Dungeons and Dragons announces free basic rulebook

Wizards of the Coast, publisher of collectable card games and the renowned tabletop fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, has announced that the basic digital rulebook for Dungeons and Dragons will be available as a free download on the official website.

The basic rolebook will explain how to get started with a D&D campaign, and has information from levels one through twenty for the classes fighter, wizard, rogue, and cleric. Subclasses and races will also be included, allowing new players to craft a character without feeling overwhelmed by too many options.

"Basic D&D is the true heart of the game and could easily provide a lifetime of gaming," says senior manager Mike Mearls in a statement announcing the free rulebook. "In August, with the release of the Player’s Handbook, Basic D&D will expand to include the essential monsters, magic items, and DM rules needed to run the game, along with the rules for wilderness, dungeon, and urban adventuring. "

This free rulebook is a great opportunity for new players to get into the world of Dungeons and Dragons, and for experienced players to help friends understand the game and get started making characters, picking traits, and rolling their D20s.

Anyone interested in learning more or downloading the free PDF should check out the announcement on Wizards of the Coast's website.

First Impressions: WildStar

Over the last few days I've been trying out NCSoft's upcoming MMORPG, WildStar, during its open beta stage. After only a brief time with the game I can safely say I haven't been this excited about an MMO in a long time.

WildStar is one of the few MMOs I've seen that doesn't bog itself down with "innovation for innovation's sake," or trying to change formulas that have worked for years. The story, gameplay, mechanics, and tone are all polished and refined. It doesn't try to redefine the MMO formula that has worked for games like World of Warcraft, but there are enough new and exciting additions to make the game feel fresh and enjoyable for MMO veterans looking for a new experience.

WildStar's unique visual style and combat system have many gamers eagerly awaiting its release date.

When you begin your adventure in WildStar, you're greeted with a fairly standard character creation process - eight races divided into two factions (Dominion or Exiles), six classes (Warrior, Engineer, Esper, Medic, Stalker, Spellslinger), and four paths (Settler, Soldier, Scientist, Explorer). Fans of character customization will find a lot to enjoy about the creation process, but might feel underwhelmed initially by the limited amount of choices for each race and gender.

After preparing your character, you begin exploring the capital ship of your faction after spending time in cryosleep. Your faction has come to the planet Nexus to claim it as their home. Your first few levels will be spent on the ship going through a series of gameplay tutorials that introduce new players to the game's combat, movement, controls, and other useful tools such as your class' basic abilities, how to communicate with NPCs, and how to gain "path" experience. I found the tutorial stage very helpful on my first character, but after making a few more I found myself wishing for an option to skip the process.

Star Wars: Episode VII cast announcement

Hold on to your Jedi robes and stormtrooper helmets - the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII has been announced.

A release on the official Star Wars website has listed a variety of actors including Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, King Kong), John Boyega (Attack the Block, Law and Order: UK), Daisy Ridley (Silent Witness, Toast of London), Adam Driver (Girls, Lincoln), Oscar Isaac (Sucker Punch, Robin Hood), Domnhall Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, True Grit), and Max von Sydow (The Exorcist, Minority Report).

These new faces will be working alongside Star Wars veterans Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker.

"We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again," said director J.J. Abrams. "We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud."

Seeing talented actors like Max von Sydow and Andy Serkis on the cast list has done a lot to reassure many fans (myself included) that Episode VII will be the great Star Wars film we've been waiting for.

Some recent Star Wars rumors suggest that Harrison Ford's fan favourite Han Solo will have a leading role, Max von Sydow will be playing the villain, and the film's subtitle will be "The Ancient Fear." At this point it's difficult to tell what's fact or speculation, but Abrams will surely keep our wait interesting with more teasers and casting information.

Episode VII is set to open worldwide on December 18, 2015.

Xbox One will now have a Kinect-free version for $399 starting June 9th

It didn't take very long in the end, roughly seven months from the release of the Xbox One, for Microsoft to adapt and find a way to match Sony at the $399 price tag.

After losing the battle in sales up to this point Microsoft have now announced that there will be an Xbox One model available that does not include a Kinect, the piece of tech widely seen as the reason for the initial price differential in Microsoft and Sony's consoles, starting June 9th.

Picture this, minus the top part.

