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Super Smash Brothers (Ultimate) Direct E3 2018
Reviewed: 08/19/2018
It's a Porn~!
Well; now that Ducktales 2018's first season is over and Della Duck is on the moon and alive and somewhat well, killing any hope for a Della/TaleSpin crossver, the show is no longer amusing to me. I'm not saying that it's awful; in fact, the recent episodes were great actually. However; as I mentioned on Live Journal, it's completely overshadowed by one of my other loves: Nintendo. Why? Because of Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and the awesome epic mess it has turned into. You ever get the feeling that Sakurai has taken the opinions of some of the worst offenders to heart and is now pissed off (especially since he had medical issues during the development of Smash Brothers for Wii U/3DS) that now he's just focused on making the ultimate Smash Brothers game? If so, this is beyond great now because this has been amazing, in ways that I didn't think was possible in Smash. And the best part is; they clearly aren't done yet because I'm betting on a late October Smash Brothers Direct since the buildup looks like a condensed version of the Wii U/3DS build up to release. So, for the first time since the 50-Facts Direct for Smash Brothers for Wii U/3DS, I'm going to review both Smash Brothers Directs and some bonus stuff. This one will cover the March Nintendo Direct final segment, and the E3 segments. Since these are commercials for the game, they will not be rated, and when I first saw the segment, I honestly didn't know what to expect since outside of one sort of reveal of the Inklings and a date set for 2018; there was nothing about Smash Brothers Ultimate. Sure; rumors always happened, but all of them were dismissed out of hand this time. However; in one case, there was a very good reason for it and it was because this rumor delivered....So let's rant on shall we...?
Pre-Bonus Segment: This is from the March Nintendo Direct where they revealed Crash Bandicoot, Undertale (along with the Gamemaker announcement) and Mario Tennis Aces information. It was an average Direct and the main event was mostly Splatoon 2 DLC that didn't impress really anyone except Splatoon fans. So there was one more announcement to make after all this and we begin with a white background as blue and orange ink is splatting in the scene as the orange haired Inkling girl and the blue haired Inkling boy are shooting ink at each other and generally making a mess of the scene, which is straight out of Splatoon 1. Crowd was going: Oh no, they are porting the original Splatoon to the Switch, which is really dumb considering that Splatoon 2 is basically the same game, only a million times better and has outsold Splatoon 1. Some thought it was a cartoon series or movie; which actually sounds reasonable, but Nintendo doesn't reveal movies or television series on Directs. So, various Splatoon items get involved and Inkling boy leaves the area as Inkling girl is looking for him and then stops because the screen goes completely dark. Inkling girl's back is facing the camera as she turns around and is in shock and awe (and partially covered in blue ink) because we zoom into her left eye and see the flamming Smash Brothers logo; and you have never lived if you never got to see Nintendo fanboys go from total boredom to total freakout just for that. That's how powerful Super Smash Brothers is to them. Inkling boy joins in as we see what Inkling girl sees: Twenty Smash Brothers characters standing in shadows right in front of the flamming Smash Brothers logo. One of them is clearly Bowser who looks to be in the same pose that he was in the opening of Super Smash Brothers Melee in the far shot. Then we get closeups of Mario and Link in his Breath of the Wild costume while this dark music plays in the background after playing the Splatoon main theme for the first minute or so. So after another far shot of the characters, we fade to white and the new Super Smash Brothers logo is shown and it looks like it's a new game after all as the logo looks a lot less colorful than previous games. This was mostly two colors and the cross is inside the letters of the logo. I found out later that the game still didn't have a final name and it ends with the announcement that it's coming sometime in 2018.
This was awesome and in a way different from previous reveal trailers of Smash games: While the Splatoon reveal was shown in a similar way to Villager's reveal in Super Smash Brothers for Wii U/3DS in that the hottest new game series is represented as the first new character reveal for Super Smash Brothers (although the official reveal wasn't until E3; which doesn't matter since Villager was introduced at E3 anyway); the reveal was short and usually, even though the premise of Super Smash Brothers is that everyone secretly hate each other and wants to fight everyone, it's usually presented in a jovial and happy manner. Not this one! This went from light and happy to dark and violent within a minute. I also had a faint idea of what the theme of this Smash Brothers game was going to be. The last Smash Brothers game was basically a crossover between platforms, hence the 3DS/Wii U name in the original title. Brawl was a crossover to third party realms and Melee was basically an expansion of Nintendo worlds and the beginning of referencing Nintendo's glorious history. All new Smash Brothers games would build on these concepts. Switch is basically a hybrid and that's the payoff to the 3DS/Wii U version in terms of building it up. So, this Smash Brothers theme would be: Cross-over of Smash Brothers itself. It's the next logical step in the history of the series; but what would that mean? Back then; I had a few ideas, little did I know what I and everyone else was in store. One of my ideas was for example: Have Mario from Smash 64 take on Marios from Melee, Brawl and 3DS/Wii U. Maybe it was me taking the concept too literally for it's own good; however, I was excited for this.
Nintendo E3 2018 Direct - Smash Brothers Ultimate Segment: And so, it's time for E3 where 90% of the lineup was known either by Nintendo itself (since everyone was watching this E3 for Smash Brothers and boy did it showed), or was known because no one bothered to tell certain people that loose lips sink ships; or in this case: loose screengrabs sink ships. This Direct was also completely average and that's not good when Directs are average by default. Sure; it's better than the worst of E3's; but Nintendo has to actively do a bad one for one of them to be bad (like...ummm...that E3 event where they did a Praise Mario segment in the last five minutes when it should have been a huge game announcement for starters. E3 2008 was not good; but at least I know why it was done the way it was done. Something to do with Sony and Microsoft attempting to be like Nintendo and Nintendo wasn't going to let them get a foothold. E3 2003 is still the worst.). Anyhow; the E3 was mostly known for Fortnite on Switch and Epic finally biting the bullet in terms of making a game for Nintendo platforms instead of making their engines work on Nintendo platforms. There was also Dragonball FighterZ and a few others, but nothing really special. Besides, it didn't really matter because Nintendo made no bones about what this Direct was about: The unveiling of Super Smash Brothers for Switch; which garnered over five and a half million views on Youtube, which is far more than the WiiU/3DS 50-Fact Direct which I actually reviewed. I plan to do a "2018 Gregory Weagle Says" segment on that rant later. So, the segment opens with the Switch opening logo which is always cool because it scares Nintendo haters. Or something.
