Months pass and Nintendo releases another direct in April of 2015. Things start off with Iwata in his final appearance on camera showing off Mewtwo's reveal trailer and release and we also get two more announcements...
Lucas returns to Smash and the biggest announcement of them all, and what I consider to be Iwata's Swan Song for what made me come back to this skeleton:
The Super Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot. A suggestion box where people could vote for the character they wanted to see the most. For me, I was still speculating on who could be added. I didn't want Lucas cut and I was happy about Mewtwo returning. Who did I vote for? I voted twice on my phone and my computer. First vote:
I made a specific statement on why King K. Rool should be added in Smash For and I remember filling out a Club Nintendo survey for Ganondorf's skins in Hyrule Warriors and mentioning King K. Rool as well as Donkey Kong's lack of reps while Fire Emblem and Kid Icarus had more despite the lack of sales or games. Donkey Kong Country at the time outsold ALL of Fire Emblem and I need not mention the latter. I was apeshit over the lack of Donkey Kong reps and I was gonna make damn sure that something came from this. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who felt this way:
From the original thread on the Smashboards, a massive 1200+ pages of support for the Kremling King. I was there already back in 2014, but the increased support gave me a second home. I was at the DKVine as well and still pop up from time to time. It's one of the biggest threads at the time and still is. But on to my next pick:
I was a big fan of Mother 2/Earthbound and felt that Paula could be a neat little dessert, utilizing her PSI better than Ness could at the cost of power and weight. Maybe she could have a gauge showing how much PSI she had to use so you could balance things out with replenishing your PSI and using bigger attacks for more PSI. That's really it.
Anyway, my spirit was revived with new Smash characters coming in. Dixie could have a shot at long last and it was speculated that Roy and Ryu were next on the list. I guess Roy was another instance of bringing back a popular character but Ryu was interesting: I felt that Mega Man was added due to Capcom arranging Ryu to appear as well. Basically you want our character, you put in this character too. I had no issue with him funny enough. The way he plays is tantamount to an actual Street Fighter game, inputs and all. Said IP was also a prominent game among my friends and family too. So overall, I was enjoying the game with the additions and the one new character but I couldn't help but notice something:
Lyn aside, this was getting a little out of hand. Sakurai boasting his love for Fire Emblem when he explained Lucina's inclusion led to four reps instead of three and with Roy, you have two Marth variants. Marth did change from Brawl and For so Roy was more or less his Melee counterpart with some tweaks here and there and also why Ultimate's picks are the way they are. But never mind that, Fire Emblem is now at five reps, six if you use any Robin with custom moves. A bit disproportionate but there was still some hope, right?
Right???
"Has your Mii Fighter always dreamed of being king of the Kremlings? Now
your Mii Fighters can realize their true destiny with this King K. Rool
costume!"
...
End of July, this popped up via tweet, a costume for the Mii Brawler. This as far as I was concerned was the killing blow for King K. Rool in Smash For. And this also proves the Smash Ballot was taken into consideration with this costume. You think this was added by coincidence? I gave up hope at this point. Dixie wasn't coming if this character who had way more momentum was regulated as a costume.
Yeah, that was it. And the ballot was still ongoing for a bit, so way to kill the hype for me, Mii costumes. I didn't like them because they took up so much time to develop according to Sakurai with their custom moves and then you can't use them online and now, this gave me even MORE reason to hate them. It's no better than Assist Trophies in my opinion. Begrudgingly, I kept my eye on For to see what was gonna come of this whole ordeal. Fast forward to November, and...
Fucking hell. The one character a fair chunk of the Smash Bros. community really didn't expect or even want. But here you go. I gave no fucks about Cloud and I sure as hell wasn't buying him. Top off the shit sundae, The stage he came with had only two tracks. It doesn't help that I only saw him as a character used from Ike's base model. The damn Final Smash even looks similar to the Aether. That overall left a nasty taste in my mouth and there was more to come. Awaiting December, the final Smash Direct arrived.
The last direct and the would-be results of all that ballot stuffing. How do you start things off?
With another Fire Emblem character, of course! What better way to ensure the upcoming title's success than to use Smash Bros. to promote it? So, that leaves us with six characters from Fire Emblem, and they all use swords. But you can also play as the female version of Corrin too. Now you can do an eight-player Smash with all Fire Emblem! Cool, right? Only two minutes in and the entire internet was in an uproar. Next was Cloud's explanation and his release after that direct. But then came another unexpected surprise in that same video: Geno from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars...as a Mii costume.
Good glory. Geno was a character up there with King K. Rool and Ridley and countless others requested since 2006 and this was Sakurai's way of trying to add some compromise for that. at the time I was neutral to him, but in retrospect, I've grown to respect his fandom and overall character. It helps that I did play Super Mario RPG and consider it a unique game among the Mario RPG games.
This is also the one time I can't attack Sakurai directly; this is all on Square. Why they own the character but are so anal with it is beyond me. When are they gonna use Geno again, in the next Dissidia title? What a laugh. After some more Mii pelts, we finally saw the results of the ballot...
Yep. Bayonetta* according to the final direct was the winner of the Smash Ballot.
*Among realizable choices
Now that particular asterisk rose some question, a lot more than I care to explain. Exactly what did realizable mean? What the dev team could do on such short notice? Who Sakurai wanted personally? Other circumstances? Either way, I refuse to believe that Bayonetta* won the ballot and she was cherrypicked among many other characters. Like Cloud, I didn't buy her or Corrin. It's not because I hate her character, as I do own both Bayonetta games and also the PC version of the first game, but the reasoning behind her. It doesn't help that the final three are disgustingly overpowered and Sakurai admitted that you have to buy them to beat them. Bayonetta* in general being by far worse than Metaknight in Brawl. Funny enough, combos were downplayed in Brawl onward but Bayonetta* brings them back and look at the results.
In general, Smash For to me is the low point of Smash Bros.. Brawl was coming off Melee's reins and Brawl had divided the community severely and no one wanted a sequel to it. The fanbase was already fatigued from it and Smash For on the surface seemed like a different game but playing it, it was more or less Brawl but even more stripped down. Content was spread between two games and I wasn't buying both games for one mode, but I had the game with the shittier mode, go figure. Collecting trophies was fun in Melee and even Brawl had more to play with albeit with model ports and so on. But For?