The voices of consumers have been heard according to the announcement which said:

"We’ve heard that you want more choices from Xbox One. You want a wide variety of options in your games and entertainment experiences and you also want options in your hardware selection."

The announcement also said Microsoft still see the Kinect as an important aspect of what they are trying to do and that standalone sensors will be available in the fall and the company will still have the Kinect-included version available.

This should give a boost to the Xbox One's sales numbers, but it is also another example of Microsoft fixing a mistake, something they have being doing a lot of the past year.

There is something to be said for fixing and adapting, and the responses Microsoft has made to things not going how they planned thus far have been quick.

But it would be nice to see things like not needing an Xbox Live Gold membership to watch Netflix, having the option to buy a Kinect-free console, not needing to always be online, or being able to play used games be the initial stance and options presented by Microsoft.

The sad fact is these have all come from bad press and consumer pressure. Maybe that can change one day too.

The obvious lesson for the consumer in this is not spending your dollars can say as much as spending them.

The announcement is available here: http://news.xbox.com/2014/05/xbox-delivering-more-choices

With the closure of GameSpy, some EA titles may be offline forever

When GameSpy announced its closure it meant the end of an era, at least formally, but it also means that some games will potentially be offline for good.

Battlefield 2 and others will hopefully be able find a new online lease on life somewhere, somehow.

EA has announced, with a posting on their blog, that their titles that use GameSpy will cease online services in June.

For their part EA said they are investigating community-supported options to keep the games online but as of now have had little luck finding any. So it may be time to mourn playing the titles online until further notice.

The full message, which includes a link to a list of the affected titles is available here: http://www.ea.com/news/update-on-ea-titles-hosted-on-gamespy

Review: Moon Knight #1

Warren Ellis's fresh take on Moon Knight is a great new beginning for the character (Image courtesy of Marvel)

The following review originally appeared in Spoke, the official newspaper of Conestoga College. It has been republished here with the author's permission.

British author Warren Ellis isn’t known for penning “normal” comic book characters.

Transmetropolitan’s Spider Jerusalem, a journalist dealing with (and partaking of) the excesses of the dystopian future, is not a model citizen. Retired CIA agent Frank Moses, the main character of RED (later turned into a feature film) is hardly your average pensioner.

But Ellis’s mastery of the bizarre is further accentuated in his triumphant return at the head of Marvel Comics’ new Moon Knight #1, released on March 5 under the “All-New Marvel NOW!” imprint.

“What’s the barometer for ‘weird’ in the Marvel universe?” Ellis asked USA Today.

With Moon Knight, Ellis is happy to raise the bar.

While it’s true that Marvel has its fair share of strange characters, it is also true that Marc Spector, also known as Moon Knight, is up there with some of the most eccentric.

A former mercenary who was gunned down during his only attempt to show mercy, he was raised from the dead by the Egyptian god of vengeance, Khonshu. Wearing the cloak of one of the deity’s priests, Marc Spector fought strange and supernatural crime in the United States with a variety of gadgets, and his fists, as Moon Knight.

Making the situation even more complicated is Spector’s alter-egos, which he used to gain easy access to both the criminal underworld and elite, that also eventually became alternate personalities, calling Spector’s mental health into question.

Spector gets a new look as "Mr. Knight", but he
still uses the caped costume for more direct work.
(Image courtesy of Marvel)

The character had a lot going for him: an internal psychological struggle, an offbeat supporting cast, a unique take on fighting (he’d rather take a punch than dodge it,) and a white costume that illustrated his mindset perfectly: he wanted his enemies to know he was there.

“[His] cape is actually a crescent moon and he goes out only at night and dresses in reflective white so you can see him coming. Now that’s nuts …. I like that,” Ellis pointed out to the LA Times.

Sadly, Moon Knight had been neglected by Marvel for some time. The failure of Vengeance of the Moon Knight, released in 2009, showed that the character was in limbo, with no real sense of direction, evident in the volume’s writing. A further relaunch of the character in 2011 made him barely recognizable.

Enter Warren Ellis.

Marvel senior editor Nick Lowe told USA Today that the Ellis-led volume of Moon Knight is “a baseball bat with nails dipped in LSD that’s going to hit you right in the gut.”

He is correct.

