome such positive advances in technology, like this feature, that allows everyone, and notably those with disabilities, to better communicate ideas. They help break down barriers and lead to greater inclusiveness to the benefit of individuals and society as a whole.”
—Yazmine Laroche, deputy minister responsible for Public Service Accessibility

Live captions & subtitles in PowerPoint will begin rolling out in late January 2019 and will be available for Office 365 subscribers worldwide for PowerPoint on Windows 10, PowerPoint for Mac, and PowerPoint Online.

I thoroughly enjoyed going through one of Owen’s old articles earlier in the week – a side-benefit of taking over a site with a wonderful legacy like Pocket Tactics is that from time to time you get to see glimpses of a bygone era. Things that Owen, Dave and the community of the day cared about or were looking forward to and being able to contrast that to where we are now.

It’s the same kind of satisfaction I get from reading about history, and it was especially illuminating to get a peak as to what digital board games were like five years ago. As I said in the update, we looked at that article because a reader asked us too – if anyone else remembers any past features that they want us to look at again, feel free to drop me a line. Happy to do it again.

Meanwhile, in the world of mobile gaming…

Out Now

Cultist Simulator (iOS & Android) – Full review coming soon!

The indie PC cult classic has finally made its way to both mobile platforms. This is self-described as a ‘roguelike narrative card game’ where you must seek out unholy mysteries in a Lovecraftian 1920’s setting. You’ve got to recruit or indoctrinate new followers, craft items and summon spirits.

Cultist Simulator doesn’t have a tutorial as the developers feel part of the fun is learning how to play the game on your own terms, and the roguelike legacy system ensures your experimentation isn’t wasted. Michael’s already hard at work on our review, so look to next week for this thoughts. If you’d rather nor wait, the game is currently running a 30% launch discount!

Dungeon Warfare 2 (iOS & Android) – Full Review coming soon!

We’ve been waiting for Tower Defence RTS Dungeon Warfare 2 since last year, and we’re finally glad to see it’s been released. The original game launched in August 2016, although we didn’t review it at the time. Tower-defence games are often associated with Free-to-Play trappings, but Dungeon Warfare’s premium price-point means it’s managed to escape the stigmatism.

The sequel boasts 33 unique traps, over 30 enemies with special traits, 60+ levels along with at least five boss battles and lots of progression systems, loot and mode variants.

Updates

Evolution: The Video Game (iOS & Android) (Review)

Update 1.0.5 is mainly a quality of life improvement, so no new content so to speak. It adds support for iPhone X screens, as well as rewarding players to stick around in matchmade games to the very end if all other human players leave. There’s also been some tweaking as to the nature of Matchmade games.

Sales

Project Highrise (iOS & Android) (Review): $1.99

This is an iOS-only discount, Kalypso have discounted their building-simulator to just a couple of dollars. It’s a pretty decent, engaging management sim if you’re looking for something new in this genre.

Crowntakers (iOS & Android): $0.99

One of our favourite Roguelikes is also discounted to just a dollar, although again only on iOS. If it’s any consolation though, the game is naturally cheaper on Android anyway.

Evergarden (iOS & Android) (Review): $1.99

Intriguing garden-themed puzzler Evergarden is now its cheapest price since launch, so if you’ve been sitting on the fence now might be a great time. The discount is only on iOS because the Android version is still in ‘beta’ and is currently available for free.

Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!

Clickteam Fusion is an easy to use game engine behind games such as Five Nights at Freddie’s and The Escapists.  We previously featured Clickteam in our “Closer Look” series a few years back.  Clickteam Fusion 3.0 has been under development for several years now but Clickteam 2 just got a bit of an update to hold developers over until 3.0 ships.  The new update shipped as DLC on Steam as the Fusion 2.5+ DLC.

Details of the new DLC:

Clickteam Fusion 2.5+ enhances your existing copy of Clickteam Fusion 2.5 Standard or Developer (for PC or Mac) by providing some very powerful additional features and improving functions in several places.

