Super Smash Bros. (Spoiler: Snake Kills Ganondorf)

[tegan]

Seems like they're taking online more seriously this time. But still one step too short. Why no in-depth ranking system in such a highly competitive franchise? Seems weird. Doesn't bother me much because I'm garbage at Smash but I know some people who'd fucking love it. Then again: Nintendo. All I really care about is that it's competently done. Brawl's online was a horrific mess.

 

I actually really like the idea for the ranking system. Emphasizing "you're better than all these people" instead of "all these people are better than you" is one of those ideas like World of Warcraft's half xp/double xp thing where changing the way that something is phrased makes you feel a lot better about it.

[SecretAsianMan]

Also weird that they're doing Male Wii Fit Trainer, but not Female Villager. Maybe they'll have that in the end.

 

I imagine it'll be one of the costume options for the villager.  I was hoping that X would be a costume choice for Megaman, but it looks like he's only in the final smash maybe.

 

Also Zero Suit Samus has jet boots now, but they're still ridiculous high heels.

 

[Twig]

I actually really like the idea for the ranking system. Emphasizing "you're better than all these people" instead of "all these people are better than you" is one of those ideas like World of Warcraft's half xp/double xp thing where changing the way that something is phrased makes you feel a lot better about it.

That's not what I mean at all. I'm talking about exposing lots of information to the player... Tell me everything about how I play. How do I stack against specific characters? Is my winrate against a Diddy Kong lower than my winrate against a Link? Maybe I'm the best Pikachu in North America! But I'll never know, because there's nothing for it. Just a vague number that says I'm better than five people. At what? Winning? Okay, how exciting.

 

Also, this ranking system they have is just as bad, maybe even worse. People near the bottom of a traditional ranking board don't necessarily have any idea how many people they're better than. But people at the bottom of the board in this one know for a fact they're only better than ten other people who play online. That's shitty! People at the top have no idea that they're at the top. They just know that they're better than a bunch of people. That's also shitty! There's no reason to hide First Place Status from the person who's in first place. Leaderboards do a good job of fostering competitiveness, especially amongst the top players. But I'm under the impression there won't even be leaderboards in this game. Otherwise, why obfuscate player rankings like they're doing.

[Ucantalas]

That's not what I mean at all. I'm talking about exposing lots of information to the player... Tell me everything about how I play. How do I stack against specific characters? Is my winrate against a Diddy Kong lower than my winrate against a Link? Maybe I'm the best Pikachu in North America! But I'll never know, because there's nothing for it. Just a vague number that says I'm better than five people. At what? Winning? Okay, how exciting.

 

Also, this ranking system they have is just as bad, maybe even worse. People near the bottom of a traditional ranking board don't necessarily have any idea how many people they're better than. But people at the bottom of the board in this one know for a fact they're only better than ten other people who play online. That's shitty! People at the top have no idea that they're at the top. They just know that they're better than a bunch of people. That's also shitty! There's no reason to hide First Place Status from the person who's in first place.

I love details on how I play. Stats out the butt. I feel like not having this kind of information is a disservice to everyone. I would love in depth stats about how I die most often (Final Smashes? Items? Do I lose by leaving from the top, bottom, left or right? What is my average damage % at when I die?) I want to know which characters I lose to, which I defeat more easily, average non-timed match length. Do I die more on certain maps?

I don't care too much about my ranking against everyone else, but I want as much information about the way I play that I can get. I want tons and tons of information. And I feel like, if they really wanted to make the games competitive, that kind of information would be useful for everyone, including developers. Its one thing to hear fans say a character is overpowered, and another to see that the average player loses to that character 75% more often than against other characters, for example.

[Twig]

I am also a stats nerd. I loved all of TF2's stats, and always wished they'd expand it. They sort of did, through Strange Weapons, but I don't like that. Same for Dota. ):

 

Thing is, Nintendo clearly doesn't care about making Smash a competitive game. That's not their thing. They threw competitive players a bone with "For Glory", but I bet even that was stretching it for them.

[tegan]

I imagine it'll be one of the costume options for the villager.  I was hoping that X would be a costume choice for Megaman, but it looks like he's only in the final smash maybe.

 

Also Zero Suit Samus has jet boots now, but they're still ridiculous high heels.

 

 

This was really disheartening to me.

 

 

Also, best thing: Greninja has some kind of block or dodge move that uses the Substitute from Pokémon:

 

[tegan]

 

 

 

 

 

Whyyyyyyyy did it take this long to announce this?

[N1njaSquirrel]

This was really disheartening to me.

 

Agreed. Somewhere in my brainspace there was a notion that Samus was the strongest female video game character, and totally bucks the trend of over-sexualised anime-proportioned women in video games.

 

I was saddened by the zero-suit samus in Brawl.

 

Now she has high-heels. ugh. why. 

 

I wonder if Bayonetta would make an appearance? To me they look like they have the same body shape. It would just require a new character model.

[undermind9]

Whyyyyyyyy did it take this long to announce this?

 

perhaps they had no intention of the girl villager.  and this is a safeguard to any fall out about having the female equivalent of the character - especially after the Tomodachi Life same-sex marriage commentary last week

[N1njaSquirrel]

perhaps they had no intention of the girl villager.  and this is a safeguard to any fall out about having the female equivalent of the character - especially after the Tomodachi Life same-sex marriage commentary last week

 

I'm guessing that they have had it implemented before that debacle though. It's not something that could be implemented so quickly.