Working with artists Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire, Ellis is able to evoke a potent and gritty image of New York City as it buckles under the weight of crime.

After an initial explanation of Spector’s past as Moon Knight, we find that he is also working with law enforcement as the white-suited “Mr. Knight” – a flimsy loophole that prevents the “freaks and capes” unit on the police force from having to apprehend him for his acts as Moon Knight.

This first issue reads more like a detective story focused on, as Ellis put it in an interview with Marvel.com, “weird crime.”

Spector’s character exudes an aura of calm collectedness throughout much of the issue and exhibits less of the brutality seen in previous volumes, but his multiple personalities are also discussed (and, intriguingly, further explained).

Ellis’s storyline asks the question: is this a new Marc Spector? Or is “Mr. Knight” just one of his personalities?

And is Khonshu himself, who sometimes interacts directly with Spector, simply a hallucination?

“There’s a reason why he was crazy in previous incarnations, and a reason why he appears more sane now,” Ellis told USA Today.

Shalvey and Bellaire’s art style complements Ellis’s storytelling well. Shalvey’s strong lines and use of light and shadow work well with the storyline and create atmosphere. There are times when he shows Mr. Knight essentially in silhouette, but a bright white one instead of the usual black.

Shalvey’s page-wide panels are able to say a lot, without any dialogue at all – and he has several in this first issue. He also makes effective use of extreme close-ups: a risky proposition that pays off by creating dramatic tension.

Bellaire is responsible for the colouring, and it adds depth to Shalvey’s pencils. Blacks, deep reds, pale oranges and sombre browns contrast against the stark white of Mr. Knight’s three-piece suit, mask and gloves as he navigates both the surface of and depths below New York’s streets.

The new series blends "weird crime" with the instability of  Moon Knight. (Image courtesy of Marvel)

Readers unfamiliar with Moon Knight will find this series a great starting point. The history of Moon Knight is explained in brief, but none of it is necessary to understand this volume and there are few references to prior material. This is the perfect place to pick up this series, and if you already like stories in the detective, crime procedural or supernatural vein (Lowe specifically mentions fans of HBO’s True Detective television series,) you should enjoy it.

Familiar Moon Knight fans will enjoy the new “explanation” for Spector’s personalities, and will likely enjoy the fresh “Mr. Knight” concept.

But purists have nothing to fear, as preview images for issue two show a very familiar mask and cape in his future.

And, based on the quality of this first issue, it looks like Marc Spector is here to stay.

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 received harsh reviews despite being a solid Spider-Man film.

I'm not sure what critics wanted.

I almost skipped out on this film, despite being a huge Spider-Man fan, simply because of the harsh ratings this film was receiving.

I'm glad I didn't.

To be fair, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is not a genre game-changer. It doesn't chart brand new horizons for comic book films.

But it stands alone as the better of the two post-reboot films, certainly. It stays true the the comic book roots of the franchise. And the plot development actually leaves the viewer in the position of wanting more.

The film pits Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) against awkward electrical engineer-turned-spark plug Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx). Garfield turns in much the same performance as in the first film, although he is faced with more emotionally charged scenes in which he does an adequate job. Foxx is his usual brilliant self, although the pre-Electro character of Max Dillon was a bit over the top for my tastes. This could easily be the writing and not any of Foxx's doing, though.

Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone, is developed into a more independent character than the first film. Stone's portrayal of Stacy was good, but the efforts to make her more complex were middling. Sally Field's portrayal of Aunt May is solid - if anything, she could have used more screen time.

Dane DeHaan almost steals the show as Harry Osborne.

The real surprise for me was Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborne. I missed DeHaan's previous work in Chronicle, which I will now be forced to go back and watch.

DeHaan absolutely kills this role. He oozes the trademark Osborne combination of confidence, anger and instability. There's absolutely no comparison between him and James Franco, who played Osborne in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films. DeHaan clearly understands the character and he just blows the performance away.

The best part is that despite Osborne's villain status, he faces issues of his own that make you want to cheer for him, even if just a little bit. And given the film's set-up for a future standalone Sinister Six spinoff, I'm looking forward to more of DeHaan's work in the future.

