Official DLC Speculation Discussion Volume II

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Coupled with the Among Us helmet on top of Sans' body for the complete package.

That's actually not that cursed a combo.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

That's actually not that cursed a combo.

But then you remember it goes both ways and you'll soon see Sans' head on the Among Us body and you break out in a cold sweat.

 

[Knight Dude]

Be honest, who do yall think are the most likely chars to be shown tuesday. Not chars you WANT but chars you think realistically theyd pick

I'm not putting too much stock into one character honestly. A Pokemon, Waluigi. I feel like there's a few others too. Basically a Pocket Monster for promotional reasons, and that's still a maybe. I think looking into who were huge requests DURING Ultimate's release and Season 1 might give us a lead. Ultimate's Launch focused on the Ballot and bringing back all old characters. So Waluigi, Crash, Hayabusa, Dixie, Doom Guy, Phoenix Wright ect. might not be too far fetched. I dunno.

Of course, I feel like that we might have to exclude Mii costume characters for the most part, so Dante, Travis, Shantae and other such popular requests wouldn't be in the running. I mean, it ain't impossible, as Rex's exclusion had nothing to do with his Mii Costume and was more of a technical reason as it is, if we're to take Sakurai at his word.

I'm not putting any stock into Sora less so because "Ew I don't want Disney in Smash" but rather, I legit don't think Nintendo would want to cough up the money to deal with the licensing. Despite that, I don't think Sora's inclusion would make Spider-Man or Goku suddenly viable. At the end of the day he's still a video game character through and through. But I've also said that Cloud wouldn't happen, so I've been wrong before, lmao.

Yep.

The Official DLC Speculation Discussion Volume II MW Character List

Octoling
Elma
Sora
Doomguy
Crash
Cinderace
Sgt Cortez
Master Chief
Chozo Dude
Neku
Frisk
Rayman
Dr. Eggman
Battletoads
Decidueye
Nahobino
Waluigi
Isaac
Phoenix Wright
Fulgore
Ezio
Tracer
Kratos
Gordon Freeman
King Boo
Scorpion
Reimu
Bill Rizer
Lu Bu
Off The Hook
Saber
Estelle Bright

.....

Haha someone's gotta be right!

We're all wrong.

I know I'm not here every day, but I did not push for Mega Man X this whole time not to get dapped up at least once.

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

Saying Sora getting in allows non-video game characters is ****ing asinine. Going by the argument that it's going to encourage other companies to put Goku or whoever in Smash implies that they even have the power to force Nintendo to do that, and not Nintendo (and the almighty Sakurai veto) setting the ground rules. Sora is from a video game, he counts. You can't change that, and Disney can't change anything that isn't whether or not they'll give them the license to use the character they own the rights to. We've been through this song and dance before, I feel like singing and dancing again just to keep spitting the facts I've always been spittin.

It's easier to admit the truth and just say you'd rather not have Sora over someone else you'd rather want in first. Better than having outright stupid logic.

If you have to do mental gymnastics to disqualify a character, that's pretty cringe ngl

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Ya know, I think Among Us has successfully caused the word "imposter" to never be taken seriously again. People are going to have to start using alternatives like...

checks Thesaurus.com

...So it appears there are no synonyms for the word "imposter". Good luck folks.

EDIT: There are, but all of them mean something that isn't quite that, with the listed synonyms being cheat, grifter, swindler, con man/woman, and rip off artist. Then again its synonyms for hero are all sandwiches so who knows.

But then you remember it goes both ways and you'll soon see Sans' head on the Among Us body and you break out in a cold sweat.

Not really. That's just Sans's head on a normal Mii body, but with a backpack; not much is different from the Crewmate/Imposter look and the Mii's normal garb.

 

[DarkFalcon]

If you have to do mental gymnastics to disqualify a character, that's pretty cringe ngl

I'm gonna do mental gymnastics to qualify a character then. HA! GOTTEM!

