LAA9000

One of the new stock icons has been uploaded.

To be fair, Mythra's official stock icon doesn't seem to have been revealed, and likely won't until their official release.

I've been on here for a year now.

I don't have that much to say, other than it's been good being on here. Thank you all for being friendly.

Everyone place your bets on how long it'll be until Pyra and Mythra's stock icons are uploaded to this site.

Now that I can think more collectively, here are some more thoughts and things I missed about that Direct:

Now that was a grand return for Nintendo Directs.
I filled 4 squares on my bingo card, none making any sort of 5 square long line.

Edit: Replaced a censored swear word as it made a large part of the text bold.

Edit 2: Added a missing inverted comma.

IT HAPPENED

IT FINALLY HAPPENED

I never thought I'd see this day come. At least I thought they'd wait until E3 for the grand return. But no. It happened. And it's glorious.

I have this weird thing kind of similar to dreams, where when I'm tired I can somewhat influence my thoughts and convince myself of things I have not seen anything about and are not true. It's weird.

Case in point, last night I could hardly sleep because I'd managed to convince myself that Nintendo had shadowdropped the next Smash Ultimate DLC fighter announcement, and it was the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Villager.

seriously though they're now one of my least wanted characters please don't add them in Nintendo

I never thought it'd happen in my life... but they did it...

The new Grubhub ad managed to be even worse than the old one.

Whenever we get an influx of Korean spam bots, I always get tempted to reply to them and see if they respond.

I want to get political.

Through these first weeks of 2021, I've come to realise that you can search up a video game's (or character's) main theme on YouTube and there will be a whole bunch of comments saying 'anyone else want this character in Smash', 'inb4 this character is in Smash' and the like. It impresses me how Smash can bring various game communities together, and I really wish the larger Smash fandom was equally as positive towards them.

I've seen at least 10 CallMeCarson 'but if you close your eyes' memes in my YouTube recommended over the past two days, despite the fact that I haven't watched a single video about his situation. Safe to say, I'm beginning to really dislike modern Internet culture.

Unlocked and tried out today. Here are some random observations and opinions I made of him and his Challenger Pack:

• The character himself was a very unexpected out-of-left-field pick that really caught me and many others off guard, even when we've taught ourselves to expect anything. I commend Nintendo and Sakurai's team for still finding ways to surprise us after all these years.
• Sephiroth Challenge was so easy it doesn't feel like a special event, and only makes me question why they didn't simply release the full Challenger Pack early. At least they have the Final Fantasy VII menu sound effects.
• He is the most exaggerated example of a zoner with really slow frame data, to the point that I don't really like playing as him much because I don't like this archetype. Forward air and back air are really hard to land because of their slow frame data making them near-unusable in a short hop (not to mention their hitboxes are quite small vertically), which really hurts him in a game where forward and back aerials are usually a character's most used moves.
• That said, I like his neutral air. It can combo into itself and into other aerials, it's a pretty good get off me tool, and it's a fast, spammable move on a character who has none otherwise. It may go against his zoner archetype, but zoners being completely helpless up close is not fun in my opinion.
• Neutral special feels too slow to be a viable zoning tool, even uncharged Flare. I could see it have a niche use in some edgeguards or ledgetraps, but people will probably just use Gigaflare as a shieldbreak punish like PK Flash.
• Side special, however, is better. Not only is it a faster projectile, it rewards good timing with more pressure options and massive punishes (even zero-to-deaths) if you can pull off the combos with the right timing. It's a very high skill ceiling move that helps deepen an otherwise bland character.
• His Final Smash isn't the full 2 minute long Supernova animation. Boycott all future DLC.
• Another winning matchup for lol
• I really wish Northern Cave is legal, but the background could be a legitimate concern - I felt slight motion sickness when it was shown in the Mr. Sakurai Presents stream, but I didn't notice it when playing on it myself (granted, my Switch was in Tabletop mode). If it isn't a concern, then knowing the competitive scene they'll find some other dumb excuse to ban it, like 'the music will get us copyright claimed' or 'it's too similar to Kalos Pokémon League'. I just like its layout, aesthetic and music selection, and can do without the second or third Pokémon stage.
• I stand by the popular opinion that One-Winged Angel is one of the best compositions for a video game soundtrack, and a contender for the best final boss theme in video game history.
• He does have a Spirit Board, but for some reason it wasn't shown in the Mr. Sakurai Presents. That worried me as I though he wouldn't have one, and now it's left me confused. It'll come out with version 10.1.0 on December 22nd/23rd depending on your time zone.
• I was very worried during the Mr. Sakurai Presents that the Challenger Pack was going to launch on Christmas Day. I don't like it when companies release things on Christmas Day because we already have so much going on and we just want to be happy with our loved ones for a day.

