This week continued the excitement of the Lucario reveal last week, as well as a couple of other fun screens and one big reveal for all you Metroid fans out there. Though it wasn’t the Metroid reveal I wanted, it was very surprising and satisfying! So, that’s enough rambling for now. Let’s get Smashing!
Hot on the heels of the news of the Aura Pokémon’s return, Monday’s screen went into further detail. I can’t say with 100% certainty, but the fully powered up Aura Sphere shown on the bottom looks marginally bigger than what I remember from Brawl. Sakurai’s post said it is bigger, faster, and more powerful, which is par for the course, but still exciting. I mean, it’s bigger than Lucario himself! Let’s move on to the next screen.
Tuesday contended with Lucario’s recovery, ExtremeSpeed. When powered up, apparently the distance of the recovery is increased, meaning players will have to be careful using it. Though it was far from my favorite recovery in Brawl, I think I’ll be spending a good amount of time familiarizing myself with it once more.
Oh snap! Palkia is large and in charge. Please note the stage, however. This isn’t the same Pokémon stage he showed up in last game. No, now Palkia is one of the many Pokémon you can randomly unleash from a Poke Ball! Exciting, no? The new game is looking more and more promising.
*Snicker* Must not be crass… Okay, for reference, the reason this pic is so darned funny is because of the following post by Sakruai: “It is said that the cosmos is beneath Rosalina’s gown.” Really, Sakurai? You can’t see why that is an unfortunate description? Sigh. This on the heels of the misspelling of “spatial” in the Wednesday screen. Oh well, nobody is perfect. It is still unclear what type of move this is, but I’m guessing this is Rosalina’s recovery. Maybe. Who know, though. Rosalina continues to look like one of the most compelling and original new Brawlers.
MOTHER BRAIN! This one took me completely by surprise! And I loved it! The classic Metroid boss as an assist trophy makes me all kinds of happy. This just moves us one step closer to the eventual reveal of playable Ridley (Shut up! It’s totally gonna happen!).
That’s all for this week’s screens, but we have a fun Character of the Week for you, by yours truly. Enjoy.
Character of the Week
JOSH: In my mind, I have a bit of a dual opinion of Princess Peach. On the one hand, she is the constant damsel in distress in the majority of the Super Mario Bros. games. On the other hand, she kicks ass with the rest of the boys in Super Mario Bros. 2. Logically, I know this is in part due to the fact that originally Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn’t even a Mario game, meaning those moves weren’t technically “Peach” moves. I know that in my head. But in my heart, I fondly remember the vegetable plucking, hovering pink powerhouse. That version of Peach is the primary one as far as I’m concerned. Which brings us to this Character of the Week.
When I originally saw Peach in Smash, I was ecstatic! Finally, I could relive my childhood memories of the best version of Peach. I admit, another part of me picked her ’cause none of my friends would. I love the concept of the underdog, and the pink prima donna was pretty much the definition in Melee. Where most characters were fast and brutal, Peach’s strengths lay in other areas. She might not hit hard, but she could hover like no other, except maybe Kirby. Furthermore, her endless barrage of vegetables, bombs and items could prove devastating and surprising if well used.
Some say Peach was easy to Smash off the screen. While that may happen to Peach rookies, I became well versed with the dodge and roll technique, which allowed me to recover from near death attacks and regally hover back into the fray. Combined with her umbrella recovery, I made Peach a constant nuisance. Didn’t matter what percentage of damage I was at; if I survived the attack, she would be coming back to fight. Combined with my poke and run tactics, Peach was sure to hassle everyone, regardless of whether she actually won.
Better yet, Peach has an intimidating arsenal of weapons – golf club, frying pan, tennis racket, what have you. They all hurt and could easily give the princess some breathing room. And if that didn’t do the trick, you could always light foes on fire with her “explosive bootay.” The only move I never mastered with Peach is her Toad deflection. The timing is beyond difficult, and I only managed to time it right a handful of times, mostly when I wasn’t trying. Luckily, Peach does just fine with the rest of the attacks at her disposal.
While Peach did get noticeably nerfed in Brawl, getting slower, less powerful and having her best Smash attacks tweaked negatively, I am beyond excited to play her again in the new Smash Bros. games. Hopefully she’ll be more like her Melee incarnation, making her more competitive. Now if they could only give her a decent Final Smash, the monarch of the Mushroom Kingdom would truly be a force to be reckoned with…