Access the power of event editor with even more ease using child events in your projects, qualifiers in global events, customizable qualifiers and a global event list editor.

Improve the performances of your applications with new engine optimizations and a new Windows runtime using DirectX 11.

Debugging your application has never been easier with the addition of new features like the built in profiler that allows you to examine the time taken by each event line of your application. The resulting output allows you to detect any bottleneck in your events and optimize your application’s frame rate. Or the new Find All function that searches your entire application for your search criteria and provides a new output window with the results. Find what you are looking for in the list, click it to jump directly there!

You can learn more about the release on Steam here or on the Clickteam homepage available here.

GameDev News

Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on various topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. In this piece, staff writer Gavin looks back on his history with the Smash Bros. series and tells us why he’s weary of the latest iteration on Switch…

We’ve all got different tastes when it comes to video games and, indeed, everything else in this world. We’re all entitled to our opinions, of course, however ‘wrong’ they may be. People are welcome to believe that Skyward Sword is complete and utter trash, for example, although I remember having a cracking time with it over Christmas 2011. Sure it’s a slow starter, but I can’t understand the vitriol it provokes in some corners of the internet. Alternatively, you might enjoy, say, 3D Sonic games; that’s fine. You won’t hear any whining from me – we can still be friends.

However, working for this website has magnified a personal issue I’ve got with one of Nintendo’s crown jewel franchises; something that’s been bugging me for ages and which flared up last year with the launch of Switch’s biggest game since Super Mario Odyssey. Yes, it’s confession time – I just don’t understand the world’s obsession with Super Smash Bros.

As perplexing as this may be to some readers (and some colleagues – sorry Alex!), I just cannot enjoy Smash in the way legions of fans seem to. I know I’m not entirely alone and that there’s a small band of us who watch from the side-lines with a sense of bemusement as the rest of the world goes Smash crazy. I see sales figures that show it’s now the biggest selling Switch game in Japan and I know it must be good – I know I must be missing something, but I simply can’t find a way in.

It’s certainly not for lack of trying – I’ve been burned before, multiple times. I bought (and subsequently sold) the first three games in the series. I picked up the original N64 game back in 1999 because, well, of course I did. Just watch the intro for a reminder of how cool this mashup was:

A fighting game featuring Mario, Link, Fox, Pikachu and Captain Falcon?! For an N64 kid, the magnitude of this crossover was impossible to resist, but from the very first moment something didn’t feel quite right.

Specific memories from that period are dim, but I remember using Pikachu a lot and spamming his lightning bolt move. I remember the controls never quite ‘clicking’ and feeling very odd about Mario’s jump not being on the ‘A’ button. Perhaps it had something to do with my youthful ignorance; obviously Mario’s jump wouldn’t be on the ‘A’ button in a fighting game. I was imposing my expectations based on Mario 64 onto this entirely different genre. Then again, Smash isn’t really like any other fighting game, certainly not anything I’d played to that point. Jumping didn’t feel weird with Link because his jump in Ocarina of Time was automatic and pushing ‘up’ on the stick was generally how you accomplished it, but for whatever reason the inputs never ‘sunk in’ and I fell into a quagmire where button mashing felt unsatisfying, but I could never muster enthusiasm to really master the controls.

I was also playing predominantly in single-player, which is obviously sub-optimal. I’d rope a sibling into a match whenever I could, but we’d invariably end up quickly returning to GoldenEye (Licence to Kill, Pistols, Facility) or Mario Kart 64 – yes, we’d rather fight in that game’s Battle Mode than throw down in Smash! It simply didn’t strike a chord as a two-player experience either and while I procured more controllers later on, the feeling of disappointment had set in and it was too late.

So, when Super Smash Bros. Melee showed up on GameCube, I thought I owed the game another chance. With more than double the amount of playable characters and a massive leap in graphical fidelity, once again I was drawn in. Knowing exactly what to expect this time round would help set my expectations accordingly, I thought, so I snapped the game up and hoped to be wowed.

