Welcome back, everyone! Hope you all had a great New Year’s Eve, and are enjoying a productive start to 2014. There’s lots of good games around the corner, but few that I want as much as the new Smash Bros. game. I’m sure the same applies to many of you. This week has some fun reveals, including the return of a certain hammer wielding brawler, as well as a, perhaps controversial, all new Most Wanted Brawler. Before we get that far, a quick warning. If you don’t like having games spoiled, then be careful reading this week’s Most Wanted Brawler. It reveals a couple of plot points for a certain Wii game. That said, let’s get smashing!
I’ll admit it – I was a bit underwhelmed by Monday’s screen. The way I figured, they were going make up for lost time and reveal a shocker to get things going, but it was a bit more of a slow burn this week. That said, it is cool to hear that both versions of the new Smash Bros. game will have different trophies, based off the console they support. It also sounds like trophies for playable brawlers will vary slightly in design from system to system. So, for those of you on the fence about owning both versions, now you have a compelling reason. I myself am probably gonna get the 3DS version for the multiplayer and the Wii U version for the graphics.
The next screen was a lot more interesting. It shows off Zelda’s hard side A move. It’s probably sacrilege to admit, but I am not certain if the move shown is the same as from previous games, or if it was switched up for the new entries. I like Zelda fine, but I never mained her. Either way, she looks like she’ll still be a magic wielding beast of a brawler. Huzzah!
Wednesday started to pick things up a bit. For one, I pretty much love any screen with Mega Man in it. For another, it shows off a unique stage mechanic. Apparently players can bounce vertically off the ropes, allowing for some nasty combination attacks, though Sakurai stresses they can’t bounce horizontally. Oh well. Brawling WWF style will have to suffice.
Thursday got even better! The Rainbow Road stage looks like it will be just as hectic as I imagined, with Shy Guys randomly screeching past the screen. Reminds me a LOT of the F-Zero stage from previous games, except better, since I’m more of a Mario Kart fan myself.
And then there is Friday’s screen. This one shows the love to all of us Kirby fans out there. I was a bit doubtful, but it has finally been confirmed that King Dedede himself is returning! I might not have been the best with the tyrant penguin, but I loved playing as him nonetheless. As Tyler said in his write up, there’s just a certain joy to playing as the obese penguin, mocking your opponents and hurling minions. I am ecstatic with this reveal, and hope some more returning characters are soon announced!
Now, let’s get to our Most Wanted Brawler by yours truly, shall we?
Most Wanted Brawler
Before I begin in earnest, a recap. I spent this week posting clues on my Twitter account regarding the identity of this week’s Brawler. Here are the clues one more time.
Okay, here’s a clue for this week’s Most Wanted Brawler. Their name starts with an R. — Joshua Speer (@SpeerofD3stiny) January 6, 2014
Clue #2 The character has a primary color scheme. — Joshua Speer (@SpeerofD3stiny) January 7, 2014
Clue #3 Sometimes this character wears armor. — Joshua Speer (@SpeerofD3stiny) January 8, 2014
Clue #4 This character has made appearances on practically every Nintendo console… — Joshua Speer (@SpeerofD3stiny) January 10, 2014
Final Clue – This character has wings. — Joshua Speer (@SpeerofD3stiny) January 10, 2014
I’m sure some of you had guessed it from the first clue, but I thought I’d have some fun with it. Here’s who I was talking about –
JOSH: Say what you will about the Metroid Series, for me, Mother Brain was never the true adversary to Samus Aran. No, for me the only boss that mattered was a certain space dragon pterodactyl by the name of Ridley, the selfsame monster that murdered all of Samus’ family and friends. He’s vicious, intelligent and crazily enduring. Ridley has met his maker more than once, but that has never kept him down. Due to Space Pirate intervention, clones and robotic upgrades, he never really seems to die, for which I am grateful.
Now, I’m sure there are some of you that are instantly thinking “Ridley can’t be in Smash! He’s too damn big!” I have a couple of counter arguments. First off, in the original Metroid, he was much smaller, roughly the same size as Samus herself. So they could easily scale him down to workable size. The other argument is the following – (FINAL SPOILER WARNING)
This is why I warned you about spoilers. Simply put, they could use the cloned version of Ridley seen in Metroid: Other M to get over his size problems. Similar to Pokemon Trainer, he could start as tiny “Little Birdie” Ridley, akin to Squirtle, then evolve into larger versions. His moveset would of course be very limited to start, involving lots of lunging and hopping attacks, maybe scratching fellow brawlers with his “widdle cwawed feet.”
The key would be his Bite attack, with standard B, that after doing enough damage, would allow him to shift into the much larger intermediate form. This would increase his damage output as well as giving him that nasty ranged side B tail attack and deadly speed. He would still have the Bite in this form, but it could be combined with nasty grapple and pin attacks to make it more effective.
As his Final Smash form, Ridley would be like Yoshi’s Final Smash on steroids. Flying about wildly, clawing off faces, breathing fire and whipping foes with his razor sharp tail. His damage output would be crazy in this form, and for a limited time, Ridley would be a veritable tornado of pain. Then, after it wears off, the cycle would begin anew with him turning back into his baby form.
So, for you naysayers, I say that is how Ridley could, and should, be a playable character in the next Smash Bros. The series desperately needs more villains, and the Metroid series needs more representation. Both could be accomplished in one fell swoop with the introduction of Ridley. It may not be likely, but I still fervently hope it eventually happens.
So what do you all think? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments of this article. Also, if you want more clues for upcoming Most Wanted Brawler articles, and if I get more participation, I might even be able to mix things up more! Hope you enjoyed this Smashing Saturday and join us again next weekend!