Wario
A living embodiment of gross, this villain hates Mario and loves
money. He claims to have known Mario since childhood, but who can tell
if that's true? In Smash Bros., he's a seriously agile heavyweight
fighter. He can store up his trademark Wario Waft for explosive results.
Did I mention he's gross?
Pokemon Trainer Pop quiz! What do Misty, Brock, Cynthia, Iris, and Ash all have in common? That's right-- they're all Pokémon Trainers! This Pokémon Master in the making is the same. Back in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he fought to be the very best-- like no one ever was. To smash them was his real test-- to launch them was his cause!
I'll leave it at that, as there are enough examples to pick from, but that first one rubbed me the wrong way. Not a mention of WarioWare even. Wario may as well be a Smash original. And that trophy section of his in Brawl and For were a joke. Same with Mother and Yoshi. How the fuck does Melee have more variety in trophies with the latter and even the former if you don't count alts? You can tell that For was done out of obligation and not by passion but here it shows more. With that direct to an end, I gave the game away to my nephew and cut my losses. Under twenty hours played. What a joke.
At that point, I cut Smash out my life completely and wanted no more to do with it. There were other games I cared for and other series I liked. I'll end things with a piece from my old diary, typos and all. Take note of the section I underlined:
6/8/11 So Nintendo finished their conference yesterday. They announced some things along with their controller for the new console(They didn't show it just yet). Two things related to Pokemon was Smash Bros.(Two titles)and a 3D Pokedex. The latter has 3D renders for Gen V Pokemon, and it's free(for a limited time, I bet). Kinda cool and I bet these models'll be re-used for the 3D console Pokemon game that's sure to come. It saves time and money.
Now for the former, ugh. I've gotten tired of Smash Bros. Brawl was THAT draining and infuriating. And since playing Pokemon, I haven't looked back. I bet you there'll be some more Gen I/II worship for this game. Zoroark is the only good thing that'll inevetably happen, maybe Black to replace Red. People want Blue(not Gary, fuck him)to return with yet more Gen I Pokemon to use. Sadly the developement teams might feel the same way. I hate the nostalgia that Gen I and II generated and I especially hate the fans. Here's some fairness for all sides: Get a rep for every Gen, bring back anyone that was cut from the last game, don't cut any characters at all and just lessen the bullshit factor. That's what gradually killed the game for me.
And you know what? Even if Smash Bros(Or rather the team behind it)doesn't fufull this quota, the main games that have no relation to Smash Bros. will. Black and White, you've done well. Gray will do even more and GameFreak will always deliver. Short version: Fuck Smash Bros. Stick to the games that it borrowed elements from it. That said, the 3DS and the Wii U(Sillier than the Wii itself, no?)will both get a Smash Bros. and they'll connect to each other somehow. The one thing I'm worried about is how much money this'll all cost. Damn. Again, there's some optimism to be had, but I'm in no rush to get excited. My tastes have changed.
So by the time 2010 or so rolled around, everyone got tired of Brawl and despite the hype, bells and whistles used for the pre-release period, it turns out that the success of Brawl was short-lived. It made its money, it got people excited, it did what it was supposed to do...at the time.
Looking back and I feel the same way, it was a mistake. The gritty look really didn't do any favors. The de-saturated and washed out colors haven't aged well. In fact, I'd say overall games around that time period haven't aged well, tantamount to realistic-looking games on 5th gen hardware. I don't know what was up with games around 2005 to around 2010, but every series was trying to go for a realistic look. Even fucking Pac-Man got hit with that with Pac-Man World 3, a game while I liked fails to hold up compared to its predecessor. Sonic 2006 is also another culprit, even on superior hardware compared to the Wii. Yeah, it looked okay but Dr. Eggman in that game by far is the creepiest take on the character. The massive logs he calls legs are unsettling.
Looks worse in-game.
It was an...interesting period to say the least. Not all series went the gritty realistic route though, but for the industry and for consumers like myself, it was a growing pain that some of us would prefer not to look back on.
But back to Smash. Brawl had overstayed its welcome, was tarnished for the tripping and removal of certain techniques Melee was acclaimed for and was slowly being modded into Brawl- and more the more known Project M. But back in 2011 after Nintendo's E3 showing, they announced the game
despite Sakurai working on Uprising. a year later, this was posted on Sakurai's twitter feed.
Some claimed that the overall cheery look of the drawing signified a change in the look of the game. Plus it let us know off top who we could expect. Sadly, I didn't pay attention to it, but Wario would be stuck in his WarioWare fare once more. A month after Brawl dropped I was already making rosters for Smash Four. Hell, even now I'm thinking of what Sakurai could have added in instead of what he did. Seems starting with Brawl, the final roster never satisfies me. There's always a character or two that I think could get added or may show up and they don't.
Brawl: Mega Man, Bomberman, Dixie Kong, King K. Rool, Lip
Smash Four: Dixie Kong, King K. Rool, Lip, Stafy, Wolf when he didn't return
Just a taste of my taste. Everyone knew by E3 of 2013, we'd see the game at long last. And I believe that same E3 started things off with Smash.
We had two games: Super Smash Bros. For 3DS and Super Smash Bros. For Wii U.
Areturn to the vibrancy that Smash 64 and Melee had. First we see the 3DS footage and then a transition to the Wii U game. Finally, we got two newcomers: Villager from Animal Crossing and the Blue Bomber, Mega Man fromthe franchise of the same name, in his in-game rendition based off the NES titles. I was really excited to see Mega Man, after Brawl's disappointment, I was on board for Smash For (Heh). And then came another surprise...
At this point, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was revealed ahead of time and I correct myself on my earlier statement. Seeing Dixie Kong return to the spotlight made me just as excited as Mega Man, but this inclusion dampered my Smash hype back to the levels they were after Brawl. Another surprise character that no one asks for and another character that "People didn't know they wanted until now.". The latter statement irks me because it only shows how much of a fanboy you can be. I made direct critiques on Wii Fit Trainer and got the fanboys butthurt and angry over it. Fun fact: The few images of Rule 34 of Wii Fit feature the male trainer as equally to the female trainer and the male images were of better quality. Really. So, I was cautious of the future reveals. From then on, there were regular updates on the Super Smash Bros. Miiverse. Items, characters and so on. A lot of characters I felt could be playable were regulated to Assists once more while nonsense like Wii Fit Trainer got in.
