Super Smash Bros Brawl site goes live

[Masami von Weizegger]

Well, obviously not everyone will be balanced, that's why we have tiers after all. They couldn't manage it in the first Super Smash Brothers.

They'll probably work to balance out Mario and Sonic though, just because.

If the game is unbalanced, it'll be nothing new and the only people who will care too much are the competitive play wankers.

Fox. Marth.

Final Destination.

[Schuyler Colfax]

I just noticed the warp star in the Sonic video whcih is fucking awsome because that's the best weapon.

[Covenant]

I felt a great disturbance in the Force; it was as if a million Sonic fanboys cried out in joy, and suddenly ejaculated...

A Castlevania character would interesting though.

Also, am I the only one to get the feeling that they gave up trying to balance this game a long time ago and are now just giving the characters whatever crazy moves they can think of, simply because there are so many of them?

Castlevania would kick ass! It has to be Belmont with the whip, though.

Hey now! I said it first! Quote meeeee. The idea has some weight though, as I said, since they were in a Smash-Brothers ripoff before:

Snake vs. Bomberman vs. Simon Belmont vs. Optimus Prime!?

I'd love a Belmont or Alucard, which would be a pretty studly option too--or just plain ol' Count Dracula. He's got some pretty time-tested moves by now. Maybe in the next Smash after this? C'MON THEY WERE IN CAPTAIN N.

Anyway, who are our three Third Party characters so far? Or do we only have two? I think Sonic and Snake are the only ones that fit the 'third party' label as yet... and I'm guessing the last one will be some lame Japanese-only wierd minigame thing, and not someone Iconic like Megaman or X or Zero. I would like that Zombie though. They're not counting the SimCity jackass as the other character, are they? He's just a trophy!

[Qwerty 42]

I really, really hope they haven't pushed back the NA date. Seems impossible though.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Street date's now TBA.

And as long as he doesn't have Big the Cat as an assist or whatever, I'm game for Sonic.

C'MON THEY WERE IN CAPTAIN N.

That's it!! They should make Captain N the final third-party character!

[Covenant]

Captain N would certainly be a clever choice, but I don't think that counts as an actual Third Party character! And hey, at least it'd be cooler than damn Sonic. Oh that's right, I'm hating on your hedgehog. At least the fanboys can finally settle down. The best thing I like about including sonic is that people who might otherwise only play other 'flashy' characters like Snake or Metaknight, will now be torn and there will be less chance of playing nothing but Snakes. I really like MGS and I've been an ardent and prolific Kirby fan ever since the series started (including my custom Dreamland army-set for Dominions 3!) so spreading the love around is good.

I also hope they do keep things balanced. I'm not suspecting goofy ol' Sonic to be unbalanced... annoying probably, being as there's no fucking lamer speed-demon character than Sonic. Fox and Shiek and the other fast characters were annoying as all hell before--but their speed will have NOTHING on that damnable blue blur. I expect a very painful future for my Bowser, again.

[Mad]

I don't know that, but the variety in how the characters work seems like a balancing nightmare

It shouldn't be any worse than Melee was. Sonic and Snake, for example, both have some moves we've already seen in Melee with some modifications. I haven't noticed any regular moves that looks blatantly unbalanced from any of the newcomers.

add to that completely different "final smashes" for every character, where some seem to kill everything on the screen and then some, while others seem to be much more limited.

Considering that they're all pretty much over-the-top, I'm not too worried about them. There's evidence that each player can only perform once Final Smash per match, so they shouldn't be a game-breaker.

This with an item that is supposed to be like the hammer, except that one worked the same for all characters.

Some characters could counter the hammer more easily than others, even if they all used it pretty much the same way. Marth or Roy could easily get a KO off a careless hammer user by countering, while most other characters had to run. (Link and Samus could grab for a bit of hilarity, but that's more dangerous since the hammer-user can jump to dodge it.)

[Darth Yoshi]

Well, Sonic comes as no big surprise.

The Links' Sword Plant goes right through the hammer as well.