Segment 1: Introduction
We head to Masahiro Sakurai's office somewhere in Japan, which has a beautiful rope ladder in the background. Sakurai is the main director of Smash Brothers in general and known as a flip-flopper (as seen in the previous game) and he looks much more healthy than he did during the Wii U/3DS development of Smash Brothers. If he is delgating more responsibilities to more people than he did last time, GREAT! I don't want him to drop dead during development because that would be as horrible as Iwata's passing, although Iwata's passing was really no surprise if you fully understand what bile duct cancer is and how henious cancer can often be. So, time to introduce Super Smash Brothers and we get a graphic against a white background using the Wii U logo of Smash Brothers; which a lot of people went "See; I told you it was a port, you clueless fanboys!", and made worse by the fact that they showed Giant Battlefield from Smash Brothers Wii U as they show Mario, Yoshi, Pikachu and Donkey Kong as Mario punches Yoshi and he goes flying off-screen. I just realized that they were referencing the North American Super Smash Brothers 64 commercial only since it's 2018 and not 2000; the pretense of them secretly hating each other means nothing...AND THE ROCK SAYS NOTHING! Fade to black, THE END! (Just kidding!) Oh come on, now! Anyone who falls for this deserved to be laughed out of the building, since no Direct has ever ended this way. I just realized that the reference to this comes from Soul Calibur II; a game I once played. I wonder if Xianghua is going to be a new fighter, echo fighter or an assist trophy, or even a trophy now? This "just kidding" stuff is one of the only things I remember about her. So, they are still showing the new Smash Brothers logo and it still doesn't have a final name, but that won't be the case for much longer now. Sakurai proclaims that we are going to be seeing "some" fighters in this next trailer and the Smash Brothers title is brought down as Sakurai explains that each character has a number beside them to indicate the order in which they appear in the Smash Brothers series. Now, why do this? I find this nonsensical and pointless. Or was it?
Segment 2: Smash Brothers Fighter Video
So; then the first signs of this not being a port started to slowly show itself as we head to the new Battlefield and it's clearly different from the previous versions. This has a lot of water falling, and appears to be over a volconic crater from a massive volcanic event millions of years ago. There is a glacier in the background portion of the stage and a lot of complex designs on the floor of the stage with rock and gel like blue lines. It looks really cool and then we fade to black and zoom to the shot of a green pipe coming out; and there is Mario doing his usual pose. A couple of things: Many of the characters seem to have a subdued color scheme with more detail in their models than previous games (although one or two have slightly less detailed fur than the Wii U version in the case of Donkey and Diddy Kong) and their stances are mirrored when facing a different direction. I wonder if Sakurai is a Peppa Pig fan; since that would explain some of the troll moves, flip flopping and the decision to have characters facing the camera (which is a trait of the Peppa Pig television series). Also; Battlefield has cherry blossoms in the foreground on closeups. I should note that Mario uses his cape and does his spin move in what appears to be the first two returning stages, one of them looks like Mushroom Kingdom U. Next is Samus, who is #4; so they are randomizing the whole thing. Why have them assigned to a number? Unova League's stage looks awesome; and makes the 3DS stage look like garbage in comparsion. This would prove to be a running theme for old stages in this case. Laylat Cruise and Castle Siege were shown as well. Next is Kirby and holy crap, Green Greens from Melee looks beautiful. And we have our first either Assist Trophy or living item, which is Bomber from Kirby, which Kirby eats and it explodes. Kriby no sells move. Bowser is next at #14, the first Melee character as he's clearly on the Find Mii stage which looks awesome. And apparently; Giga Bowser has a red target for punches for his Final Smash. More on those later. Next up is Link in his Breath Of The Wild costume in Temple stage from Melee. He was shown in four stages; including the first NEW stage shown in the game which is Great Plateau Tower from Breath Of The Wild; which might be the first game in Zelda history to surpass ten million units on one platform.
Finally; Donkey Kong is introduced on Tortimer Island and again, my goodness, the stages look far better on Switch than 3DS. Kongo Falls is back from Melee and holy crap, this might be the best reworked stage of the entire game so far! And despite the subdued color scheme of the characters, the visual effects are cartoony and colorful. Next up is Fox and I must say, the Wii U stages seem to have a very slight downgrade, although that might be due to the fact that the build they are using here isn't polished. I should note that there are sound effects in that build, but no voice acting. Or they were turned off for the purposes of the video. Anyhow; I love the music here as it's as happy as ever. I guess the dark and violent pre-E3 tease was just for a change of pace rather than any theme that might be attached to this. I mean, if it was truly dark and violent; then characters would have to be killed off and no one ever dies in Smash Brothers, am I right? Falco joins us as the second Melee character. Marth gets a full pan up as Eldin Bridge from Brawl returns. Oh; and Princess Zelda gets a complete makeover, from A Link Between Worlds (a sequel to A Link To The Past) as Shiek joins here and is unchanged, plus calf guards from Breath of the Wild, thus being the only one from Twilight Princess. Finally; the first Wii U/3DS character rides in with Villager, the first character introduced for the previous game. Maxim Tomato returns as a recovery item. Mewtwo from Melee returns as well as the first character introduced in Smash Brothers Brawl. Metaknight, everyone. Mewtwo was also the first DLC character introduced in Wii U/3DS. Sonic is back as well as his stage from Brawl. Peach of course is unlucky #13 and did she just do John Cena's "you can't see me" taunt? Brawl's Mario Kart Circuit is back and it looks like Toad is no longer Peach's shield. It's hilarious how Pikachu is now the second Pokemon introduced considering how much more Pikachu has been marketed since the beginning. Pokemon Stadium 2 is back (and as I found out later, so was Pokemon Stadium 1). So, up to this point, none of the returning characters are special since they were all in the Wii U/3DS version, albeit Mewtwo was paid DLC. The returning stages were more interesting than this, along with the new Zelda stage and Bomber.
