Smash Ultimate Countdown

5/10/19

This is my last ever blog post, so I felt we should end it in a fitting, yet nonsensical way. Instead of doing something poetic like reviewing Ultimate as a whole, I'm going to do something stupid and INSTEAD review all of my blog posts in order, each in a single sentence, with a rating out of a 10. We're going to go from oldest to newest, rather than newest to oldest. This should be very fun.

10/03/18: I said Box Theory wasn't real despite it being real. 5/10

10/09/18: Where's sans? 3/10

10/10/18: Yeah, Music Theory, that was stupid. 5/10

10/22/18: Haha, I was right. 6/10

10/25/18: That was a phenomenal poem. 9/10

11/05/18: You could smell the hype from that post. 7/10

11/8/18: Almost everything in this post is wrong. 2/10

12/10/18: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 8/10

12/17/18: A lot in this post is wrong as well. 3/10

1/18/19: He is pretty fun. 6/10

1/25/19: They did actually find a difference between Peach and Daisy, but it turned out to be a bug that got patched out. 7/10

2/11/19: There's sans. 7/10

2/18/19: That's what I call informed reporting. 8/10

3/22/19: Wow, I used to like Yoshi's Island Brawl? 8/10

3/28/19: Who needs substance? 2/10

4/03/19: He's so cute it makes me forget I'm being beaten. 7/10

4/11/19: Good job, Nintendo. 5/10

5/2/19: It's not the Joker from Batman. 8/10

5/10/19: This was a stupid and fun idea. 9/10

There we go, all of the blog posts that I have made reviewed. I had so much fun with these blog posts; I really did enjoy them. The fact that this is my last one really cements how close we are to the end of the school year.

Negative 154 days since Super Smash Brothers Ultimate came out.

5/2/19

Joker from Persona 5 was released in a surprise announcement a few weeks ago, which is a befitting way for his character to show up. Since he's already been out for awhile, I feel like I've spent enough time with him to give a good enough feel of the character. He's pretty dang good, but I wouldn't say that he's top tier.

Joker's main gimmick is his Rebel Gauge. Everytime he takes damage, it fills up a little bit. He also has a counter on his down special where if he takes damage while using it, the Rebel's Gauge will fill up faster. Once his Gauge fills up, Joker gets a power-up in the form of Arsene. He lasts for a relatively long time, assuming you don't get hit. Arsene lasts as long as the Rebel's Gauge depletes from full. However, if he takes damage, it'll deplete faster. When Joker has Arsene, all of his attacks go from being okay to absolutely nuts. They'll do insane amounts of damage and rack up early kills. It is terrifying.

As for Joker's base moveset, he uses a dagger and has a ton of ground speed, which leads to him being a combo character that dances around the stage. Most of his aerials are disjointed, but since it's just a dagger, they don't too much damage. That means that he struggles to kill without Arsene. His best bet his gimping or his smash attacks, but he isn't great at either of those.

Joker is just a fast dagger class that 10% of the time hits like a truck. What matters most with him is trying to make those 10% segments count, as that's usually when you need to get your kills. Overall, he's a very fun character.

4/11/19

Stage Builder has been confirmed

Well, Nintendo did something stupid again. They released a brand new ad for Smash Bros Ultimate, and in it they accidentally showed a stage builder for Smash Ultimate. This is pretty interesting, since awhile ago dataminers found files indicating that Stage Builder and Home Run Contest were going to be added in Patch 3.0.0. What's intriguing is that despite being showed Stage Builder, there was no sign of Home Run contest on the menu. So, that's worth keeping in mind.

Since Stage Builder IS confirmed, I thought it would be fun to talk about my thoughts on the application in the previous games. And well, it's not a good one. I think that in Brawl it was absolutely great. You could use a lot of various building materials, and the music choices and background options were great. It was a fun time. However, in Smash 4, it was absolutely ruined. The weight limit in 4 was absolutely appalling, meaning it was very hard to make any creative stages. But what was the absolute worst thing about it was the fact that you had to draw the stage out on the Gamepad, as opposed to the gridlike building system that it used in Brawl. It wasn't innovative or fun, and meant that I barely put any time into it. I do hope that Ultimate's follows in Brawl's footsteps, rather than 4's.

4/03/19

Pichu is a Menace

This character is a monster in Smash Ultimate. Extremely fast, amazing frame data, and hits like a truck. Of course, all this power comes with a trade-off, but the benefits far outweigh the negatives. Today, we're going to be talking about the most adorable aggressor in Smash Bros, Pichu.

To start with, all of Pichu's aerials are great. Her slowest is down air, but it's still fast enough to be used to effectively space, and is great for landing if you time it right so that you land without endlag. Pichu's forward air comes out fast and is a multi hit, and the hitbox is just her entire body, rather than in front of him. Her back air is a super fast multi-hit that can be used to link into itself if you use it properly. Up air is fast, but not that powerful, but it still can be used to combo into his other aerials. Pichu's best aerial, however, is most certainly her nair. It's an absurdly fast, does a good amount of damage, and it sets up tech chases. We're only getting started, though.

