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New Super Luigi U DLC Gets Release Date, Price, Disc

Nintendo has been talking about the downloadable expansion for New Super Mario Bros. U starring Luigi in his own adventure for a while now, but it's finally time to get past the talk and focus on a release date and price.  New Super Luigi U will be available as a $19.99 download on June 20.  However, if you don't mind waiting and you're trying to save space on your Wii U's system memory, you can pick up the expansion as a standalone disc at retail for $29.99 on August 25.  The disc even comes in a snappy green case featuring "Year of Luigi" branding. 

Since Mario sits this game out, another character needs to fill his slot in the playable character roster.  Enter Nabbit, one of Mario U's new additions, who cannot power-up with traditional items, but can run into enemies without taking any damage.  So there's a trade-off for you.  Nabbit is meant to be controlled by the less skilled Mario fan in your couch clan, giving him character invulnerability not seen since Player 2 realized that Tails was immune to harm in the traditionally single-player mode of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

I like the idea of a retail release for Luigi U.  Nintendo has been hyping this DLC as a whole new game, so if that's really true, then why not send it out to retail at a budget price?  While Nintendo did announce all of this new information, one item left out of all of this is the file size of the DLC.  With the limited memory available on the Wii U out of the box, it might make more sense to pay the extra $10 and pick up the disc if the downloadable version of the expansion will take up lots of space.  Say, do you know what would be nice for prospective Wii U owners?  A bundle made up of both Mario U and Luigi U sold at a slight discount compared to buying both separately.  I could definitely go for that when the time came to pick up a Wii U.

Remastered iOS/Android Sonic the Hedgehog Is Gorgeous

As I said last week, Sega's classic Sonic the Hedgehog has been around the block many times.  However, now that the new remastered version of the 1991 Genesis game is available for iOS and Android devices, I'm sure you'll find that it's never looked better than this.  Available for $2.99 at your local app marketplace (or as a free update on iOS if you already own the previous emulated version of the game), this edition of the game has been reworked to run in true widescreen at sixty frames per second.  Tails and Knuckles have been added as secret (optional!) playable characters.  The soundtrack has been remastered, achievements have been added (and they're creatively challenging — no free rides here), and leaderboards are operational.  There's even a new time attack mode included.  I talked myself into buying the new version yesterday and haven't been disappointed.  Touch controls for platformers are usually a major turn off for me, but the Sonic series is perfect for them since only one button is needed to control the action.  High praise to Sega and game engine developer Christian Whitehead for their work on updating one of the all-time classics of the 16-bit era for the twenty-first century.  Now, bring on Sonic the Hedgehog 2!

Power Button Presents Kombo Breaker - Episode 22: Sprinkles and Blood Rain From the Sky

Classic episodes of Kombo Breaker are back this week with an extra 13% more me as panelist Joey Davidson skipped out on us to go on his honeymoon with his new wife when this episode was recorded.  Where's the commitment to the program, huh?  The original airdate of this episode is April 4, 2009.  We decided not to invite a guest to fill his seat, so tune in to hear me discuss my thoughts on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a tease of the then-embargoed The Godfather II (Electronic Arts sent over an early review copy; I wish I could tell you more, but EA made me an offer I can't refuse), a little about the Toy Cars of Burnout Paradise, Dan's reactions for the latest Call of Duty map pack, Brad's trip to the Game Developers Conference, skepticism of the then-newly announced OnLive service, Nintendo of America's official 2009 statement regarding the non-release of Mother 3 (which may as well be their current statement, too), the unrivaled success of Game Informer magazine, and, for some reason, television talk about Lost and 30 Rock.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, or subscribe via iTunes, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach all three of us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow all of us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons, @aubradley84, and @JoeyDavidson or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton.

