Redmond, U.S.A — Players worldwide have collected more than 100 billion gold coins in New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Nintendo 3DS portable system. That tally is set to skyrocket exponentially as Nintendo offers new Coin Rush Mode levels for the game. Several new downloadable add-on level packs will be made available to game owners, with the after the launch of the first three packs.

Each new pack contains three courses and can be purchased from within the game* at a price of $2.50 per pack. Subsequent packs will be on the way, with the next arrivals at the end of October and the end of November.

While normal Coin Rush Mode offers players three levels chosen at random, the ones in the add-on pack are the same three in the same order every time. That gives players the ability to test themselves against one another on an even playing field.

“Nintendo fans have really enjoyed the fun and competition of Coin Rush Mode, recently surpassing more than 100 billion total coins collected worldwide,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “These new packs offer completely new levels that fit into the New Super Mario Bros. 2 world, but offer new challenges that will keep players coming back for more.”

The packs released on Oct. 4 include:

• Gold Rush Pack: Fun new courses that give novice players the best chance to collect lots of gold, and veterans the chance to set even higher Coin Rush records.
• Coin Challenge Pack A: The New Super Mario Bros. 2 website will track the rankings based on the scores for this pack, enabling players to measure their scores against other tallies from around the world in these more open courses.
• Nerve-Wrack Pack: Intense new courses designed for veteran players looking for new challenges.

For more information about New Super Mario Bros. 2, visit http://newsupermariobros2.nintendo.com.

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While most fighting games consist of one-on-one matches, health bars and have simple 2D stages for arenas, Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros series does things a bit differently. First appearing on the Nintendo 64 as a slow paced fighting game, its sequels, Melee and Brawl, have increased both the speed of the gameplay and the roster, bringing it from 12 to 35. Up to four characters can duke it out at once, with interactive stages and items, like laser swords and the now iconic sandbag, that can easily change the course of the match. Some do not even consider the series to be a fighting game. Truly, it is one of a kind…

…Until now. Sony recently announced PlayStation All-stars Battle Royale for the PlayStation 3 and Vita, the company’s answer to Nintendo’s acclaimed series. Much like Super Smash Bros, Battle Royale will feature some of Sony’s most well known and console exclusive  characters, including Nathan Drake, Fat Princess, Kratos and PaRappa the Rapper. Big Daddy from Bioshock fame will also appear as a playable character, opening the possibility for other third-party characters to join the mix.

Stages will be more similar to Super Smash Bros than other fighting games. Platforms, conveyor belts and other obstacles will be incorporated, making stages very hectic. Items will also appear on stages, which players can readily use by hitting the R1 button.

Despite all these similarities, though, Sony insists that their game is fundamentally different than Nintendo’s. In the game, players deal out damage to earn power points, which can be saved and then used for devastating super moves. These moves are the only way to defeat other players and earn points, and are thus performing them is the object of the game. The one with the most points at the end of the round is the winner.

Sony’s argument for originality, however, has convinced very few. Many still claim the game is a Super Smash Bros clone and some doubt Sony characters are iconic enough to warrant such a game.

While the way characters are eliminated may be different, pretty much everything else is the same. In the God of War stage shown at E3, Hades is present in the background and occasionally performs an area attack on the stage, similar to Kraid and Arwings in Metroid and Star Fox stages in Super Smash Bros. Super moves themselves are similar to “Final Smash” moves from Super Smash Bros Brawl, which are powerful, character-specific moves that almost ensure the elimination of other players. One difference, though, is that Final Smashes can only be activated by breaking a “Smash Ball” item, which appear and float around stages for a brief amount of time.

At this time, other game modes in PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale, such as a single player mode, have yet to be revealed. However, considering the direction the multiplayer mode is being taken, it is likely that a single-player mode would be reminiscent of the “classic” and “adventure” modes in Super Smash Bros.

In classic mode, players battle against computer controlled characters with mini-games occasionally thrown in, much like in a typical “arcade” mode, while adventure mode focuses more on special stages like mazes where the goal is not to defeat other characters but to reach the end of the stage. Players of Brawl will remember the epic Subspace emissary, an expanded and juiced up version of “adventure” mode complete with its own storyline that takes around a whopping 10 hours to complete.

