Comix Games

As you might have heard, the original Donkey Kong Country game has come to Nintendo Switch in the form of a game on the SNES classics collection, which is free with Nintendo Switch Online.This is, of course, great news. You can now play one of Nintendo’s classics on your switch, which can be portable; who would have thought? But what could this mean for the future of old games on newer Nintendo consoles - specifically the Switch?

Well, I think it may be possible that even more big classics may be released in the near future. I think the addition of DKC to the SNES Classics shows Nintendo being more open to release the larger games. However, DKC was developed by Rare, which is now owned by Microsoft. This means that a deal must have happened between Nintendo and Microsoft to allow this. This opens many new paths for Nintendo in terms of games that they are likely to include seeing as this deal was made. This could mean that characters from Yooka-Laylee, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and Rayman for example, could make it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as part of the DLC fighters’ pass 2.

I think Rayman would be the most likely addition to Smash, simply because of Conker... well... not being for good boys and girls of all ages, and Yooka-Laylee, while a very large name, does not seem like a franchise that most Smash players would be interested in (to me, at least). I think that Nintendo is also likely to bring in characters from first-party games like Geno, but Sora could be possible if Nintendo works out another deal with Square Enix and Disney (both notoriously hard to get rights from - but we got Cloud in Smash, so who knows.).

Back to Rare, many of the games that they developed have been published on the N64, such as Conker, Rayman, and Goldeneye 007, and if the DKC deal was possible, I think Nintendo could get the rights to have these as virtual console games, or as part of another Classics compilation. This may seem like a bit of a stretch, but maybe Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U games could then be possible virtual console games on the switch (likely as standalone games on the EShop because of their relatively large scale).

So, you are in a bit of a predicament. You are up high, and theres no other way than down; “It’s too high!” you think. What could you do to stop the inevitable fall damage you take? Well, today I will provide you some tips (that you should probably read before building that high anyway) to help.

Lets get this out the way first. This is for new players, however there are some things here that even many experienced players don’t know about.

Now, most people have heard of using a water bucket. You fall, and just before you hit the ground, you place the water beneath you then scoop it back up again. This is known in the Minecraft community as an “MLG”, and with some practice, the timing is very easy. I would reccomend keeping a water bucket in your inventory at all times, it only costs 3 iron ingots (which is very cheap for something so useful!). You could also place the bucket on the block you are on and swim in the stream down to the ground, but you will struggle to get the water back again.

You can also use ender pearls. These are slightly more expensive than the water bucket method, and you still take some damage from the ender pearl, but it will still be less than the fall damage. Just simply defeat some endermen, and use an enderpearl to reach the ground safely. (I would also reccomend carrying these on you if you can! The new blue-y biome in the 1.16 nether is a great place to farm.)

If you have a gravity-affected block (preferably gravel or sand), you can place it on the side of a block and it will fall down. you can keep placing blocks like this, then when the gravity-block pillar is high enough, hop on it and just dig the gravity blocks as you go. This method is very cheap, but slow. If you haven’t got water or pearls yet, this is a good alternative.

Our final method is something known as clutch-block’ing. It is similar to the MLG, because this method invloves placing a block beneath you. This doesn’t completely stop fall damage in most cases, but it can greatly reduce it. If you are on a wall, you can try to fall down and place blocks under your feet along the wall. However, if it is a big fall, using slime blocks (or any other bouncy block, i believe) to clutch-block is a very well known method. It will negate all fall damage; however, most people don’t know that haybales work especially well too. They reduce fall damage by a lot, and getting the timing right with a haybale can make you feel extremely smart!

If you know me in real life, you know I am a rager. I hate to admit it, but I am. No, I don’t scream obsceneties at my team like a 9 year old on Xbox 360; however, I have the very financially-heavy habit of breaking things. Just yesterday, I broke my TV because it has a habit of turning off and on again in the most annoying places, and it was clearly a hardwre problem. It has been messing me up in online games for 8 months now, and yesterday was the last straw. In the heat of the moment, my fist flew at the TV and destroyed the lower half of the screen. I had to abrubtly end my gaming session with my friend, and tell my parents. Great. Now I have to buy a new TV as an unemployed teenager. The perfect start to the Summer Holidays.

How did this happen? How can you prevent this from happening to yourself? Well. Take it from me, relax. If you have the habit of wanting to destroy your controller (or your TV in my case) for example, have a stress ball or similar nearby that you can take your anger out on. This worked for me, but yesterday that stress ball I had wasn’t there. See where I went wrong? I promise you this works. If your team is C9′ing on Overwatch, don’t throw that controller - squeeze that stress ball or hug the nearest Minecraft Steve plushie. Maybe in the case of Overwatch, you could maybe hop out of ranked for a while and play quickplay - or if a Creeper blows up your survival base in Minecraft, play some creative. You might just want to take a break in general, I don’t think they are going to fix Elite Smash any time soon.

This brings us smoothly onto my next point - NO JOHNS. We have all heard Reggie Fils-Aime say the famous quote “No Johns.” But what does this mean and why can it help you with your headset-breaking habits? Firstly, the phrase was made in the Smash Bros. community when a player (who was called John) would always have an excuse for why he lost. “My chair was wonky!” “This room is cold!” John would always have an excuse, a ‘John’ if you will. Hence the phrase, “No Johns.”, which simply means “No lame excuses.” But why can this help? Well I have been a John’er for years, and recently I have noticed some of my friends using the ‘No Johns’ mindset, and it has really helped them. Instead of saying: “That person has reach hacks!”, they would say: “They combo’ed me really well. I could have...” etc. This instills in your mind the thought process of “I lost. Why? How can I improve?” and it will help you realise the times when you are at fault and this will help you improve. In Smash, I started reviewing my replays. One time, I got destroyed by a Game & Watch player, so I saved the replay and realised that I was approaching my opponent the same way each time. So, I wrote that down and tried to vary my approach options. This is how the “No Johns.” mindset has really helped me. If you struggle with keeping this mindset, try to breathe and count to ten.