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Ya know, I think Among Us has successfully caused the word "imposter" to never be taken seriously again. People are going to have to start using alternatives like...

checks Thesaurus.com

...So it appears there are no synonyms for the word "imposter". Good luck folks.

I mean there's faker, but we all know how that one goes.

 

[Mamboo07]

Don't forget DONTE

You mean...

EL DONTE

just like El Mosco:

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

I mean there's faker, but we all know how that one goes.

Perhaps people will appropriate doppelganger in the future.

 

[Idon]

You mean...

EL DONTE

just like El Mosco:
View attachment 332268

Did not think I'd see a giant gross mosquito today but thanks for that.

 

[SharkLord]

Oooooooookay then! So remember how for these past couple days, I've had all this talk of doing some writeups to shill SEGA stuff to the people of Smashboards dot com? Well, today, I'm pushing out the first writeup. I thought that hey, with all this complaining I do about a lot of people in this community only giving a damn about scrimblos and super surface-level stuff when it comes to SEGA, I might as well try to alleviate that ever so slightly! (Now, that doesn't mean I won't ever cover scrimblos in the future, but they'll be cool scrimblos). So come with me, on this journey of indeterminate length through SEGA history, for the inaugural installment of Speed Weed Shills SEGA ****!

And I think it's important that I make sure to choose a good game to start off on. And it just so happens that there is a SEGA game out there that isn't too overwhelming of a first game to cover, helps us dive right into aspects of SEGA as a developer that will continue to be relevant as we go on, and is a very iconic and important game to their history while still being a bit far out of the apparent frame of reference a lot of people here seem to have. So basically the perfect first game for me to cover. That's right - if you're doing some writeups meant to shill non-Sonic SEGA stuff, then I sincerely believe that there is no better game to start off on.....than OutRun.
View attachment 332256
Now then, I'm not going to act like I'm the only person here who's familiar with OutRun. I'm sure there are plenty of people here who are familiar with this lovely game, but I'm sure there are also some people here who, well, aren't. This is for them! Hey you, standing there, if you consider yourself to know jack**** about SEGA, this is for you!

OutRun is a "driving game" released by SEGA for arcades in 1986. First things first, ya can't talk about OutRun without mentioning the fact that this game was the work of Yu Suzuki and his team at Studio 128, which can basically be seen as a predecessor of sorts to the AM2 division at SEGA. Now, it's important to note that both Yu Suzuki and AM2 (especially if we're to include their previous incarnations as Studio 128 and R&D 8 in here) are absolute legends of SEGA history. Quite possibly the most important developer and dev team in the company's history respectively, and we'll be seeing them plenty of times if this goes on long enough, because they have a ton of other games that are either iconic to SEGA as well or would be just plain fun to talk about - from Hang-On to After Burner to Power Drift to Space Harrier to Virtua Racing to Virtua Fighter to Virtua Cop to DAYTONAAAAAAAAA to Fighting Vipers to Shenmue to even **** like Rent A Hero and Border Break. So yeah. We'll be seeing them a lot if this goes on.

And Yu's involvement really is important to discuss here because I want to delve into this game's development. So it was the mid-80s, and Yu Suzuki was already pumping out banger after banger at SEGA, helping them usher in their arcade golden age with iconic classics like Hang-On and Space Harrier, which had two big things going for them:

A. They didn't just have any old arcade cabinets, but rather, they made use of what SEGA themselves came to dub as "taikan" cabinets: a special kind of sit-down arcade cabinets that moved around a lot and focused on being big bombastic experiences that immersed the player in the game. For example, Hang-On's cabinet was shaped like a motorbike and made it so that people playing it had to control the game as if they were actually riding one. Another rather famous example is the R360 cabinet for G-LOC, which is hilariously over-the-top - as the name implies, it's a spherical cabinet that's designed to actually spin people around on 360 degrees as they're playing the game

B. These games made use of a very special little thing called Super Scaler technology, which used sprite scaling to give the games a sense of speed and a 3D look and feel

OutRun also employs both of these things, and is perhaps the most iconic SEGA game to use taikans and super scalers and what have you. This one in particular has a cabinet designed to make it feel like you're actually driving a car.