Pichu's normals are also amazing. I could go through them one by one, but instead I want to talk about the highlights. Pichu's down tilt and up tilt are great combo starters that lead into his aerials and each other, Pichu's forward smash kills absurdly early, and down smash kills relatively early and has a few frames of invulnerability. Definitely Pichu's best normal is her forward tilt, as it kills relatively early (100% on ledge) and is extremely fast, and two frames opponents. This means it can rack up crazy early kills if you time it right. It's a great move, and fixes Pichu's main problem of killing consistently.

Wrapping this up, Pichu's specials are Pichu's most lackluster area, but there are still some standouts. Pichu neutral special is absurdly fast and does 9-12% of damage just for pressing the b button. Side special and up special are great recovery moves, even if they aren't greast offensively. The crown jewel of her specials is her down special, which is a very fast, very powerful move for what it is. It calls a lightning bolt down to strike Pichu, and emits a shockwave around her, doing massive damage and sending the opponents flying in the direction she's facing. It's honestly quite an amazing move.

Combine all these traits, and you have an insanely fast combo character that does damage and an absurdly fast pace and has no trouble killing. But, this all comes with a tradeoff. That trade off being that for every electric attack that Pichu uses, she does a bit of self damage. It doesn't seem like too much at first, but it can rack up fast. However, I don't think it's too big of a problem. Pichu does so much damage so fast that she's able to keep up with the small amount of damage she does to herself. The other tradeoff is that Pichu is the lightest character in the game, making it so that she dies early. This makes her a bit of a glass cannon in all regards, but the cannon is far stronger than the glass in this scenario.

3/28/19

Joker Release Date Revealed

This one's a quickie. We are apparently getting Joker news on April 25th, and possibly more Persona news. I am not a Persona fan, but I will take Joker news. It is unclear if whether or not Joker will be released on the 25th, or if we're simply getting news about him. I would assume the former, simply because Joker is slated for an April release. and the 25th is at the end of the month. Yay for Joker. I would talk about what I hope to see in his moveset, but I don't have any Persona experience to make a speculatory moveset.

3/22/19

Legal Stages in Smash

In Smash Bros, stages are important. In the previous Smash game, we only had 6 competitively viable stages, one of them being a glorified reskin of another. Naturally, since Ultimate trumps in Smash 4 in almost every way possible, Ultimate has a ton more viable stages. And I mean a TON. This is all thanks to one very useful setting that they added to Ultimate, that being the "stage hazard" button. Turning stage hazards off makes transformation stages completely static, turning several usually unviable stages into some of the most fun stages imaginable. Today I'm going to be going over 10 of the most common stages you would see in a competitive ruleset.

Battlefield

Battlefield is Battlefield. I got nothing to add. Same old stage its always been. Always has been legal, always will be. 3 platforms, stage that doesn't go all the way to the bottom, meaning you can go under the stage if your recovery is good enough. Relatively neutral, but this stage can be better for some characters than others.

Final Destination

Final Destination is Final Destination. I got nothing to add. Same old stage its always been. No platforms, completely flat. One thing to note about this variation of FD is that the bottom blastzone is a lot closer to the stage than FDs in other variations. Similar to Battlefield, it's relatively neutral, but it is skewed in some characters favors. 

Pokemon Stadium 2

This stage is a bit of a newbie in legality. Pokemon Stadium 1 is legal in Melee, but the main it wasn't static, so transformations happened regularly, making it one of Melee's most controversial stages. But here in Ultimate, it's completely static, making it a lot more fun to play on. It has an extremely neutral stage, and in my opinion, the most neutral stage out of all the legal stages in Ultimate. It's got two small platforms closer to the ledge than the center of the stage, and has a bottom wall in the middle of the stage. However, you can't wall jump off of it, so the only purpose it serves is to prevent players from going underneath it. Also, one thing to keep in mind, it's possible to get stuck underneath the stage, effectively pineappling you.

Yoshi's Island

This stage is a bit controversial, but I personally like it. It's has one long platform across the middle on top of a stage that is sloped towards the middle. It also has walls down to the bottom blastzone. This stage is really unique and I enjoy it, but my main issue with it is the slopes. I find the slops down the middle fine, but the two slopes on the edge just make ledgeguarding/edgeguarding ridiculously easy/hard, depending on the character. Other than that, it's a pretty great stage, but it mess up some projectiles and be difficult for some characters get around the central platform. 

Kalos Pokemon League

I love this stage. It's essentially FD, but with platforms that are half above the ledge and half offstage. This makes it a great counterpick for characters like Greninja or Little Mac, who usually get FD banned on them. It also has walls that also go all the way to the bottom. Pretty fun stage, and pretty neutral as well. Characters who prefer platforms can still utilize the outside platforms effectively against characters who chose the stage for the FD resemblance.

Unova Pokemon League

This is my absolutely favorite legal stage in all of Smash Ultimate. It is essentially Pokemon Stadium 2, but it's smaller but with bigger platforms. I love this stage mostly because unlike Pokemon Stadium 2, you can't get pineappled easily. Since Unova League is also much smaller, the games feel better paced to me than Pokemon Stadium 2. However, that might just be a me thing. 