[Praxis]

Well, Sonic comes as no big surprise.

The Links' Sword Plant goes right through the hammer as well.

As does Ganondorf and Captain Falcon's down-B kick when standing on the floor, and most throwable objects, and a large number of Smash attacks. Plus many ranged attacks cause the Hammer user to flinch, which gives you the opportunity to slam them.

The Hammer doesn't seem so over the top to me; I regularly kill Hammer weilders by simply going up higher in the stage, and when they try to follow me drop below them and attack them from below as they drop down. Since they lose their attacks and jumps while holding the hammer, it's always an easy kill.

Here's some food for thought; there's at least 5 musicians from Square Enix and 4 from Capcom, compared to 3 or 4 from Sega that I can see.

There's got to be a Capcom and an SE character in there somewhere. Megaman please?

[Ford Prefect]

Megaman would probably be the best choice, but damn, I wouldn't mind seeing Dante in Brawl.

[Covenant]

Megaman would probably be the best choice, but damn, I wouldn't mind seeing Dante in Brawl.

I've said Megaman would be a good choice. He'd also be a good choice not only because he has a history of being in videogames, but also BECAUSE HE WAS IN CAPTAIN N. I'm telling you people--gotta respect the Elders of Nintendo Lore. Back in the day there were Mario Games, Castlevania Games, Metroid Games and Megaman. That was basically the big bunch right there, and it's a real shame that we're not getting some of the badasses we should!

Shit, I mean, look at the other jackass who basically came out of nowhere and who made it into Smash Brothers, Pit. Pit? I've never even heard of that guy. He was in some dumbass angel game, like, 16 years ago, right? What's he done to be worthy of a game appearence?

HE IN CAPTAIN N.

I rest my case.

I'll take my Megaman and Simon Belmont playable characters now, please!



Yeah you shut your mouth, Pit. Your game sucked too.

[Praxis]

You just know Capcom is going to do either:
MegaMan
Viewtiful Joe
Ryu
or Dante

In that order of likeliness.

Here's the question: Which MegaMan?

MegaMan is the most iconic.
MegaMan X is equally well-known and much cooler looking.
MegaMan Zero is the coolest of the characters, and is the only one that still makes good games, but he's also the least-known.
MegaMan.EXE is lame, but he's the only one with an active series on a Nintendo platform right now (MegaMan Battle Network and MegaMan Star Force).

If I could pick I'd say Zero, but I think Zero is unlikely.

The original MegaMan, they don't make his games anymore, that might be a reason for it not to be him.

MegaMan X is Playstation-only and they still haven't made one in years.

I dunno.

[Mad]

MegaMan X is Playstation-only and they still haven't made one in years.

The first three Mega Man X games were on SNES.

[VF5SS]

Well, if you don't count X3 being also on the Playstation. Even had an FMV opening. See.

[Praxis]

MegaMan X is Playstation-only and they still haven't made one in years.

The first three Mega Man X games were on SNES.

Sorry, I meant MegaMan X is NOW Playstation only.

And all the new ones suck.

Zero's my favorite MegaMan, but I doubt we'll see him; they'll want an iconic blue character, and Zero is the only one that is not blue and thus not as recognizable.

[Mad]

Sorry, I meant MegaMan X is NOW Playstation only.

Sort of like how Metal Gear is PlayStation-only, right? X does meet the qualification for being in Brawl: he appeared on a Nintendo system.

[General Zod]

Sorry, I meant MegaMan X is NOW Playstation only.

Sort of like how Metal Gear is PlayStation-only, right? X does meet the qualification for being in Brawl: he appeared on a Nintendo system.

The original Metal Gear games first appeared on the NES. Thank you, come again.

[Alan Bolte]

If you were going to put Mega Man in, how would you do it? Discounting the more recent spin offs, taking your enemy's power for your own is a central part of the games. Without it, he's just Samus with fewer moves. So do you make him a Kirby clone? Give him some special copy-your-power gun? Do you restrict him to copying the powers of someone who just died? Do you make it even harder to take a power, and force him to get the kill? Alternately, you could give him a selection of powers from his many games, much like Link and Samus already have their various equipment. Leaf shield, anyone?

