Ryan_RF
05-11-2006, 01:32 AM
The curious fellow that I am, I did a little research on the release of SSBM for the GameCube in hopes that I could get some insight as to what information will be released and when.
Heres the timeline:
- May 17 2001 - E3, nintendo announces SSBM and has a playable demo. The demo showcases 10 characters:
# Yoshi
# Donkey Kong
# Pikachu
# Ness
# Mario
# Samus
# Link
# Bowser
# Fox
# Captain Falcon
A few things to note from this list: first off, only one of these characters, bowser, is new to the smash series. Second, the ten characters revealed are from the group of 14 characters initially unlocked when you first turn on the game.
- May 24 2001 - Nintendo releases video revealing three more characters:
# Peach
# Zelda/Sheik
# Ice Climbers
Once again, note that these three characers are fom the group of initially selectable characters
- June 4 2001 - Nintendo releases screenshots of the previously mentioned characters with the addition of:
# Kirby
Less than a month after E3, nintendo has revealed all 14 initially selectable characters
- Sept 7 2001 - Nintendo announces that 'over 20' characters will be included in the final version of the game
- Sept 24 2001 - Nintendo confirms rumors about:
# Ganondorf
Nintendo's first confirmed 'secret' character
- Nov 21 2001 - SSBM launches in Japan
- Nov 27 2001 - IGN article reports on all of the 11 (including ganondorf) 'secret' characters previously not mentioned by nintendo
So, this is how things played out for the last Smash game from E3 announcement to release in Japan. If the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl goes anything like the release of SSBM, there are a few reasonable predictions to be made:
- In the few months following E3, Nintendo will reveal a number of characters usually via release screenshots.
- It is likely that all of these characters will be playable when you first turn on the game and wont have to be unlocked
- This initial list will mostly contain old characters with a few new ones. For SSBM, the initial list included 10 old characters and 4 new ones
- After this, there will likely be a long period of silence in terms of revealing characters. I expect that Nintendo will not reveal any 'secret' characters before the game is released.
- The list of secret characters will contain the rest of the old characters not included in the initial list, and a bunch of new ones. For SSBM, the 'secret' charaters included the last 2 SSB64 characters (luigi and jiggs) and 9 entirely new characters.
- At this years E3, according to IGN data this minute, nintendo revealed via screenshots 5 new characters and 5 old characters:
# Pit (Kid Icarus)
# Solid Snake
# Zero Suit Samus
# Metaknight
# Wario
# Link
# Pikachu
# Mario
# Kirby
# Samus
- It is very likely that all of these charaters will be initially unlocked characters
- It is likely that nintendo will not reveal any more original characters before the game launch, however they will probably reveal more returning characters
- Just because specific SSBM characters aren't revealed before launch doesn't mean they wont be in the final game. They will likely be unlockable characters
- I predict we will discover many original characters at the game's release. For SSBM, 9 out of the 13 total original characters weren't revealed until launch.
Well, that about all I could reason. All of my timeline info I got from IGN news artices on SSBM. Also, just a disclamer, my predictions are just that, educated guesses. So dont throw a fit if it turns out I'm completely wrong about certain things.
Heres the timeline:
- May 17 2001 - E3, nintendo announces SSBM and has a playable demo. The demo showcases 10 characters:
# Yoshi
# Donkey Kong
# Pikachu
# Ness
# Mario
# Samus
# Link
# Bowser
# Fox
# Captain Falcon
A few things to note from this list: first off, only one of these characters, bowser, is new to the smash series. Second, the ten characters revealed are from the group of 14 characters initially unlocked when you first turn on the game.
- May 24 2001 - Nintendo releases video revealing three more characters:
# Peach
# Zelda/Sheik
# Ice Climbers
Once again, note that these three characers are fom the group of initially selectable characters
- June 4 2001 - Nintendo releases screenshots of the previously mentioned characters with the addition of:
# Kirby
Less than a month after E3, nintendo has revealed all 14 initially selectable characters
- Sept 7 2001 - Nintendo announces that 'over 20' characters will be included in the final version of the game
- Sept 24 2001 - Nintendo confirms rumors about:
# Ganondorf
Nintendo's first confirmed 'secret' character
- Nov 21 2001 - SSBM launches in Japan
- Nov 27 2001 - IGN article reports on all of the 11 (including ganondorf) 'secret' characters previously not mentioned by nintendo
So, this is how things played out for the last Smash game from E3 announcement to release in Japan. If the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl goes anything like the release of SSBM, there are a few reasonable predictions to be made:
- In the few months following E3, Nintendo will reveal a number of characters usually via release screenshots.
- It is likely that all of these characters will be playable when you first turn on the game and wont have to be unlocked
- This initial list will mostly contain old characters with a few new ones. For SSBM, the initial list included 10 old characters and 4 new ones
- After this, there will likely be a long period of silence in terms of revealing characters. I expect that Nintendo will not reveal any 'secret' characters before the game is released.
- The list of secret characters will contain the rest of the old characters not included in the initial list, and a bunch of new ones. For SSBM, the 'secret' charaters included the last 2 SSB64 characters (luigi and jiggs) and 9 entirely new characters.
- At this years E3, according to IGN data this minute, nintendo revealed via screenshots 5 new characters and 5 old characters:
# Pit (Kid Icarus)
# Solid Snake
# Zero Suit Samus
# Metaknight
# Wario
# Link
# Pikachu
# Mario
# Kirby
# Samus
- It is very likely that all of these charaters will be initially unlocked characters
- It is likely that nintendo will not reveal any more original characters before the game launch, however they will probably reveal more returning characters
- Just because specific SSBM characters aren't revealed before launch doesn't mean they wont be in the final game. They will likely be unlockable characters
- I predict we will discover many original characters at the game's release. For SSBM, 9 out of the 13 total original characters weren't revealed until launch.
Well, that about all I could reason. All of my timeline info I got from IGN news artices on SSBM. Also, just a disclamer, my predictions are just that, educated guesses. So dont throw a fit if it turns out I'm completely wrong about certain things.