And then, December rolled in.
Fucking Rosalina. Everything I worried about came to pass; this game was going to do surprise characters and unexpected choices over popular characters. Not that Rosalina wasn't popular, but prior to this trailer, would you seriously suggest her for Smash? But the biggest red flag that flew in my face: On the bottom of her page, you can see a nice little advert for Super Mario 3D World, which was shown with her as a secret character right before this trailer popped up.
Frankly, Kirby Air Ride 2 would have been a better reveal.
I know, I'm being negative. And that's a good thing. But let's talk some positive things about Smash Four, because it's gonna get even nastier from here on. First, the visuals. I loved them. Loved them to death. Somehow, the detail from Brawl to this game was even more of a leap.
You have to click that second image to see how big of an improvement it was from Brawl. The shoes looked amazing and a nice high-res render made the game look better. Going back to the DOJO!!, the screenshots were very low-resolution. The Wii U game at least had big enough screens to look at. And on the note of detail:
I really liked this shot for Donkey Kong. Don't know why, but I did. But the fur in Tropical Freeze looked better. Mega Man's render impressed me the most.
I don't like that he's stoic in Smash, but the general look is very unique in terms of the various renditions of the character. It's here where Sakurai mentioned he wanted to keep an iconic look and that he wasn't going to let just anyone in Smash Bros. when he revealed him during another video segment showing off the game at E3 2013. Yet for me, he was literally doing just that for this game.
As with the last games, let's run down Smash For's newcomers.
Villager. I was neutral to it, but it grew on me eventually. It also showed that Sakurai was opening up to new ways to expand on Smash based on a previous statement about the Villager not being suited for battle, yet the moveset I feel fits Smash better than Snake. Again,the late 2000's were...a time.
Mega Man, as I stated was a want in Brawl. I felt he should have been alongside Sonic and not Solid Snake. But nonetheless, he's here. People wondered if Mega Man was going to have a moveset similar to the one used in Marvel vs. Capcom. Here, he has moves from all over his games from the classic series, his custom moves included (More on that soon)
Wii Fit Trainer, the first sign of what this game was going to present. I never used it. Not once. I give Sakurai credit for thinking outside the box but at the time, I was livid.
Rosalina and Luma. Another character I wasn't wild about. Never touched either. But I do like that she's tall. Something's endearing about her size compared to the usual female characters in Smash.
Little Mac. Until the game released, I didn't realize at the time, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze released in the same month. The perfect character for this would have been Dixie Kong, and it's that overlook if you can call it that, that made me outright hate this game, but we'll get to that later. Mac isn't the issue here, a solid choice from the usual Fire Emblem fare in hindsight.
I even forgot that Charizard survived the chopping board at times. Its Down-B is Rock Smash and it gained Flare Blitz as a Side-B with it's Final Smash as Mega Charizard X. Honestly, it should have stayed alone in Ultimate alongside the other two starters.
Greninja. Shown in the April Direct, many thought it was Mewtwo making its return until another shot showed the webs on its hands when it used Water Shuriken. I was happy because Gen I gained enough pandering and it was nice to see a new Pokemon get the spotlight for once. I never really used it sadly.
Miis, one of three characters shown at E3 2014. Or in this case, five. The Mii Brawler, The Mii Swordfighter and the Mii Gunner. Three characters in one. What bothered me was due to custom moves, it was more or less developing nine characters. And what's worse, you can't use custom moves online. Pretty redundant, no?
Palutena, fourth character shown. An image showing Palutena and Mario on the Battlefield kept circulating online. I don't know if it was the same model used in For, but her inclusion isn't surprising. Another character with custom moves that I never used. At the end of her trailer, Dark Pit shows up. Thought to be a harmless cameo, it was really a soft confirmation of the doppelganger himself.
Pac-Man, Pac-Man, Pac-Man. THE sole reason I brought Smash For Wii U. I was fighting for his inclusion while people were suggesting Lloyd Irving from the Tales games on the grounds of being 'cooler' or Klonoa from the series of the same name due to their lack of knowledge on Pac-Man and the games he could represent. Sakurai even mentioned his in-game design as being redundant, unaware of his classic illustration with limbs. Needless to say, that was the best confirmation since Sonic and another character who I'll mention in the future. What gets me is that he was shown behind doors and not at the Smash Invitational where the fans were a plenty. For in general had some shitty choices.
Robin was shown next month along with Lucina. Captain Falcon was confirmed as well fighting Lucina and almost punching her when he was shown. A mage user and one of the better picks from Fire Emblem.
Lucina, the useless swordsman who was saved by Robin is a straight-up clone of Marth with the sweetspot throughout her sword. Dumbed down version, you do the same amount of damage with slashes regardless of where you are while with Marth, you do less damage if you're too far from your enemy and more if you're closer. Confused me the first time too. One of three dessert options from For.
Shulk was shown during the infamous ESRB leak but revealed September. Having played Xenoblade, I could really feel his inclusion (rimshot). Sakurai mentioned he's not a character that would normally get into Smash and I have to agree based on the choices made for Ultimate, but even then I'm still skeptical.
Dark Pit, along with Shulk and the rest of the roster was shown in the leak as well. People didn't believe it, but he was added, totaling Kid Icarus to three characters. He too, is a dessert option (We'll get to that later).
Dr. Mario, the last dessert of For. Think of him as a return of Melee Mario. He keeps his slouch and power, making him viable where Mario fell short. This is how dessert should have been handled.
Duck Hunt, the last character for For and the overall retro representation. Some say the dog and duck are the WTF character, but that goes to WFT, for the sole inclusion that they weren't requested. No problems here.
Overall, there were a huge amount of newcomers, but sad to say a chunk of them didn't appeal to me. Lastly, Wolf, Lucas, Ice Climbers, Snake and Pokemon Trainer were cut. Snake was okay, but Lucas was the oddball out after the great reception he got when Ness was alongside him and Wolf I really didn't appreciate until he was gone. Ice Climbers hurt the most as we got confirmation they were okay on the Wii U game but the 3DS game kept them out the game and eventually cut from the roster.