[Covenant]

If you were going to put Mega Man in, how would you do it? Discounting the more recent spin offs, taking your enemy's power for your own is a central part of the games. Without it, he's just Samus with fewer moves. So do you make him a Kirby clone? Give him some special copy-your-power gun? Do you restrict him to copying the powers of someone who just died? Do you make it even harder to take a power, and force him to get the kill? Alternately, you could give him a selection of powers from his many games, much like Link and Samus already have their various equipment. Leaf shield, anyone?

Essentially.

If I wasn't able to get Zero, who would be an absolutely perfect candidate due to his melee-centric fighting style, the best way you could do this is if we get X. Getting X into the fight opens up the possibility of having Zero's Lightsaber for melee stuff, and a variety of specialty moves.

Barring that, if we want to use the original Blue Bomber himself, I say that our best option is giving him a lot of Rush moves. Rush, as you will remember, is Megaman's ever-loyal canine companion. Rush can turn into a Rushjet, a Rush-jetpack, unleash the Rush-coil for a high jump (propelling enemies off the stage?) and such.

Ideally, I'd have Rush be like an Ice Climbers assist buddy who stands right next to you, and can be beaten on to weaken you. Give Megaman a yellow-zap gun that operates more like Fox's Laser than Samus' gun, his sliding dash, and a few other moves and there you go.

His Final Smash could be Dr. Light tossing him a power package that gives him a random power... or it could also be something relatively silly like Dr. Wily's skullcopter buzzing in and unleashing Gutsman or Cutsman, who would run around chasing Megaman and trashing everyone else on the map until he got tired and exploded. Maybe giving you Guts-power or Cut-power.

[Praxis]

If you were going to put Mega Man in, how would you do it? Discounting the more recent spin offs, taking your enemy's power for your own is a central part of the games. Without it, he's just Samus with fewer moves. So do you make him a Kirby clone? Give him some special copy-your-power gun? Do you restrict him to copying the powers of someone who just died? Do you make it even harder to take a power, and force him to get the kill? Alternately, you could give him a selection of powers from his many games, much like Link and Samus already have their various equipment. Leaf shield, anyone?

Not necessarily. Every MegaMan game since the SNES has had MegaMan's charge abilities, so he could be very Samus-like. You could either:
A) Give him ultimate-moves from different games (for example, in MegaMan X5 and X6 he got a lightsaber, and stuff like a flaming uppercut).

B) Make him a smaller, lighter Samus with a different moveset, the only thing being in common would be the charge move.

C) Give him a selection of various cool moves from various games.
or

D) Take a MegaMan that doesn't work this way.

MegaMan Zero, for example, weilds four different weapons (he always has a gun and a saber, and the latter two weapons vary by game but the most common one is a shield). That'd translate perfectly.

C) MegaMan.EXE from Battle Network. He's a computer program, so he doesn't follow normal laws of physics, and he's got tons of gun, sword, and element-based attacks, and he teleports around a lot (again, he's a computer program, why move in straight lines?).


Something really fun with MegaMan.EXE is that later in the game you get the ability to summon defeated boss characters, who replace you, do one attack, and switch back to you. Imagine if Down-and-B turned you into a random character for fifteen seconds or something like that?

[Praxis]

I also want to point out that MegaMan has been used in fighting games before; see Marvel vs Capcom.

His Final Smash could be Dr. Light tossing him a power package that gives him a random power... or it could also be something relatively silly like Dr. Wily's skullcopter buzzing in and unleashing Gutsman or Cutsman, who would run around chasing Megaman and trashing everyone else on the map until he got tired and exploded. Maybe giving you Guts-power or Cut-power.

Original MegaMan? MegaMan + Roll + the dog team up.

MegaMan X? He dons the Falcon Armor.


