This week was a nice transition from the somewhat humdrum screens from the previous week of Smashing Saturdays. I just felt Sakurai was overly technical, and wasn’t posting very interesting-looking pics. Granted, I enjoyed the information, but, given the revelation of the leaked roster, I want more visual entertainment than anything. That, or perhaps more details on the Custom Moves for players, especially Mega Man. That said, this week was a better mix of good pics and good info, with very little that was utterly boring.
So, enough chatter. Let’s get Smashing!
Monday’s pic focused on Smash overseas, discussing how in Japan they are beta testing something called “Conquest Mode.” Here are the pertinent particulars – “In this mode, the game aggregates global wins among specific teams during a limited time and determines the victor. If you choose a participating fighter from the With Anyone option, you’ll automatically participate in Conquest. We’ll be running Conquest in beta for a while.” Even better is that players who seem to lose on purpose will be removed from the calculations, which is just awesome. Is anybody else overwhelmed by the vast variety of gameplay modes already? ‘Cause I sure am. I’m going to be playing Smash until my 3DS gives up the ghost… Speaking of which…
Tuesday’s screen above illustrates what was lacking last week — entertaining pictures! How adorable is that widdle Find Mii ghost next to Gastly? Unfortunately, he’s not so cute to fight, as he has perfect guard, reflecting all attacks. You have to toss him to hurt him. Gastly, meanwhile, is immune to everything except items. What fun. I should have known there would be some nasty duos in Smash Run.
However, the more important aspect of Tuesday was this announcement by Sakurai – “Originally, the pic of the day was only supposed to continue for about two months, but I’ve ended up posting pictures until even today. The 3DS version has already been released in Japan, so I would like to talk about how future posts will be handled. First, I will not talk about hidden features until the game is released overseas. On the other hand, I definitely will talk about them after the game is released abroad. In addition, I am planning to continue making posts at least until the Wii U version is released. I haven’t decided if I’ll go by the Japanese version release or the release of versions abroad, but the point is that I’ll continue posting for a little bit longer. Pic of the day won’t focus on introducing new information anymore in the near future, but I hope to entertain you with interesting and funny photos like I originally intended to. Thanks.” So it seems the shelf life of this article series is now up in the air. Until Sakurai stops posting pictures, though, I will keep covering them every week! So, stay tuned.
Wednesday looks insane, I admit. Sakurai will explain: “Here’s a glimpse of StreetSmash. Make sure to set this up once you get the game. The more fighters you play against at once, the more loot you can earn.” Apparently this mode is a little top-spinning game that is based off StreetPassing with other Smash players. It looks fun, and makes me long for another portable game of the past…
Okay, okay, I realize this pic isn’t the most exciting, but it’s not all bad! I mean, records are what keep us coming back to Smash. The desire to keep getting better and better, fully unlocking every little thing, is part of the long-term appeal. So stop sneering at me and enjoy the pretty picture. The next ones are better, I promise.
Friday should be very welcome to Fire Emblem fans, as the boys (well, and Robin) from the series were the focus. It was also a two for one day, picture-wise. First up, Castle Siege is returning to the Wii U version of the game! And it looks utterly glorious in HD. Then there was the following pic, with some interesting observations.
“Most of the games in the Fire Emblem series have a different unique setting and have fields without much height, so it was hard to narrow down what venues to focus on. Castle Siege and Colosseum are two stages that aren’t exclusive to specific games in the franchise.” Who knew? I just assumed Sakurai had a thing for castles.
But don’t escape just yet! We have an utterly crazy and fantastic Character of the Week for you up next by Colin Malone!
Character of the Week
COLIN: Okay, full disclosure: I never played Wario all that much. I played as him occasionally, but he was never my favorite and I never used him all that often. That said, I do think he’s one of the more interesting characters in the game and certainly worth writing about. Also I’ve found that, whenever he happened to be controlled by the computer, he had an uncanny talent for getting the Smash Ball before anyone else. Likewise I found that the computer always tended to be at its strongest when controlling Wario. I’ve always been curious — has anyone else noticed that, or was it just me?
Anyway, the main thing about Wario was his peculiar moveset. His unpredictable moves make him a tricky opponent to fight against and put him fairly high on most tier lists. On the other hand, because of their unorthodox nature, they also made Wario a difficult character to use properly. His moves run the gamut of strange, some involving punching, some biting, others poking, spinning and all sorts of crazy things. I’ve always found his most memorable attacks to be his Down Special: the Wario Waft, and his Side Special: the Wario Bike.
The Wario Waft, aka: his fart attack, is well known, partially because of how outlandish it is, but also because it was featured in Wario’s introductory trailer for Brawl. It takes nearly two minutes of time to charge but, once it does, unleashes a powerful attack that launches Wario high into the air. It is incredibly powerful, but the charge time makes it fairly unreliable; it’s not a move you can depend on, but, used correctly, it can be devastating. On the other hand, it is one of the most satisfying moves to K.O. people with.
The Wario Bike summons Wario’s trademark motorcycle, which he can then ride around the stage, smacking into people. While it’s memorable and interesting, I never found it a particularly useful move. The difficulty in controlling it made it difficult to use, and I would often end up driving off the stage or jumping off the bike when it was least convenient. It was still fun to use though though. Plus, making Wario eat it after he jumped off of it was always funny.
Not only are those two moves probably two of the most ridiculous moves in the game, they’re also the two moves that are most likely to backfire during Wario’s Final Smash. Wario-Man, Wario’s Final Smash is a transformation that causes Wario to become faster and powers up his moves, increasing his attack and allowing them to cover more distance, even in mid-air where they can allow him to fly nearly indefinitely. Like I said earlier though, while all of Wario’s moves are powered up immensely, this can backfire since, his Wario Bike goes fast enough that he will almost certainly fly off the stage while using it, and his Wario Waft can launch him high enough that he can easily send himself flying off the top of the stage.
Tricky to either fight as or fight against, I think that’s what defines him as a character, and makes him so interesting to both play as and play against. I look forward to playing him in the next Super Smash Bros. when it hits the West in a few weeks.
