Busy week, in retrospect: Two new stages, an assist trophy, an item and a new mode!
Monday the 28th – Takamaru Slices In
Takamaru appears as a new assist trophy, throwing blades in multiple directions. Like most of the other humanoid assist trophies, he’ll probably be pretty persistent. Sword in hand, I’m sure he’ll give some chase…not unlike Samurai Goroh and Saki. For as much fun as Pokeballs are, Assist Trophies are really hit or miss especially when you consider stuff like Devil and Nintendog that don’t benefit the user at all.
Tuesday the 29th – Paper Mario Stage
Paper Mario finally appears in Super Smash Bros…in the form of a stage. Yet another stage that changes drastically over the course of play. Probably very charming for the fans of Paper Mario, but for those of us who play on the competitive side options are dwindling for stages. Strong gusts will blow from a fan in the background and change things around. So far we know we’ll have a windmill on a hill and a pirate ship at sea, representing multiple games in the series.
Wednesday the 30th – Beep Boop, into the sky
The partnership with Namco pays off and we get Boss Galaga. This item is eerily similar to the Beetle from the Zelda series, described as taking you to the top of the screen. Now thanks to the Smash Bros Invitational and the San Diego Comic Con 3DS tournament, we know that a player can “wiggle” out of the Beetle’s grasp, similar to escaping a grab from an opponent. We haven’t seen the Galaga variant in action, but the image shows Donkey Kong in what may be a tumbling state which usually leaves a player with essentially no options for movement. Perhaps Boss Galaga is an even stronger Beetle?
Thursday the 31st – Prepare for the Pokemon League
Reshiram is pictured in front of N’s Castle, which is the site of the Unova Pokemon League. As noted, Zekrom and even Milotic will appear on this stage as well. Although we can’t see the layout of the playable stage, this is likely to be the Smash 4 equivalent of Brawl’sSpear Pillar where Cresselia and other legends appeared to torment players one way or another. This stage is on 3DS, just like the Lumiose City stage. That’s two Pokemon stages for the portable version, none for the console. I’m sure we’ll see this rectified soon enough.
Friday the 1st – Target Blast explodes onto the scene
A fun combination of the Home Run Contest and some common mobile games – Cause damage to the bomb and time your smash attack to take out as many targets as possible. Your high scores here will contribute to your Global Smash Power score, which I’m sure everyone will care about. The excitement here is in knowing that people will master this mode in impressive fashion, just like we’ve seen with Home Run Content, Break the Targets and Classic/Adventure modes over the years. If you dig speed runs and the sort, great outings in this new mode will be up your alley.
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