Alternatively, we could go with X's clone's Ultimate Form according to the MegaMan Zero future. ( http://micahwave.com/neosigma/images/omegax5.jpg )

That last one is just wow. I'd LOVE to see that.


MegaMan Zero? That's easy. He turns into Omega


MegaMan.EXE? He uses a Bass chip to summon Bass who proceeds to kill EVERYONE.


Because you don't mess around with Bass.

[SAMAS]

Yeah, in MvC, he had three powerups from previous games: the Rock Ball(MM8), Tornado Hold (MM8), and, yep, the Leaf Shield (MM2).

I also think Vent/Alie from ZX would be cool. (S)he could go through ZX(normal), Hx(Wind/lightning), Lx(Water/Ice), Fx(Fire), and Px(Ninja) forms as a special attack. You could even be mean and have that if (s)he does it too fast/often, (s)he can randomly end up in normal/humanoid mode, with no special attacks.

[SAMAS]

But I digress. Back to Sonic!

Today's update is his attacks:

The original Sonic the Hedgehog game used only one button. I think its simple yet exhilarating play was its virtue.

And given that this game’s controls are also simple, I think it personifies his distinct characteristics.

<Side Special Move: Spin Dash>

screenshot

Yeah, you have to have this.

Hop into a supersonic Spin Dash. If you charge it up just a bit, your speed will increase.

It’s also possible to rise up while spinning.

screenshot

Spin Dash, jump. A two-hit combo.

screenshot

Then keep pursuing with a midair attack!

screenshot

And do a Spin Dash in midair to return.

That, too?

<Down Special Move: Spin Charge>

By holding the Control Stick down and tapping the special-move button, you charge up your spin and do a Spin Dash. This may feel better for some—there’s no pop.

screenshot

KEEEEEEEEEE!

<Up Special Move: Spring Jump>

And his up special move is the Spring Jump. That spring launches you wayyy up in the air.

screenshot

That’s high!

You might not use it on the ground much, but rumor has it that if you do, the spring that remains can be used by other characters.

screenshot

Ah! It’s true.

[Dooey Jo]

It shouldn't be any worse than Melee was. Sonic and Snake, for example, both have some moves we've already seen in Melee with some modifications. I haven't noticed any regular moves that looks blatantly unbalanced from any of the newcomers.

But in Melee there was really only one character that was different from the others; the Ice Climbers. And it turned out that if the pink one died, your ability to recover was fucked, and as such they were underpowered. But now we have them again, plus the Pokémon trainer that might work like Zelda in the last game, if she could shapeshift into three different characters, but not too often apparently. Then there's Samus that can't use her most powerful attack without turning into Zero-Suit Samus. As I said, it's going to be interesting to see how they balance such things...

Considering that they're all pretty much over-the-top, I'm not too worried about them. There's evidence that each player can only perform once Final Smash per match, so they shouldn't be a game-breaker.

Ah, I see. Well I don't think there will be something that will break the game, they'll most likely make sure of that, but I think there's a good chance some characters will be less useful. That's not a huge bad thing, but a bit boring, I think.

Some characters could counter the hammer more easily than others, even if they all used it pretty much the same way. Marth or Roy could easily get a KO off a careless hammer user by countering, while most other characters had to run. (Link and Samus could grab for a bit of hilarity, but that's more dangerous since the hammer-user can jump to dodge it.)

Yes I know that, but I think all characters had some way of countering it, and when they did get it, they had an equally good chance of KOing someone. Imagine instead if some characters had turned into a Hammer Bro and threw hammers, and others made the hammer chuck out hearts and tomatoes...

[Mad]

Sorry, I meant MegaMan X is NOW Playstation only.

Sort of like how Metal Gear is PlayStation-only, right? X does meet the qualification for being in Brawl: he appeared on a Nintendo system.

The original Metal Gear games first appeared on the NES. Thank you, come again.

Um, yes, I knew that. And the first three Mega Man X games came out on SNES. So, what exactly is your point?