Table of contents for December 2019 in Mania

Tyrrheanna, NSW Hi MANIA, I love your mags, they’re the best! Hope you like my pic too! Yo yo Tyrrheanna! Nice to see your pics again, this Simba pic is ROARSOME! Hamish, SA Hi MANIA! Chewbacca rules and so do you! Hope you like my pic! Sup Cody! Grrrrgghhhhh - that’s Wookie for we dig your Star Wars sketch! Nicholas, Vic Hello MANIA! Here is a handful of fish I done drew for ya! Love the mag! Hey Nicholas! These are some tasty looking fish, thx for the art pal! Cedar, NZ Hi MANIA! This is my drawing of a Minon! Love Cedar. Woah, Cedar! That is one magnificent Minion! Gru would be jealous. Thanks for the art! Sam, NSW Hey MANIA! My fave things to read are Ook and…

MARIO KART TOUR Get ready to rev on ya mobiles! Mario and his mates race onto screens with this wikkid touch-controlled game. And for the first time you can race not only throughout the Mushroom Kingdom, but real life locations like Paris, Tokyo and New York! OUR FAVE BIT: Diddy Kong is back for the first time since 2008’s Mario Kart Wii! POKÉMON MASTERS The newest Pokémon game for your mobile device is most def the best! Set in the new Poké-land of Pasio, you get to build your dream team of both your fave Pokémon, as well as classic trainers. Jump on in and duke it out in AWSM 3-on-3 battles! OUR FAVE BIT: Tryna find Poké-pals with rad Mega Evolutions like Lucario! ANIMAL CROSSING: POCKET CAMP Animal Crossing…

Nintendo Turns 130 Years Old! Nintendo opened 130 years ago as of September as a playing card manufacturer! It’s done heaps as a company since, including running taxis and making toys, before moving into digital games in the 70s! Nintendo is the oldest company in games, and also one of the richest. Happy birthday, Nintendo! Knights & Bikes Cartoon Incoming! Knights & Bikes, reviewed this issue, is getting a spin-off cartoon! It’s based on the game and will follow the two girls from the game as they fight monsters and ride bikes all around their island home! It should have an AWSM animation style and some cool characters if it’s like the game! Sony And Microsoft Want A Better World! The next PlayStation and Xbox will be better for the…

Platform: PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC Style: RPG Publisher: Square Enix Price: $29.95 Gameplay: Wow, YAKs – this is a real blast from the past! Final Fantasy VIII has been remastered with improved graphics, upscaled character models, and a few new options – but otherwise it’s the same game people loved in 1999! Final Fantasy VIII is one of the more complicated games in the series, and the opening tutorials intimidated us a bit – we definitely had to look a guide up to really get to grips with some of the early mechanics! But the deeper we got, the more we grew to love Final Fantasy VIII for being such a weird game, with AWSM combat and a great storyline! You can really customise your set-up here, which means…

Rayman Mini  iOS, Apple Arcade subscription Rayman’s back! This autorunner lets you run, jump, and try to grab every lum across its short levels! This is a small Rayman adventure, but it’s still got all the energy and excitement you’d expect from the series, and it’s pretty challenging. It’s a great little game on Apple Arcade! SCORE X/10 What the Golf  iOS, Apple Arcade subscription What the Golf is one of the funniest games we’ve ever played! It’s golf, but you’re not always hitting a ball into a hole – sometimes you’re flinging a couch, or trying to land a putter in a soccer goal, or roll a vase to the pin without breaking it! It’s a simple, cool, fun and weird take on golf! We think you’ll like this…

AQUARIUS (20th January to 18th February) You share your carefree nature with the relaxed Lakitu! PISCES (19th February to 20th March) Pisces finds their spiritual connection with the ghostly King Boo! ARIES (21st March to 19th April) Your hero attitude aligns with the champion Mario! TAURUS (20th April to 20th May) Your powerful sign shares many traits with the mighty Wario! GEMINI (21st May to 20th June) Gemini’s true friend nature is closely linked with Yoshi! CANCER (21st June to 22nd July) You are the most loving of all the signs, your sympathetic personality aligning with Princess Peach! LEO (23rd July to 22nd August) With an outspoken nature, you share your liveliness with the bold Bowser! VIRGO (23rd August to 22nd September) One of the most nurturing signs, you share…

Trials of Mana Platform: PS4, Switch, PC Style: RPG Publisher: Namco Bandai Out: April 24, 2020 Trials of Mana, the SNES RPG which was only released for the first time in English this year as part of the Collection of Mana on the Switch, is getting a remake next year! It’ll feature 3D graphics, as well as a system for changing classes and a storyline that will change depending on the party members you choose at the beginning, making for a bigger, better experience than the original! It’ll have deep combat and a huge, fun world to explore! Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Platform: PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC Style: Action Publisher: Warner Bros Out: Early 2020 The next Lego Star Wars is going to be the biggest the…

Platform: Switch, PC Style: Puzzle Publisher: House House Price: $29.95 Gameplay: HONK! You play as a goose in Untitled Goose Game, and it’s up to you to ruin everyone’s day! Seriously, this is one of the funniest games we’ve ever played – we were LOLing hard from the first minute! You can snatch up items, flap your wings, and, most importantly, HONK at everyone you meet, and you can use these abilities to ruin everyone’s day! You get to steal people’s hats, scare them, and steal their things while completing objectives, and it’s extremely fun! This is an AWSM game to show to people who don’t usually game, and even though it’s pretty short we found ourselves going back after the end just to keep playing around and cause mischief.…

