Well Smash 4 DLC has wrapped up it’s announcements. Smash is my favorite video game franchise so you bet I’m going to have this write-up on all this. Up in this post is the livestream of the direct. I turn the camera on and start speaking at about the 9:37 mark but if you just want to watch the direct part just skip to 22:37. I’d probably suggest skipping to certain parts because for the most part I’m pretty quiet. In real life I’m not the most talkative guy, and combine that with the fact I didn’t want to have my voice get in the way of watching. But there were certain parts where I said something and reacted with a bit of excitement or just plain “Wow” (Especially when it comes to Bayonetta).
Watch 22:37-25:17 for just the Corrin trailer. (If you want to see me through the full Corrin Part watch it from 22:37-30:38 instead)
30:39-37:50 is the Cloud part
37:52-40:10 is the Mii Fighter costumes (Geno, Tails, and Knuckles particularly got a reaction out of me)
40:45-43:34 for just the Bayonetta trailer. (As with Corrin, 40:45-52:29 for the full Bayonetta part)
After that is just two parts where I particularly mention or talk about something. About how the backgrounds of the 3rd Party characters + Mario makes a rainbow at 52:45-53:40
And lastly when trying to comprehend what happened I talk about how I gladly would of taken Bayonetta if it was between her and Shovel Knight. As well as how Shadow has no Mii Costume but Tails and Knuckles do at 57:26-58:52
So that’s there if you want to see my raw initial reactions. Though now I’ll get into what I do for the text and talking about these on a bigger level. Starting of course with the Corrin reveal
CORRIN
I’ve never been that big on Fire Emblem. It’s always been that franchise in Smash that whenever a new character is added I always kinda shrug and just say “Ok”. And it wasn’t really any different here. I don’t hate Fire Emblem, but I certainly am kinda apathetic to it outside of Smash. But I definitely know Corrin is going to get the most salt out of the three final characters. With the addition of Corrin, Fire Emblem has the same amount of reps as Pokemon. And no doubt people will be puzzled as to why that is considering most people definitely do not think Fire Emblem is on Pokemon’s level. Though one thing I can say: I think right now it’s getting there. Awakening was by the most successful game in the series. And the franchise really needed it, if Awakening had bombed. Fire Emblem would of ended right then and there. But now Nintendo knows what they did with Awakening worked immensely and now the rest of the franchise is likely to be more like Awakening with new stuff from time-to-time. Fire Emblem is even having separate version games like Pokemon does (Though Pokemon I suppose doesn’t make you buy three games to get the entire story). So at the very least Nintendo is certainly trying to rise it to Pokemon levels. Giving it 6 reps sends the message that Fire Emblem is a big deal to Nintendo now. Another thing is by the next Smash, there will probably be two or more Fire Emblem games by then so if Corrin doesn’t come in now. He/She may be pushed in favor of a newer protagonist. So it’s quite possible this was Corrin’s only chance to come in Smash. From that point of view I understand why Corrin is in but I can’t say I’m all that excited. Though the moveset certainly looks interesting.
CLOUD
As promised we were shown how Cloud works. And having gotten the chance to play as him. I really like him actually. He may just be my favorite out of all the 7 DLC Characters. He’s like an interesting fusion between Shulk, Little Mac, and Ike. I approve of his inclusion more then ever now. His moves just feel so satisfying to pull off. The only thing I’m really disappointed is in the fact in even the Wii U version. The Midgar stage has only two songs and they’re just fighting themes with no One Winged Angel. Which is a video game music I particularly love even having never played Final Fantasy 7. One of the thing about Cloud’s reveal that excited me was the thought of Smashing to One Winged Angel. And I’m quite bummed that won’t happen. I kinda hope they fix that sometime soon but I suppose it’s not a huge deal. Just a big bummer to miss out on one of the most iconic boss themes ever made. Otherwise though, I definitely like Cloud both in terms of inclusion and as a fighter too. I’m possibly even considering if the FF7 Remake is ported to the NX trying it out.
MII COSTUMES
Now for the rest of the Mii Costumes. While not everybody is fond of them for either they just aren’t into the Miis much at all and/or they feel like second banana consolation prizes when they make some for fighters people hoped would be playable. But I for one enjoy them and at least on the Wii U version plan to buy them all (Part of it’s also for any possibly use for my Smashing is Magic blog) no matter what they are. There were three costumes that particularly got a reaction out of me. The first was of course Geno. I remember the Brawl days where even back then Geno was such a requested character with a big following and everything. He was never actually that much of a likely choice but I think Geno fans should be really grateful that he even got this much. Sure Geno himself is not playable but that wasn’t a huge possibility at this point so the Mii Fighter costume is the next best thing. That’s more then other characters can say. Just think, Geno got a costume. While Wolf (A relatively liked character from Brawl) aside from a trophy and the two music tracks got nothing.