Overall, I'm liking this Challenger Pack the same way I liked all others. I've lost interest in Smash ever since Min Min's release, and now I may have been converted over to traditional 2D fighters, but I still take trips back to appreciate new content. Maybe that long-overdue Switch Online subscription renewal is what'll get me back into it.

Edit: rip Geno as well

Oh, of course gets his icon within 48 hours of his reveal but had to wait almost two months for his, all while Alex, Zombie and Enderman still don't have theirs.

NOOOOOOOOOO

NOOO I FEEL OBLIDGED TO WATCH THE GAME AWARDS ALL NIGHT

Edit: For context, I live in the UK, where The Game Awards start at 11:30pm.

Today, I've decided to make a very unnecessary and poor decision:

I'm already going to start saving up to pre-order Nintendo's next home console after the Switch.

I don't care that it's still years off from even being revealed. I don't care that almost every console launch this millenium has gone wrong in some way. I just want to be able to experience at least once in my life what it's like to own a console on day 1, since I remember how magical the Switch's launch felt even though I knew I wasn't getting one for a long time, and I'm going to need quite a lot of money to get it and some of the launch window titles. Bonus points if this new console is backwards-compatible with the Switch, meaning I can transfer my save data then sell the Switch for another new game or two.

I'm definitely maining Steve from now on. He was my most wanted character for Smash, he comes from probably my favourite game all things considered, he doesn't look to be broken like all the clickbait YouTube videos would lead you to believe and his moveset perfectly fits my playstyle of 'do whatever the heck I want'. Sorry , you weren't that important or interesting to begin with.

I already count 4 times someone has edited SSBU Sonic's page on SmashWiki to make a 'punching people into Minecraft' joke.

Edit: I now count 5.

Edit 2: 6 now. The page has been protected due to excessive vandalism.

At long last, the next Smash fighter is being announced tomorrow at 3pm BST (7am PT, 10am ET and 12am ACT). Unlike most other Smash presentations, this is not a Mr Sakurai Presents, but rather just the trailer followed by a short message from Sakurai. The combination of its time and length means I'll conveniently miss the livestream in my five minute long walk home from school. Isn't that great? At least they aren't shadowdropping the trailer like I feared they would.

As for who it'll be, my bets are on... another mediocre recent first party character. Over the last three months, I've cared about Smash drastically less, from being burned out from playing Ultimate too much to sitting through the long DLC drought of the last three months. I've never typically cared about who DLC fighters are, just that they're fun and bring fresh, diverse ideas to the table. However, I've become more critical of the last two fighters: Byleth is of course another Fire Emblem character and plays a very typical game of walling with spaced aerials, and Min Min is a character from a recent first party series not many people care about anymore, whose very unique moveset ironically discourages diverse playstyles and promotes the same flowchart-like game plan of camping in the corner. I'm hoping these criticisms are something that this next fighter can fix.

P.S. Not related to Smash, but remember when Nintendo said they'd be taking Jump Rope Challenge off the eShop? They announced today that they aren't after all. As much hope as this gives Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and as much as I want the latter to be available forever, why lie about such a thing in the first place? Are you going to benefit that much from intimidating your users into downloading your free-to-play game by pretending it'll be removed from your store in two weeks?

Nintendo has funnily managed to be consistently inconsistent with how they present Partner Showcases. First they announce it prior then release it as a standard YouTube video, then they shadowdrop it as a standard video, and now they announce it prior and livestream it. Is the next one going to be livestreamed with no notification of any kind? Are they going to start hijacking TV signals to broadcast them?
...Given Nintendo in 2020, that last one probably doesn't sound too ridiculous now.

Today officially marks a full year since the last full general Nintendo Direct. I still find it hard to believe that we've gone so long without one, and that Nintendo even skipped the E3 season. If I had to guess what happened to their planned E3 2020 announcements, I'd go with the popular belief that it was split up into various shadowdrops, Partner Showcases and Sakurai Presents...s, as well as the recent Mario Direct. I was dead-centred on believing we'd get one by today, but now that we've gone a year without one, I guess anything is possible. I now predict we won't get one until January. Not that I really care too much anymore; I have better things to do in life than worry about not being able to buy new products.

Just got back from my first day back at school. It was pretty good; I went in accepting that nobody would be able to properly social distance, and seeing my friends after 6 months of not seeing them was very satisfying.