Then we see the Summit stage from Brawl and I reacted the exact same way Jim Ross did when Sean Waltman came back the night after Wrestlemania XIV: Oh, look who's back! It's the Ice Climbers with SWANK fur trim on their coats. Living Room from 3DS is back. Next up is the official reveal of the Inklings which were pretty much confirmed from their reveal trailer that I reviewed earlier. And yes; they have their new stage shown: Moray Towers. As expected, they love to paint the town, literally! Inkling boy -- the sneaky bastard -- sprays Inkling girl from behind like a heel. Next up is Captain Falcon saluting us in what appears to be Frigate Orphean. And then the Pilotwings stage as Captain Falcon does the most awesome slow motion Falcon Punch on Mario; complete with visual effects. Next is Zero-Suit Samus and Wii Fit Trainer in the boxing ring. Lots of awkward attack poses ensue; although it's normal for Wii Fit Trainer. Then we get fanboys both in glee and panicky at the same time: Pokemon Trainer's back with Ivysaur, Squirtle and Charizard. In glee because that means the "No transformations" rule is gone, panicky because Charizard is no longer a solo character meaning he is the first "cut" character. Or is he? We actually find out later. Ness returns to spin his yo-yo. As is Lucas as the Spirit Train stage looks more awesome than ever. It's an amazing wonder what resolution and revampization can do for any stage. GameXplain has multiple comparsion videos of the returning stages, you need to watch those. Wii U stages are only stages that look the closest to being similar to the Wii U version. The rest, Switch stages look a hell of a lot better, it's not even close! Second third party character is Ryu, which is odd since Mega Man was the first Capcom character to be introduced. Ganondorf is back in his new Ocarina Of Time outfit as he fights Ryu to a stalemate. Ike is next, and no one cares. Lastly; we head to the Garden Of Hope as Cloud Strife returns, which means Nintendo succeeded in getting Cloud back for Smash as he was one of the last characters to be approved, according to Stealth, one of my favorite Twitter accounts. He also stated that Konami was appoarched as well, but it was to get approval for a Castlevania character and Bomberman. Because, there's no way Snake is coming back. No one liked him and it was only put in because of Kojima Productions as a favor. Those days are gone and there's no way he's coming back....Cut to Shadow Moses Island, lighting bolts come out and it's...Snake?! WHAT THE HELL?! And then in white type; the words "Everyone is here!" jackhammers the point home.
Crowd: That's a lie! There is no way this will happen! You seriously believe that they would bring Pichu back?!
Next segment: cut to Tomadachi Life's stage as Jigglypuff rolls in and there is Pichu in the flesh! Oh god; they are telling the truth! That means Young Link and Wolf are coming back as well. Next up is Roy, Olimar and Diddy Kong as Diddy Kong looks even goofier than ever. Lucario! Lucina! Why is there an epsilon symbol beside Lucina's name and why does she have the same number as Marth? Oh, hello Robin! The last character before the new game Bayonetta arrives. Greninja! Mr. Game & Watch! Dr. Mario! ROB! There's no point in play-by-play anymore because EVERYONE IS FREAKING HERE~! The funniest thing about it is, this actually got leaked a few weeks before E3; but it came from 4chan, so it was instantly dismissed. Still a better excuse than dismissing Eurogamer claiming the Switch was a hybrid. Hello, Duck Hunt Dog, you're WTF status is still awesome! As is being the last Non-DLC character in Smash Brothers Wii U/3DS. Princess Peach's castle from Melee is back! Pit! Dark Pit - with epsilon symbol. I think this is suppose to be a clue that Sakurai is being transparent about him being a clone to Pit as Lucina was to Marth. To be fair; they are clone characters in their respective series as well, so it makes sense. Seamless flying into Palutena's Temple. Palutena, YES! Corrin! Bowser Junior and the Kooplings on the returning Melee stage Fourside! Sadly; the animation looked sloppy here. Toon Link! Yup; there's Young Link and only Wolf is left now! Rosalina & Luma! "King" Dedede sleeping in the middle of the most important part of this Direct. Jerk! All three versions of Miis are back! Wario showboating and Little Mac punches a motorcycle and makes it explode! And you thought suplexing a train was badass? Pac-Man! Shulk! And finally Wolf appears at the Luigi's Manison. Mega Man does his Final Smash and...Protoman and Bass?! Then we suddenly fade to white and the logo is shown again, except there is a curved line underneath it and we finally have the subtitle: Ultimate. In Japan, it was named Special for some odd reason...
Haters: Told you they lied! There are two characters missing....
Next segment; we cut to Magiciant (looking more awesome than it did in the 3DS version) and out comes Luigi and Yoshi. You seriously thought they were cutting Yoshi since he's one of the first characters in this series?! Yoshi eats Luigi and turns him into an egg because Luigi is a joke machine. It doesn't help that Luigi is providing the setups to every joke to pay off. Yoshi claps and goes "yup yup!" as we fade to black and then get a giant epic pan shot of everyone in various poses and this artwork was so beautiful that it has become the box art, which is only the second time they have not done a CGI version box art (Smash 64). Everyone is here and we head back to Sakurai with his explaination of why this is the case. I'm glad everyone dismissed the leak out of hand now because while I'm sure most people who would have loved this idea would be pleading for it to happen and be just as happy when it does happen, the ones who love surprises and nothing else (those people I don't like for my own reasons I mentioned on my Livejournal after the Switch was revealed), probably would have liked it; but would be asking "Okay; everyone in the past is here. What about the new stuff? Convince me that this is not a port!" Also; this plays into my theory about the theme of this game being a cross over of Smash Brothers games. In a weird way; this also means that the game cannot be a port. The key word is "a port", singular. People are trying to fit this game into a box. It's either a new game or a port of the Wii U game. It's a false dicotomy in my opinion. It's a new game and multiple ports which is every Smash Brothers element blended in, revamped and put into the Star Wars/Transformers box and looking completely new. In fact; a lot of the Melee stages look like something that Super Smash Brothers Melee HD would have been if that rumor was true. Same with the 3DS, Smash 64 and even the Brawl stages to a lesser extent. Sakurai in interviews has pretty much implied that if he made a radically new game, there would only be like 20 fighters (and probably the rest would be paid DLC, ala the recent Blazblue game for Nintendo Switch) and probably wouldn't come out for another year at least, knowing Sakurai. By making a new game from revamped models of old games; it would be less time consuming than making everything from scratch. In order for it to be a port; it would have to be like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Ironically; Mario