Yu intitially got the idea for this game from the 1981 movie The Cannonball Run, which focuses on a cross-country car race through the USA. He planned on having the game follow the same course as the movie - only to realize that it didn't quite have the variety in scenery that he was hoping for. So what did he do? He got himself a camera and travelled to Europe, driving all around the continent and filming the local scenery. After going back to Japan, he used that scenery as inspiration for the game's settings. Worth noting that Yu was a big fan of Ferrari supercars, and OutRun does feature a car that's strikingly similar to a Ferrari Testarossa, to the point that the general public have accepted it as being just that. Now, this led to a whole bunch of licensing mumbo-jumbo that I don't really feel like delving into right now.
View attachment 332267
So the premise of OutRun itself is simply that you're a Cool 80s Dude who has a Ferrari, and with your girlfriend by your side, you drive through all kinds of locations, while having to reach the goal before the timer runs out. You'll go through 5 "stages" in one playthrough, but the game has split paths at the end of each "stage", making it so there is a grand total of 15 sections in the game, along with 5 possible endings.

Yu Suzuki has always insisted on OutRun being more of a "driving game" than a racing game, and that's an apt way of describing what made the game so unique - compared to other racing games at the time, OutRun was a more laid-back experience. Despite the timer and all that, I think the main point of the game was always just "haha you drive the car!" And let me stress that there's nothing wrong with that, again, it made OutRun stand out as a unique experience at the time.

Another very very important part of OutRun is its music. Composed by legendary SEGA composer Hiroshi Kawaguchi, the game stood out for being perhaps the clearest example of SEGA's overall style when it came to the music of their big arcade games of the time, in that they didn't just make simple melodies to go along with the gameplay, they wrote tracks as if they were, like, actual songs. The music in this game was a lot longer and more varied and complex than what most other games had at the time, and has gone on to be extremely popular and a core part of the game's identity. As such, here's the game's legendary soundtrack:

-Magical Sound Shower
-Splash Wave
-Passing Breeze
-Last Wave (the results screen theme)

So again, OutRun is a very very iconic SEGA game. It's a legitimate contender for the title of most iconic arcade game they've ever made IMO. It's a super duper popular game that was a huge hit in arcades and a pioneer in video game graphics, audio, and arcade cabinet design. The soundtrack in particular is so iconic that it went on to inspire a whole-ass genre of music called synthwave, which has also been referred to as "outrun music". Yeah.

The game's available on, like, everything under the sun so go give it a try if you haven't, it's an all-time classic!

Now then....what about Smash?

Yeah I feel like I gotta still connect this to Smash somehow, so how do I feel about OutRun content in Smash? Although a playable character probably wouldn't happen for pretty obvious reasons, I will say that I do believe OutRun is absolutely deserving of some form of content in Smash, considering how iconic it is to SEGA and arcade game history. If we ever get misc. third-party stages, then tbh, an OutRun stage would be at the top of my list of things I'd like to see. But considering how iconic the music in particular is, I really feel like the best way of representing OutRun in Smash would just be to include its soundtrack. Honestly, Bayo got to come with her game's remix of After Burner, throw the Climax Mix of Splash Wave in there too while you're at it!

So there we go! That's my first big SEGA writeup, and we'll see if I get to do more. I really did feel like OutRun was the perfect game to start off on, and if you weren't that knowledgeable about this game, then I hope you've learned something of value!

As for the next game I'll cover, I'd actually like to turn to my fellow SEGAchads on this thread for suggestions. I have some things in mind, but I'm not quite sure about which way to go. I'm mainly looking for a game that also makes for a good one to cover early on, while being different enough from OutRun to really allow us to explore a whole nother part of SEGA's history.

Bye, nerds!