Platform: Switch BOMB ARROW If you equip the Bomb and the Bow at the same time and use both at once, you’ll fire a Bomb Arrow for long distance destruction! THE COLOUR DUNGEON There’s an optional dungeon in Link’s Awakening that gives you an incredible reward! Once you have the Pegasus Boots, go to the library in Mabe Village and ram the shelf to drop the book on top of it. The book will give you instructions for the graveyard – go there and find the five graves grouped together, and then push them, from the first through to the last one (starting at the bottom right), in the order the book indicated (take a screenshot of the book to make things easier). Beat the dungeon you unlock here and…

PAT BOWDEN’S STATS Name: Pat Bowden From: Gold Coast, QLD Age: 25 Ride: Yamaha 250 2 Stroke Most Fave Trick: Double Backflip Least Fave Trick: is crashing a trick? Biking: 22 years MANIA: HOW’D YOU GET INTO FREESTYLE MOTOCROSS? Pat: “After watching my first Crusty Demons movie as a kid I was instantly hooked! I decided I would do whatever it took from that day on to be a ‘famous dirt bike rider, as my three-year-old self would’ve called it.” MANIA: SO DID YOU THINK YOU’D BE A MOTOCROSS PRO WHEN YOU WERE A KID? Pat: “Yep! I don’t know where I got the confidence from, but I just always knew one day I would be living my dream and it was just a matter of time. It’s been a…

STRONGEST MAN AIN’T JUST A TITLE Mark won the Arnold Strongman Classic strongman comp back in 2002 and was awarded the prize by the comp’s founder Arnold Schwarzenegger! MARK’S STATS Name: Mark Jerrold Henry From: Texas, U.S. Bday: June 12 Height: 194cm Weight: 163kgs Signature Move: World’s Strongest Slam Accolades: World Heavyweight champ, WWE Hall of Fame, Olympic weightlifter SAM: WHEN WERE YOU IN AUSTRALIA LAST? Mark: “Oh, golly. It was 2006 or 2007 last time I was over here; it’s been a long time.” SAM: WHAT DID YOU GET UP TO LAST TIME? Mark: “Last time I was here I ate real good which is important hehe. And we hung out in the hotel lobby and made a scene. All the boys sitting there, laughing real loud and telling…

AN ARCTIC TALE Swifty works a small time job in a mailroom but has big dreams! While trying to prove he’s got what it takes to be a star he stumbles into a mysterious dude’s evil scheme. Swifty is gonna have to enlist his friends if he wants to save the day! SWIFTY A young arctic fox with something to prove! More than anything Swifty wants to be the Top Dog at a husky courier company and he may finally get his chance. RENNER GETS RECITING! Swifty is voiced by the man behind super-heroic Hawkeye of the Avengers; Jeremy Renner! And he doesn’t just act in this flick either - Jeremy sings a bunch of awesome songs in the film! Is there anything this dude can’t do! DUKE The current…

HOW TO WRITE AN EXCELLENT JOKE By Zoe Foster Blake 1. Watch something hilarious to warm you up, like your brother trying to sing, or your mum juggling watermelons as she rides a unicycle on a tightrope. Man, she’s amazing. I still can’t believe she can do that. 2. Get out your funniest pen. 3. And funniest paper. Do NOT use boring paper. It will ruin your joke and my day. 4. Make sure you have adequate snacks: apples (decent), popcorn (better), leftover birthday cake (outstanding). 5. Now think of something REALLY funny, absolutely hilarious, a real zinger, and then tip your head on its side, so the idea falls out of your ear and onto the page. 6. Quickly fence in the funny idea with words and full stops…

Platform: Switch Style: Adventure Publisher: Nintendo Price: $79.95 Gameplay: Link’s back with a remake of this amazing Zelda game from 1993! Link’s Awakening was a miracle on the original Game Boy, and on the Switch it still shines super bright! This is a much smaller game than Breath of the Wild – it’s all set on a single island, which Link needs to escape on by conquering the eight dungeons he encounters there. It’s very similar to the original, but better in every way – it’s easier to play because you have more buttons, and it’s aged super well! If you played Link’s Awakening on the 3DS Virtual Console, this is largely the same game – most of the new stuff is pretty simple, and the big addition, a dungeon…

NBA 2K20 Platform: PS4, Switch, Xbox One Style: Basketball Publisher: 2K Price: $99.95 NBA 2K20 is a really good basketball game! We really love the story mode, and it’s heaps of fun when you’re on the court. The dribbling has been updated, and the graphics and sound effects mean that it REALLY feels like real basketball. It’s hard to learn, but it’s worth putting in the time! You have to be careful in some of the game’s modes, though – we found that the game kept asking us to spend money on microtransactions we didn’t want to touch! HOT! Really great basketball gameplay! NOT! Microtransactions you need to avoid! MANIA SCORE  8/10 Knights & Bikes  Platform: PS4, PC Style: Adventure/puzzle Publisher: Double Fine Price: $28.95 This game, about two girls…