The film itself is not perfect, as I mentioned before. One of the criticisms that I tend to agree with is that the sub-plot regarding Peter's parents, and their connection to the project that turned him into Spider-Man, is overly long and has no real impact on the main plot. This is especially disconcerting because the film actually opens with a flashback dealing with this sub-plot.

Besides a moment of realization, nothing is really gained from a plot perspective. Spidey still has to fight the villains and he gains no advantage from his discovery. It felt more like the writers really wanted to get the plot out of the way before the next film.

Electro, played by Jamie Foxx, is based on the character
from Marvel's Ultimate universe.

Besides this, I thought the film was fairly well-constructed. One criticism I thought was unfair was a comparison to the dreadful Spider-Man 3: too many villains.

There are basically two villains, who work together at one point. Is that too many? They both have their own motivations and reasons for hating Spidey. They both try to harm him in their own way. He has to adopt different strategies to defeat both.

I don't understand how two is too many. It doesn't significantly draw out the film, nor is it the part of the plot most eligible for pruning (I'd argue the parents plot or some of the Gwen Stacy plot could have been cut, honestly). Rhino is not part of the main plot, does not complicate the plot, nor is he encountered until the credits are about to roll, so I can't count him as a villain here.

Some people complained of pacing, but I was never really bored. It felt a lot like a series of issues of Spider-Man: he doesn't just fight villains. He has a set of responsibilities, a support network that he continually places in danger by fighting crime, and the mundane grind of daily survival, including paying the bills.

And when I think about it that way, I understand why some of the critics may have been disappointed. Spider-Man, despite his extraordinary powers, has always really been an ordinary person. Those struggles are part of who he is, and a large part of what has made the character interesting. And if they came into the film expecting high-flying superhero antics like The Avengers, then they were never going to be satisfied anyways.

Review: Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut

Adam Jensen may not have asked for this, but I certainly did.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was one of my favourite games of 2011. It had a great concept with excellent stealth gameplay and a compelling narrative that drew me in and made me want to play it through again as soon as I had finished.

I recently picked up the Director's Cut of DEx:HR to see what sort of changes and improvements were made to the original game, and I can now say with certainty that anyone who enjoyed the original will love the newly updated edition.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the game, you play as Adam Jensen, security chief for a large biotechnology firm that creates mechanical augmentations to improve the human body's capabilities. After Jensen is nearly killed in an attack on the company's labs, his body is fitted with expensive augmentations to keep him alive. Now one of the most powerful "augs" in existence, Jensen is sent out to find the truth behind the attack and the conspiracy behind it all.

The Director's Cut features several changes and improvements from the original. Smaller changes include improved textures and lighting, developer commentary, and a "making of" video. Fans of the original will be delighted to learn that The Missing Link story DLC is now fully integrated with the main game. Another addition requested by fans was a "New Game +" mode where after completing the game you have the option of starting again with all of your previous augmentations unlocked.

The biggest (and most welcomed) change in the Director's Cut is the overhauled and updated boss encounters.

There are four "boss fights" in DEx:HR, and most who played the original agreed that they were the lowest points of the game. Gun-fights with massively armoured mercenaries broke up the stealthy flow of the game's open areas, and unlike the original Deus Ex (2000) there were no options to use your stealth or hacking skills to defeat the bosses.

Thankfully, the Director's Cut fixes this problem entirely by updating the boss encounters to allow Jensen to defeat them through trickery, stealth, and hacking.

Each boss area now has a variety of hidden locations you can access through the use of augmentations, and they allow Jensen to utilize robots, turrets, poison gas, and other hazards to turn the battles in his favor.

A good example is during the second boss encounter with a character who uses invisibility augmentations to remain undetected, only reappearing briefly to attack Jensen before fleeing again. Hacking through several doors will lead Jensen to a hidden area above the boss room with a valve that will fill the room below with poison gas, shorting out the boss' cloaking software and allowing hackable turrets to detect them and finish the battle.

The updated boss fights were a very welcomed change to myself and many others who prefer to play the game as stealthily as possible, but even players who like their gun barrels hot can find enjoyment in the Director's Cut.

If you're a fan of the series, or if you're looking for a great stealth game, check it out - you won't be disappointed.

New Pokemon titles announced for 3DS

By the end of 2014 you may be asking yourself whether you "Gotta buy 'em all?" or not.

