Welcome to your new home for breaking news for the upcoming Super Smash Bros For Wii U/3DS, the Smashing News report. For our introductory edition, I’ll give you all a quick background on me. I’m coming to Diehard GameFAN from our sister channel, Inside Pulse Wrestling, where I review and react to the weekly NXT and ROH television and special events. Coming up all too soon is Apex Series 2014, which is a large fighting game competition on the east coast of the US. Apex is what brought me to DHGF – I offered to do a kind of daily summary/journal of my experience there throughout the weekend and thought it best to also give a weekly summary of the daily updates that Masahiro Sakurai puts up at http://www.smashbros.com/us/.
I’ve been a diehard (no pun intended, I promise) fan of the Smash Bros series for well over a decade now, enjoying the Nintendo 64 iteration, but falling in love with the Gamecube edition. I played at a competitive level for some time before life and its distractions got in the way, but I’ve had my competitive side reignited with the continued releases of Project M, a user-made mod of Smash Bros Brawl to restore Melee-esque elements to it. At Apex, I’ll be competing in both Melee and Project M. Now before the old “it’s not a fighter, stop changing rules” argument flares up, keep in mind that while I love to play competitively, I just as much enjoy a night of four player, item filled fun. As I look at the announcements, I’ll be considering gameplay-related information from both a casual and a competitive point of view, so we’re all inclusive here. Since 5 short updates in a week can often be a bit slight of information, I’ll also have a look at some of the now-announced characters both new and old as we go to keep things fresh. Now, on to the news.
Monday: Trophies Return
After two weeks off, people sort of hoped for a big first day back. In Sakurai’s mind, I bet this is, but to most of the people following the release, this is kind of a nothing tidbit of info. We’ll once again be collecting trophies, most of which will be unique between Wii U and 3DS, and I’m sure we’ll be doing so via challenges, various modes, etc. I’m a bit of a completionist, but I’m way past the point where I’ll sit and flip trophies around to analyze them, look at them, etc. Always good to dangle a carrot, though.
Tuesday: Zelda’s Attack
At the least it seems like Zelda’s moveset will be slightly modified, assuming that slash effect isn’t just for show. When she was first revealed, one of the images showcased a Darknut attacking in front of her. Some think this may be a call to her ability to “be” a Darknut in Spirit Tracks and some think she may be able to summon this monster, at least for one attack. I personally don’t think the light princess will be summoning evil minions to do her bidding in combat, but we’ll see soon enough.
Wednesday: Spring in your Step
It would appear that those ropes aren’t just for show, as we now know we can bounce on them like a spring. Sakurai says you can’t propel off them from the side, so it will be interesting to see how the positioning will play into edgeguarding techniques and who ends up benefitting.
Thursday: Rainbow Road
When Rosalina debuted, people were a bit teased by Rainbow Road being in the trailer. Folks thought they were getting a Mario Kart trailer at first. A track in space and Kirby flying around on a warp star all made sense when Rosalina and Luma landed on the scene. Thursday has brought us proof that Rainbow Road will appear in Smash, at least on the 3DS. The shot shows that the Shy Guy racers from Brawl return to get in your way as you battle it out. Curious to see if the platform Fox and Wii Fit Trainer are on is the one that takes you around the track, or it will be like previous F-Zero tracks and a platform will appear and disappear to whisk us along.
Friday: King Dedede Returns
My thoughts on Dedede showing his beak again in Super Smash Bros.
Bonus Character Discussion: The Newcomers
Smashers, welcome Villager, Wii Fit Trainer and finally, Mega Man (next week)! Now given, we’ve seen very little of these characters actually in action, but let’s see what we’ve got so far.
Just on instinct, I feel that Wii Fit Trainer will either be an incredible or incredibly disappointing character. I’m not seeing an in-between feeling for her (or him, depending on your costume). I sort of feel she may end up almost Sheik-like in her moveset. Obviously the motions will be yoga poses and stretches, but I could absolutely see her having multiple launches and chaining things together, at least as far as the physics we get will allow. One thing I’m disappointed by ahead of release is her Final Smash – she sends out a load of colored poses to just generically do damage. She could have had an area attack similar to Luigi that forced poses to allow free hits or other unique options, but they’ve opted for a boring “shoot stuff all over the screen” attack. Trainer has garnered quite a following online since her announcement and I see that continuing on into actual game play.
As someone who hasn’t fallen in love with the time sink that is Animal Crossing, I still think Villager is a fun addition. Quirky movesets, especially ones that prove to be effective in-game, are incredibly endearing and Villager has that in spades. Planting a tree just to chop it down on foes, grabbing people with a bug catching net and flying with a Balloon Fight style helmet are just the beginnings of his visual flare. His ability to grab projectiles right out of the air is going to prove to be fun when you can turn the tables on a Samus as she tries to recover with a Charge Beam you caught before. Pretty safe to assume Villager will be lightweight, so fans will need to hope the Balloon helmet has a good recovery range. My guess is that he’ll have a lot of fun pokes with objects, which will work to his advantage if they’re considered disjointed hitboxes. Think Game & Watch with a face.
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