Nice writeup! The bit about being just a game where you drive a car does sound kinda interesting when you compare it to every other car game; Most of them are straight racing games and that's what I was kinda expecting from this.

Something that grabbed my attention regarding the development was that the guy just traveled around Europe to film all the scenery. One of my current personal projects is mapping out this big fantasy setting that's supposed to draw on various cultures for inspiration, so just traveling around various places to take pictures and videos as reference points sounds like something I'd enjoy doing a fair bit.

 

[TriggerX]

I'm not putting too much stock into one character honestly. A Pokemon, Waluigi. I feel like there's a few others too. Basically a Pocket Monster for promotional reasons, and that's still a maybe. I think looking into who were huge requests DURING Ultimate's release and Season 1 might give us a lead. Ultimate's Launch focused on the Ballot and bringing back all old characters. So Waluigi, Crash, Hayabusa, Dixie, Doom Guy, Phoenix Wright ect. might not be too far fetched. I dunno.

Of course, I feel like that we might have to exclude Mii costume characters for the most part, so Dante, Travis, Shantae and other such popular requests wouldn't be in the running. I mean, it ain't impossible, as Rex's exclusion had nothing to do with his Mii Costume and was more of a technical reason as it is, if we're to take Sakurai at his word.

I'm not putting any stock into Sora less so because "Ew I don't want Disney in Smash" but rather, I legit don't think Nintendo would want to cough up the money to deal with the licensing. Despite that, I don't think Sora's inclusion would make Spider-Man or Goku suddenly viable. At the end of the day he's still a video game character through and through. But I've also said that Cloud wouldn't happen, so I've been wrong before, lmao.


I know I'm not here every day, but I did not push for Mega Man X this whole time not to get dapped up at least once.

Yea idk, Disney is a wild card. While I would agree that Disney is protective of their Ips, there isn’t anything that suggest that acquiring the licenses to use said characters is expensive or difficult to obtain. Fortnite has obviously been doing it over and over, Funko, and countless other brands.
Idk could definitely go either way, he could be a mii, nothing or full fledged character. However I do feel like his support has always been constant and I wouldn’t be surprised if Seph and Hero were required to please Square in order to add Sora. Considering they most likely wouldn’t make any money off his inclusion directly.
We’ll see Oct 5 will be wild

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

I don't necessarily think it's a case of Disney asking for too much money from Nintendo for Sora as much as it just might be that the overall deal/negotiation for him involved too much compromise. Assuming that there was talk between both parties about getting him in, it could very well be that the edicts and conditions by Disney/SE (how he's presented, what settings/elements from KH can be used, specifics about song inclusion, if he could or couldn't be permanently available as DLC) made Nintendo eventually walk away because he was simply not considered worth it.

As beloved as Sora is, it's entirely plausible that Big N's conclusion was that there other third party characters close in popularity within the contemporary gaming scene that would be much easier to get.

 

[Sucumbio]

I just got done crying…

You see what you did DarkFalcon meanie!

(lol)

 

[Guybrush20X6]

Well I booked Monday and Tuesday off for work (had left over holiday days to use anyway) so I won't miss a thing.

This might really be it as far as Smash speculation goes. Gotta savour it all. The hype, the rumors, the asinine arguments about Pyra's design, arbitrary rules and of course the crushed dreams.

That said, unless this time starts off with the Mii costumes, anyone showing up there will actually be the nice compensation prize the things are intended as for once.

 

[GoodGrief741]

Speed Weed Amazing write-up, expected nothing less!

 

[Sucumbio]

I know I'm not here every day, but I did not push for Mega Man X this whole time not to get dapped up at least once.

I gotcha fam. He on there (and Zero too cause that is a thing.)

 

[DarkFalcon]

You see what you did DarkFalcon meanie!

(lol)

I am a menace to Waluigi fans everywhere. They better not look under their beds at night.

 

[Sucumbio]

This makes me wonder... Are there any strictly Waluigi fans who don't like Wario just Waluigi? Dunno why I ponder this.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

This makes me wonder... Are there any strictly Waluigi fans who don't like Wario just Waluigi? Dunno why I ponder this.