And of course Nintendo shadowdropped a Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct while I was at school. I find this strange since they usually announce game-specific Directs in advance, and it shouldn't be any harder to livestream a video than to directly upload it. I couldn't even look at their YouTube or Twitter pages for the link without getting spoiled because they decided to post all the individual announcements the moment they uploaded the Direct itself, so not even official sources will protect you from spoilers. It also means we'll pass the one year anniversary of the last full general Direct without another one.


Edit: Turns out there is one reason for Super Mario 3D All-Stars to be a limited run: the original Super Mario All-Stars and its Special Edition rerelease on Wii were both limited runs as well. So was The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition on GameCube. And Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii. And Kirby's Dream Collection on Wii. If it's tradition for Nintendo's collections to be limited runs, they need to abandon this tradition now because they get sold to fewer people and they make them less money, so it's a lose-lose situation.

Edit 2: This Time it's Personal: Super Mario 64 actually runs at 720p in TV and Handheld modes, while Sunshine and Galaxy run at 1080p in TV mode and 720p in Handheld. I don't know why 64 can't run at 1080p. In addition, looking back, the original All-Stars and its Special edition both got reprints, so I'm willing to bet 3D All-Stars will also get one due to 'fan demand'. I'll hold off buying the game until that happens if it does, and if it doesn't, I might instead emulate the originals with Totally Legal Methods™.

Got back from a haircut to find another Direct Mini Partner Showcase, and I don't mind them at all anymore. It seems that these are going to be a monthly occurrence, given how the last one was on the 20th of July. It also lines up with what Jeff Grubb was saying (that there would be a smaller showcase at the end of August, and a general Direct or Mini in a week).

Just skimming through the announcements because I admittedly can't be bothered to fully watch it: Thank you SmashBoards update for adding formatting to profile posts so I don't have to fill the screen with spoilers whenever I want to talk about a Direct.

I'm predicting that a general full Direct will happen in a week as Nintendo have often done Directs in early September, Partner Showcases likely won't impact the schedule of other presentations, Jeff Grubb said a bigger event was happening next week, and the 4th of September will mark exactly a year since the last full Direct. It's still hard to believe we've gone almost an entire year without a full Direct, even watching the E3 replacements go by without one, yet I've been able to cope for the most part. I still don't want this to happen again next year.

Yep, we got DDoSed again. Enjoy the Korean bots while they last.

Skipped through most of the Direct as most of it didn't interest me. A new SMTV trailer is good as this is the first trailer for the game since its initial reveal, and Nocturne HD Remaster is pretty cool. However, trying to make a full Direct out of the ten minutes of filler in the middle doesn't work.
Thankfully, given its special status as a Direct Mini Partner Showcase, it shouldn't detract from the possibility of a full Direct in August or September. As KirbyWorshipper2465 said, if nothing happens by mid-September, then we should panic.
On a sidenote, Nintendo UK separately uploaded the trailers for SMTV and Nocturne HD Remaster, saying what they were in the titles and thumbnails, at the exact same time the Direct itself got uploaded. Having the only worthwhile parts of a Direct be spoiled to you before you watch it sucks, and I don't like how Nintendo UK did that while Nintendo of America and Japan didn't. They usually do this after a Direct has stopped streaming, but since this wasn't streamed, it's way easier to see them.

Edit: Forgot about the Cadence of Hyrule DLC, which is legitimately good. Having Skull Kid star in his own campaign is a neat idea, and his mask mechanic looks interesting in a game like this. Hopefully it won't be too expensive when the base game is only £22.49.

Edit 2: the Squeakuel: Just heard that the Japanese Direct showed some extra games not seen in the English version, such as Ateiler Ryza 2. There have been announcements exclusive to Japanese Directs before, but they make no sense when we can just go over to Nintendo of Japan's channel. I mean, Ateiler Ryza is the best-selling game in its series; why would they not want as many people to know about the sequel?

I'm a bit late on the Direct Mini Partner Showcase announcement, but here are my current thoughts:
At first I was quite salty at the concept of an entirely third-party Direct, since Nintendo have no first-party games announced for the rest of the year and I (foolishly) believed the full Direct rumours. Now that a few hours have passed, my views have shifted to be more positive, and I'm hoping they're focusing on the third-party stuff now so they can focus on the first-party stuff later. Think of this as essentially the boring part of the E3 Direct, and remember that the exciting part should be coming later.
Even then, the third-party lineup that fits Nintendo's description is pretty good: Bravely Default II, No More Heroes III, possibly even Bayonetta 3 or Shin Megami Tensei V (unfortunately, Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia also fits this description).
Finally, as with any Direct, remember to hype responsibly. Hope for a Bayonetta 3 or SMTV release date, but expect 10 minutes of Bakugan and random shovelware. That way, you won't be disappointed if what you hoped for doesn't happen.

