Iwakura

its been four years since ive posted anything related to music i make, so i figured id just give an update to it. this is one of my favorites that ive made. i based it off of an oc ive been obsessed with lately:

im honestly really proud of it all but i know i could do better. i feel it needs more variety which is something ive always struggled with when making music. im still learning how to do this, even if i am just teaching myself. ive made an album inspired by yume nikki and yume 2kki too:

there are four notable instances of fourth party rep in smash to my knowledge, and two of them appear in ultimate. ill start with the first smash game and go to ultimate.

first, in smash 64 and certain versions of melee, theres the proximity mine. it bares close resemblance to the mines from goldeneye 007. speaking of, while agent 007 was never actually cut like some people may believe, he was talked about by sakurai himself. (it would have been insane to have him in and this post wouldnt exist if he was.)

then theres the chronicle in brawl, which i dont even know if that would count, but it does list fourth party names such as mickey, popeye, and snoopy.

now heres where things really get serious with this: in ultimate, there are two heavy hitters with this debate. first, which everyone knows about, is mickey. while he doesnt actually appear, the silhouette of his head is on sora's keyblade. THIS HAS BEEN HUGE SINCE HIS TRAILER and i think it really blurs the line for character inclusions next entry almost as well as the sans and cuphead outfits do for indie game representation in a future roster. dracula also blurs that line, as he originates from an 1800s novel, vampire and appearance included, although the cloak design was in part due to a play. yes, his powers come from castlevania, but the basis is still. from. a. novel. (now if only the same would happen with geralt...)

now im gonna start saying some crazy things.

miku, dragon ball, and spongebob have the highest chance of getting in regarding true, modern day fourth party representation.

ill start with spongebob by saying that he has a great history with games and popularity in the west. many games have been rated highly and everyone knows who he is. he's just as popular as mickey, mario, hello kitty, pikachu, and goku. does he have a strong chance of actually being the first to get in? not at all, especially with him already being in a competing platfighter. but he has made an appearance in recent game crossovers with sonic crossworlds, which may strengthen his chances.

then theres dragon ball. it has an almost equally great game history starting right after the original manga finished. a lot of the fighting games are incredibly popular and goku himself might be more well known that spongebob. he's also a japan original, so he has a naturally higher chance. with that said, he's probably at the very top of the list, but theres also android 21, whos a game original character. who knows who will get in first? but i think neither will get in before miku.

if its not already a thing to the side, i do HIGHLY suggest nintendo to add the entirety of wuhu island with the main focus being a side story/mission island. yes it could have a cup or two and a few battle courses, but theres more that could be done with it if they focus on missions. the first cup could include wuhu loop and maka wuhu, a track that includes this route and one that includes this route. the battle courses could be wuhu town, the lake, and the volcano. maybe they can throw in some wii fit locations to add more tracks. i honestly think they could do a lot more with it than what ive come up with and maybe they could add even more to it. who knows. i dont know how knockout tour could work with this, they may have to exclude it or cut it short, but i do know this game is a perfect opportunity to bring back wuhu. as for characters, there's not much outside of miis, sportsmates, wii fit trainer, nintendogs and maybe cats, and maybe characters from mii plaza and miitopia.

24 characters in a race is double what we've ever had in any mario kart game ever, save for the surprisingly well performing mod for mario kart wii. if that can run well, as well as fortnite having 100 players per game since 2017, i think its safe to say that 24 racers isnt much of an issue as long as dedicated servers are available. that being said, it wont be too great if the roster isnt quite a bit larger than 8's. im expecting most if not all of the characters from previous entries to return, except for all of the guest characters. sure, it would be nice to see link and pacman come back, but this is mario kart. maybe make them dlc. hopefully they ditch the costumes from the main roster and give them their own section like how yoshi and shy guy have alternate colours in 8. replacing those would be new characters such as e. gadd, foreman spike, and ninji. honestly, writing out a whole wishlist for characters is something that would take up a lot of time.

id also like to say that this mario kart may not be like any other. how will 24 characters work on retro tracks? will the retro tracks work well with the established length of nitros? are the nitro tracks really as long as mario bros circuit seems to be? will we even get retro tracks, or will we get 32 completely new tracks? is this a reboot? its incredibly hard to tell with what little of the game we've seen.

also, what are they doing with the karts? are they going to be customizable? was that just a gimmick for mk8? is it going to be a mix of both? how many karts are we going to have? are we getting any classic karts other than the 3d hot rally one? how about ones based on previous games in the mario universe? despite how silly it would be, id love to race as a hill, starship mario, or just a block. i hope they get really creative with karts this time. while customization was nice, i want to see more creativity in designs that dont allow for customization.

First off, the next console. I believe it'll stay relatively the same as the Switch but with the best internals they can get their hands on. They'll probably update the Joycons a bit and reintroduce the standard D-pad, or they may take the Steam Deck approach and glue them on. The standard will have a higher quality OLED screen to compete with others and possibly better sound. Not much more I could think of but it's enough to compete for next gen and try to bleed into the future gen. It opens up the possibility for more open first party games as well as more intricacy and design, increasing the odds for success (most of the time). Third party games will run better too.

Next, let's talk games. 2D Mario has been refreshed with Wonder, Zelda with TotK and BotW, Pikmin is still going, and Metroid... we don't know what's happening there, but it did have Dread. Mario Kart is still going strong, but there's only so much left they could do until they run out of options for one game. Smash is dead for now, but that's a topic for later with Mario Kart. Animal Crossing is iffy, as the player base has likely been halved since release; I know I don't play it anymore, and I've heard that it's got several issues that I agree with.

I want to go in depth about the state of Mario. Mario fans will be feasting soon with Wonder and RPG, and I'm one of them. Super Mario RPG is, if you couldn't tell, my favorite RPG, and I'm incredibly ecstatic for the remake. I have faith it'll sell well and be given the recognition it deserves. The music and graphics seem phenomenal in the remake, and everything seems like how we viewed it in the original; our minds were brought to life with this game.

Next is Wonder, which is an interesting beast I would love to tackle. The art style is amazing and a big step from New, just as much as the soundtrack is. It's all soft and colorful while remaining fast and enjoyable; such an appealing game hasn't happened for 2D Mario in over a decade. I love the new voice lines - despite Martinet possibly being replaced - and the new sound effects are great too. It's so experimental yet seems to be promising.

3D Mario games are pretty much due for a new game at this point. We haven't seen one since Bowser's Fury, which was only about half a game, if that. The last full game was Odyssey all the way back in 2017. It's understandable why it would take so long, but at least throw us a hint once the new system is revealed. It would be cool for it to be inspired by Wonder, but I could see it branching off of Odyssey or Galaxy too.

Super Smash Bros. should be getting a new game within the next 5 years. Whether it be a reboot, Ultimate Deluxe, or a continuation, I'm certain it'll be good. If they reboot the series, I imagine they'll keep a handful of characters and add a lot of new ones while also making completely new movesets for most fighters. Ones without new movesets would obviously have some changes though. The stages have a chance to be completely new. A continuation would likely cut some of the roster while adding new ones and do the same with stages. A continuation could be Deluxe but with different features and a new story. There are lots of debates about what characters would get in no matter what way they take, but I think the few that are locked in are Geno, Shantae, Sans, and possibly Cuphead. Personally, I wish Springtrap and Reimu would be in too, but sadly I don't believe they would. Same for Goku who will never be in.