Well Waluigi has the stronger meme game thanks to Brawl in the Family but Wario the character is an odd case.

He's at least three different characters

There's Mario Spin-off Wario who is Waluigi's brother(?) and is a typical cartoon villain
There's Wario Land Wario who is a super strong and immortal treasure hunter who defeats worse guys to make off with their loot
and there's Wario Ware Wario who is still a greedy schemer but in more of a slice of life setting so he doesn't get away with the mountains of gold he does in his platformers.

 

[GilTheGreat19]

Ok I’m not the biggest Sora fan here but uh

GODDARN LOOK AT THIS

"the final key" a little render i made for sora if he gets into smash bros #kingdomhearts pic.twitter.com/VFXdbVz6Oz

— cae ※ 🦋 (@caehum) September 30, 2021

 

[DarkFalcon]

WarioWare Wario is the best Wario. Plus he has original friends thatarecriminallyunderused

 

[slrigeigdew]

Ok I’m not the biggest Sora fan here but uh

GODDARN LOOK AT THIS

"the final key" a little render i made for sora if he gets into smash bros #kingdomhearts pic.twitter.com/VFXdbVz6Oz

— cae ※ 🦋 (@caehum) September 30, 2021

Cool!
I have a feeling we're going to be seeing Sora in the last direct one way or another. Whether or not he'll end up as the final fighter is a different story.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

WarioWare Wario is the best Wario. Plus he has original friends thatarecriminallyunderused

I think he was at his best in WarioWare Gold where he ends up being the final Boss because he's a jerk cheating you out of your prize money with magical powers he gained from an ancient pot... that's actually a communal latrine. The perfect combo of all his aspects IMO.

 

[Opossum]

This makes me wonder... Are there any strictly Waluigi fans who don't like Wario just Waluigi? Dunno why I ponder this.

I don't dislike Wario by any means. I think he's hilarious. But I do like Waluigi considerably more, to the point where I'd say he's in my top five favorite Mario characters. Probably even top three.

I just like how he's this weird lanky purple **** Dastardly/Snidely Whiplash type, and his super weird abilities they give him in sports and other spinoff games.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

I'm laughing to myself because I'm imagining a very awkward compromise where Sora gets into Smash, but all the Disney characters are replaced with Nintendo ones in their clothes, so you get Mario, Luigi, & Yoshi dressed as the KH versions of Mickey, Goofy, & Donald.

 

[DarkFalcon]

If I have to hear another person advocate for Waluigi in WarioWare..HRMMMMMMMMNOPUTHIMINHISOWNGAMESTAYAWAY

 

[Gengar84]

I gotcha fam. He on there (and Zero too cause that is a thing.)

I would love X and Zero for Smash. X is my favorite version of Mega Man and Zero is awesome too. I also really like Johnny Yong Bosch as an actor so it would be awesome to have him as a playable character. We could also use more X songs since the first game’s soundtrack is among my favorites in all of gaming.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

I'm laughing to myself because I'm imagining a very awkward compromise where Sora gets into Smash, but all the Disney characters are replaced with Nintendo ones in their clothes, so you get Mario, Luigi, & Yoshi dressed as the KH versions of Mickey, Goofy, & Donald.

Something like this?

(Smashboards isn't compatible with YT clips [yet?])

 

[Gengar84]

I'm laughing to myself because I'm imagining a very awkward compromise where Sora gets into Smash, but all the Disney characters are replaced with Nintendo ones in their clothes, so you get Mario, Luigi, & Yoshi dressed as the KH versions of Mickey, Goofy, & Donald.

