Welcome to the Saturday Smash-Up, a weekly recap of all of the new and exciting information from the week in Smash Pics of the Day. What am I talking about? Well, here’s a primer:
Since the announcement of Super Smash Brothers for Wii U and Super Smash Brothers for 3DS back at E3 2013, project director Masahiro Sakurai has been posting daily updates on SmashBros.com, just as he did with Super Smash Brothers Brawl during its development cycle. The update is just a screenshot from one of the two versions, but Sakurai provides a small description of the screen on the Super Smash Bros Director’s Room Miiverse page. Sometimes we see the announcement of a character (most recently with King Dedede on January 10), other times it’s just a goofy pose. Check back here every week for a week’s worth of Smash updates, Sakurai musings, and Fanelli reaction.
Another week of Smash Updates was capped by single player speculation, changes to a big part of the competitive strategy, and the answer to a question not many were too worried about. But before all that…
RUMOR ALERT!!!!
So the super-sleuth Kevin Cassidy over at the tremendous GoNintendo blog (seriously, they’re great, check ’em out) unearthed an interesting little rumor with accompanying “leaked” screenshots. Check this out:
That is a shot of Palutena, the goddess of good from Kid Icarus, standing tall as a playable combatant on a 3DS screen. Obviously she has yet to be confirmed as playable, so this should all be taken with a bit of skepticism, but as the GoNintendo post points out: there’s three interesting clues supporting her inclusion:
“– The Mario seen above is not from any previous screen
– The Palutena model is not from Kid Icarus: Uprising
– The background is 100% original“
Upon further research, I found that Palutena topped a lot of informal “who do you want to play as in the next Smash” polls, so perhaps Sakurai and company got the message.
Enough rumor, onto the updates!
Monday, January 20, 2014
Sakurai: “Pic of the day. Where am I……?? To be clear, the new Super Smash Bros. games do not feature a story mode like The Subspace Emissary.“
Editor’s Thoughts: At first I thought this was just a cool new stage being teased, but then Sakurai specifically mentioned the lack of a story mode in the new games…so this must be a glimpse at a new single-player mode, right? Maybe we’ll be getting Adventure Mode back from Melee, and I’d be totally OK with that. Subspace was cool, but it dragged on toward the end and took the challenge out of unlocking characters. A returning Adventure Mode is cool with me.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Sakurai: “Pic of the day. This is the Luma Shot, which highlights the different ways to control your Luma. You can switch between controlling the Luma alongside Rosalina or away from her.“
Editor’s Thoughts: Luma-lee, luma-bop, check out this cool Luma Shot! We’ve all seen this move in Rosalina’s reveal trailer, but this is a cool freeze frame into the move. Plus, that is one pissed off Luma. I don’t want to mess with it
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Sakurai: “Pic of the day. There are many changes being made to attack and defense options for grabbing edges. In this picture, Link is actually trumping Mario’s grab.“
“Some other changes include:
-Air time and accumulated damage will determine your period of invincibility while hanging on an edge.
-Grab controls will no longer be affected by whether you have above or below 100% damage.“
Editor’s Thoughts: There is no more humiliating way to die in Super Smash Bros than to try a grab a ledge, only to have someone else grab it before me and send me to my death. Hopefully these changes will give me some kind of reprieve…hopefully.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Sakurai: “Pic of the day. This is definitely not a friendly girls night out…“
Editor’s Thoughts: Some people wanted Viridi from Kid Icarus: Uprising to be playable, but it looks like she’ll be in the background of the 3DS Kid Icarus stage instead. Note that this was the first screenshot posted after the Palutena rumor came to light. Is Sakurai trolling?
Friday, January 24, 2014
Sakurai: “Pic of the day. When Toon Link joins the battle, Alfonzo is in charge of the train. Alfonzo: “Leave it to me!”“
Editor’s Thoughts: Good ol’ Alfonzo! What a pal he is. I actually hadn’t put 2 and 2 together until I saw this screenshot, but Toon Link is seen running the train in the very first trailer for the game, so naturally someone has to run it for him when he fights. Thanks for the clarification I didn’t even know I needed, Sakurai.
There’s another week’s worth of Smashing updates. This week we’ll do it all over again, and we’re wayyyy overdue for a Nintendo Direct. I thought we’d get one this past week, but Nintendo has an investor meeting scheduled for Wednesday the 29th, so maybe the Direct will line up with that.
Time for the Song of the Week! At the end of every week, I’m going to post a Nintendo tune that I’d like to see make it into either version of Smash (especially if My Music returns, WHICH IT SHOULD). I’ll take requests for songs on the GamerNode Twitter page or on my personal one (remember the #SaturdaySmashUp hashtag!), so let’s jam to some sweet music every Saturday.
Last week we talked 3DS and the Rainbow Road stage, this week I’m moving to Wii U and Dr. Wily’s Castle. There’s a treasure trove of great Mega Man music to choose from, and I think that any songs chosen should come from the stages of the weapons Mega Man uses in Smash, so here’s a criminally under-appreciated track from Mega Man 2: CRASH MAN!
Until next week, Smashers!