Kart Deluxe 8 sold more than the original Wii U version; and MK8 DX changes were minimal compared to Smash Brothers Ultimate. I'm not shocked because Nintendo Switch haters don't care about facts and evidence anyway. Others who do like Nintendo but think it's a port annoy me more because they should know why Wii U had failed. Every Wii U game ported to Switch did better than the Wii U version in terms of launch aligned and MK 8 DX surpassed the original life to date in a year. It's still selling decently today! Maybe the reason is really, the Wii U hardware was in fact a barrier. And if you want huge software sales, your hardware has to be accessible. It doesn't even have to be Region-Free; although Switch is Region-Free. So, if this is a port, why should it matter since many people didn't buy the Wii U to begin with and the game is already better looking than the 3DS version and looks similar to Wii U even in portable mode. Plus; I can play as Snake, Ice Climbers, Wolf, Young Link, Pokemon Trainer and even F'N Pichu. I cannot do that on Wii U nor 3DS because they were cut due to limitations from the 3DS hardware or because of general apathy, mostly limitations of the 3DS. That's why the crossover of platforms wasn't a good idea...until Switch arrived which is basically a crossover of portable and console...that you could play both at the same time. Tabletop mode, everyone. So, apparently this was a request by the fans. I think most requested everyone except Young Link and Pichu. But hey, Sakurai went the extra mile because like Mario in the box art, he has had enough. Even though he pretty much did that in the NA Smash 64 commercial. We get a visual graphic of all the game series' represented as fighters; although it's incomplete since as we discover, there was more to that 4chan leak than EVERYONE IS HERE~! More on that in the second rant. Then we get the first house rule of this game: The starting roster will be the first eight fighters from Smash Brothers 64. Apparently; the unlocking of new fighters will be different in order to make the thing interesting. Some have actually speculated on this and I have my theories on how this will work; but I'll share those in the second Smash Brothers Direct since a lot of the theories are based on that Direct. Then we head to Battlefield and Sakurai basically comes out and proclaims that eight player is making a comeback as well. Just like that! Remember the 50-Fact Smash Direct and they made an absolute big deal out of this and it was a limited deal? Here; Sakurai announces it just out of the blue with no fanfare.
Segment 3: Fighters Changes
We are literally five and a half minutes into the segment and there is no end in sight as the segment itself runs for more than twenty five minutes long. I would have ended it now and go to the final character reveal and do all the changes and stuff during the E3 show to keep the actual show interesting, but no; they weren't going to hold anything back here. So Sakurai introduces the changes as each one has their name, rank and their serial logo against a white background with their character model. They also have the same subdued color scheme and additional details as I mention earlier. So, let's go through all the changes...
[1.] Mario - Some of his taunts and his Coin Uppercut move feature Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey. Mario also has two new costumes that aren't palette swaps: His workers costume from Super Mario Maker and Wedding tuxedo from Odyssey
[2.] Link - Link is now Breath Of The Wild Champion Link. He also uses bombs which he can remotely detonate and his Final Smash has been changed from Triforce Slash to one that I call Ancient Arrows Of The Wild. He also has a alternate costume: Tunic Of The Wild. So, basically Twilight Princess has been relegated to Shiek.
[3.] Ice Climbers - Basically; they are back and if Nana is killed, Popo is in deep trouble. Noting of note here, outside of the fact that Great Bay from Melee is back; which might spell the end for Tingle as an Assist Trophy. Although...
[4.] Ike - Basically; two outfits from both Wii and Gamecube editions of Fire Emblem with subtle voice sweeting of him saying: "Prepare yourself!".
[5.] Pikachu - Pikachu can now be both genders (with the heart symbol showing on it's tail a female Pikachu). Apparently; Pikachu Libre is a female and it's straight out of Pokken Tournament. This is where I suspected Decidueye would be a new fighter for Smash because they don't have a fully evolved grass starter, there aren't a lot of archers and has been in Pokken Tournament before which was developed by Bandai-Namco, who is developing this game as well.
[6.] Fox/Falco/Wolf - Fox's and Falco's design is from Star Fox Zero; a game people hated; although the look is awesome and detailed here. Their Final Smash is Arwing Assault and the Landmaster is completely retired; which a lot of Smash fans didn't like either. Also another house rule: All Final Smashes have no control anymore and as long as it connects, it always works. In a way, I love this because this makes them a lot more useful; but it also means a lot of Final Smashes had to be modified and it limited the options. Also; in the E3 demo during the event, Arwing Assault will have full voice acting and subtitles. I believe Wolf has the same Final Smash and design from Star Fox Zero; but the producers of the video didn't really show that off for some reason. Wolf's moves have been upgraded, yee-haw!
[7.] Ryu - Basically; this was to demonstrate the mirrored stances of the characters despite trying to make it sound like it's just Ryu. In one-on-one; Ryu faces his opposition at all times, which is odd since that should have happened in the Wii U/3DS version. Something tells me the DLC was rushed previously. It is supposed to help with controls; but it makes a few of them even harder.
[8.] Samus - This is basically to demonstrate Mid-air charge moves are better; but can be risky if you try to cancel in mid air. She cannot transform to Zero Suit Samus though; which is funny because Pokemon Trainer is back and even more funny considering the final reveal trailer in this Direct.
[9.] Marth - Dancing Blade is faster and he can speak English now! I hope we get dual audio for this game, not because I don't like Marth's English voice (I think it's all right); but I've been so use to having it in Japanese that it seems a bit silly to change it now. Dancing Balde also applies to Lucina and Roy. No word yet if Roy can speak English; but judging by the massive changes already being made, I would not be surprised.
[10.] Snake - Snake is back as well as Shadow Moses Island. His Final Smash is similar to the one in Brawl, but it's basically his missile launcher move, only uncontrollable.
[11.] King Dedede - King Dedede's Final Smash is beyond awesome. Think cage match with missiles and a jet hammer, all while wearing the most ill-fitting mask he could find.
[12.] Pichu - Basically; he's Pichu from Melee and his Final Smash is the same as Pikachu: Volt Tackle. One thing of note: The precentages are now show with decimal point to one-tenth. Moves in the series have always had damage to the one-tenth mark; but they were rounded down when the percentages were shown on screen.