Yoshi's Story

This stage is Battlefield with sloped ledges. However, the ledges themselves are much less offensive than the other Yoshi stage, since it's more of a slight incline than a sharp one. The platforms themselves are also much larger, and cover the stage much more efficiently than Battlefield's. This can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the characters. Worth noting is that it has walls that reach the bottom, meaning you can't go underneath it, unlike Battlefield.

Smashville

Probably my second favorite stage. If Pokemon Stadium 2 did not exist, Smashville would be the most neutral stage. It is similar to Yoshi's Island, except for a few key differences. There's no walls, meaning you can go underneath the stage. There are no slopes alongside the top of the stage, meaning it's a lot less jank than Yoshi's Island. The top middle platform is also there, but it's much shorter than Yoshi Island's. It's just Yoshi's Island, but not jank. Great stage. 

Lylat Cruise

This stage was infamous in Smash 4 for being very inconsistent when recovering. It used to be where you could get stuck underneath the stage when you're trying to recover, so you could just randomly die for no reason. Luckily, it was apparently tied to Lylat tilting, which the stage hazards turn off. So, Lylat as a stage is alright now. The slopes aren't offensive, and having sloped platforms is a breath of fresh air. This stage is actually pretty neutral, despite the abundance of platforms. Lylat's platforms are low enough that it's not overly egregious.

Town and City

This stage is pretty good. It alternates between from FD and an interesting reverse Battlefield layout. This makes it a decent starter and an excellent counterpick. Interestingly enough, in Smash 4, Town and City had the lowest top blastzone, but in Ultimate, it has the largest top blastzone, further sealing it's role as a great counterpick. You're able to go underneath it if necessary.

These are all the most common legal stages in Smash Ultimate. I personally really enjoy these stages, and these are only the common ones. If I get strapped for ideas, I might talk about some of the more controversial stages and my opinions on their legality. What a breath of fresh air to have so much more legal stages than in Smash 4.

2/18/19

Pokemon Trainer Revisited

I talked awhile ago about Pokemon Trainer and how I thought that they were quite possibly one of the best characters in the game. While I still agree with that statement, I don't agree with a lot of the assertions I made previously, now that I've had several months of experience with Trainer. I'm going to talk about all the Pokemon again, but this time it won't be first impressions, rather, three months in impressions.

Squirtle

I need to formally apologize. I said Squirtle was the worst out of the three, but after actually using them all, I can say very confidently that Squirtle is NOT the worst of the three. Squirtle is the second best of our trio, and most of my original assertions still hold true. The one thing I need to take back is how Squirtle's side special wins neutral. It doesn't. You can punish it out of shield with a quick aerial, but it's still an alright approach option if you mix up how you use it.

Ivysaur 

Still arguably the best of the three, though I do need to make some new assertions and address some flaws. For one, I did not give Ivysaur's forward air nearly enough credit. I stated it was the worst of his aerials, but now I feel it's one of the best. It's range and power are just way too good for such a simple move. Moving on, Ivysaur's neutral special sucks. I never mentioned it before, just because I don't think I ever used it. But I can safely say that this move is GARBAGE. Absolutely no damage, and no knockback, and super risky. Terrible move. Two moves I didn't give enough credit to were Ivysaur's down throw and up special. Ivysaur down throw can combo into several different moves, and also is a kill throw at 160%. That sounds like too high, but I've ended up using it a lot more often than I would've expected. Ivysaur up special is also something that I didn't expect to be so good. It can snap to ledge from ALMOST ANYWHERE beneath the stage. It's honestly impressive. It also has a ton of kill power, and can confirm from side special. However, when you combine both down throw and up special... Well... All hell breaks loose. Ivysaur down throw into up special can kill characters within the 60%-90% range, depending on the character's weight. It's absolutely stupid. He has a kill confirm off of grab, but with actual frame data, unlike Bowser and DK in 4. So, so, so stupid.

Charizard.

Worst character of the three. My initial assertion that he is just better Smash 4 Charizard is just wrong. He's worse Charizard than he was in 4. Flare Blitz doesn't snap to ledge anymore, meaning his recovery is much more linear. Charizard down throw doesn't combo anymore, and back throw is only 50/50 now. Charizard up throw kills later now, meaning that it's not nearly as consistent it is. Overall, just a much worse character. However, since Charizard can switch to Ivysaur and Squirtle whenever he needs to, all he has to be good at is killing consistently. But, uh, he even struggles a bit at that, with the nerf to all of his throws. Overall though, still an alright character.

So, yeah. Updated thoughts on Trainer. Still for sure a solid character, but maybe worse than I initially thought. Still having a ton of fun playing with her, for sure. Also, her win animations are the stupidest, dorkiest things ever. It is SO awesomely bad.

2/11/19

DLC Characters

Smash Ultimate is out, but that doesn't mean the end of the character hype train. Today I'm going to be talking about the most talked about DLC possibilities and my opinion on their likelihood/my wants. 