The other two are of course the Tails and Knuckles costumes. Now you’d think that since Tails was my #1 Wanted Newcomer that I’d be incredibly upset. But I’m actually the opposite. You know why? I knew beforehand that they were long shots. There’s several popular characters that out prioritize a 2nd Sonic rep for sure and with there only being two characters left after Cloud I doubted they would of been one of those. So like I said initially… I’ll take it. Besides my build of Project M has a PSA build that replaces Meta Knight with Tails as well as Knuckles from that post-cancellation build that was released. So if I really want to smash as the real Tails and Knuckles, I’ll just plop in Brawl/Project M. And one last thing, it’s incredibly likely that the Mii costumes are indeed some sort of consolation for other candidates that are possible for the next Smash. You have K. Rool, Inklings, Heihachi (Sakurai considered Heihachi for Smash 4 at one point), etc. that all got Mii costumes. So no doubt this has bolstered my hopes for Tails and/or Knuckles for Smash 5. My Smash Bros. playing life would literally be complete if both officially made it part of Smash. I am kinda surprised they didn’t go for an Eggman costume when that would of definitely worked a little better. But then again when speculation starts for Smash 5 that gives me the Ammo against anyone who thinks Eggman’s the only viable 2nd rep (Eggman does arguably deserve a spot more then either Tails or Knuckles but we got Luigi before Bowser. Tails is a Luigi-tier icon in gaming no matter how you look at it). It’s a shame they didn’t have a swordfighter character though too. I think Amy could of worked with that hammer of hers (Before you say it’s not sharp, the Viridi costume has her club. Ashley uses her Wand, neither are sharp) but as a big Sonic fan I’ll take what I can get. All I know is suddenly I’m using the Mii Gunner a lot more often. I am just that happy about it ^^
BAYONETTA
But now to cover the final character. Now I definitely had the same feeling at first that the character was going to be from Kid Icarus when we were shown Pit and Palutena speaking which if you combine that already with the salt for Corrin would be enough salt to fill up the Grand Canyon. Despite my dislike of Dark Pit, I don’t hate Kid Icarus but it definitely got the bias side from Sakurai in Smash 4 what with most of the Smash Run enemies being from that game. Heck if the final character had been Hades I would of been fine with that as I found him hilarious in the Let’s Play I watched of Uprising. But nope it wasn’t a Kid Icarus character after all, I can’t say however it didn’t bring salt down on the Smash community anyway though.
I know Bayonetta even less then I do Fire Emblem so that’s saying something there. I never would of expected her. It was even more of a surprise to see she was the Ballot winner (Even if that’s slightly an asterisk when Sakurai mentioned realizable characters. Meaning there were likely a few characters that didn’t start out as Video game characters above her). The polls we saw on sites like Smashboards led us to believe the likes of K. Rool and Inklings were at the top. But as it turns out it didn’t account for the silent majority that don’t participate in Smash speculation every day like a lot of us do. Even if putting that into account it’s surprising that Bayonetta was that choice since you’d think Bayonetta’s rather niche. But hey, she was chosen so there must be a reason. That said despite all this if Cloud made Snake make more sense. Bayonetta makes Cloud’s inclusion make more sense in turn. She doesn’t have the excuse Cloud has that he’s part of a series that was once huge back in the day. I’m not saying Bayonetta isn’t iconic though. She may be one of the few iconic gaming characters from post-2000 (The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Master Chief and we know why that’s not happening). One of the reasons Bayonetta was always considered unlikely is that she was too sexy and/or violent for Smash which is silly considering we did get Snake (Which category of the two depend on who you ask xD). The company that made Bayonetta, (Platinum Games) has been one of those companies that garner praise with almost everything they do these days and it’s well known Bayonetta is their biggest hit. When Xbox and Playstation fans alike are pissed when they find out Bayonetta 2 was Wii U Exclusive that’s when you know that Bayonetta’s a pretty big deal. Now one thing I should mention that while technically Platinum Games is under Sega I don’t exactly consider her 100% a 2nd Sega rep. Sega publishes those games sure but didn’t exactly develop them. She is Platinum Games’ rep to me more so then Sega but I’ll still respect her as another franchise within Sega’s ranks. Her moveset looks pretty interesting if at first glance quite overpowered, but we’ll see how she is. I remember when people thought Palutena was overpowered because of the Up Smash in her trailer. But people quickly found that was quite wrong.