[13.] Zelda - As mentioned earlier; she's the version from A Link Between Worlds, mostly because according to Sakurai: The Breath Of The Wild version is more researcher than fighter. Personally; I think it's because they wanted different era characters instead of the same designs from Twilight Princess. Either way; this is an improvement. Even better: She has a new Final Smash that isn't a clone of Sheik's Final Smash: Triforce of Wisdom, which seals the opposition in a piece of the Triforce. Really cool. Now; I thought Sheik would get Zelda's previous Final Smash since they never showed it anywhere in the official materials and still haven't since, despite the fact that Shiek was clearly in the demo at E3. No one bothered to check to see what her Final Smash was until I found THIS! I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't shown this yet because her Final Smash is clearly changed. Also looks awesome!
[14.] Sonic/Pac-Man - Just a more souped up Final Smash and that's it. This applies to Pac-Man as well as he is immune to the KO zones during his Final Smash. Also of note; Final Smashes, when they connect will have closeups of the character's face, straight out of Fire Emblem Awakening (and more recent Fire Emblem games when critical hits are launched or special skills) and Robin's Pair Up Final Smash in the previous Smash Brothers game. They can also appear in any of the four corners on the screen.
[15.] Pokemon Trainer/Charizard/Ivysaur/Squritle: Yup, they are back together and new rule: You can change Pokemon at will and choose your first character outright and use it for the entire battle without penalty. It's official: EVERYONE IS HERE now! Also means; Ivysaur and Squirtle are separate fighters (even though on the official website, Pokemon Trainer is still treated as one character). They didn't show their Final Smash here, or in the official materials yet, but Nintendo's Treehouse streams clearly showed it as Triple Chance, a version of Tri-Attack. It's the same as Brawl; only looks better. Oh; and Pokemon Trainer gets the male/female treatment as well. And remember, this is supposed to be a port! Keep reminding that, everyone; this is reaching beyond the multiverse at this point.
[16.] Captain Falcon: Basically nothing of note that I didn't see in the trailer of fighters early on. It looks cool and it seems the only purpose of this was for everyone to get a sick rise out of Captain Falcon punching a poor helpless, dog with his duck. Oh, wait; I forgot Big Blue is back. What about Mute City from Melee, you sick bastards?! Also; on the website, in a hilarious moment; Blood Falcon's jacket reads Hell Hawk for the first time since Melee! Considering that they have made no effort to edit that out, it looks like Hell Hawk is officially here to stay.
[17.] Cloud/Robin/Villager: Cloud is unchanged completely, which is a bad sign that SquareEnix isn't going to go further with it's involvement in Smash other than what was released on Wii U/3DS. At least give us One Winged Angel; since that was the most memoriable song in Final Fantasy VII, for goodness sakes. New house rule: Characters with gauges can now be seen on the character portait. This applies to Villager's pocket move and Robin's tomes and Levin Sword. Also; the maximum costumes is eight, which means half of Little Mac's costumes will be cut in half. At least that is what I saw in the E3 demo. We'll see where this goes.
[18.] Bowser/Mr. Game & Watch - Bowser's Giga Bowser has been changed from a transformed character who is controllable to one that is semi controlled with a reference to the final boss in Yoshi's Island; which is really cool. I hope that if we get a Boss Mode, Giga Bowser in it's previous form shows up. That would be cool. Mr. Game & Watch's Final Smash is almost the same, except when it connects it takes the affected off-screen for the KO. Simple; but effective. All of his move set is back and he looks expressive (well as expressive as Mr. Game & Watch can be). Cool moment: Ball juggle uses your characer's stock icon.
[19.] Young Link - He's back and Lon Lon Milk is one of his taunts. I'm shocked that they didn't reveal his Final Smash here and since he wasn't even in the demo, we still do not know. I'm going to make a prediction: It is going to involve Skull Kid since Young Link is going to be his Majora's Mask form. Notice that they didn't bother to talk about him at all? All; and we get all three Links, including Toon Link who's Final Smash is the same as always (which is good because he's the only one who can do it since Adult Link uses a new Final Smash).
[20.] Kirby - Stone ability has a different randomized version (I'm guessing Kirby Star Allies; but I'm not sure) and they show off his copy ability all while eating Popo while Nana is scared to death. Inkling hat is shown for the first time.
[21.] Shulk - Manado Arts are now toggled with tilt instead of multiple button presses and his Final Smash include Mecha Fiora now. Personally; they should have gone with the human version of Fiora since she appeared as such in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 recently. I have a suggestion for Final Smashes: I would love to see Final Smashes randomized a bit more. For example; have Mecha Fiora and human Fiora in Shulk's FS, but they never appear together. That would fit into how Melee was to expect the unexpected, since this game is seemly a cross over of Smash Brothers games.
[22.] Ganondorf - Ganondorf is back to his Ocarina Of Time persona and several of his moves have been revamped; and his final Smash is Demon King Ganon which looks great. He has really wiped the stink of Captain Falcon off now.
[23.] Mii Fighter - All three versions are back and have 12 voice options now. They also have been tweaked in their models. I hope they bring the costumes from the previous game; because that was the biggest charm of this character. However; the biggest news of all this and one that was seriously underplayed was that Sakurai is planning to remove the previous game's house rule of Mii being barred from on-line play. That also means that customization of moves and power up equipment is cut from this game. At least, this is the impression I am getting from this and Palutena's changes later on. As long as they don't cut out the Mii costumes (which don't provide any benefits other than artistic style); I'm perfectly fine with this. In fact; I just thought of something: What if the custom moves are in the game; but you don't have to customize moves anymore? What if certain sequences trigger them, like Ryu's Shroyuken for instance? What if this is no longer limited to Ryu? This would play into the Melee's "expect the unexpected" theme.
[24.] Pit/Zero Suit Samus - Pit now has a third new Final Smash: Lightning Chariot; which is basically the Dragoon, only it's a Final Smash. I wonder if the Three Sacred Treasures will be something else. More on that in the second Direct...Zero-Suit Samus's battle ship returns; but stays on screen as Samus fires a powerful laser on it, instead of the battle ship firing lasers in an FPS style shot. Again; this is due to the change of Final Smashes no longer being controlled. Also; Final Smashes backgrounds go to black as well.