This is also why I skipped the 3DS version despite having the better mode. Smash Tour was straight up shit. I was excited for the Wii U version which also featured predominately in the November 50-fact extravaganza. Smash Tour is more or less Mario Party, but without any fun that Mario Party could generate. What I was really hoping for was that the Wii U version would have more characters that you could obtain in the 3DS game by connecting the 3DS game to the Wii U console with the game at hand. Sad to say, it never came to pass. I remember a fake leak mentioning a mode called Tower of Smash.
This is why I feel both versions of Smash For suffered by being similar. If the 3DS version complimented the Wii U game, that would give you an incentive to buy both and have a different experience overall. the 3DS game didn't even need to be a fighter, you could have had an RPG or another genre for it and have the rewards and elements of that game transferred to the Wii U game for more stuff. Plus, Tower of Smash sounded more fun than what we got.
But alas. I really didn't care for any of the newcomers once more. And at the end of that 50-Fact direct, Mewtwo was coming back so...hooray? But if you wanted it free, you had to buy both the 3DS version and the Wii U version. That wasn't happening. So out of loyalty for Pac-Man and to keep an obligation to my word, I brought the Wii U game but played a little of Brawl to readjust. It wasn't pretty. And I swear, a lot of my attacks had no range despite being face-to-face with my opponent. For lacked tripping but it was still an 'eh' title. Someone also mentioned a big reason why Brawl and For felt off and I didn't realize it until it was pointed out.
In a game like Super Mario Bros., one of the key elements to the game was your speed and trajectory. When you run, you get a better range in your jumps. This is essential to keep the game fast, engaging and entertaining. A 'slow' platformer isn't fun at all. This was in 1985. Another game I played with this feature was Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, on the Gameboy of all things in 1993. Sonic is literally built around momentum, trajectory and speed.
Short version: Any platformer worth its spit has that as a mechanic. A platformer that doesn't have that that's still engaging to an extent is Kirby. No surprise there, Kirby games aren't supposed to be challenging, though the recent titles have delivered this in spades and makes up for it in other areas. But for Smash, where your movements are based around a platforming structure, jump momentum is key to having good movement. One thing I hated about the Subspace Emissary was that it gauged itself as a 'robust side-scrolling action game' but the actual action was flawed: Smash doesn't lend itself to platforming too well when played like a platformer. Removing jump momentum is by far the most dangerous thing you can do with any platforming game. Smash isn't a platformer, but given the way the game plays, it should follow the fundamentals of platforming. I myself was shocked that a game in 2014 couldn't hold up to games made in the 80's or even on a primitive platform like the Gameboy of all things. If this doesn't tell you how much gaming has regressed, I don't know what will.
Another thing I hated about For Wii U was the classic mode. The
boardgame layout was a chore and you had a rival that if you beat, you
got better rewards but the challenges got harder, I think. I forgot
really. I also can't stand the main theme for For. And the Master Core nonsense seems out of place, almost like the Subspace Emissary's original creations. I don't know why Sakurai insists on implementing this stuff in Smash. Master Hand made sense from the first game's setting and Crazy Hand to represent the creator's left hand. Even Giga Bowser was endearing and a cool twist on an established villain. After that? Good glory.
And with Ultimate's Bonus Game, I hate it. The lack of freedom with your movements makes it a chore and Sakurai intends to keep it that way. I wonder if he even plays his own games, because that alone should tell him how hard it is to get through that. The Smash gameplay isn't good with bosses either. This works with Kirby given the titular character's abilities but this isn't a Kirby game and not everyone plays as Kirby. It's small things like this that make me hate Smash and yearn for a day where Sakurai either caves in and gives the people what they want or pass the torch to someone else. And I don't play competitively. But I get why the segregation from Melee and other Smash games exists and it's not the Melee fanbase that caused it.
"It’s storyline isn’t overwrought—it’s hastened along by a bunch of quick movies."
Ohohohohoho, the irony in this statement.
But I'm shitting too much on Four. Here's another plus about it or the Wii U game at least and arguably the only reason I took to the Wii U game: Eight-Player Smash. With the increasing roster, it'd be a waste to not showcase it correctly, right? Multi-Man Melee had six slots in total when you played that mode. Here, you can finally have that as a mode outside normal Smash. It's fun to see all the characters fight one another and it was the sole reason I kept playing For Wii U. But the one thing that gradually caused me to stop playing?
The roster. While it was a big roster, I couldn't help but notice that compared to some IP's, others were a little neglected.
Four/Five games in and this is all Donkey Kong has to show for it? I really thought at best we'd get
Dixie for Tropical Freeze, only to realize that Little Mac was shown the month that Tropical Freeze came out. A near perfect opportunity and he pisses it away for a character who really has no future, going by his guidelines for this game (and all future Smash titles it seems). Everyone was banking on King K. Rool for whatever reason when even I knew that wasn't happening if the last two Donkey Kong Country titles by Retro were anything to go by, the Kremlings in Smash Run be damned. Let me show you my issue with For's roster:
This was one of many of the images leaked for For 3DS and no one could believe it. Only two DK characters yet Kid Icarus got three (One being a dessert, Sakurai's own words) and Fire Emblem up to four. On that note, Wolf, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Ice Climbers, Snake and Lucas were all cut too and someone even mentioned they may all come back as DLC. On the note of 'dessert', the three options were Dr. Mario, returning from Melee and Dark Pit and Lucina. But it's not that they were the extras, it's that they were the only extras. You couldn't squeeze Dixie Kong in that list? Look at Dr. Mario and the amount of differences he has with Mario. He's literally a different character, Melee Mario more or less. I'd wager Blood Falcon could be an effortless dessert to give F-Zero another rep and to maybe play with Falcon's kit in a different manner. Poor Alph from Pikmin 3 remains a skin but Dark Pit using the sacred treasures from Uprising wouldn't make sense. Never mind the disproportionate amount of Uprising assets reused in For. The Ore Club was the first sign of that game's stuff creeping in. And to anyone who missed the codecs from Snake's stage, you got Palutena's Guidance in the Kid Icarus stage, chock full of jokes, references and all the other kit and caboodle that game had, alongside continuity from that game seeping into Smash.
It takes work to be this conceited, and I have to give Sakurai a tip of the hat for being so disconnected from the critique.
But the Smash For ride was still in progress...and things got bumpy...
Day three of the Retrospective, release day for Ultimate. Let's continue.
Reminder that this happened.