I have no huge problems with Bayonetta. Just someone I’m not too familiar with so thus there are a lot of unknowns. But one of the beauty of Smash is to spread awareness of characters that you may not know much about especially the ones that were really popular and you somehow missed out on them. Who knows, maybe Bayonetta will impress me enough to try her game sometime. Until then though, Bayonetta’s only gets just a slightly better impression from me then a new Fire Emblem newcomer does. But congratulations to any Bayonetta fans out there. I’m sure you had the absolute best day. ^^
NEWCOMER RANKING
On a different site I have been ranking the Newcomers based on their general merit to Nintendo and/or their overall impact. And I thought maybe it’d be a good idea to share that list here.
1. Mega Man
2. Ryu
3. Mii Fighters
4. Little Mac
5. Pac-Man
6. Bowser Jr.
7. Cloud Strife (It’s a funny coincidence he’s #7 considering FF7)
8. Duck Hunt Dog
9. Villager
10. Shulk
11. Robin
12. Palutena
13. Wii Fit Trainer
14. Bayonetta
15. Rosalina
16. Corrin
17. Lucina
18. Greninja
19. Dark Pit
As you can see I see Mega Man as far and way the best inclusion in the game. And Dark Pit dead last for several reasons that I certainly have already made known. If anyone’s a big fan of some of the 2nd half characters though don’t worry. Dark Pit is literally the only one of these I heavily dislike their inclusion. Granted every character under Palutena and above Dark Pit I still have lingering problems with but I’m certainly ok with them. If you want to ask me why I have the characters where they are in this ranking feel free to send an ask about it. I’ll explain my point of view.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
While I’m a bit lukewarm towards either of the Newcomers. We’ve reached the bittersweet ending that is the ending of all DLC for the game. We have a grand total of 58 characters which is no doubt an amount that would certainly surprise any one when the game was just announced. I at one point thought there’d be an absolute maximum of 45 characters, I am glad to say I was wrong tenfold. The newcomer poll that we got is an incredibly mixed bag with some of the best inclusions ever but also a few that are bound to be controversial for the rest of the franchise’s history. Now Brawl’s roster also had it’s anger but over time people softened up and prior to Smash 4 there was a large crowd amongst the “No Cuts!” crowd (Admittedly I being one of them) there was a fanbase that wanted every single Brawl character to return but unfortunately those who wanted Ice Climbers, Wolf, Snake, and even Ivysaur & Squirtle were left disappointed. When we get to the next game with all these characters I could actually see some ANTI support threads pop up considering the controversial choices we had. And considering I don’t think Smash 5 would go with close to 70 characters (That’s including returning characters and/or possible newcomers) from the get go because of how difficult that would be on any developer’s shoulders. The good thing about DLC however that it’s possible they get most of the roster done first and then release missing characters as DLC. So people making Anti thread may get their wish only to be mad if that character comes as DLC. As a result I think even characters usually deemed safe for one reason or another may be saved for DLC. A prime example would be Jigglypuff who has stayed in Smash since the first game despite not seemingly quite as relevant. If Jigglypuff missed the main game for Smash 5, people who still heavily dislike her inclusion would have their day. But I would have no doubts that it’d mean she’s DLC. The debut of DLC in Smash means a lot of characters can still return regardless. Cuts will still happen but just look at Smash 4 right now. We have 68 characters. And the only characters in previous games that are not here this time are Pichu, Snake, Wolf, Ice Climbers, Ivysaur, and Squirtle. 68/74 means that’s still 92% of all characters included in the past plus the Newcomers. That’s quite astounding really. For those who prefer content and amount of characters above all else, this game is certainly a new favorite.
I’d like to thank Sakurai for all his hard work he put into this game as he’s included many awesome characters both in terms of their status in Gaming History or at the very least how fun they are to play. If this is his last Smash Bros. he did an excellent send-off. If he comes back next time, that’s great as we’ll come to expect just as much hard work as ever. If he doesn’t it’ll however be understandable and hopefully his successor has the passion for Smash enough to maintain the same sort of effort. But for now, thank you Sakurai. Either way you’ve touched the hearts of many with all four games in the series and it will forever personally be my favorite video game franchise of all-time. Thank you so, so much.