Joker is a Playstation exclusive character from Persona. You might say that that makes Joker impossible, but you're wrong. He's already confirmed. I just felt the need to mention the one character that has been confirmed for us. He's slated for an April release.

Banjo Kazooie is the one character that I have a ton of confidence in. I am 90% sure we are getting Banjo Kazooie. He is the most requested character for Smash, possibly ever, and XBox live is coming to Switch soon. These two facts combined make me almost positive that the classic bear and duck combo are getting in. However... I don't want Banjo in. Banjo is owned by Microsoft, and if there's a Microsoft rep I want, I would much rather it be...

Steve from Minecraft seems like a stupid, childish want. ...And you're right! But I'm a stupid, childish person who wants my low polygon blocky pal to get in. I feel he has a very decent chance to get in, but I think Banjo has a much better chance. One major argument against him is that his animations wouldn't work properly in Smash. My counter argument are the characters of R.O.B. and Game and Watch, also both blocky characters who you couldn't imagine a moveset for.  However, if Steve were not to get in, I would much rather Banjo than...

MASTER CHIEF FROM HALO IS A MISTAKE THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN IN MY PURE SMASH BROS

Moving right along, a character that people really want is Geno. The problem with this is that Geno is partially owned by Square Enix, and Square Enix is a stingy company. They haven't given Cloud English lines in Smash, and there are only TWO music tracks from Final Fantasy. I don't see Square Enix giving us a character that hasn't been in a game for over 20 years. It's much more likely they'll give us a rep from Dragon Quest.

Most likely Erdrick. I have no idea who he is, as I am not a Dragon Quest fan, but I hear its popularity is insane in Japan. I don't want him, just because I don't know him. Other than that, I have really no opinion.

Now moving on to who I personally want the most... Frisk from Undertale. Like I said, stupid, childish person. But I really want Frisk. I think if he used his friends attacks from Undertale, and was just a giant love letter to Undertale, it could work REALLY well. Sakurai (director of Smash Bros) has even played Undertale and said that he liked it. Combined with Undertale and Deltarune's GIANT success in Japan, I think that it is very tangible, but not likely. As long as it's not...

Sans from Undertale would be neat. But, I have one giant problem. Sans whole motif in Undertale is that he doesn't fight unless it's absolutely necessary. He won't kill you if you kill his own brother. The only time he fights you is when you go on a genocide against monsters, and he fights you to try and stop the eradication of his own kind. Sans just wouldn't work thematically in Smash. He's too lazy, and that's why I don't want him in Smash. But if we got him, I'd still be excited.

Those are the most common DLC characters I see discussed. Quick recap:

Top 3 Characters I want

Frisk

Steve

Sans

Top 3 Characters I don't want

Master Chief

Erdrick

Sans

Don't worry about it.

1/25/19

Echo Fighters

Echo Fighters in this game are weird. They are either extremely different, to the point where they should be considered their own character, or exactly the same with no discernible differences. Today I'm going to go over all the separate Echo Fighters and talk about their differences, and which one is better between the two.

First off, Samus and Dark Samus. These two are nearly identical, except for one key difference that gives Dark Samus the edge. She's shorter. This is extremely useful, as it allows her to hit some of her attacks that would normally miss smaller targets if you were playing as Samus. Other than that, these two are identical, so the clearly better character between the two is Dark Samus.

Next up, Peach and Daisy. There is only one difference between the two, and it's not that big of a deal. Daisy has slightly different animations, which means her hurtbox is harder to hit vertically, but easier to hit horizontally. However, it's a very small difference, and other than that, these two characters are identical. One is not better than the other here, they're both equal.

Marth and Lucina are actually very different characters, despite the one change being relatively simple. How it works is that Marth's sword has a tipper, where if he spaces the sword so just the tip hits his opponent, he does a ton of damage, while Lucina's damage is equally distributed throughout the sword. Because Smash Ultimate is a very aggressive game. I do think that Lucina is better, because it's harder to space attacks in a game where the opponent's always running at you. Also, Lucina forward smash is godlike.

Roy and Chrom have the same difference that the Marth and Lucina do. Roy has a hilt that does more damage, and a tipper that does less, while Chrom has even damage throughout the sword. However, Chrom also has a different up b, making him play extremely different offstage. Roy can go for gimps, while Chrom wants to camp onstage and play neutral phenomenally. However, like I said with Marth and Lucina, it's hard to space in a faster paced game, making Roy more effective, since it's much easier to just mash your face into an opponent than space the tipper of a sword. Also Roy's recovery isn't crap.

Pit and Dark Pit are basically the same characters, but they have more difference than the Princesses, which I guess is something. There are four major differences between the two, and by major, I mean barely anything. Their down tilts and forward tilts launch at different angles, Dark Pit's side b kills earlier but less consistently than Pit's, and Dark Pit's arrows are less controllable but do more knockback than Pit's. Boring, next.

Ryu and Ken are very complicated characters that I cannot explain properly. Essentially, they have Street Fighter like inputs that make you do regular moves with more power. However... Ryu and Ken have very few inputs AND moves in common. The only thing they have in common IS the input gimmick. So... yeah, these guys shouldn't be echo fighters, they're extremely different. For some reason. Why are Peach and Daisy no different while these two are so varied?