So, with Sonic confirmed, I was already set for Brawl. I had the Wii console and was saving money for the game. So it was just a matter of waiting it out. Around this time, I wondered who else was slated for the roster and I was also anticipating the Subspace Emissary.
Basically a fanfic come to life. At the time, it was a nice way to expand on the Adventure Mode. It did what it was supposed to do. A story to tell, great graphics (For the time), an orchestrated theme, Brawl was pulling out all the stops and anyone following video games overall was suckered in to its campaign. From now until late January, the DOJO!! would update with characters, music, modes, items and so on.
And at the date mentioned, someone on 2ch received the game in Japan early. Said player started playing and putting screens on the imageboard, screens that would make its way to 4chan's /v/ board. Naturally, everyone from all corners of the gaming internet congregated to that one board to see what was up. Needless to say, things got real crazy. And it was a little earlier that the final roster got leaked.
Along with who was shown on the site, Wolf, ROB, Olimar and Toon Link were the last characters mentioned. I loved Pikmin 2 and The Wind Waker is arguably my second favorite Zelda title.
Oh man. Seeing this little brat in Smash made me giddy. Alongside our newcomers were Ness and Ganondorf returning. And of the roster, Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, Roy, Pichu and Y. Link were confirmed to not return. Four clones and a unique character. But the tradeoff was much better. So let's do a roundabout with Brawl's newcomers like the last time.
Diddy Kong, at long last. He missed the trophy roster in Melee but made it in the playable roster here. My second most used after Donkey himself. I've come to appreciate Diddy a lot more when I joined the DKVine.
Metaknight. Okay. I was neutral towards him so not much to say. But I did like the detail to his armor but I still consider his feet to be purple and not armored. I wasn't a fan of the English voice nor the special jingle he got.
King Dedede I liked more. I'm surprised at least one of the two didn't pop up in Melee. I really liked his moveset and his voice. He oozed personality.
Zero Suit Samus, the subject of a lot of porn. This had to be the game to ramp it up. So much so you have a lot of people who use Samus in the Zero Suit as the de-facto Samus. Even more damning is Zero Suit is better than normal Samus when Zero Suit was meant to be a point where Samus was vulnerable and weaker.
Pokemon Trainer a year later I came to really like. I got back in Pokemon shortly after buying Brawl and this character or characters repped the staple avatar nicely with Red and the Kanto starters. Who do I prefer? For now, I can't say. It's been a while. I'll catch you on that one when I play Ultimate. I didn't like the stamina system though. That was a flaw.
Wolf was a definitely an odd choice, but I liked him. Star Fox 64 was that good of a game. With him and Kirby's reps, you'd think that Donkey Kong would get King K. Rool or Dixie (hoo boy, just wait 'til I get to that part). He was the last character to be made and is composed of many other character's moves. He also shared a Final Smash with the other two Star Fox reps, the Landmaster.
Lucas, until Ness was confirmed to return worried me. Now I had no issue with both PSI boys on the roster. Mother 3 also had a translation patch worked on at the time. I still laugh at the people who think NoA are going to localize it. Mother only got released because they could grab the Earthbound Zero ROM and reskin as a prequel (Ha, nice try).
Lucario. Again, after replaying Pokemon and getting back in the grind, I've come to appreciate it a lot more. All the people crying about Mewtwo was obnoxious. Lucario was okay. A shill pick, but okay in my book. It's still popular to this day.
Ike. He fights for his friends.
Pit's redesign stands out a lot. Compared to the Melee trophy, this is like a 2000's reboot...which is exactly what it is and was with Kid Icarus: Uprising four years later. Never used him much.
Wario, I already explained him.
Captain Olimar, I admit I never used as much as I could. But again, Pikmin 2 was a superb title. Some people imagined him as an assist trophy but thankfully he avoided that hell. The individual Pikmin in Subspace had their own elements, a nice nod to their properties in the source material.
ROB, the surprise character. Some people thought it was ROB 64 from Star Fox. No way Star Fox is getting four reps. That's not happening anytime soon. Though it's very flattering to give the would-be savior of video games in the North American market a spot on the Smash Bros. roster.
Sonic the Hedgehog. No explanation needed.
Solid Snake. Thanks for paving the way for Sonic and eventually the rest of the outsiders. Asshole.
But overall, a strong roster with a lot of good picks, probably the strongest set of newcomers to any Smash game in general. Honorable mentions to the Forbidden Seven.
Dixie Kong, who some speculated may have been a team character with Diddy. She lost her chance in Smash and will never get in now.
Toon Zelda, Wind Waker's Zelda basically. Ah man. This one really stung, because I not only love that game, I love that rendition of Zelda, by far my favorite take and most of my favorite Zelda titles have that design, Spirit Tracks being my absolute favorite Zelda to this day. A speedier Zelda would have been amazing.
Toon Sheik, who I think is actually Tetra. Another character I loved from Wind Waker. The transformation could have worked with her and T. Zelda. Oh well.
Plusle and Minum were heavily speculated going by the Pra_Mai section in the game files. That would have gotten Gen III a rep, two at that if true.
Roy, Mewtwo and Dr. Mario were discovered too. Overall you'd have eight more characters for the roster and I think that would have rounded things up fantastically.
Mods have recreated most of them, one mod in particular I'll mention later on. But back to the leak on /v/, everyone was coming in to see the dumping of the Subspace mode. It war around 2AM where the first screens popped up and I remember this lasting until 7:30 PM that same day. Man. I was disappointed that a few other characters weren't around but it was something else. The music was being uploaded and this is by far Brawl's strongest point to this day. The soundtrack. A lot of music was added, so much the game disc had to be dual-layered to fit it all and the Subspace cutscenes, another con for this game.
But nonetheless, the wait continued and I had stuff to keep my occupied for the time. A few months and a small delay later, I managed to get a copy of the game one Friday before Spring Break. Hot damn. I remember playing training mode and picking Donkey Kong, admiring his increase in size. That model is probably my favorite compared to Melee's. He really was huge. Then I played the game in general. It did what it was supposed to do. Then I played the Subspace Emissary.