Tried Min Min today and she definitely has a learning curve. Her poor disadvantage and reliance on keeping the opponent at a great distance keep me from maining the character, but I can definitely see others maining her. In addition, her neutral air with the Ramram is plain broken and yet another contender for the best neutral air in the game. And I love it.
Meanwhile, I can easily imagine that some people probably believe Spirits still deconfirm despite Min Min proving them wrong, because some Smash fans are just like that.

RIP cocaine bot, 2020-2020
You probably won't be missed.

One thing I love about that presentation is that when Sakurai is showing his gaming setup, you can see he not only owns an XBOX One X, but also a PS1, PS3, PS3 Super Slim, PS4 AND PS4 Pro. He wasn't afraid to show all these during a Nintendo presentation either.

Min Min looks very unique; she isn't really my kind of character but will definitely appeal to others. She looks a little too much like a 'skill check' such as Little Mac or Ganondorf, which may hurt her viability or reputation in the community. However, I don't follow the Smash playerbase and competitive scene anymore, meaning I thankfully won't have to see all the complaints from scrubs that she's another zoner.
In addition, she proves the argument of 'Spirits deconfirm' wrong, which is great as just about everyone I talk to online thinks the argument is dumb. It also gives Octoling (the only character I've properly wanted in Smash) a higher chance, but I still doubt it'll happen sadly. In addition, while not definitive, she does hint that Assist Trophies do deconfirm, so take that as you will.
Finally, Ben Holt I dare you to post 'Reminder: It wasn't Spring Man' every week from now on.

Edit: One thing I noticed just now is that, like with the Altaïr Mii Fighter costume, the American presentation doesn't list Vault Boy being from the Fallout series, instead saying 'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate X Vault Boy', while most of the other streams do. Is this going to be some bizarre pattern?

https://twitter.com/NintendoUKVS/status/1273979256188567552
It's happening bois: Nintendo have scheduled a 35 minute long livestream for the Smash Ultimate ARMS fighter on the 22nd of June, 3PM BST (that would be 10AM EST, 7AM PST and 12AM ACT, so RIP Australia). They also said that no new fighters will be revealed, so expect a longer presentation like Terry's.
As sad as it is that this basically confirms no general Direct this month, it's still something I'm going to enjoy - though I do feel sorry for all the non-Smash, Pokemon or Animal Crossing fans out there.

LONG, NOSTALGIA-BASED RANT INCOMING:
Nintendo speculation has almost reached a dead end as we've had so little news for almost the past year. Technically speaking, the Nintendo Direct drought of late 2019 - early 2020 is still going on because the March 2020 Direct was only a Direct Mini and didn't reveal much (not even the Smash Ultimate CP6 reveal was very big as they only gave us the series the new fighter is from, not to mention it's DLC). Now that we're halfway through June 2020, past when E3 would have been, and Nintendo have still mostly stayed silent, I've reached the conclusion that the insiders were probably right: Nintendo, at this rate, likely won't hold a Direct this month.
That makes me very sad. When I was watching people's reactions to the PS5 reveal, despite not being a PlayStation fan, I could sense the massive feeling of excitement and hype PlayStation fans were having. Experiencing a very big reveal, especially for a new console, is a magical moment. I remember following the Smash Ultimate hype train ever since its first announcement in the March 2018 Direct, and the game's reveal at E3 2018 excited me so much that I could hardly concentrate at school the following day. I remember, before the Switch launched, secretly going onto the 3DS eShop in the morning and repeatedly watching all the trailers from the Nintendo Switch Presentation in January 2017. 11-year-old me was worried my parents would punish me for going onto the eShop (which was a pretty irrational fear in retrospect), but I still couldn't wait for the Switch to launch, even if I didn't get one until just after Christmas 2018. Looking back now, I can still feel the excitement people who were watching the presentation live felt throughout the stream.
Knowing that E3 2020 was cancelled and Nintendo have offered no replacement event, many people have suggested the idea that many of Nintendo's plans, including Directs, have had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 and work-from-home policies. I am one of the few that rejects this idea. I'm no industry insider or know-it-all, but typically a game's production takes years to complete and is finished around 3 months before its release, which means only games or DLC released in June or onwards will have been impacted at all by lockdown, and games released in the months after will probably only be impacted a little. For example, the ARMS fighter in Smash can't have been a result of coronavirus as, not only was it announced in March, the month lockdown was actually implemented worldwide, but Sakurai said in the Byleth showcase back in January (and filmed in November) that the Fighters Pass vol. 2 lineup has already been decided upon. It's games released in the next one or two years that will probably be impacted. Similarly, Directs seem like they could be edited by one or two people as normal. I learned earlier that Japan has a big focus on working face-to-face, to the extent that many people don't even have a PC or Internet connection at home, but I'm willing to bet the Direct editors do. If not, Nintendo of Japan could possibly still send some Nintendo of America employees the video templates for Directs and have them edit them.
I honestly think Nintendo's radio silence on anything this year was simply the result of Nintendo not having much planned for this year. People have raised concerns over their seemingly lacking 2020 lineup since November 2019, and it doesn't seem to have changed much. 2 games have been announced since then - PMD:RTDX (in all its long abbreviation glory) and PM:TOK - as well as DLC for 2 games - SSBU and Pokemon S&S - but that still feels very lacking. I believe at this point that Nintendo's 2020 would have been disappointing regardless of a global pandemic... or I'm just using this as an overly long explanation as to why I miss E3. Who knows.