[25.] Olimar - Olimar's helmet cracks when it takes damage; but it repairs itself. A note: The Cutting Room Floor documented Smash Brothers Brawl as having several characters having battle damage when taking more and more damage. This might explain why a number of characters (Metaknight for one) haven't been really talked about nor demoed: Some of those characters are going to get elements that were previously cut in other games due to whatever. I mention this some more because a number of elements from those previous games are in Ultimate, including a Pokeball Pokemon from Melee that hasn't been seen until now. I'm surprised this has been underplayed even by Nintendo themselves.
[26.] Bayonetta - Basically the same; only gun sound effects are slightly different. Not much to see here; although reports have indicated that she is nerfed a lot from her previous incarnation, although I'm not sure if this will douse the hate for her for being too overpowered. The biggest change isn't from Bayonetta; but the appearance of Rodin as an assist trophy and apparently, if we played remastered Bayonetta 2 on Switch, they would have seen this coming. Rodin uses his own Wicked Weaves moves and gives a special item to the user in return before leaving.
[27.] Wario/Little Mac/Donkey Kong: All have the same thing in common: Final Smashes are uncontrollable. Wario Man is much better uncontrollable since it ends with his nuclear fart attack on screen. Giga Mac's is good; but DK's is way too much of a clone to Little Mac. I can understand Critical Hit getting cloned to death since Marth, Roy and Lucina use the attack in Fire Emblem makes sense. I also realize that DK's FS is more akin to Jungle Beat; even though DK was in Punch-Out for Wii, so it makes sense. At least adjust it like you did with Falco's Final Smash. Anyhow; if you couldn't think that they could make Donkey Kong any goofier, you're wrong.
[28.] Ness/Lucas: PK Starstorm....Paula and Poo join Ness...Boney and Kumatora join Lucas. Hello, Jeff; almost missed you there.
[29.] Wii Fit Trainer - She got the Ash's new face treatment. Pokemon Sun/Moon anime joke: Everytime I see Ash; I say: In comes Ash and his new face! The strangest thing is: in that anime, the artwork and animation is basically the same; only everything is more expressive. Wii Fit Trainer's new face was a request by the original developers, so if you hate it, it's on them, not Sakurai.
[30.] Mega Man- Doctor Wily's stage has all the traps from both versions of the stage and I think that will apply to all other dual stages as well. Sadly; they didn't take it further and have a day/night feature. At least from what I saw; it was night in Ultimate. Also, Mega Man's Final Smash features Proto Man and Bass of course. I would have loved if you could get Roll and Rush involved and make it more randomized, but eh.
[31.] Palutena - All of her moves are streamlined as her down special works as a counter and deflector. This is where I speculated that custom moves are probably going to added in game; but you no longer have to customize them. Again, see my thoughts on Mii's for a further explaination.
[32.] ROB - Nothing of note; except the middle stalk shows the amount of fuel left for his hover move. This is not really the same as battle damage as in Olimar, but again; could we see more of this with other characters?
[33.] Lucina/Dark Pit - And finally; the symbol (esplion symbol outside Japan, prima symbol in Japan) is explained as a transparent way to say that Lucina is a clone to Marth and Dark Pit is a clone to Pit. They are officially called Echo Fighters (Dash Fighters in Japan). They fight in a similar way to the original; despite subtle differences in each. Although I'm glad they are being transparent about this, as you'll see in later reveals; this rule is downright flexable. I mean, Lucina is straight forward; but Dark Pit's Final Smash has yet to be shown and I don't think Dark Pit was demoed either. Oh; and we are getting our first official new character reveal, which is also an Echo Fighter. We head to Battlefield and out comes....Daisy?
[34.] Daisy - Hmmm; this is an odd choice considering that Daisy has been a costume for Peach in previous games. Daisy would have been perfect as an alternative character ala Olimar/Alph; which I guess it was done because they didn't want to limit Peach's costume swaps to four. So Daisy is Peach's Echo Fighter as Daisy fights similar to Peach and they actually showed the Victory screen for the first time! She also gets the Mario Tennis/Mario Golf music and there will be a new song based on Mario Tennis Aces, which played during the short trailer of Daisy. More on those in the bonus segment.
According to Sakurai, tens of thousands of changes have been made for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate; which means it's close to 100,000 changes; which Mario Kart 8 Deluxe probably had about 1000 changes, maybe even less than that. It's not a port, it's a porn~! And I don't mean nudity nor sex, in the same context as food porn, or weather porn, or any walk of life for that matter. Oh; and we have one new character reveal that we forgot to reveal in full...It's Splatooning time~! The Inklings are here and they paint and ink. A lot. Every move is based on their weapons from Splatoon. They have their own gauge which is based off ink. Inklings all look different and are not palette swaps, similar to Villager and Bowser Jr. in some way. Their Final Smash was actually surprising because the original leaker thought it had something to do with the Squid Sisters; but in reality it was a wave motion cannon called Killer Wail~! Which I love as a name for a weapon. My only complaint about this segment is that they should have used the Splatoon 2 main theme because that was so much cooler than Splatoon 1's theme. I wonder how many takes it took to get the "bounce Splat Bomb off Wario's ass" sequence perfectly? More ink on you equals more damage. And then I realize that the original leaker got the Squid Sisters and Killer Wail confused because here comes the Squid Sisters in their own concert as the screen zooms in and that narrows the KO zones; ala Devil. I still think Devil will still be in this game since he merely changes the KO zones randomly and it seems to me that Echoing is not going to be limited to just the fighters. Also of note and not mentioned until the second Direct: In the E3 demo, when Sudden Death happens, it does the Squid Sisters narrowing of the KO zones and adds some SWANK flames to it. Once it is as narrow as it can be; than Bomb-obs fall on the screen. I mention the E3 demo simply because there were a lot of thing not mentioned in either Smash Brothers Direct, nor the short videos. As I discover, this is merely a segueway to...