 

It probably influenced them to release that snippit, if at all. I don't know why they couldn't have just let you find that out for yourself.

[SecretAsianMan]

I always assumed that the girl villager was in there as an alternate costume for the villager in the same way the male Wii Fit Trainer is.  I don't think they saw a need to explicitly state it, or more accurately I don't think it ever crossed their minds that they had to say it.

[Twig]

I agree with SAM. The only mistake Nintendo made was not using the female skin as the default for an easy "check it out, another female character!" headline or whatever. I think everyone just assumed it'd be an alternate skin, so... hurray we were right!

[tegan]

So on top of Miis and Palutena being confirmed today, we got an actually pretty cool Smash tourney at E3 hosted by Geoff Keighley in a rare instance of him actually looking excited to be at a gaming event, plus a Smash roundtable going on right now where Pac-Man and Mr. Game & Watch were both confirmed.

[Twig]

PAC-MAN

 

no kidding

 

That's rad. I was worried it'd be some no-name Namco fighting game dude but Pac-Man, yes, please. It can only be hilarious.

 

And, also good to hear G&W isn't going anywhere. He's one of my favorites.

[tegan]

 

 

So the real question on my mind is: why wasn't this the "one more thing" at the end of Nintendo's presentation? Pac-Man is a much bigger reveal than Palutena.

[BobbyBesar]

Woo, Mappy shoutout!

 

So the real question on my mind is: why wasn't this the "one more thing" at the end of Nintendo's presentation? Pac-Man is a much bigger reveal than Palutena.

 

I think that most mysteries about Smash Bros. come down to Sakurai's whims. He likes Kid Icarus a lot, and Nintendo seems to mostly just let him do what he wants.

[RubixsQube]

So on top of Miis and Palutena being confirmed today, we got an actually pretty cool Smash tourney at E3 hosted by Geoff Keighley in a rare instance of him actually looking excited to be at a gaming event, plus a Smash roundtable going on right now where Pac-Man and Mr. Game & Watch were both confirmed.

 

The tournament was great! And also real awkward! It was great in that it seemed to cap off a really fun day for Nintendo, with a lot of excited fans, and they were able to show off their new game with a set of pretty thrilling matches. The field of competitors was diverse, and while I don't agree with the set-up (it seemed as if the smash balls were playing too large of a role in the matches), I'm glad to see Nintendo acknowledging and embracing the smash brothers community. It was awkward because that same community is still that same community. Oh, high functioning smash brothers nerds, keep on truckin'. Also, it's so weird to see Geoff Keighley and not think about him on top of Doritos Mountain (Dew).

[tegan]

 

 

Oh for fuck's sake, I can't believe it took me almost an entire day to get that joke.

[Larsen B]

If it makes you feel any better, it took me almost an entire day and 5 minutes.

[shammack]

I still don't get it.

[tegan]

I still don't get it.

Would.

 

 

 

 

By the way, how hilarious is it that we're getting this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

...but only after we got this:

 

[Twig]

What are those 2D pixel levels in that trailer?

Also Pac-Man looks super fun. PERFECT.

[BobbyBesar]

I do like that when they showed the 3D pac-man model I immediately thought "Boo, I hope 2D pacman is an alternate skin or something", and then 30 seconds later they show that one of his dashes or moves or something transforms him in to 2D mode.

 

Although now I want Pacman CE neon mode to be one of the alt-skins, so i guess they can't win with me.

[Twig]

Also now we're up to 29 characters.

 

Also still no Captain Falcon, Ice Climbers, Ganondorf, Jigglypuff, Ness, Wario, or Game & Watch. Those are all the ones I was sure would come back. Who knows. And maybe Meta Knight, but who knows. WHO KNOWS.

So now we've got Mii Fighters, Palutena, Pac-Man and Mr. Game & Watch.

 

Although I just noticed they didn't add G&W to the website? That's weird. Is he not actually confirmed as a fighter? That'd super suck guys! Super! He also wasn't given the "Mr. Game & Watch [silly phrase]!" treatment, as all other challengers have been.

 

So, we're now at 32(+1?), which puts us just three short of Brawl's count. That's 5(-1?) short of Brawl's count. Unless Sakurai's changed his stance, there won't be as many characters in this game as Brawl. There are 7(-1?) characters left that plenty of people would probably expect, but having them all would put us OVER the count. Now I'm worried some of those I mention in that quote wont' make it. I love all those so much. ): I'm more and more convinced G&W might not be coming back. EDIT: Whoever edited the Wikipedia article agrees with me that there is a distressing lack of evidence supporting G&W's return. D: D: D:

 

Also I still have no idea what those pixel levels are in the Pac-Man trailer!

 

(EDIT: Well, I guess Brawl had two extra characters in the form of transformations, for a total of 39, but that still doesn't leave much room.)

[Griddlelol]

I'm so sad the Pokemon trainer is being replaced by Charizard. That was the best (read I love Pokemon even though the character sucked in game) character they've come up with. It was just balanced really badly.

Excited to see Chrom from FE:A is in there. Makes me wanna try that game on hard - which is literally impossible.