Very quickly, though, that familiar empty feeling returned. Despite the wealth of fan service, familiar faces and all the excellent reviews, I just wasn’t having fun with it. No, that’s not quite right – I wasn’t having the sort of fun I expected after reading all the glowing recommendations. It was moderately enjoyable, yes – like a cup of tea or a nice walk – but I wanted the sort of raucous multiplayer mayhem I got from a bout of Mario Kart and Melee never provided that. The Adventure Mode single-player content should have kept me happy, but it felt like an add-on; a side dish with a smattering of platforming which only highlighted what, to me, the game lacked, even though it had Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom cronies.

In spite of all my previous experience, a curious mixture of confusion over what I was ‘missing’ plus the single-player Subspace Emissary mode and the ballooning roster of fighters (including Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake, for crying out loud!) had me eyeing Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii in 2008. With all those characters and stages, the game felt (from the outside) like an unbridled celebration of video games; a party that everyone was attending which I’d be crazy to miss…

So, once again (and against my better judgement) I paid the money, found the cheapest ‘good’ bottle of wine I could and went to the party. I stood in the corner rocking on my heels, analysing the attendees between swigs of cheap bottled lager before escaping to the kitchen to find another. As I suspected, the party was all pleasant smiles, awkward silences with Prefab Sprout on the stereo. We must do this again some time!

Nope, it just wasn’t working. Brawl did nothing to show me why this game was so incredibly popular and made me feel like more of an outsider than ever. By the time the Wii U iteration released, I’d learned my lesson: it’s just not for me, I thought. I’m not gonna be duped again by… what’s that? 58 playable characters, you say!? Despite the slim pickings of the Wii U years, I somehow managed to stay strong and abstain.

Of course, Nintendo got me in a different way. As so many others did, I fell in love with the Smash series amiibo and have dozens sitting on the shelf now, despite never owning the game they were made for. I stayed strong, though, determined to sit out Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS and I managed to do so, feeling very pleased with myself for avoiding Nintendo’s cunning trap the fourth time around.

So, when Super Smash Bros. Ultimate finally landed on Switch, I was more than happy to sit this one out, too. Smash Ultimate? More like Smash Ulti-meh, amirite? That was before Nintendo’s endless barrage of Smash details in 2018’s Direct broadcasts, though. Despite having little interest in actually playing the game, I sat through every last minute of those deep dives and gradually got more and more intrigued. If previous versions were party-like ‘celebrations’ of video games, Ultimate is the Glastonbury Festival of Smash. Everyone is here; characters, players, the lot. Everyone except me, it seems.

With every bit of news about spirit events and upcoming DLC that comes to light, I read and once again doubt myself. Perhaps, I’m missing out – maybe Daft Punk are playing at the party this time and it’s going to be amazing and I’m an idiot! The huge roster of fighters and the ample single-player content is potent, sure, but really it’s the sheer number of fans that – once again – has me wondering. It looks fun. I like fun, I like video games, I should like Smash Ultimate!

How many chances should you give a series? Is it worth me trying one final time to see what all the fuss is about? With so many other games to play – and limited time – I’m more weary than ever of putting down money only to be disappointed. I would say I’ll wait until it’s cheap, but this is a Nintendo first-party game we’re talking about. I almost caved when the Piranha Plant DLC was included (I bought the amiibo the moment it was released and it’s probably my favourite) but got distracted by other games on the eShop.

I can’t be alone, I know there are others who just aren’t that into Smash. With any other series I’d shrug my shoulders and mutter ‘different strokes, different folks’ before moving on without a second thought, but there’s something about the celebratory crossover of the series and the party-like atmosphere which is uniquely appealing. Laboured as those Directs might have been, they showed the blood, sweat and tears that Sakurai and his team pour into these games. I would love to support that sort of dedication. All it would take is an incredible DLC announcement to push me over the edge – Banjo-Kazooie would do it, however improbable that is. Until then, you’ll find me sitting on the fence feeling lonesome as lines of revellers traipse through sunlit fields to the Smash Festival.