Segment 4: Assist Trophies/Pokemon/Items
So, we come back to Eldin Bridge as Knuckle Joe beats up Pit, so yeah; he's returning. Metroid drains Luigi's head and is back in Shadow Moses Island. Ghosts return to bounce DK around while Palutena don't care in Yoshi's Island (the Melee stage based on Yoshi's Island, not the one from Super Mario World). Lyn kills Mr. Game & Watch on Gaur Plains. Fox uses an Assist Trophy and in a massive horror move, out comes Waluigi with his tennis racket. We finally get to quite probably the low point of the entire Smash Brothers segment; and it's not even Sakurai's fault in this case because most people were in fact expecting this to happen. Heck; I was expecting Mimikyu as an Echo Fighter simply because he made sense as one since it was a poor man's cosplaying Pikachu. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. However; in the world of Smash Brothers, only fighters mean anything, even though the entire point of Smash was referencing Nintendo's glorious history. If you got on Smash, you instantly have more exposure than you would have if you were in any other video game. Cloud is really the closest thing to that not happening and Mario and Mario Kart are really the only ones who surpass it and this would be a step downwards; even though it really is stepping sideways. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of characters who would be happy just to get in Smash in ANY form. Commander Video is a big example of this (as seen in the Wii U trophy) and in the next direct, another indie character actually made it in an even bigger role. But here's the thing; normal people would be happy, but not Smash fans, most of all, Waluigi fans who think this character is the bee knees. He's not and I can think of dozens of characters who do a better job as a fighter and a few who are better in his role as an assistant trophy. He's not a big deal; but Waluigi fans would not stand for this and they threatened Sakurai on Twitter which is a huge no-no; should get you arrested and put in jail type of deal. That's not okay is what I am saying. Also; and while this isn't really original since Wii U and 3DS had characters who could be KO'ed, the number has increased. The difference here is, in battle, it counts as a seperate KO; which also applied to stage bosses. I actually have more to say about this in the second Direct, because it ties into some of the speculation that I was talking about. I should note that they have since used various menu musics since ending the character reveals.
Andross and Nintendogs cannot be KO'ed; which is odd in Andross' case; but understandable in Nintendogs case (think animal abuse and psychopaths); although it is kind of hypocritical since Duck Hunt Dog is an actual fighter. Riki is also back as Sakurai then proclaims that some special guest might photo bomb the fight. Well; the game should have screen grab capture options since Switch has that function built in. However; it's a setup to Kongo Falls and the reveal of Bomberman as an Assist Trophy. Bombs create cross flames for fun and apparently, he can remote denonate them as well. I cannot see him as a fighter though, the assist trophy makes more sense for him due to his limited move set. This is what I mean when I say that fans put the Fighters on a pedestal to the deteriment of everything else, which is more of the meat of the game. To me; I want to know all the non-fighting elements because everyone ignores most of those. Stages, music and a few modes are the exceptions. Starfy is back and Burrowing Snagret (who does live up to it's name) is a new one. Over 50 Assist Trophies will be in the game, only about 41 of them have been revealed. Midna is also back and holy crap, Sukapon from Joy Mecha Fight made it to Assist Trophy status. That is huge considering that the game is Japanese only, only appeared as a sticker and was canned from Melee because they thought it was too sexual. And people wonder why I say that this is the new Nintendo? This is another example of it. Also; some new Pokemon were introduced, including Bewear and Solgaleo. The official website has even more new ones; but I'll save those for the second Direct along with some of the returning Pokemon and items; since there are some really juicy ones shown as well. New items include a corn kernal-equse Healing Field that create a healing circle to heal which seems straight out of an EXE Create RPG. Hmmm; Felix from Asdivine Heart wanted to be in Smash in some form. Highly unlikely; but who knows. Black Hole is also being an item, which is half of Palutena's Final Smash (which is unchanged by the way) along with Launch Star from Super Mario Odyssey. Although I do find it odd that the scene involves Zelda characters. The last time is probably the greatest one yet: Fake Smash Ball; also known as Smash Bomb in Japan. It's basically the Smash logo with the lines reversed (thick is horizontal, thin is vertical). Hit it and it can KO anything.
Segment #5: Stages
So, we get to one of the few things fans love about Smash besides the fighters, which is the stages. So, we have Prism Tower from 3DS, Green Greens from Melee, Spear Pilliar from Brawl (Considering that Paklia is a Pokemon returning as a Pokeball in this game; this is going to be hilarious on what happens in this stage if both the Pokeball and stage boss appear and do their move at the same time. Mario Galaxy appears as Sakurai proclaims that there will be a massive amount of returning stages. Let me just say this off the bat: There are only TWO stages right now that have been officially disconfirmed for Smash Ultimate: Flat Zone 1 and Flat Zone 2; and that's only because Flat Zone X is being used and it's both Flat Zone 1 & 2 combined anyway. Midgar is back showing Ifrit being hellish as usual. Kongo Falls looks awesome and they show the comparsion between the Melee version and the new one. Kongo Falls Ultimate looks much better than the Melee version, it's not even close. We also get Laylat Cruise as well as we get a sizzle reel of the returning stages with a new remix of Defino Plaza from Super Mario Sunshine! Princess Peach's Castle from Melee is back and looks great. Then Spirit Train from 3DS, then Frigate Orpheon from Brawl, then Green Hill Zone from Brawl, New Pork City from Brawl, Wrecking Crew from Wii U (Did Metaknight climb the ladder and attack someone? I don't recall that being in the Wii U version and I'm not going back to Wii U to check it out.), Tortimer Island from 3DS, Moray Towers (a new stage) at night! Then we fade to black as they play the Breath Of Wild main theme and we finally see Great Plateau Tower in full profile now and it looks epic. It's gimmick is that the tower roof blows up and magically repairs itself via a stone pillar in the middle of the stage. As narrow as the stage is, eight players can still smash on it; I'm now certain every stage is eight player playable without changes now. We then fade to black and see Great Bay in full profile, and then we see that every stage now has a Battlefield mode and an Omega Mode. This is interesting because Battlefield and Final Destination would only have two modes; but they are implying that those stages have three versions. Huh, I'll bring that up in the next Direct review. And then they show the Battlefield version of Yoshi's Island 64 from Smash 64, which got a new name called Super Happy Tree. I know this sounds like an obvious Bob Ross reference; but Super Happy Tree was in fact the name of the tree in Yoshi's Island 64 and that is what is shown in the background. 3D Land in Battlefield mode is also shown and also Find Mii along with Yoshi's Island 64 Melee.