The last two of our echo trip are Richter and Simon. These two are ALSO the EXACT SAME. Only difference is that Richter's down special has a different effect than Simon's. Nothing else, besides Richter being hotter than Simon.

So yeah. Echoes are confusing. Sometimes they're identical, like with Richter and Simon, but other times they're barely comparable, like with Ryu and Ken. I honestly don't understand it.

1/18/19

Snake the Fun Machine

Snake is an absurdly fun character in this game. He has a multitude of projectiles that are really unique compared to other specials, and his entire game plan is to spam projectiles until he can kill you really early with a tilt. He is probably one of the best characters in the game.

If we're gonna talk Snake, the first thing I have to bring up are his amazing specials. Every single one of them weave seamlessly into each other, creating a beautiful tapestry of bombs. Snake's neutral b pulls a grenade that explodes after a timer OR when it takes enough damage.  This means that it can beat out other projectiles, since it'll get hit by them, THEN explode, so it still has a hitbox. You can use these to be really scary on ledge, especially when you combine it with the power of Carl. Carl's real name is C4, but he's Carl to me. Carl is a bomb placed wherever you were standing, and if you press it again, it explodes and kills stupid early. You can use Carl and the grenades to really limit your opponents options, especially if you mix them with up smash. His last explosive special is Snake's side b, the Nikita missile. This gives you a fully controllable missile, while you stay firmly planted on the ground. Naturally, this can leave you open, but if you use it while an opponent is trying to recover, you can really screw them up. All these projectiles lend to Snake being a monster, but his normals are the real reason Snake is such a threat.

Snake's normals. Holy crap. They're either fast, or they kill early. Most of the time both! Starting off, Snake's dash attack. Holy crap this thing is good. It has a decent amount of knockback, comes out very fast, and can be used to cross up opponents in shield. It's a really good approach tool for Snake considering he doesn't have that many. Another one of his good normals is his Up Smash. This is used alongside grenades and Carl in order to deal more pressure. He launches a giant missile up, which lands again, so it is great for ledge trapping and covering rolls. Onto his tilts. Oh boy. Snake up tilt kills at 100%, is ridiculously fast, has great horizontal range, and almost no end lag. That's a recipe for broken if I've ever seen one. Snake forward tilt is also amazing, because it's a two hit that deals a ton of knockback. These two tilts allow Snake to kill ridiculously early, while still being able to pressure from far away.

So, yeah. Snake is really good. I'm thinking about picking him up as a secondary to Trainer, he's just a ton of fun. Throw grenades, spam up smash, kill early. He is one of the most fun characters in the game, and if you put time and effort into being good with him, it will show.

12/17/18

Pokemon Trainer is Busted

In the build up to Smash Ultimate, Pokemon Trainer was one of the characters I was most looking forward to. Not only am I giant Pokemon nerd, their whole mechanic seemed really fun to me. If you press down special, you switch whatever Pokemon you're using. This gimmick ends up being a lot of fun to use in matches, because you end up using separate Pokemon to do separate jobs. It's all fun and innocent until you realize that the three of these characters are all amazing individually, and when you put them on a team together, you create an almost unstoppable force. Pokemon Trainer is broken, and I intend to explain why.

Squirtle is the most honest out of the three, but he's still extremely cheesy. Squirtle's entire kit is built around getting quick reliable damage. He has two separate combo throws, and a ton of fast moves that deal a small amount of damage, but also combo into each other. This may sound reasonable, but Squirtle has a few moves that do not fit in this archetype, and are absolutely broken. For one, Squirtle's down smash and forward smash have a ton of range and power, while also coming out fast. But what really breaks Squirtle is his side special. Squirtle's side special gives him super armor throughout the entire attack, and if he gets hit during it, he doesn't take ANY damage. It also flings Squirtle in the direction you inputted, effectively letting you win neutral with the push of a button. That, combined with Squirtles already decent kit, makes Squirtle way better than he needs to be. And he's also the worst of the three!

Ivysaur is the best out of the three for a multitude of reasons. For one, his side special is an amazing projectile. You can control the speed of it, and it comes out pretty fast without much endlag. That means it's possible to just camp opponents out using this move, and bait out bad approaches. Another thing that helps Ivysaur a ton are ALL of his amazing aerials. Up air is super disjointed, deals a ton of damage, and comes out ridiculously fast, meaning it's great for juggling and racking up kills. Ivysaur's side special can also confirm into up air. Ivysaur's down air is this HUGE disjointed hitbox beneath him that spikes. It can hit THROUGH most stages, allowing you to gimp people from the safety of the stage. Characters who have slow or linear recoveries get bopped by this move. Ivysaur neutral air is good as well, it's a multi hit attack with not much endlag. It's great for landing or shield poking. Ivysaur back air is this stupid giant disjointed attack that autocancels when you land. It combos into itself, and it is massive. Lastly, the worst of Ivy's aerials, but still a pretty good move, Ivysaur's forward aerial. It is giant, but kind of slow. It's useful in some situations, namely landing, but most of the time you'd rather be using back air. All of these amazing aerials combined with a projectile that lets you combo into it means that Ivysaur is a jank machine who tries his best to make you quit playing video games to the rest of life.

