This was another fun week, but let me be honest. The closer we get to the October 3 release date, the more I am chomping at the bit for big reveals. Which, I suppose, we can partly blame the leak on. See, if we didn’t already know the entire roster, I would be a bit more excited by the day-to-day stuff. But, unless they have fun new details about character upgrades, movesets and more, it’s hard to be 100% overwhelmed. That said, there were some great technical notes for this week, plus one surprise Sakurai managed to sneak in despite the leak. So, without further complaining, let’s get Smashing!
I’ve already gone into lots of detail about how much I love the amount of effort that Sakurai and Co. put into streamlined, deliciously intuitive menus. Monday was more of the same. I’ll let Sakurai himself do the explaining – “This is what the view looks like within the Vault. Your Trophies collection will start off with one randomly selected trophy. In your Album, you can view pictures you’ve taken of fighters posing. Photos taken with the 3D Depth Slider on will take photos in stereoscopic 3D, and photos will be in 2D when they’re taken with that feature turned off.” Oh Vault, how I wait with bated breath to plunder your goodies… Moving on.
Tuesday marked the first of many multi-pic updates for this week. First, he discussed how Classic Mode makes use of a Kid Icarus: Uprising-style difficulty toggle. Additionally, Red rewards indicate customization, Green indicate Trophies and Yellow equals gold. I will mention here how this first post trolled everyone, since on the Smash Bros. main page it cut the pic in half, not showing the plucky Mii Fighters on top. Yet it was perfectly fine on Miiverse… So strange. Here is the second pic.
I’m tired, so I’m going to let Sakurai do the talking – “And here’s the results screen. It shows what you gained in each stage, but you won’t be rewarded until you clear it all. If you mess up in the middle, you can lose some of them too. The fighter icons are special attacks, and icons like the shield are equipment. The icons that say Mii on them are hats and clothes for Mii characters. Icons that show characters on a stand are trophies, of course, and the coins are gold you earned.” Sounds complicated and fun to me. Onto Wednesday.
Wednesday made the wait for October feel even further away. Why, you ask? Simply because it was on that date that the Japanese Smash demo went live. Granted they only got five playable characters in the demo, and it was forced to Battlefield, but still. Hopefully we get our demo in the next week or so and they don’t do something like give an exclusive demo to Club Nintendo Platinum members that have email turned on…
Oh wait.
What’s that, Sakurai? “The only mode available on the demo version is Smash, but I also left open a feature called Tips. Just remember to tap that button. You’ll figure the rest out once you do.” How illuminating! Next.
I’ll be honest. I struggled with whether or not I should include this post, primarily since it was already covered on the day it went out by oprainfall. However, Alph is too adorable (read, terrifying) to ignore. Plus he brings up an interesting new detail – the distinction between alternates and clones. See, he doesn’t get his own roster slot, and is just an alternate costume for Olimar, yet his name still changes in the character screen. Not really sure why they couldn’t do that for other characters, like Lucina, but that’s a debate for another time.
Oh, and if you didn’t believe Sakurai about him being his own character, here is more proof. Enjoy.
Friday dealt with the advent of online play. I will let Sakurai speak here, but not for laziness – “This is the World Status you can see in Spectator mode. The game isn’t released yet so the map looks pretty plain now, but I wonder what it’ll look like once it’s out? Also, this is where you can see all sorts of stats being tallied up. In Group play and Spectator mode, you can see characters you haven’t unlocked yet, so watch out if you don’t want to be spoiled.” That whole discussion is a giant angry jab at the leak, in case that wasn’t clear. But I respect Sakurai for still putting out updates every day, even knowing most of us feel we already know everything (which I doubt is the case). Oh, and he had this to say, as well.
Sakurai had this followup statement (yes, it is laziness this time) – “Even if you don’t want to be spoiled, it might be wise to select the Online option at least once before you start the game. Your Global Smash Power won’t appear until the first time you connect to the internet. Not only that, but there could potentially be a patch available that can resolve potential issues, like the one being released now for the Japanese version of the game. For the package version, updates can be pre-downloaded to your system even before you purchase the game, so make sure you look out for them.” Patches in the future and log on to establish GSP. Check. Wonder if Sakurai might utilize other online features in the future, like DLC…
But don’t leave yet! Despite my exhaustion and sarcasm, we have a wonderful Most Wanted Brawler for you by my talented assistant, Tyler Lubben!
Most Wanted Brawler
I really don’t think I can do enough to sing the praises of The Wonderful 101. With a great cast, a crazy story and fantastic use of the Wii U GamePad, it’s simply the definitive Wii U game to date. As such a big fan of the game, I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing it branch out a bit. In Super Smash Bros, a game already full of quirky characters, I think the leader of the Wonderful One-Double-O, Wonder Red, would fit in, well, wonderfully. Plus, with a game that has such a great combat system as this one, Wonder Red would be right at home among the other Smash combatants.
Initially, I played with the idea of having Red switch between the other prominent Wonderful Ones to allow a bit more variety — like the sweeping attacks of Wonder Blue’s Valiantium Blade or distance-based attacks from Wonder Green’s rifle — Pokémon Trainer-style. In the end, however, I decided it would be better to have Wonder Red as a solitary character, and save the rest of the team for other attacks.
The five people who actually played The Wonderful 101 will know that the game features a pretty robust combo system made up of a variety of different attacks that would serve as Red’s B attacks quite well. Red’s Unite Hand ability allows him to create a giant hand with the help of the other Wonderful Ones, with powerful punches being the order of the day.
Wonder Red’s standard B attack would be a simple three-punch combo directly in front of him, dealing decent damage to opponents caught up in it. His Up-B attack would be the Riser uppercut attack, not dissimilar to Mario’s Up-B; hitting combatants multiple times as he continues his upward momentum. Red’s Down-B would be the Cyclone; quickly spinning around and repeatedly hitting nearby opponents. Finally, his Side Smash would be the Stinger, causing Red to blast forward fist first for a single big hit. While the attacks themselves may not seem like anything special, they become much more unique when you add in the fact that, similar to the Unite Charge ability in The Wonderful 101, the number of Wonderful Ones added to Red’s Hand – and, by extension, the size and power of the attacks – will increase the longer players hold the B button before releasing the punch.
For Wonder Red’s Final Smash, we’ll finally see an appearance from the other Wonderful Ones, though exactly how is something I couldn’t quite decide on. I imagined the entire team would Unite Up for a giant Wonderful Forever laser attack as seen in the original game. Either that, or the team would use one of their incredibly flashy tandem assaults used to take out most bosses, including attacks from Unite Hand, Sword, Gun, Whip, Hammer, Claw and Bomb. Either way, I imagine the attack being suitably spectacular.
I’m well aware that The Wonderful 101 wasn’t the most popular game ever, but regardless, it is, in a word, wonderful, and Wonder Red would get along famously in the fighting series.