Segment #6: New Techiniques...And More...
This one is for hardcore fans and really, I'm not a hardcore player; so a lot of this goes over my head, so I'll just skim through this segment as they play Punch-out music for a while. Most of these are pretty obvious. Dash cancel using a smash move, ladder attacks (one player really shook Sakurai during the Smash Ultimate Tournament at E3 with a ladder attack, or so I heard), a new air dodge move that gets worse with every new dodge added. This was clearly done to help Little Mac because his recovery was terrible in the previous game. Now you can do short mid air hop attacks and the A + B combo is unchanged. Perfect Shield now requires actual careful timing to pull off now, instead of actually being used regardless of timing. This makes it less cheap actually. One on one battles increase damage inflicted, although I don't know if it applies to healing and in Timed Battles, the one in the lead sparkles in light. And so we head to the second to last segment as we get a more dramatic reveal of the Switch Gamecube Controller for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and the announcement that amiibo figures (including ones that aren't Smash Brothers related) are coming back and have the same purpose as in the previous game: Basically, a FP fighter who levels up. Hmmm; maybe equipment stat increases haven't been cut. I don't know. And any data from previous Smash Brothers games using the amiibo can be transferred. This was done to ease the burden since a lot of the amiibo figures are currently out of print; although there are rumblings that new printings of previous characters and new characters will be added when Smash Brothers is released. So, we finally wrap up the segment with Sakurai saying that because EVERYONE IS HERE was #1 on top of the list, there won't be too many new challengers coming to Ultimate. That's carny talk for "there might be DLC, there might not".
However; there is one final announcement left and here we go as we get the new Smash logo start up which is opposite of the flaming Smash logo they have been using up to this point. So we head to a catwalk as Mega Man, Mario and Samus are walking on it. It's way too quiet in this scene and how Canadian with the "Not Actual Gameplay Footage". I think Nintendo's advertising wing is from Canada, after seeing this over and over again. Suddenly; someone snatches Mega Man and stabs him with his tail and we hear Mega Man's death sound. Okay; that's not unusual although this was against a red background with shadows and lightning bolts. Back to the scene and then the figure snatches Mario and stabs him in the heart with the same effects. Wait; if that is the case, Mario is....dead? So wait, if Mario is dead; that means Mega Man is dead as well? WHAT?! Wow; this was more gruesome than when someone killed someone with a plastic bag in Urban Wrestling Federation. And UWF was supposed to be for adults! What is going on here? This is not Smash Brothers; this is dark and violent. This was the point I realized; What happened with the Inkling in March was not a one-off thing. Samus slowly sighs because she now realizes that crap just got real and turns around and points her cannon and see nothing; except for Mario's hat. Rumbling occurs and then in comes the terror that everyone has wanted to see since Sakurai tore the hearts of fans for saying that he was far too big (Never mind that the 3DS was the main reason for most of the cuts) in Smash for Wii U and Samus is like "Oh, crap it's Ridley!" and Ridley Hits The Big Time~! Another thing the leak got right too I might add. So we get the reveal trailer of his move set including the sliding the player move and then his Final Smash is basically a flamethrower after throwing the fighter against Samus's own ship. I should note a few things:
[1.] Ridley twirling Mario's cap is a really dick move considering that he just killed Mario and Mega Man seconds ago. Ridley's slide player move even more so. One of his attack is an instant KO; ala Little Mac. His final smash looks like it could kill.
[2.] The end of the reveal implies that Ridley had seemly killed Samus in a ball of fire; but then Samus comes out -- AS ZERO-SUIT SAMUS -- and goes on offense against Ridley. This is the first time Samus has ever transformed into Zero Suit Samus in any form since Brawl. This looks like a logic break or a reference or maybe something else entirely. I'm going with logic break/reference since Occam's Razor applies here; although I put nothing past Sakurai now considering the new house rules seem to be that they are extremely flexable. So, the body count is two and almost three. Then we end with a dramatic show of the release date and this to investors was the low point of this segment: December 7th, 2018. I mention this because investors were expecting this to launch with the paid on-line service in September; but that got thrown out. Investors did not like Nintendo's E3 showing and the stock took a hit, however; a lot of shorting was being done weeks afterwards that annoyed me. Ironically; Nintendo's finances were actually good thanks to Switch software really delivering the goods as 3DS is dropping like a stone. Even though the Nintendo Direct itself was all right; the Smash portion delivered as promised despite having less than twenty percent of the game being shown. More to come in August. Although, this went on for too long and there was too much stuff going on as well. This took as long as the 50-Fact Direct and that was much longer than this one.
Bonus Segment - The Short Trailers: All the characters, including new ones got a 25 second trailer featuring some of their fighting skills on stages with music and no voices, but it does have sound effects. There was very little of note here since many of the stages were revealed (but not talked about) from Nintendo on purpose; along with several more Assist Trophies and items. Including the Rambling Evil Mushroom from Earthbound, which caused massive confusion over weither it was an item or an Assist Trophy. This was made worse since Bomber was an item and not an Assist Trophy; so it wasn't until August before most of us figured it out. Spoiler alert: It's an item. The highlights included a tease to the new stage New Donk City Hall, some new music including a new remix of Wood Man's theme from Mega Man 2, and Corneria's stage that also made people believe it was a brand new stage instead of being an even more revamped version from Melee. Considering that it's based on Star Fox Zero, this was the most visually improved stage of the lot. I have the link in the bold part and you can see some of the stages and stuff Nintendo showed, not didn't announce.
THE REVIEW LINE
Welp; this took much longer to write about than I thought and we're not even halfway through this as the August Direct is next and that one introduced us to new fighters, returning stages and new stuff galore as we got one of the funniest troll moves in Smash Brothers history and we got another UWF moment that made Ridley's reveal trailer look tame. The body count is going to rise. I will also be sharing a lot of my speculation on this game since a lot of the elements for it come from that August Direct. Overall; I love it, because no one thought Sakurai and company would have been able to pull off bringing Snake back at all. And despite using a lot of previous models; the more and more I see, the more and more I'm seeing this as a multiple ports of Smash Brothers games blended together that in the end, it becomes a new game by sheer force of will. It's becoming what I describe as a porn~! So....
No rating for this one and I'll see you all next time.