The image uploader broke again.

This recent hate following surrounding Sonic in Ultimate is just going to be another 'ban Hero' situation where everyone will figure out the matchup in a few weeks and thus shut up about it.

Today, I have made a groundbreaking discovery that will change the whole of mankind: SmashBoards runs on the 3DS internet browser.

Shower thought (that I literally had in the shower just now): There will probably be a day where the word 'meme' is considered cringe.

So ZeRo has just put out another clickbait video, this time titled 'Is Smash Ultimate A Bad Game?', likely a response to Fudj's 'The Competitive Failings of Smash Ultimate' (before you ask, I've seen that video and think it's very flawed, but does have a lot of effort put into it so I'll let Fudj pass). Sorry for my ignorance, but I can realistically see Ultimate taking a large hit or even dying soon: not because of a lack of tournaments (though that is a massive issue as well), not because of an overcentralising DLC character, but because a load of famous players start saying 'Ultimate was actually bad the whole time' and because of the influence they have on the community, it will become cool to hate Ultimate.
I'm beginning to really hate ZeRo, from him not even playing the game for the majority of his recent content (though that is a bit of a nice refresher, given my last status post), to some of his commentary videos being nothing more than mind-numbingly dumb reactions, and worst, his blatant clickbait.
Smash content of his and Alpharad's style can be exciting, as long as it's well made or isn't just 'going on Elite Smash with this very slight twist' or 'reacting to this publicly available YouTube video with mediocre commentary' every time. Ironically, a series I've really enjoyed is Alpharad Plus's 'Josh Ruins Melee' series, because they use random characters a lot of the time which keeps it interesting, Josh's commentary is quite insightful and their trolls, while not the highlight for me, are a bit funny and refreshing.

This is old news by now, but at this point 'Smash Ultimate' and 'legitimately funny' are mutually exclusive. Every Ultimate meme on the internet follows some overused and unfunny to begin with joke such as 'this newcomer sucks', 'hoes mad', 'I'm so amazing at the game' and 'this character is toxic'. The last one especially grinds my gears as it just shows how much more effort people will put into complaining about characters in the hopes they get nerfed as opposed to just learning those matchups. I remember seeing a meme once that went along the lines of:
Me going online: happy face
Me encountering Mario, Link, Samus, [proceeds to list literally 35 characters, almost half the roster]: angry face
In addition, I just saw Alpharad's latest video and he has to be one of the most unfunny YouTubers I've seen in a while. He just spent the entire video bragging about how he's so good at the game because he can beat people on Elite Smash by hitting the same move, when that's the opposite of 'good' in my opinion. He also complained about Wii Fit Trainer mains camping at the ledge when that's exactly what he did a lot of the time. Lastly, he ended the video with a super anticlimactic and stale PK Fire joke. When talking about Lucas, the one who doesn't even spam PK Fire (well neither should Ness, really).
Going back to the topic at hand, pretty much 99% of Smash memes I've seen just make me more angry than happy. But that's what the creators of Smash memes want a lot of the time: to just get everyone to complain. Thus I am stuck in bad meme limbo and just have to try and not look at them.

Probably talking my daily nonsense here, but not a single Smash Ultimate guide on the internet seems to cover any part of the game outside shield pressure, edgeguarding and ledgetrapping, even the best ones. Simply asking yourself 'OK but what do I do if my opponent doesn't shield' single-handedly invalidates every single guide on the internet. Thinking about that too much has made me question what this game even is.