Power Button Presents Kombo Breaker - Episode 22: Sprinkles and Blood Rain From the Sky

Amazing PC Gaming Sale At Amazon

Amazon must have a ton of spare license keys for the best PC games of the past few years because the online retailer is selling some truly great video games at ridiculously low prices.  We're talking about Ghostbusters: The Video Game for $5, Saints Row: The Third: The Full Package (includes DLC) for $12.50, a Batman: Arkham bundle for $11.50, and a packed Sonic the Hedgehog bundle including twelve games for just $10.  If you're a PC gamer that has lagged behind in recent releases, then this would be the time to stock up.  Some of these even activate through Steam.  Check out the complete list of games on discount through the end of May as part of the Digital Games Mayhem sale to see everything, but here are some of my top choices:

Sonic Action Pack (includes Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episodes 1 and 2, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Generations (including DLC), and Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing) - $9.99

Ghostbusters: The Video Game - $4.99

BioShock 1 and BioShock 2 plus Spec-Ops: The Line bundle - $9.99

Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City Game of the Year versions bundle - $11.49

Saints Row: The Third: The Full Package - $12.49

Saints Row 2 - $3.49

Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete - $14.99

Rollercoaster Tycoon 2: Triple Thrill Pack - $4.99

Ultimate Sega Dreamcast Pack (Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Adventure 2, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5 Part 2, Sega Bass Fishing, Nights Into Dreams, and Sonic Generations) - $8.49

There's enough here to keep you busy for a very long time.  Every purchase you make via one of the green links here goes to help support Press The Buttons which, as always, I thank you for doing.

Electronic Arts Ends Its Online Pass Program

Electronic Arts has contributed many business practices to the video game industry, but one of their more unpopular contributions is the online pass.  Once EA's Project Ten Dollar initiative of inspiring players to buy downloadable content molted into the online pass model that locks game modes and other functionality behind a paygate that could be crossed by either inputting a code that comes with new copies of a game or paying a ten dollar penalty fee to open the gate, it seemed that the company was more interested in earning every last dollar it could rather than provide new paid experiences.  We've endured the online pass model for the past three years (check out Episode 10 of the Power Button podcast to hear how we initially felt about it when the practice began), but there's hope on the horizon.  With new leadership at EA comes new attitudes, so it's nice to hear that EA has decided to end its online pass program.  Here's Jason Wilson at VentueBeat with the news.

“Initially launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and  services, many players didn’t respond to the format,” Reseburg said. “We’ve  listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.”

Online Pass is seen by publishers as a bulwark against the second-hand  market, which retailer GameStop dominates. Publishers were worried that  consumers were buying games used instead of new — especially big games with  popular multiplayer modes. So the online pass became a way that publishers  forced consumers to either buy a game new — or pay extra for online.

But from this point forward, you won’t need an Online Pass for any of EA’s  games online.

Let's hope that other publishers who have followed EA's lead with online passes such as Activision and Ubisoft will follow once again and move away from using them.  I can't say that the presence of an online pass requirement in a game ever persuaded me to buy a new copy of a game just to get the pass code and save myself the additional ten dollar fee.  I rent games in which I only have a passing interest, so if a game I would normally rent required an online pass, I just didn't rent the game and skipped playing it entirely.  The same goes for buying used games.  I would rather not play a game than have to pay an additional fee to fully access what it has to offer.  Judging by EA's change of heart, I must not be the only person who behaves that way.

Microsoft Points On The Way Out

If you want to purchase digital content for Microsoft's Xbox 360, then you'll need to buy some of the company's own currency, Microsoft Points, with your real money.  Those points are then used to buy whatever content you desire.  The conversion rate between Points and actual money isn't a clean 1:1, unfortunately, so keeping track of how much money you're actually spending can be a bit of an issue compared to just pricing content out in dollars, pounds, yen, etc.  Competitor Nintendo ditched its own Points system used for the Wii and DSi with the coming of the Wii U and the 3DS, while Sony started its PlayStation Store with currency-based transactions already in place, so the time to retire Microsoft Points in the name of progress has been upon us for a while.  Now The Verge reports that it may actually happen.  Word has it that the next generation of Xbox will follow the competition's model by charging real money for content rather than Points.

Microsoft is killing off its Points system that's primarily used for its Xbox console. The death of Microsoft Points has been a long time coming, and follows Microsoft's move away from the virtual currency towards cash in Windows 8. Sources familiar with Microsoft's Xbox plans have revealed to The Verge that the software maker plans to replace Points with a new gift card system.