Fast forward a few months later, the game was losing its appeal. Everyone who played it got hype, got overhyped and the hype crash was settling in. One feature I hated was tripping. Tripping was a mechanic added simply because Sakurai hated the way people were playing Melee. It was meant to be a way to laugh at the situation but all it did was annoy people, even the people who don't play Melee competitively, myself included. When I played with friends, I was the better player and the game did this a lot: The weaker player would return, Final Smash ready. This was prominent in Mario Kart Wii with the Blue Shell attacking the lead racer. Basically they casualized the games so that non-gamers would have a chance to win but it backfired; the said group didn't like it either, be it tripping or the blue shell attack. And because Brawl was supposed to follow-up to Melee, this was a bit damning.
I don't play Smash competitively, but I acknowledge the people who do. What made Melee fun is that everyone could enjoy it, even the people who weren't as good. Sakurai's attempt to make it easier for the novice only pissed them off as well. How do you learn to play a game? You keep playing it and get better. I said this with New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Having the game play itself because you're not good at it stifles growth and development. The Wii generation overall watered down a lot of IP's and games and Brawl was the sign of things to come.
On the note of Brawl, I'm going back a bit to bring up a notable mod for the game, Project M. The mod started off as a way to fix Falco to play like he did in Melee in 2011. I didn't think much of it but I get why it was done. Same with Brawl-, another mod to fix the physics. But Project M was the main mod of Brawl. It started with modifying characters and grew to adding its own stages, costumes and even characters down the line, Mewtwo being one of them. Some of the characters got references from other games. I was very impressed to see Wario take nods from Wario Land, even taking his trademark shoulder bash for a Side-B move, something that took a decade to pop up in Ultimate. On the note of Wario, the so called shoulder bash in Brawl was a joke unless you were Wario Man. Brawl in general was broken with its balance. If you weren't Metaknight or Snake, you were screwed.
Most of the time, I just listened to the soundtrack, making the game more obsolete when I got an MP3 player. And I couldn't really play it due to my early Wii console not being able to read newer dual-layered discs. So, as quickly as I may have gotten into Smash, I slowly lost interest when I couldn't play it anymore. Such ends the tale of Brawl. I focused on Pokemon and could really care less about Smash, rolling my eyes when people brought it up. Another nitpick of mine was how everyone blew Nobuo Uematsu when he composed the main theme for the game and everyone remixed it. It got really annoying. Some renditions were cool but the rest were mind-numbing.
Another three years later around 2011, Smash was announced yet again, for the 3DS and the Wii U. Great. Back to this tired song and dance once more. But it was announced, not shown. At the time, Sakurai was focused on Kid Icarus: Uprising. The stress of another Smash title with your current project still incomplete had to have worn on his mind...
And that episode will be touched on in our next entry.
Go here for the first part of the Retrospective. Go here to see my website and buy my books.
Shameless plug aside, we return to the Retrospective of Super Smash Bros..
Super Smash Bros. 3 was announced and the internet was in anticipation for what was to come. Me, I was still playing Melee and had yet to unlock every character. Smash really wasn't that big in my life, even when the game released and I was in the center of the hype storm, but hyped nonetheless. So let's fast forward to E3 2006.
The game's title, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was decided at long last. I had a dial-up connection so I could only watch maybe three seconds of an uninterrupted scene before the video buffered. But when 0:06 occurred, holy shit did I lose it. That had to be the biggest graphical overhaul I ever saw since...Melee. Again, I mention that I couldn't really watch the video due to my connection but I did hear the details and saw the screenshots.
The first new characters shown were Metaknight, Pit, Zero Suit Samus and to my joy, Wario. A lot of people were puzzled by certain characters absent from Melee and Wario was one of them alongside Diddy Kong who wasn't even a trophy and I never noticed until someone mentioned it. But this Wario was from WarioWare, which I wasn't too fond of and at the end of the trailer, the dude made an atomic fart...yeah. One thing at a time. But the end of the trailer baffled the hell out of everyone and to me now was the point of no return of Smash.
Showtime!
This asshole here opened a box that should have remained opened until at LEAST the fourth game. With Solid Snake in the game, everyone was requesting 3rd parties left and right. Suddenly the dream for Nintendo characters coming together was drowned in demands for Sora, Simon, Alucard, Mega Man X and other characters who have no place In Smash Bros. But in general, everyone was hyping characters in general. The rules for 3rd parties was that they must have appeared on a Nintendo console and Snake appeared in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the Gamecube, but Metal Gear on the NES counts too. Snake's inclusion was due to a friendship between Hideo Kojima and Masahiro Sakurai. One particular post on the Donkey Kong Universe summed up how I felt about that in retrospect.
But after that trailer and the website that launched, there was a blackout of information as the game was still early in development, though around October or November, Fox popped up in another short trailer. Around that time, I spent almost every other day browsing Gamefaqs for general games and browsing Brawl's message board. If you really wanna know how huge this game's hype was, you had to have been there to know. Every gaming site was bustling with topics on Brawl, wondering how Melee's successor would fare up. And with Snake opening the door for 3rd parties, every other video game fandom was hoping to get a piece of the Smash pie. It was insane. I'll share some pics with you on my very old folder from high school.
Just silly shit. Everyone had a mockup or a silly ass image they made for the the hell of it. Fake rosters were a thing too, mainly a wishlist of stuff. Sometimes it got insane like that second pic. This game was so big that characters like Earthworm Jim and Crash were requested, though at that time there was still somewhat of a fandom for the former at least. One character I wanted was Sonic the Hedgehog. Who didn't wantSonic in Smash? You'd think he'd be the first pick but nope. Going to another pic:
No, I didn't believe it.
That was the biggest hoax posted at Melee's release, Sonic and Tails. I personally want Tails in just for that hoax to become a reality. But going back to Sonic, he was the most overall character requested for the game, and it baffled me that people didn't like him. The first stance of me getting a taste of opinions outside my own. But in 2007, this popped up:
This was unbelievable. The two biggest gaming icons appeared at long last in a game together...and it was a sports title. I don't care for sports titles too much and around this time, SEGA's reputation started to fall with the disaster that was Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Ouch. 'Nuff said. People thought that this game meant that Sonic wasn't going to be in Brawl. It would make sense to have Sonic debut in Smash first, but okay. Around a month or two later I think, the Smash Bros. website got a rehaul and was dubbed Japan Time during the countdown. And then...
The DOJO!! appeared. A new site to showcase daily updates for Brawl. At long last, we would get new information after a very dry spell of no news. The original site can still be found here.
The site showcased characters, items, music and ways to play. The site updated every day where I'm at now at around 3AM, so I would stay up until...4:30AM bullshitting and waiting for shit like this:
I never recovered from my insomnia...
