This is a notable week for Smashing Saturdays. First of all, it is the first week that I am taking into account Sakurai-san’s Miiverse posts (proving once and for all that old dogs CAN learn new tricks!). Secondly, a very interesting bit of news came out about a possible new character (more on that later). Finally, it was just a downright interesting and fact filled week. Without further ado, let’s see some screenshots!
What better way to start out the week than with two of my favorite new brawlers! I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that I am a giant Mega Man fan, but I am warming up to the peculiar and hilarious Villager as well. I found it very interesting that his up and down air attacks will both involve turnips. I would have thought of turnips as more of a projectile attack, like Peach and her radishes, but instead it will be some sort of stun attack, I am guessing. The fact that the amount of turnips will vary each time only makes it more intriguing. I still can’t tell if Mega Man is surprised or terrified in this photo, which makes it even funnier.
Tuesday’s screen threw me for a bit of a loop. For one thing, the Miiverse post didn’t really help clarify things much, other than stating the cage was a clue. Then I thought about it, and realized this must be from Find Mii 2. I have yet to unlock that game, as I don’t Streetpass much, but I’m 99% positive I’m right. The big question, and the one unanswered by Sakurai, is this: Does this screen represent a new stage or a new Assist Trophy? I am eager to find out.
Wednesday was just downright silly. Yes, Sakurai, we know Mega Man Soccer is a game. None of that tells us much here. On the plus side, it does show off the new Pilotwings stage to a larger degree. Now I just have to repress the urge to yell “GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!” Ahem. Moving on.
Thursday’s post was much more interesting. It showed off Villager’s projectile attack, the Lloid Rocket! The fact that he can either launch it or ride it intrigues me. Plus it’s really creepy looking, which is fitting. Can’t wait to master Villager’s insane moveset when the games are finally released.
At first I was really excited about Friday’s post, which we covered yesterday. For a glorious 10 seconds I thought “FINALLY a new character reveal!” But, alas, it was just Skull Kid as an assist trophy. Even though I am far from a fan of Majora’s Mask (not a fan of time limits), I do think Skull Kid could have made a compelling new character. Oh well. Maybe he’ll crush the field with the Moon. Then I might be okay with it.
Now, normally here is where I would stop talking and let the Character of the Week shine. But first, a newsworthy development from this week. See, there was a poll going around to petition Sakurai to add a new character to the roster. It was agreed that if it reaches 100K signatures, it will become a reality. Which character, you ask? None other than Reggie Fils-Aime! No, I’m not joking. The president of Nintendo could become a brawler. You’re probably having a hard time visualizing Reggie as a video game character, so Brodie Dayton-Mills of our graphics team kindly contributed the following mock up to help out.
See? Totally workable. Now that I’ve scarred you all for life, onto the Character of the Week by Kyle Emch!
Character of the Week
KYLE: I’m just going to say this up front. I’m not a huge fan of clone characters. I just think it’s silly. Why would I want to play as Character X when he is almost identical to Character Y? Sure, there may be some slight differences here or there, but they’re fundamentally the same character. So you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about Roy, considering he’s essentially a clone of Marth. Well, I suppose the best way to explain this would be that he matched my style of play better than Marth did.
See, unlike most other clone characters, I was never really sure who actually came first. Much like a lot of 10-year olds who played this game, I had no idea what the heck this Fire Emblem thing was, nor did I know who these characters were. It was a chicken-and-egg scenario in my eyes, so I went with the one that I liked the most. Marth’s play style looked interesting, but he seemed kinda boring. His appearance was just a little too prissy for my tastes. Roy, on the other hand, appeared to be more brash. He was more shouty than Marth and wielded a sword that had flames eminating from it. I favored the Fire element a good bit for unrelated reasons. In my eyes, Roy was the cool character and Marth was the lame one (sorry, Jeff).
This was reinforced from his play style. From my experience playing as him, Roy seemed slightly more aggressive than Marth did. I was able to confirm my suspicions when I later learned that he does more damage at the center of his sword, prioritizing an up-close and in your face play style. It also didn’t hurt that his attacks had more fiery effects. Some of his attacks would burn an opponent for extra damage. His neutral-B attack was also more aggressive. Once it was fully charged, it unleashed a big ball of fiery explodiness. It takes a bit longer to charge up than Marth’s attack and Roy would be damaged as a result of it, but if your opponent got hit by that, it could very well be a OHKO.
During the development of Brawl, I hoped that Roy would make a return with an improved move-set that would make him appear to be less of a clone to Marth, similar to how Mario and Luigi play differently. When the full roster of playable characters was revealed, I was slightly disappointed that Roy didn’t come back. At least, not as much as when Mewtwo was replaced with Lucario, but that’s another story. I eventually warmed up to Marth and started using him more often. And Roy’s replacement, Ike, proved to be a really interesting and fun character in his own right. If Sakurai were to embrace paid DLC and bring back Roy as a playable character with an improved moveset, that would make me absolutely giddy. I know that will likely never happen, since he was originally inserted into Melee specifically to promote a new Fire Emblem game. But I’ll always look fondly back on the times that I played as him.
Oh well. There’s always Project M.