Although PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale is undeniably and unabashedly a clone of Super Smash Bros, gamers should not automatically turn a blind eye to it. It still will probably be a fun game, and, if nothing else, will tide over hardcore Super Smash Bros players until the next one releases.

PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale is due for launch this fall, just in time for the holidays.

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The 10th year of the annual Anime Boston Convention has come to a close, and it was the con’s biggest year yet (despite the fact that PAX East was going on at exactly the same time.) For Toonari Post,  here’s what happened on the third day including some final impressions of the con overall.

The third day had even less of a crowd than Friday, but there were still a few hundred cheerful people walking around, in and out of costumes, getting their pictures taken, and buying some last-minute merch from the Dealer’s Hall and Artists’ Alley.

The Closing Ceremonies were the main draw for Sunday con-goers, and the lines started forming an hour before the auditorium doors opened at 3pm. There was a skit at the beginning with A-chan and B-kun, the con mascots, followed by a recognition of the volunteers who had been with and helped make the con for the past 10 years.

While the names and pictures of the 10-year volunteers displayed on the projectors, the Gotta Catch ‘em All song from Pokemon began playing, and partway through, everyone started to sing along. There were some guest speakers and videos and finally the Japanese and other guests came out and walked up and down the catwalk to applause.

Before the Closing Ceremonies though, we managed to steal some time in the gaming room down the hall. Here, there were eight retro consoles set up, ranging from Atari to N64. For the first time we really got to sit down and play with, and talk to, some of the other con-goers. It’s amazing how a convention can facilitate such a level of spontaneous friendship between strangers.

We sat down next to a young guy playing Tetris Attack for the SNES and started a two-player game. As we played, almost everyone that walked by us stopped and commented on the game, how it should have had a tournament at the con, how they hadn’t played it in ages but still remembered it from childhood. When we finished with ‘Bomberman,’ we moved on to the next open console.

Next up was ‘Super Bomberman.’ We spent some time and had some fun learning what the special feature of each stage was (and usually got ourselves killed in the process). Ultimately we lost to the computer each time, but we had such a good time playing with one another that it didn’t really matter. As we played, we also extolled the virtues of these old single-button games, where the focus is on strategy, without any complicated controls to get in the way of the goal.

After that, we went over to the N64, which at that moment had no game in it. Fortunately, a girl came over shortly after with a bag of her own N64 games and a group formed to play some classic 4-player games: Mario Kart 64, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros, and so on. Everyone was so genial, it was like being amongst a group of my own friends.

We also managed to get to a few panels, most of them led by guests of the con, rather than staff. They were people who cared passionately about the subjects they wanted to speak about, such as the guy who led the Tokusatsu panel on Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and (briefly) kaiju such as Godzilla.

He and his friend, who came in a very detailed and convincing Kamen Rider costume, seemed to know the series as deeply and intimately as anyone could. As he spoke about the individual Super Sentai rangers, he did their poses and spoke their names in the deep, dramatic sort of Japanese you hear in those shows.

He had watched all the series, even if they weren’t subtitled, and seemed to identify more with Japan than North America when he spoke. I was also amazed at how vocal the fan-base of these series were. One of the girls in the audience began heckling him when he slighted her favorite season of Kamen Rider; and when prompted, part of the crowd would call out something in Japanese and do a gesture associated with one character or another.

For a first-time visitor to the Anime Boston convention, it sort of had a feeling of Disney World. Kids and adults would come and take pictures with their favorite mascots, visit all the attractions, then go back to the hotel at night. The only difference, though it’s a major one, is that everything at AB comes from the fans themselves. There is very little industry support, aside from the guests and occasional Funimation or Viz panel.

The cumulative effect is that Anime Boston is much more a “community” than big industry conventions like PAX. You may come for the first time wondering what you’ll find–what do you do at an anime convention, watch videos all day?–, and realize you’ve found a community. This is especially true if you’re in high school and have a hard time making friends there. The con is a place where it’s hard for anyone to take themselves too seriously, and the barriers between people come down.

Whether you are into tabletop games like D&D and Magic: The Gathering, or video games, or cosplay, or steampunk, or dancing, or anything else geeky, there is a community at Anime Boston waiting to welcome you like an old friend.

Image Courtesy of   pullip_junk

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