And yes, most of the updates were like this. But what made the DOJO!! stand out was the creator, Masahiro Sakurai's overall quirkyness and flare to describing the features and updates. Once in a while, we got characters, mainly characters from the first two trailers but we'd get a new character or a returning veteran with a new look.
This was a big deal, believe it or not. Sakurai also mentioned that not every character would return from Melee, adding more suspense to the days ahead. I had no qualms on who was getting cut, but I admit when Lucas from Mother 3 was shown as a newcomer, I wasn't worried.
But I heard Lucas was gonna show up in Melee and replace Ness. If Sakurai did this, I'd be pissed. I loved Ness in Melee coming off Earthbound and didn't want to lost a valued character. But what I admit caused some real damage to Smash Bros. in the long run was the introduction of Assist Trophies. Assist Trophies are an item you can use in the game to summon a character from another series to fight for a bit. This item was included to add characters that couldn't be playable, such as the Hammer Bro. from Super Mario Bros. and the Nintendog from the first trailer. Neat, right?
Hmm. Samurai Goroh was a requested addition due to him being Captain Falcon's rival in the F-Zero games and Stafy (Or Starfy, whichever you prefer) having his own series, Densetsu no Stafi standing out at the time and Isaac, a requested pick from this same period was mentioned as well. Being Japan-only didn't mean shit if Marth and Roy was anything to go by, so Stafy being deconfirmed stung a bit. At the time, I didn't consider assists to be a bad thing, and if anything you could say that this was the team's way of saying "Sorry, we couldn't add these guys in but take this cameo as a consolation prize". At the time, that was fine. Disappointing, but okay all things considered. In retrospect, another post from the DKVine summed up everything that was wrong with this item from Day 1.
(Site's down at the moment, so I'll sum it up like this: The poster mentions that making Goroh a summon character was a dangerous precedent as his role in F-Zero was notable. When I saw Stafy and Isaac years later coming back to that topic, I realized what he meant. Another poster mentioned it best: SmashBros. isn't about the Nintendo characters anymore, it's about the personal projects and sword-rubbing IE Hideo and Masahiro with Snake.)
And how right they were. But we'll get to that later. Back to Brawl, the game was nearing release and I was still on the edge of my seat with Sonic the Hedgehog's inclusion. I didn't think the Olympic Games affected his chances, but I started to get worried in the back of my mind. Then, came October 10th.
Hot damn. I came home from school and was hyped the fuck up. That day, I even met an old friend from elementary school from back in 2nd grade. I hope he's doing okay. So that day has more sentimental value for me aside from Sonic's confirmation. The reveal was for the press conference at the time. With that put aside, I was all set for Brawl. Nothing could keep my hype from dying. At this point, my hype levels were off the charts. It was THAT big. And a little earlier, the Subspace Emissary was shown, a beefed-up version of the Adventure Mode in Melee, with cutscenes and a dark epic tale. Yeah, Brawl was going the extra mile to stand up to Melee, and it wasn't hard to do. But one thing I did have an issue with was Wario.
Wario was notably smaller in this game compared to his past appearances with Mario. Wario in the Wario Land series and Wario World was shown to be a very competent fighter with a lot of power to his moves and boasts masculinity and strength.
More or less the character in a nutshell. In Smash, almost none of that is present, Brawl being the notable offender for his representation. He moves like Mr. Game & Watch with choppy movements and I wonder if this was meant to be due to time constraints but he was one of the first characters shown. I remember that Sakurai mentioned that Wario got some negative press and possibly because of WarioWare and his overall bastardization altogether. Years later I found out that his Smash appearance was based on the Japanese adverts that featured him with a crude side dealing with toilet humor. Not to say the Manuals for Wario Land 4 and Wario World didn't have their grossout moments but in-game you didn't see Roachie or deal with an overflowing toilet bowl. Kinda funny how Sakurai slowly goes for being accurate to the source material...when he deems it necessary. Even the Mario party games and spin-offs get him right, but Smash continued to use this bizarre take on Wario, even by Wario standards.
I'm going on a tangent, but here you go. I gradually stopped using Wario in Brawl, sticking with Diddy and Donkey Kong. We'll get into that one next time. With Sonic finally confirmed and despite my overall nitpicks, I was still hyped for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. And I am indeed hyped for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, releasing tomorrow worldwide. But we'll still touch on the other Smash titles. Don't you worry.
I said to myself back in 2015 that I wasn't going to touch on this game or this series anymore and I kept to it up until this summer. But at some point, you reflect on your past and you see things taht may have not happened at the time come to pass. so never mind that statement I made, I'm going to go back around 1999 to 2005 or so and give you some history behind my experiences with Smash. Buckle up, it's gonna be a good one, composed of many parts.
The title that started it all.
I saw the teaser during WWF one night with Mario and Fox fighting on Princess Peach's castle and wondered what the hell was that? Months later, this commercial played.
Now in Japan, Super Smash Bros., released as Nintendo All Star! Dairantō Smash Brothers was already on the shelves and received to good acclaim. Only in America and Europe was the series still unknown. My cousin got the game and brought it over one weekend.
...and it really didn't wow me much. Not to say it wasn't fun, but it didn't really make me say WHOA. For what it's worth, I knew about Captain Falcon from F-Zero also owned by my cousin in the form of F-Zero X and also Fox McCloud from Star Fox 64 and of course the usual fare from Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, and Yoshi (What a joke, but one thing at a time). Samus Aran from Metroid was unknown to me as well.
But Mother gets a special mention as I did play it before I got invested in Smash but I knew nothing of Ness. I only got to play Smash 64 for a week before my cousin went back home and I more or less forgot it.
Fast forward to 2005, and I discovered Earthbound, also known as Mother 2. Short version, one of my favorite games of all time. Move onward to two months later and I got a certain game...
The best-selling Gamecube game of all time.
If you owned a Gamecube, you owned Super Smash Bros. Melee. If you didn't, well hey more power to you. You avoided the Smash Curse. Me, I was curious to see who was what in this game and why everyone made a funk about it. Needless to say, I saw the appeal and I heard of a few characters that were in, characters I knew from my past (Ice Climbers) and as of recent at the time (Ness). Smash being a blur in my mind until I fired up Melee rekindled my brief encounter with the first title. Plus, I heard both Princess Peach and Zelda were playable, and my brain couldn't process that, so I had a lot to look forward to.