Mushroom Kingdom Hearts

 

[SNEKeater]

Oooooooookay then! So remember how for these past couple days, I've had all this talk of doing some writeups to shill SEGA stuff to the people of Smashboards dot com? Well, today, I'm pushing out the first writeup. I thought that hey, with all this complaining I do about a lot of people in this community only giving a damn about scrimblos and super surface-level stuff when it comes to SEGA, I might as well try to alleviate that ever so slightly! (Now, that doesn't mean I won't ever cover scrimblos in the future, but they'll be cool scrimblos). So come with me, on this journey of indeterminate length through SEGA history, for the inaugural installment of Speed Weed Shills SEGA ****!

And I think it's important that I make sure to choose a good game to start off on. And it just so happens that there is a SEGA game out there that isn't too overwhelming of a first game to cover, helps us dive right into aspects of SEGA as a developer that will continue to be relevant as we go on, and is a very iconic and important game to their history while still being a bit far out of the apparent frame of reference a lot of people here seem to have. So basically the perfect first game for me to cover. That's right - if you're doing some writeups meant to shill non-Sonic SEGA stuff, then I sincerely believe that there is no better game to start off on.....than OutRun.
View attachment 332256
Now then, I'm not going to act like I'm the only person here who's familiar with OutRun. I'm sure there are plenty of people here who are familiar with this lovely game, but I'm sure there are also some people here who, well, aren't. This is for them! Hey you, standing there, if you consider yourself to know jack**** about SEGA, this is for you!

OutRun is a "driving game" released by SEGA for arcades in 1986. First things first, ya can't talk about OutRun without mentioning the fact that this game was the work of Yu Suzuki and his team at Studio 128, which can basically be seen as a predecessor of sorts to the AM2 division at SEGA. Now, it's important to note that both Yu Suzuki and AM2 (especially if we're to include their previous incarnations as Studio 128 and R&D 8 in here) are absolute legends of SEGA history. Quite possibly the most important developer and dev team in the company's history respectively, and we'll be seeing them plenty of times if this goes on long enough, because they have a ton of other games that are either iconic to SEGA as well or would be just plain fun to talk about - from Hang-On to After Burner to Power Drift to Space Harrier to Virtua Racing to Virtua Fighter to Virtua Cop to DAYTONAAAAAAAAA to Fighting Vipers to Shenmue to even **** like Rent A Hero and Border Break. So yeah. We'll be seeing them a lot if this goes on.

And Yu's involvement really is important to discuss here because I want to delve into this game's development. So it was the mid-80s, and Yu Suzuki was already pumping out banger after banger at SEGA, helping them usher in their arcade golden age with iconic classics like Hang-On and Space Harrier, which had two big things going for them:

A. They didn't just have any old arcade cabinets, but rather, they made use of what SEGA themselves came to dub as "taikan" cabinets: a special kind of sit-down arcade cabinets that moved around a lot and focused on being big bombastic experiences that immersed the player in the game. For example, Hang-On's cabinet was shaped like a motorbike and made it so that people playing it had to control the game as if they were actually riding one. Another rather famous example is the R360 cabinet for G-LOC, which is hilariously over-the-top - as the name implies, it's a spherical cabinet that's designed to actually spin people around on 360 degrees as they're playing the game

B. These games made use of a very special little thing called Super Scaler technology, which used sprite scaling to give the games a sense of speed and a 3D look and feel

OutRun also employs both of these things, and is perhaps the most iconic SEGA game to use taikans and super scalers and what have you. This one in particular has a cabinet designed to make it feel like you're actually driving a car.

Yu intitially got the idea for this game from the 1981 movie The Cannonball Run, which focuses on a cross-country car race through the USA. He planned on having the game follow the same course as the movie - only to realize that it didn't quite have the variety in scenery that he was hoping for. So what did he do? He got himself a camera and travelled to Europe, driving all around the continent and filming the local scenery. After going back to Japan, he used that scenery as inspiration for the game's settings. Worth noting that Yu was a big fan of Ferrari supercars, and OutRun does feature a car that's strikingly similar to a Ferrari Testarossa, to the point that the general public have accepted it as being just that. Now, this led to a whole bunch of licensing mumbo-jumbo that I don't really feel like delving into right now.
View attachment 332267
So the premise of OutRun itself is simply that you're a Cool 80s Dude who has a Ferrari, and with your girlfriend by your side, you drive through all kinds of locations, while having to reach the goal before the timer runs out. You'll go through 5 "stages" in one playthrough, but the game has split paths at the end of each "stage", making it so there is a grand total of 15 sections in the game, along with 5 possible endings.