The gift card system will follow the familiar model in use by Apple with its iTunes cards, but customers can also spend money directly at the online marketplace with credit or debit cards.  I'm glad to hear that this change is coming.  While I've never purchased anything with Microsoft Points, it is frustrating to me that a major player in the industry is effectively hiding the true price of its content behind an alternative currency system where 1600 Points equals $20.00.  It's all a mind game; at a glance, a game that costs, say, $19.99 on the PlayStation Store costs 1600 Points on Xbox Live appears to be cheaper on the Xbox platform when they are actually the same price (plus one cent).  I was never happy with Nintendo's Points system either, but at least that ecosystem maintained a 1:1 conversion ratio.  Content should be priced in actual currency rather than points, coins, stars, zennies, or whatever other fake money that a company dreams up.  It's only fair to the customer.

Escape To The Comix Zone

Sega took a lot of chances in the 1990s (some would say too many, leading to the company's eventual downfall, but that's a story for another day).  While the company leaned heavily on its star Sonic the Hedgehog and beloved franchises like Streets of Rage and Ecco the Dolphin, plenty of other one-off games were released in an almost experimental fashion.  Ristar brought us a lively star with a talent for hugging monsters to death.  Eternal Champions wanted a slice of the Street Fighter II pie.  Then there's 1995's Comix Zone for the Sega Genesis in which an aspiring cartoonist, Sketch Turner (née Joe Pencil), is pulled into his own drawn world and forced to fight his own creations from panel to panel in a bid for survival in the form of a side-scrolling brawler.  Never heard of it?  Hardcore Gaming 101 has you covered.

Comix Zone is basically a tribute to comics in general, yet is not too overtly influenced by any particular story. The premise of mutants lurking in New York's sewers may be faintly reminiscent of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but it's otherwise a fairly creative world that Sketch has devised for his unlikely deathtrap. The game itself is a bit hard to cap as a straight genre, but it mostly plays as a sidescrolling beat-'em-up with elements of platforming and puzzles wedged in. The major difference from the likes of Streets of Rage or Final Fight is that the action only takes place on a single plane. Sketch must survive the pages of his own comic book by whomping on whatever enemies are in front of him and figuring out how to move onto the next panel. When Sketch can move on, a yellow arrow points away from his current panel, allowing him to flip over the panel border into the next scene. Some moves from Sketch and enemies will rip through the pages to reveal the papery underside, and the hand of Mortus will often appear to draw on new hazards for our hero. Even when you die, Sketch's body will turn into pencil sketches and get crossed out by Mortus' marker.

There's a lot to like in Comix Zone and it's worth exploring if you've never experienced it, but beware of the steep challenge level and a few frustrating mechanics.  Sketch often takes a small amount of damage while opening doors or breaking boxes as part of the game's design, enemies respawn endlessly at certain points, and players only have one life in which to complete the adventure.  The comic panel aesthetic is delightfully unique, however, and feels ahead of its time.  Imagine how Comix Zone would play out on the Nintendo 3DS where Sketch and his foes could pop out of the backgrounds in order to hop across panels.  Comics are flat, yes, but that extra dimension could help bring the game to life in new and fun ways.  Even if a revived Comix Zone isn't in the cards, I'd like to see a comic-based game try this mechanic.  It's practically begging to be done.

Batman Meets Maxwell In Scribblenauts Unmasked

The Scribblenauts series allows players to summon all sorts of objects and characters in order to solve puzzle-based problems, and the pool of options is limited by only two things: (1) the player's imagination and (2) copyright laws.  You can't bring Lara Croft into the game to solve your problems, nor can you call Mega Man to blast your enemies.  In the upcoming Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure for the Nintendo Wii U, 3DS, and PC, however, you will be able to ask a wide variety of DC Comics heroes and villains for assistance.  Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Joker, Doomsday, and thousands of other comic characters will be at your disposal.  Polygon has the news.

