{"id":7801,"date":"2018-11-03T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/?p=7801"},"modified":"2018-11-05T14:58:56","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T19:58:56","slug":"smash-direct-november-118","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/?p=7801","title":{"rendered":"Smash Direct – November 1\/18"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another <\/span>Super Smash Bros Ultimate<\/b> Direct! It\u2019s the final one before the game releases, and showed off a ton of features that will be in the game. As usual, I have some thoughts!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Characters<\/b> – Three new characters were revealed, two of them being the final fighters included in the base game, and the last being the first of the game\u2019s DLC. I\u2019m just happy that that stupid leak from a week ago was disproven. It was silly and I\u2019m shocked that so many people were fully willing to believe it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ken: Another rep from Street Fighter, Ken is an echo of Ryu. Obviously. I mean, that\u2019s his whole <\/span>thing<\/span><\/i>. But he\u2019s faster than Ryu and his moves have more fire to them, so I may actually give Ken a sporting chance. I was so happy that Ryu was included in Smash, but I simply never found him that fun to play as.<\/span><\/p>\n

Incineroar: The new Pok\u00e9mon for this Smash entry, Incineroar is the awesome final evolution of the oh-so boring Litten. Since his gimmick is that he\u2019s a wrestler, his throws are more powerful than average, and he does little poses after every successful attack. Neat! I like heavy characters, and I think that Incineroar could absolutely get added to my go-to lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n

Piranha Plant: Where do I even start? Every new Smash needs a \u201cWTF?\u201d character, and Piranha Plant fits that bill spectacularly. Plus, it looks like a ton of fun to play; the kind of character with a wide variety of moves and is probably best for trolling opponents. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not quite finished, so it\u2019ll be available as DLC \u201ca few months\u201d after the game\u2019s release. On the plus side, anyone who registers their game before the end of January 2019 will get it for FREE! I love free!<\/span><\/p>\n

Spirits<\/b> – Trophies are gone! Sakurai thinks they don\u2019t quite fit Smash anymore, and also they\u2019re a huge pain to make, apparently. So instead, they\u2019re adding in a new suite of collectable character thingies called \u201cSpirits.\u201d They\u2019re basically trophies, but made of existing 2D art instead of new 3D models. And also you can bind them to the fighters as power-ups? It seems like an incredibly convoluted system that I\u2019ll largely ignore, to be honest. I\u2019ll likely just treat them as trophies and try to collect them all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spirits also provide a sort of remixed version of previous games\u2019 Event Matches, wherein there are a number of unique pre-set scenario-type battles. Now, rather than being a hodge-podge of random scenarios, each one is tied to a specific character and winning the match will award you that character\u2019s Spirit. It seems like you can tackle them in any way you want, but some make use of other Spirits to power up, so you\u2019ll need to bind Spirits of your own to level the playing field. Regardless of the increased complexity, it\u2019s basically still just the same old Event Matches, which I always found to be a very fun little distraction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Online<\/b> – So, apparently you can play Smash though this worldwide connection thingie called the internet? Yeah, I dunno about this\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Realtalk: Smash has had a spotty history of online play. Hopefully it\u2019s ironed out this time around. I might actually use it if there isn\u2019t an ungodly amount of lag!<\/span><\/p>\n

Assist Trophies<\/b> – You know, you pick up that little trophy case and then a guy pops out to help you? A bunch more were revealed in this presentation, and apparently there are now more assist trophy characters than pok\u00e9ball Pok\u00e9mon. I\u2019ve never counted, but I\u2019m mildly surprised that there have historically been fewer assist characters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Notably, this was the ultimate troll by Nintendo. Past assist characters like Zelda\u2019s Skull Kid, Isaac from the Golden Sun series, and Shadow the Hedgehog have been suspiciously missing from Smash UItimate\u2019s marketing up until this point, leading fans to believe that they would be upgraded into full fighters this time around. They were all revealed to be back as assists during this segment, crushing dreams left and right. I love it!<\/span><\/p>\n

My one disappointment is that Spring Man from ARMS has been relegated to assist trophy, rather than a full fighter. ARMS was a valiant effort by Nintendo to get a new IP out there, and to move a little bit more into the competitive gaming scene. Alas, \u2018twas not meant to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also there\u2019s a Dr. Wily assist this time around, and it\u2019s based on the Wily Capsule from Mega Man 7. This is notable because that\u2019s widely considered to be the absolute hardest\/most frustrating Wily Capsule of them all. Hah. Magnificent trolling, Mr. Sakurai.<\/span><\/p>\n

World of Light<\/b> – This is the new Adventure Mode, which is looking to be a semi-sequel to Brawl\u2019s Subspace Emissary, maybe? The opening cutscene was showed, which has all the fighters facing off against a sky full of Master Hands, which turn into beams of light that vaporize everyone but Kirby. Also there\u2019s some sort of strange, winged thing that presumably controls all the Master Hands. I would wager that it\u2019s either Tabuu or Master Core (or a fusion of the two), but we won\u2019t know for sure until the game is out! Anyway, all the Smash fighters are used to create zombie versions of them, which are infused with the power of other character\u2019s Spirits. Then it\u2019s up to Kirby to go on an adventure to save the rest of Nintendo!<\/span><\/p>\n

Important note: This is essentially confirmation that Kirby is the Best Nintendo Character. I\u2019ve known this as true for basically all my life, but it\u2019s nice to have it officially recognized.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as gameplay goes, it seems to be the same as Spirits mode, but organized onto a fairly large map. There are also bosses thrown in there, like Dracula and Rathalos, which I\u2019d like to note still makes no sense because there is no other Monster Hunter representation. As far as we know, all the sub-par platforming from Subspace Emissary has been excised and all that remains are fun event matches and bosses. Possibly more cutscenes, but I have no strong opinion on those either way. It looks real good!<\/span><\/p>\n

DLC<\/b> – Excluding Piranha Plant, there are five planned DLC expansions for Smash Ultimate. Each pack will contain a unique new fighter (no echoes), a new stage, and a bunch of new music. This is basically on par with the DLC that Smash 4 got, only spaced out a little more, since DLC characters usually came in sets for that game. Also, no purchasable Mii Costumes for Ultimate so far. The season pass is $25 USD (or $5 for each pack), which is going to be like $30 CAD, which I\u2019m fairly sure is cheaper than the Smash 4 DLC was. This is a very rare situation where I\u2019ll actually be purchasing a season pass, even though none of the DLC characters have been revealed yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I am perfectly content with this setup, I do wonder why they\u2019re not adding any new echo fighters. They seem like significantly less work than building a new fighter from the ground up, but what do I know about game development?<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, that\u2019s it! That\u2019s all the things I needed to say. You can watch the video below!<\/span><\/p>\n