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 Diddy Kong on February 21st), 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.
When you’re only in Tuesday and Sakurai has provided five distinct screenshots, you know it’s going to be a good week for Smash updates. We’ve seen how a 3DS stage works, we’ve gotten a glimpse of the newest version of a certain item, and we got to witness when one of the newcomers gets knocked out cold. Update time!
Monday, March 17th, 2014
Sakurai: “Pic of the day. That item that brings victory one step closer…the Smash Ball! Of course everyone wants it! Come to think of it, I haven’t introduced any of the Final Smashes yet… Then again, if I introduced every single one, it’d take over a month’s worth of posts.“
Editor’s Thoughts: Ho ho ho, Sakurai be trollin’ now! Everyone saw this and immediately began posting “30 plus characters confirmed for Smash Bros yahoo!” or something of that nature below it, yet they forgot one particular thing: Sakurai updates five times a week, not every day. He’d need five weeks to show us all 24 currently known characters’ Final Smashes, which is over a month. We have to wait and see how deep the roster goes.
Tuesday, March 18th, 2014
Sakurai Pic 1: “Pic of the day. Here’s some info on the Nintendo 3DS stage called Super Mario 3D Land! First, it advances by side-scrolling…“
Sakurai Pic 2: “Then you continue into the valley–it’s in 3D Land, after all. The protruding stone blocks change the angles of the platforms.“
Sakurai Pic 3: “After that, back to side-scrolling. Now it gets you moving–you’ll have to trot downhill here.“
Sakurai Pic 4: “And finally, you get back on rails to go farther into the stage. It takes roughly two minutes to complete a lap, and at the end you go into a giant pipe that takes you back to the beginning. …I know this sequence goes above and beyond a traditional Pic of the Day, so consider this a little something extra on the side from me.”
Editor’s Thoughts: Well sir, we certainly appreciate the four-pic primer on the Super Mario 3D Land stage. It looks really fun to play, though I’m wondering about the platforms with changing angles…what’s that supposed to mean? I’ll have to see it in action.
Wednesday, March 19th, 2014
Sakurai: “Pic of the day. Fallen Rosalina. Strange how calm and nonchalant she looks even when she takes damage. Is it because she’s from outer space?“
Editor’s Thoughts: You know, I’m not really sure if I should feel comfortable about this shot. It weirds me out a bit, seeing her just lay there like that. Why is Sakurai taking pictures of this weird stuff?:
Thursday, March 20th, 2014
Sakurai: “Pic of the day. The Peanut Popgun now deals a powerful attack when it explodes. It’ll be difficult to hit your target, but when you succeed, the explosion will really blow your enemies away. Give it a shot when you break someone’s shield.“
Editor’s Thoughts: It’s interesting that there would actually be an incentive to overcharging the popgun like that. I’m sure Diddy will take some damage too, but the reward might be higher than the risk. It’s Roy from Melee all over again…I miss Roy.
Friday, March 21st, 2014
Sakurai Pic 1: “Pic of the day. The most powerful commander of the Forces of Nature, Lightning Flash Phosphora!!“
Sakurai Pic 2: “…is a Trophy. The detail in her scarf is amazing.“
Editor’s Thoughts: Indeed, the trophy looks very cool, but now I’m confused. I thought each version would have unique trophies like they do unique stages, but this is a trophy for a 3DS game in a Wii U screenshot. Maybe the trophies don’t follow the same rules as the stages? We’ll see.
I get the feeling we’re going to be talking about another Nintendo Direct soon, as the last one was on February 13th and The Year of Luigi officially ended on March 18th. Next week perhaps? We shall see.
That’s all for now, but before we go, it’s 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.
This week’s tune could fit in one of two places: the Mario Galaxy stage on the Wii U version OR the Super Mario 3D Land stage we found more out about this week on 3DS. It doesn’t matter to me which one uses it, as long as one of them does. It’s the best remix of the Super Mario 64 music I’ve ever heard.
Until next week, Smashers!
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