That's because two new Pokemon titles, called Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, are set to be released before 2015.

It didn't take too long before the new Pokemon games were announced, under a year from the release of Pokemon X and Y. The new (well, kind of) titles were announced with a YouTube video that shows the cases of the games and says they are due November 2014.

As of now very little is known about the games other than their titles, but we have seen Ruby and Sapphire Pokemon games before. These new editions are more than likely in the Heart Gold and Soul Silver vein, games which were themselves remakes of the Gold and Silver games. Then again the announcement does say "epic new adventure" and "dramatic new world."

That said, with what was done on the 3DS with X and Y, a Pokemon title of any kind is exciting and the quick turnaround between titles is impressive.


Here's the video: 

Review: Batman Eternal #1 and #2

From the cover of Batman Eternal #1 (image property of DC Comics)

Gotham is in flames and Bruce Wayne is chained to the broken bat signal. He is bleeding from multiple injuries, the most obvious being the bat-symbol carved into his chest.

There are a lot of ways the first page of the first issue of a new comic book series can go and I have to say the first page of Batman Eternal #1, a new weekly, is an attention grabber.

Even if that page doesn’t make you want to keep reading, just to find out how that happens, that first page is not the only thing the book has going for it.

Issue two is more dialogue heavy and has more character interaction between the very large cast of characters that make appearances in the book while issue one has more action, including a fight with Professor Pyg and a subway tunnel being blown up, resulting in a unrevealed number of casualties. That doesn’t mean issue one is solely focused on action. Characters still interact and those interactions do a very good job of setting the relationships between characters.  

For example, Jim Gordon and Batman are supposed to be friends, or at least as close to friends as you can get when one person is a cop and the other is a vigilante. In these two issues, the dialogue and banter between them does a really good job of showing that the relationship between them is one that matters to both of them.

You could probably know next to nothing about Batman and his supporting characters and when you finished reading these issues, you would have a solid idea of which characters are on which side and a vague idea of existing relationships. Sometimes the way the characters are written is kind of on the nose though. Just couple panels after we are introduced to him, Major Jack Forbes makes it clear that he’s more than likely a crooked cop, or at least on his way to becoming one.

“Gotham has more to offer than you can imagine, if you’re man enough to take it … Gordon can fight against it all he wants,” he says to the new recruit he met a couple a minutes earlier.

One last point on the characters, I really like how many characters are popping up so far in this book. A lot of Batman’s allies have made brief appearances by the end of issue two and it was really nice to see their reactions to things that happened. A couple characters have even made their New 52 debut in these issues, Jason Bard and Carmine Falcone. Neither are characters I’m very familiar with, but from what I’ve seen of them so far I’m curious to see where the writing team, which includes Scott Snyder and John Layman, will go with them.

One of my problems with the book is that the art is above average, but this makes mistakes and awkward poses stand out a lot more than they may normally. Weird anatomy seems to show up more in issue two, starting most obviously with Tim Drake, who shows up a for a few panels. He’s fighting some robots he built and he kicks one in the head. His foot is off panel and it makes his leg look freakishly long, especially compared to his other leg which is bent and hidden behind speech bubbles.

This pops up again when Selina Kyle appears. She leaps at Batman while dodging some Batarangs. Her head, arms and torso are facing one direction while her hips and legs are facing a different one, leaving her looking very oddly twisted. When she lands in the next panel, the posing leaves her with a very stubby-looking arm.

My issues with the art basically end there. The colouring is very nice, especially in the brief instances where we can get away from the drab and dark colours that seem to make up Gotham. The covers for both issues are, while not the most original out there, beautiful. Issue two’s cover, where Jim Gordon is being escorted by police officers while handcuffed, stood out to me as the better cover. It is a lot more interesting then issue one’s, where Batman stands on a gargoyle.  I can imagine people seeing issue two’s cover and wanting to know what happened.

And that’s where Batman Eternal #1 and #2 left me: a lot of questions have been asked and not many have been answered. But both issues serve as really well-done set up for future issues and that’s what the first couple issues of a new book should set out to do; keep the reader interested enough to pick up the next issue, which I definitely plan on doing.

Star Wars canon purge is not the end

"Incredulous question: Eliminate me? Surely you jest, master."