First, the presentation. Man. For 2001 that opening cinematic looked amazing and the game looked just as good. How the hell did we go from
To
Is that not an improvement? Smash 64 was a low-budget title and it shows with Captain Falcon being a composite character with moves from Samus Aran and Fox and possibly a few others. It's also worth noting that Kirby and Jigglypuff share a model/moves/etc. Jigglypuff gets a note in that it was very popular due to the anime, alongside Clefairy who was also intended to be the series mascot before Pikachu. What could have been. But back to Melee, the graphical overhaul from the last game was amazing. How HAL Laboratories did it is anyone's guess. To make things better, you had all the original twelve with more characters to boot:
Bowser, Mario's archenemy. his design here was different from every other Smash title he appeared in. My problem then and now was his hunch. really bad. And he was really really slow and clunky. Typical for a heavyweight but here it's just bad.
Peach, the damsel in distress now fighting as an equal. Man, she looked good from her dress to her overall design. She had the best alternate costume masquerading as Daisy, short gloves and all. She even had a few nods from Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA).
Zelda, the titular character of The Legend of Zelda. When you use her down special, she becomes Sheik, an alias used in Ocarina of Time. Two characters in one. Her design here along with the other Zelda characters lean on their renditions in that game.
Sheik, who despite having the masculine design is referred to as female. If you didn't play Ocarina, spoiler alert. Oh well.
Popo and Nana, the Ice Climbers, a duo from Ice Climber, one of my very first games if not very first game overall. Seeing them made me happy. One of my favorite characters to use in Smash.
Falco, Fox McCloud's cohort in Star Fox. Falco in the metagame and competitive scene is arguably one of the top characters in the game compared to most of the roster. He's also one of the infamous 'clone' characters the game was criticized for at release. Along with him were a few other clones, such as...
Dr. Mario, Mario as a doctor. He's slower and heavier than Mario but has more power to his moves. Funny enough, he also has a few other moves that make him stand out from regular Mario but not by much. Even the game says it's just a matter of taste. Who do I prefer? Luigi.
Pichu, the first stage of the Raichu line. Pichu is the lightest character throughout the series and has a gimmick where it hurts itself from its specials, akin to its Pokedex entries. It's prone to getting knocked out very early on, so it's somewhat of a joke character. Somewhat.
Young Link, Link as a kid. I like Y. Link more than Link because of the increased speed and my love for Majora's Mask which gives him that slight connection that sadly never got expanded on. He also has one of the most frustrating Break the Targets board in the game until you learn how to use him.
Ganondorf, the last character to be added. He is a clone of Captain Falcon and overall the strongest character in the game after Bowser. He also has better mobility surprisingly despite his slow movement. What I find interesting about this Ganondorf is that people cried that he never used his sword when he never used it in Ocarina. Not once. The only thing he used in the fight was magic, not dark magic but spell magic. Shows how much people really know about the series and that alone is enough to have a dedicated section to, so let's hold that one on the shelf until then.
Marth, from Fire Emblem. Until Smash, Fire Emblem was a Japan-only series and upon localization, he and another character, Roy would be cut from the western releases. Thankfully, Nintendo of America's boneheaded call was not followed and the two lords made it to the west, Japanese vocals and all.
Roy is Marth's clone with notable differences in the real meta of stats and attributes, but mainly being shorter and having some fire effects in his attacks.
Mewtwo, the supposed final Pokemon in Gen I. It appears with its voice from the first movie and in the Japanese audio, actual speech. Pokemon later on from certain movies would get voices and lines retained in localization.
Mr. Game & Watch, the 'joke' character of Melee. A flat representation of the Game & Watch handhelds Nintendo released back in the 80's. Every one of his movements and attacks are choppy and in 2D, but G&W isn't a flat cutout but an actual model. If you use the Metal Box item, you'll see it better.
Overall, from the first game, you have over double the amount of characters albeit in a very rushed manner but it was said conditions that made Melee what it was and I think it was a good call considering the short timeframe the game had. Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the series knows to some extent what to give in a game. Of course I can't not mention Masahiro Sakurai. Of course.
He created Kirby as well, though he only worked a few games while Shinichi Shimomoura worked on the rest at that particular time. But nonetheless. He directed the first two Smash titles in conjunction with HAL Laboratories. Melee was a game that not only had a unique roster but also had many other modes. Adventure mode was a nice nod to various other series and had a very particular envisioning of Bowser in the form of Giga Bowser.
Wow.
Pretty scary all things considered. According to Sakurai, he envisioned Bowser as a scary monster and noticed that as the games moved onward to 3D, Bowser grew more cuter and rounder. If Paper Mario is anything to go by, he was right. My issue with Bowser was his hunch once more. An intimidating character looks like a joke when he's staring at your torso. I get he can't be too big but an upright stance would make him look better. All the issues mentioned go away with Giga Bowser and that may have been intentional. Who knows.
But one of my favorite parts about Melee was the trophies. Man. The trophies in Melee were beyond some of the best in the series, a good chunk of them made from scratch, and hoo boy does it show.
There are other examples, but let's not waste time on that. What did make me giddy were the trophies that were present:
Yes, in case you haven't realized, I am a Mother fan. This is why people are angry about trophies being absent in the near release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But that'll come eventually. This gallery of Nintendo characters showed every other corner of their catalog with some notable omissions and very vague references as well (Two items in Melee were from GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, labeled under TOP SECRET. Both games were from Rareware who at the time was being purchased and sold to Microsoft). It was beyond amazing to find trophies from games you never played, were going to release and games that never made it outside Japan. A few did get omitted from the US release, mainly Tamagon from Devil World for obvious reasons. The Devil from that game would return in the next Smash title in a limited role.
Overall, Melee was worth every penny. I had few friends to play with but I played the game regularly and unlocked all the roster within two years of purchasing it. I wasn't that big on Smash but it was one of the few games I had out of my library of Zelda and Sonic titles, so it stands out. Melee released very early in the Gamecube's life throughout the five-year run, so people were anticipating the next Super Smash Bros. title. Around 2005, the same year I had Melee, the announcement was made for the next Smash title and with all the support Melee gained, this was something that I felt changed video game hype forever, for better...and for worse...