Charizard is basically the same as he was in Smash 4, but with new dashing mechanics. These dashing mechanics make Charizard a GIANT threat, because he can use his huge disjointed smash attacks out of a dash, meaning you constantly have to be on your toes. Charizard flare blitz is also great for rushing down your opponents with a strong attack, just as it was in Smash 4. All of Charizard's other good attributes in 4 are still there. Amazing jab, quick smash attacks, decent specials, stupid good aerials, but now with the added bonus of being able to switch to two other characters. 

All three of these characters would be decent on their own. But the fact that they can now switch between each other at will makes them amazing. Pokemon Trainer is a competitor for the best character in the game, and I am both terrified and excited to see how the Pokemon Trainer metagame will evolve.

12/10/18

IT'S HERE!

So I skipped school on Friday in order to have as much free time with the game as possible. And after playing it for basically the whole weekend, I can safely say it is AMAZING. The controls feel much more smoother and more fluent than in Smash 4, which makes it jarring at first, but when you get used to it, it becomes so much fun. They completely changed up how dashing works, letting you perform ANY attack out of a dash. It completely shakes up the gameplay, while still keeping it familiar. It feels amazing.

All of the new characters are also really fun. Each one of them has a unique gameplay style that isn't emulated anywhere else. Even most of the echoes have slight gameplay changes that make them vastly different from the charater they're based on. For example, despite Chrom being an echo of Roy, the simple change to have his whole sword have a sweet spot makes him play extremely differently. Chrom's up special is also much different from Roy's, letting him combo into suicide kills. Needless to say, this makes him a much different character than Roy, and a really nice addition despite technically not being that unique. I could go on and on about each individual character and how they bring a unique playstyle to the game, but I haven't played them enough to make an analysis on them.

Going onto a character I DO know, Luigi is not nearly as bad as I made him out to be. His recovery may have gotten nerfed, but his new combo game is insane. Instead of Luigi playing up in your face with grab, he just has to pressure you by being right outside your range, fishing for grabs. It's really effective at making your opponent panic and choose a bad option that you can then punish with a grab. And once you get that grab, oh boy. His combo game got BUFFED despite already being amazing. Luigi can easily combo you from 0 to 70 off of one grab, and it's possible to get 0 to deaths off of grab. If you mess this up; however, don't worry. Luigi can now combo down throw into down special at kill percent. That's right, Luigi can take you from 0 to 70 in one grab, then kill you with a kill confirm at 110. It is insane. All of his other throws got minor knockback buffs, but his down throw is the one shines the most. Luigi still probably isn't as good as he was in Smash 4, but he's not as garbage as I made him out to be. It's a relief.

One thing that was really underhyped until the game came out was how they handled rulesets. Before, in previous Smash games, you had to change the rules each time you turned the game off, meaning it was a bit tedious to set the rules each time you turned the console on. Now, they made it so you can make and save rulesets, so you have the exact settings you want when you go into a match. You can even name your rulesets whatever you want to help you distinguish them. The best part is that you can save multiple rulesets, so you can have as many as you want on a console. This helps a lot with tournament set ups, and just the general UI of the game. It is marvelous.

These are just a few of the things I noticed while playing Smash Ultimate. I really love all of the changes that have been made, and can't wait to start playing it again. I'm now trying to finish this blog as fast as I can so I can pull my Switch out of my backpack and play it again. This game is amazing, and I absolutely adore it.

Negative 3 days remaining! 

11/8/2018

The Fall of Luigi

I mained Luigi in Smash 4, and he was one of the most unique characters in the game. He was a grappler character, but with really bad traction. This led to an interesting playstyle, especially when paired with his projectiles, and his wonky down special. I ended up having a ton of fun practicing combos off of down throw, and trying to improve my mash so I could gain height with down special. But, unfortunately, in Ultimate he has gotten nerfed to the ground.

The worst thing about Luigi's nerf is that Luigi wasn't amazing in Smash 4. He was good, but he was only top 20 (out of 58). That's still pretty good, but nothing nerf worthy. Nevertheless, he has been shot down from his high throne with some very basic gameplay changes that make him so much worse. The first change, and the one that was most deserved, was that they made it so Luigi's down special doesn't drop opponents out of it anymore. That's a bit frustrating to me, but I understand why they did that. It was pretty stupid to get a kill at low percents just by gimping them out. I can understand this nerf.

BUT EVERYTHING ELSE THEY DID WAS TERRIBLE, AND HAD NO REASON TO GET NERFED

Luigi's down special may be dumb for dropping opponents out, but it was still a useful recovery tool. If your mash was good enough, you could go a decent amount of distance to the side and up. While this was tricky, it was doable for anyone with a lot of practice. But not only did they make it impossible for opponents to drop out of it, they made it where you can't mash anymore. Why? There is no reason to do that. Now if you down b off stage, you're just screwed. Luigi can now only use side special and up special to recover, two very lackluster recovery moves compared to down special. This makes him struggle offstage way more than he needs to, and when you factor in the new air dodging mechanics, it means that Luigi is screwed off stage, when in Smash 4 it was where he excelled.