It was if millions of fans cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

As the new films approached, Disney and Lucasfilm set out back in January to define what elements of the Star Wars expanded universe would remain canon going forward. The expanded universe is basically everything outside of the films: books, video games, comics, etc. If something fictional is "canon", it is "the material accepted as 'official' in a fictional universe."

Or, as my brother put it in a recent discussion, canon "is how real the fake is."

Well, turns out almost nothing remains canon after the Order 66-scale purge. The only media that remain canon are the six main films, the Clone Wars series, and the upcoming Rebels series.

This was announced about a week ago, and since then, there has been an outpouring of emotion from Star Wars fans via social media. Anyone who has read expanded universe material has a favourite storyline, so the disappointment was palpable.

Some will be more impacted than others. True, none remain canon. But if you loved anything post-Return of the Jedi, you can assume it will be incompatible with the new films.

Others, like my favourites, remain safely out of reach of the new films, even if deemed non-canon.

The entire Knights of the Old Republic plotline (including the comics,  KOTOR II and SWTOR) is so heavily insulated from the rest of the Star Wars universe that its status as non-canon means almost nothing to me. I already sort of assumed it wasn't, but I also didn't care because of how amazing it was.

Xizor - a dangerous opponent.

Another one of my favourites is Shadows of the Empire. This takes place between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and deals with the Rebels' search for Han and Vader's search for Luke. In the middle of it all is Prince Xizor, the scheming head of  intergalactic criminal organization Black Sun. Xizor's vendetta against Vader causes him to jump into the Skywalker sweepstakes with both feet, resulting in a power struggle for the Emperor's favour.

But is this really the end of the Star Wars expanded universe?

In a practical sense, maybe. Some EU books will continue to be published under the Star Wars Legends imprint. But many will likely only be available in digital form moving forward.

From another standpoint though, it's the beginning of a solid, unified canon that has the potential to remain consistent going forward.

The old stories will stay with us. Hell, you can pretend they're just an alternate timeline if you want, like Star Wars: Infinities was.

Yeah... I'm pretty sure that didn't happen.

And I'll add that a lot of the background information will likely remain mostly-valid. For example, Falleen is mentioned in Clone Wars - maybe Xizor is still around. Lucasfilm and Disney have also stated that there will be references to some of the EU.

I'm not going to pretend that the purge doesn't make me a little disappointed, because it does. But what it lets Lucasfilm and Disney do could be an incredible opportunity to not only keep old fans, but continue to recruit new ones.

In essence, the expanded universe has been struck down. Let's hope that canon becomes more powerful than we can possibly imagine.

Mario Golf: World Tour DLC - good or bad?

The recent announcement that the upcoming Mario Golf: World Tour game for the 3DS will feature downloadable content (DLC) and a season pass has received mixed reactions from Nintendo fans.

Mario Golf: World Tour, which tees off on May 2nd in North America, will have three DLC packs. Each of the packs will unlock two new 18-hole golf courses and new playable characters, including Toadette, Nabbit, and Rosalina. The first DLC pack, which includes Toadette, will be available the day the game launches. A season pass will also be available which will give players access to all three DLC packs as they are released, along with a golden Mario playable character.

The announcement has some Nintendo fans puzzled; the game developer has traditionally stayed away from DLC, but Nintendo of America's Scott Moffitt has assured fans that the extra content is there for players who want more out of their experience with the game.

"We’re letting fans expand their experience with Mario Golf: World Tour. Some players might be content hitting the links on the numerous courses already included with the game, while others will appreciate the option of being able to add to their fairway fun with new courses and characters," he said.

Some fans, however, consider the pricing to be a bit too steep for a handheld. Each DLC pack will cost $5.99 USD, with the season pass costing $14.99 USD.

The bigger concern here for many gamers is not Mario Golf specifically, but the precedent that adding DLC characters and courses will mean that future popular Nintendo titles such as Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. will feature them as well.

Reviews for the game have so far been very positive; it has received a lot of praise for having interesting and varied courses while keeping the light, friendly tone of other Mario sports games. Thomas Whitehead, a reviewer for Nintendolife.com, called it "hard to putt down."

What do you think? Are you excited to try out the new characters and courses, or is Nintendo on a path to the dark side?