Yu Suzuki has always insisted on OutRun being more of a "driving game" than a racing game, and that's an apt way of describing what made the game so unique - compared to other racing games at the time, OutRun was a more laid-back experience. Despite the timer and all that, I think the main point of the game was always just "haha you drive the car!" And let me stress that there's nothing wrong with that, again, it made OutRun stand out as a unique experience at the time.

Another very very important part of OutRun is its music. Composed by legendary SEGA composer Hiroshi Kawaguchi, the game stood out for being perhaps the clearest example of SEGA's overall style when it came to the music of their big arcade games of the time, in that they didn't just make simple melodies to go along with the gameplay, they wrote tracks as if they were, like, actual songs. The music in this game was a lot longer and more varied and complex than what most other games had at the time, and has gone on to be extremely popular and a core part of the game's identity. As such, here's the game's legendary soundtrack:

-Magical Sound Shower
-Splash Wave
-Passing Breeze
-Last Wave (the results screen theme)

So again, OutRun is a very very iconic SEGA game. It's a legitimate contender for the title of most iconic arcade game they've ever made IMO. It's a super duper popular game that was a huge hit in arcades and a pioneer in video game graphics, audio, and arcade cabinet design. The soundtrack in particular is so iconic that it went on to inspire a whole-ass genre of music called synthwave, which has also been referred to as "outrun music". Yeah.

The game's available on, like, everything under the sun so go give it a try if you haven't, it's an all-time classic!

Now then....what about Smash?

Yeah I feel like I gotta still connect this to Smash somehow, so how do I feel about OutRun content in Smash? Although a playable character probably wouldn't happen for pretty obvious reasons, I will say that I do believe OutRun is absolutely deserving of some form of content in Smash, considering how iconic it is to SEGA and arcade game history. If we ever get misc. third-party stages, then tbh, an OutRun stage would be at the top of my list of things I'd like to see. But considering how iconic the music in particular is, I really feel like the best way of representing OutRun in Smash would just be to include its soundtrack. Honestly, Bayo got to come with her game's remix of After Burner, throw the Climax Mix of Splash Wave in there too while you're at it!

So there we go! That's my first big SEGA writeup, and we'll see if I get to do more. I really did feel like OutRun was the perfect game to start off on, and if you weren't that knowledgeable about this game, then I hope you've learned something of value!

As for the next game I'll cover, I'd actually like to turn to my fellow SEGAchads on this thread for suggestions. I have some things in mind, but I'm not quite sure about which way to go. I'm mainly looking for a game that also makes for a good one to cover early on, while being different enough from OutRun to really allow us to explore a whole nother part of SEGA's history.

Bye, nerds!

Very cool and informative write up, I like it.

I think I played Outrun at least a few times when I was a kid, but I'm not that sure. But I did play it for sure in Yakuza 0 and hey, I remember having a good time. I was initially trying to do the 100% and for that, among other things, I needed to achieve a very high score in Outrun. I... never achieved it but I was close, and during the process I remember how I started enjoying Outrun. At first I was doing it just for completionist reasons, and it even kinda annoyed me at the beginning, but I gradually started seeing it's appeal.

And it has cool music

 

[walugurl]

I am a menace to Waluigi fans everywhere. They better not look under their beds at night.

You would murder someone for liking Waluigi?

 

[3BitSaurus]

Time for the big LoLpost. I meant what I said when I used the word "big", so much so that I felt the need to break it up into smaller posts. You'll soon see why, so hold onto your butts. For the sake of mobile users' sanity, I won't use any images. Instead, I recommend searching for them on your own if you're interested. For the sake of non-MOBA player's sanity, I'll refrain from using some terms that might not make much sense. And for the sake of my sanity, I won't look into Champion reworks, only their most recent incarnation.

