In our continuing drive to bring more new and exclusive community-driven content to the site, N-Europe is proud to present Episode 1 of A Smashing Cast, a weekly show produced by members of our forum and staff where we talk about Nintendo Switch games and gaming in general while playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and just generally have a good time.

This week we talk about the recently released Pokémon Sword & Shield, Luigi's Mansion 3, Games of the Decade, potential ideas for the Nintendo Land theme park, what we've been playing in general and a few other topics well.

Contributors to this episode include Ryan, Sam, Glen, Nick, Dennis & Jonnas as combatants and conversation contributors, additional contributions by Dcubed on the video plus logo creation and RedShell for the smashing banner at the top of this article.

What can I expect from A Smashing Cast?

Each week, our host Ryan (who you may know as Lazyboy on our forum) sets us a challenge to see who is the best 'Smasher' which will normally be a one on one tournament to pit us against one another, it's a rivalry but in the most friendliest possible way, this week is more of an open training session however where we try to get a proper feel for how each of us plays in Smash, as beyond a few trial runs and some regular games of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on a Thursday night (usually right after the N-E Mario Kart League) we're still getting used to how each of us fights but one thing is for surel; you never know what's going to happen each week which makes it more fun for us, and hopefully entertaining for our viewers and listeners.

There's a theme each week as well, with this being our first episode we found ourselves fighting to a theme which celebrates the birth of Smash which of course means that we had to fight to the theme of the very first game in the series, which many of you will know is Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64; this of course also means that we could only select characters from the rather sparse roster in comparison to the immense offering available in the latest iteration today, so no third party characters here... say goodbye to Bayonetta and Cloud for you'll only be seeing the likes of Kirby and Samus this week.

Aside from that, we'll be talking about a variety of topics ranging from recent game releases, talking points inspired by gaming news doing the rounds, which games we've been playing recently and of course you can expect there to be a lot of talk about retro games as well being that the Super Smash Bros. series has become very much a celebration of many different videogame series, not just limited to a wide variety of Nintendo characters these days but also Sega, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Platinum, Square-Enix and most recently SNK with the inclusion of Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury (Busta-Wolf!) so you can see how playing Smash and talking about games is a very good fit with a lot of scope.

Credit for the main idea goes to Ryan, this was just chatter on the forums a mere month ago and now it's something which many of us have been keen to make a reality and we'd very much like to improve the show as time goes on so if you have any ideas, comments or feedback then please feel free to share them with us either in the comments below or on our forum, with additional ways to reach us posted below...

Where can I get in contact with members of A Smashing Cast?

If you'd like to know more about the show, what we've got in store or if you have any fun ideas for potential tournament themes which would work well in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or even if you just want to tell us who your favourite character is, what you love about a particular video game series which is represented in Smash or which needs representation in future via dlc (Rick the Hamster for Smash!) then you can get in contact with us at the following places online...

• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NEurope
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/n_europe/
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/N_Europe

Come and say 'Hi' to our fantastic community of Nintendo fans and fans of gaming in general, you'll always find plenty of things to talk about on our forum as well. (which we may have mentioned before a few times)

Where is this 'A Smashing Cast' at then?

Oh alright then, no need to be impatient dear reader, we'll tell you... but on one condition, don't go telling because 'It's a secret to everyone!' Oh OK, it's not but we just wanted to get another videogame reference in there but if A Smashing Cast is what you came here for truely then look no further than the N-Europe Official YouTube Channel where you can find the latest episode available in addition to our backcatalogue of unique and interesting videos plus the also very recently released N-E Café Podcast which comes highly recommended as well.

Without further ado, here is the very first episode of A Smashing Cast!