They still weren't done with Luigi, though. After removing his recovery and his strongest off stage tool, they then went for his grab. They turned in into a tether grab, meaning it has longer range, but more endlag. This sounds alright, but for Luigi, it really isn't. Luigi played by getting up in his opponents face, throwing out grabs whenever he could safely, until eventually he got them in his mitts. He'd then be able to get a ton of percent off of down throw, and put them in disadvantage while they try to land. With a tether grab, Luigi can't play nearly as offensive. Now, he's more of a zoning character, but Luigi doesn't have the tools to do that effectively. He has neutral special and zair now, and nothing else. Luigi's zair is pretty dumb as well, as it's the only zair to have landing lag. And the worst part, is that it DOESN'T SNAP TO LEDGE. If it did, it would fix Luigi's recovery problem, but for some reason they didn't give him even that small benefit.

Luigi isn't going to suck in Ultimate. But he's not going to be as good as he was in 4, either. He's gonna end up being a low mid tier character, with hardly any representation. It hurt to see my guy done like this, but there's not much I can do to change this. These changes weren't thought through and clearly rash.

28 days left til Ultimate.

11/05/18

Everything is Revealed!

There was a Nintendo Direct on November 1st, and there was a lot that was revealed. We now know the final roster, and they released a playable version of the final game that's only available at certain locations in Spain. But, we're getting a lot of footage of characters that weren't in the demo, which is a huge plus. However, I doubt you guys are here to listen to me rattle off individual character changes, so I'll just start summarizing the meaty parts of the direct.

Characters

The final two characters revealed were Incineroar from Pokemon, and Ken from Incineroar. This means that the Grinch Leak was fake, and Box Theory was right. That makes this a little bittersweet for me, but Incineroar and Ken do look pretty fun. This also means that the leak I covered on 10/22/18 was real, as Ken's portrait in that picture is the exact same as the one revealed. I am a little disappointed about there only being two reveals left, but Sakurai did open the way for DLC.

DLC

Sakurai gave us a lot of information about DLC, and gave us confirmation that we'd have five DLC characters by 2020. The DLC characters come in a pack, where if you buy one character, you get a stage and at least one music track. He even added a pre-order bonus, where if you buy the game before January 31st, you get a new playable fighter. That fighter being Piranha Plant. I find it absolutely hilarious that Piranha Plant got in, and that Sakurai made a decent moveset for him as well. It's funny to me, just imagining all the characters that could've been in Smash, only to have Piranha Plant be the last character reveal for the game before it comes out. 

Spirits Mode

Spirits Mode turns out to just be a weaker Subspace. You are given what is essentially a stage select, and told to go save all your friends who have been captured. You start out as Kirby, but you're able to play whoever you want once you unlock them. You then enter each "stage," which is is just a regular Smash battle, but with some weird gimmick, like if the opponent gets to 50%, they turn metal. Basic stuff. However, with the reveal of Spirits, they gave us an opening cutscene, where the animation looks amazing, even if the dubbing could be better. To go with this cutscene, they gave us an amazing rendition of Smash Ultimate's main theme that's lyricized. It really does sound great, I recommend listening to it with the pop up below. 

Finale

With that, almost everything about Smash Ultimate has been revealed. I am really excited for Ultimate, and this blog isn't stopping anytime soon. The next few posts are likely going to talk about character changes, since there are a lot of notable ones. The hype train has started, and we're not getting off the ride for awhile. 31 days til Ultimate!

10/25/18

Before I get into this leak, I just want put a quick warning. This leak is looking very credible, and leaks the entire Smash Ultimate roster. If you don't want to be spoiled, TURN AWAY NOW.

Holy hell, last night was eventful. A picture of the entire roster got leaked, and surpisingly, it isn't a screenshot of the game itself. They didn't screencap the entire roster, no, the story behind this is much more interesting. So, let me tell you a story about how the Grinch stole Smash Ultimate's Roster.

Eric Bricard, a poor soul in this story

Was working at factory, his home territory.

Poor Bricard was printing out posters

For a new Smash game, coming ever so closer.

Suddenly, his phone did ring, a friend on the line

With a question that was seemingly harmless at the time.

"Can I see the new roster?"

"This level of suspense I'm unable to foster."

Bricard agreed to his request, though he had a plan. 

He would send the screenshots over Snapchat, to hide this leak from Japan.

Little did he know that his friend was cunning.

He screenshotted the post, and uploaded it for all, the effect quite stunning.

People battled out it's validity, until someone said "Hey, the Grinch!"

For the leak has unseen renders of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"

These renders were from Illumination Studios

Who also used the same factory as poor Nintendo.

With these renders, the leak was confirmed as true

And people were upset, and started to boo.

For despite the final roster having Isaac and Banjo

And Mach Rider and Chorus Kids and Geno

And Ken and Shadow

People were still upset, begging for more.