Speaking to Polygon, Scribblenauts Unmasked's senior producer, Caleb Arseneaux said the game contains every character who has ever appeared in a DC comic book, from the Justice League, to all the variations of Batman and Superman, to the most obscure characters who have only had brief cameos in the comics. He said that Scribblenauts is all about letting players have "whatever they want," and the DC universe is so rich with characters who have so many superpowers and abilities, that blending the two franchises made sense to the development team.

"Initially we had 1,200 characters, and then we just kept finding more and more characters and more variations, and eventually we wound up with more than 2,000," Arseneaux said.

There even variations of characters available; the article cites 33 different Batmen, for instance.  This could be just the thing to bring some fresh ideas into the Scribblenauts series, as I found the last game, Scribblenauts Unlimited, to be a bit lacking.  I'd imagine there are limits on what you'll be able to do with these DC characters.  When Nintendo allowed Mario to appear in Scribblenauts Unlimited, players were unable to make him do anything that would harm Mario's image and could not apply adjectives to him.  Will this new Scribblenauts let Batman use a gun?  Actually, in the name of being true to the character, I would hope not.  Scribblenauts Unmasked will be available later this year.  Oh, and in case you were wondering: the Scribblenauts versions of the DC Comics characters are absolutely adorable.  Check out the announcement trailer to see for yourself.

What Happened After Infamous 2?

The two Infamous games from Sony and Sucker Punch for the PlayStation 3 follow the adventures of Cole MacGrath as he comes to understand his amazing superhuman abilities and fights to save or doom the world depending on the player's choices throughout the narrative.  Cole is a memorable, striking protagonist created in a generation full of charismatic heroes and is quite the marketable presence in the Infamous saga, so it's very surprising to learn that the "good" ending of Infamous 2 sticks and that Cole sacrificed his life for the betterment of humanity.  With a new Infamous title on the way, Infamous: Second Son for the Sony PlayStation 4, the saga gets a bit of a restart with a new hero and a new story that takes place seven years after Cole's tale concludes.  That's a lot of new material to cover.  Thankfully, Game Informer can explain why Cole is not returning from a production perspective and can explain what happened in the gap between Infamous 2 and Second Son.

“When we got done with Infamous 2, we had given players this choice of whether or not they wanted to heroically sacrifice Cole or keep him alive at the expense of the human population,” says game director Nate Fox. “The game shipped and we started seeing trophy data, and 78 percent of players decided to sacrifice Cole and have him die. We wanted to honor their choice so moving forward we said ‘Let’s make a new hero.’”

Popular characters keep franchises like Infamous going long after their standard sell-by date, so it's a big deal that Sucker Punch has decided to lay Cole to rest and move on.  Often times we see studios stick by the characters that made them famous long after the stories starring those characters are long over.  Sony's own God of War series, for example, concluded protagonist Kratos's story and has had to go to the prequel well several times now to justify new adventures.  Sucker Punch could easily have created a new tale to fit between the two Infamous games and justified it with "here's the classified event you didn't see!" but instead chose to strike out in a new direction.  I respect the development team for that decision and hope to see more studios follow their example when their own bread-and-butter stars come to the ends of their respective roads.  Of course, for all I know the big twist of Second Son is that someone resurrects Cole by extracting his scattered DNA from the atmosphere or some other sci-fi twist, but as it stands, if the series really is done with Cole MacGrath, Sucker Punch is headed in an exciting direction.

Perhaps Bowser Was Her Protector All Along

There's a marvelous theory that Mario is actually the villain of the Super Mario Bros games (there's even a delightful indie game built around flipping the hero/villain roles in a similar manner). The idea is that Princess Peach wants Bowser to take her away from that evil plumber, hence the frequent kidnappings in which she hardly resists. The above image from Reddit is a little alternative history for you from the end of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System in which Mario slays Bowser with the awesome power of the Hammer Bros. suit and then attacks the princess rather than save her. Viewed this way, Mario does indeed become the villain of the piece with Bowser cast as Peach's protector and guardian. Now don't you feel bad for sending Bowser plummeting into the darkness? Next time: Samus Aran, xenocidal killing machine.