"Where's my Bandana Waddle Dee?" the people said with a roar.

However, I am content with this cast

And am looking forward to 42 days past.

10/22/18

A leak has been floating around for awhile that I wanted to address. I actually think that this leak is likely true, for one very specific reason. Over to the right, you can see an image of Ken alongside a few other already confirmed characters. Now, besides the fact that the model looks really good, the main detail that really catches my eye is how Ken's foot is clipping through the stage. This is important, because if you take Ryu to this spot (who Ken is based off of), his foot clips in the exact same way in the exact same spot. Either the person making this had an eye for detail, or it's a real screenshot. Either way, I'm still looking forward to Ultimate.

44 days remain.

10/10/18

10/09/18

Top 3 Most Wanted Characters for Ultimate

3. Literally any Indie Character

I'm desperate for any type of indie representation in Smash. We've gotten a lot of third parties, but I think it would be amazing if we could get a rep from a smaller developer. There are a lot of popular indie games that are likely, but Shovel Knight got revealed as an assist trophy in the last direct, who was our biggest chance. Our next best bet is Steve from Minecraft. I'd take anything at all that's indie, though.

2. Geno

I don't have much history with Geno or the game he's from, but I just really think he's an interesting character design that could be used really creatively in his moveset. A puppet that has a cannon for an arm, and can pull off his limbs has a lot moveset potential. You could have him take his arm off, then chuck it at the opponent as a projectile, or maybe use his gun to shoot his body parts at the other characters. I think he'd fit in with the rest of Smash really well.

1. Bandana Dee

If I'm honest with myself, the main reason I want Bandana Dee in is because he's adorable. Just look at the little guy. But I do think he'd be a really interesting character in Smash. He'd be a lightweight with disjointed attacks, and possibly multiple jumps. It would be a really interesting combination to see, since most of our disjoints come from Fire Emblem. Bandana Dee is my most wanted character, simply because his playstyle would be so much different from everyone else in Smash. And, y'know, cuz he's adorable.

58 days left til Ultimate.

10/03/18

To kick this blog off, I'm going to start with a relatively popular theory floating around that I absolutely despise. This theory is called "Box Theory" and the idea is this. Nintendo recently announced a bundle for the game, with very fancy box art. When you look at the box you'll notice how there are characters on each side. We currently have 68 playable characters in the game, all of them organized numerically by Nintendo. This carries over to the box, where they're also ordered numerically. They organized it somewhat like this:

Characters 1-9 on the left (obscured) side

Characters 10-18 on the right (visible) side

This pattern keeps going until you've used all the characters. However, there's a problem with this. The pattern gets thrown off on the obscured side, when Corrin is displayed on the visible side. According to Box Theory, this means that Palutena, Pac-Man, Robin, Shulk, Bowser Jr., Duck Hunt, Ryu or Cloud has an echo fighter. (For those who don't know, an echo fighter is a very similar fighter to a different character, so they take up the same number. Only difference is that the echo fighter has an epsilon symbol next to it's name, and slight gameplay differences.) The most popular idea is that Ryu from Street Fighter gets Ken as an echo fighter, since Ken is a popular and realistic choice. This also means that we only get one more original fighter, since there's two spaces left on the box, and the most recent revealed character Isabelle isn't on the box, leaving only one open space.

However, I'm not here to tell you why Box Theory is right. I'm here to give my thoughts on why I dislike Box Theory. I can't disprove it, but I do think it's a bit of a stretch. In fact, my main gripe with it is simply its concept. We're two months from the game's release, and having only two characters left to reveal, one being an echo, isn't appealing to me. It kills off the fun in speculation. Also doesn't help that in the last Smash Direct, we got five new characters. It's exteremely likely we're going to get another Smash Direct sometime soon, but only having two characters to reveal for it is both underwhelming and inconsistent. You could've easily taken Samus and Chrom, who were both revealed in the last Smash Direct, and put them in the next one to even out the amount of characters revealed per direct. The fact that we got five characters in the last direct just seems like we're going to get more than two new characters.

The biggest argument against Box Theory is that there could be space on the other side that we don't see. If that's true, there'd be another 8 characters on the other side that we can't see, alongside an Echo Fighter of one of the characters I just mentioned before. But, that argument doesn't shut down the theory, it just offers another perspective. 

Another big argument is that since it's just box art, the design might not be final. It could change, or we could even be being tricked by the game designers. This is the reasoning I like the most, since it wouldn't be hard for them to change the box art to fit more characters as more get released. However, this still doesn't shut down Box Theory, it's once again just an alternative option.

My opinion on Box Theory is that it's strange that there's an extra character on the other side. I wonder if it's possible it's just a mistake, or maybe even a bait. I'd say the chances of it being real is a 50/50, it's possible it means something, yet it's also possible it means nothing. I don't dislike the theory because of its reasoning, I dislike the theory because of the idea itself. Two characters left seems too little. Maybe I'm being greedy and unfair. But those last two characters better be worth it.

Oh well. We'll find out eventually. 64 days left until Ultimate.

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