Quick summary for the uninitiated: every Champion has a Passive and 4 Active Abilities (one of these being their Ultimate). I'll try to use my own creative muscles to give examples of how I think they'd look in Smash whenever necessary.

I've picked about 15 Champions (less than 10% of the current roster) who I believe would stand the best chance of being chosen for Smash in case we got a LoL rep and I'll try to explain some of their abilities to the best of... well, my abilities. In alphabetical order:

Spoiler: Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox

Guys, I swear it's the alphabetical order lol. If I'm allowed to paraphrase my own support thread for a sec:

In League's lore, Ahri is a fox Vastaya – an umbrella term for a race composed by "descendants of mortals who took the powers of Runeterra’s spirit realm into themselves" and are easily identifiable by their combination of human and animal traits. In looser terms she's more inspired by the korean Kumiho (Gumiho? I've seen both spellings tbh) than the japanese kitsune, though there is some influence. She uses that heritage to syphon power from nature - and, occasionally, people - around her.

As far as popularity goes... well, it is what it is. Ahri is one of the most popular female Champions by far, and being part of the whole Star Guardian - and later, K/DA lineups only boosted that popularity further. Really, the sheer amount of skins she has - and has gotten in the past years - should be a good enough hint at her popularity. This is a trait she shares with a certain other mage, talked about in a future post.

Along with that, she's part of the Ruined King and fighting game spinoffs - one of the first characters teased for both.

In-game, she's a mage with good mobility and range, and can deal lots of burst damage by chaining her spells together. Like most mages, though, she's really squishy, so basically a kind of magical glass cannon.

Ahri's Passive Ability is Essence Theft. Basically, whenever she hits an enemy with an ability, she gains a stack - up to 3 per ability use. At 9 stacks, her next ability heals her, scaling with the number if enemies hit by the ability that procked the heal. In Smash, I'd imagine it would work similarly, with Specials fulfilling the role of gaining and procking the stacks.

Her four Active Abilities are: Orb of Deception, Fox-Fire, Charm and her Ultimate, Spirit Rush.

Orb of Deception is a projectile with a “boomerang” effect: Ahri throws her orb in a straight line, dealing damage to any enemies it passes through. It then homes back to Ahri's position (she can move while the orb is out, like Pyra's Blazing End), dealing damage once more if it hits anyone in the way.

Fox-Fire creates three flames that orbit Ahri for a few seconds, then home in on enemies in range. Think Mega Man’s down special combined with Palutena’s neutral special. Additionally, she gains some movement speed for a few seconds after using it. What’s most interesting, though, is that it prioritizes champions hit by…

Charm. It’s arguably an attack unlike anything in Smash right now. Ahri blows a kiss in a straight line, dealing damage, interrupting dashes and, most importantly, slowing enemies and forcing them to move towards her. This is a huge part of her burst mage archetype, because Charmed enemies also take bonus damage from her abilities.

Finally, Ahri’s Ultimate: Spirit Rush. She dashes in a target direction, letting loose a few bolts of energy that deal damage to close enemy units. Ahri can recast this dash up to three times. What’s interesting is that Ahri can go through some walls with this – the effect could be translated to Smash by having a good amount of invincibility frames.

Spoiler: Annie, the Dark Child

Oh, Annie. An old guard LoL mascot of sorts and one of the first Champions designed for the game - a trait she shares with another member of this list.

When I say she's an old guard mascot, that's because she's kind of a mainstay in promotional material and she was the one to receive the 10-year Annieversary skin (it's actually called that). Basically, some of her promos aren't necessarily big, but they're consistent. She's also got a boatload of skins, too, and was the first Champion to reach 12 of them, in fact.

So, her lore. Like most old Champions, it's changed a bit over the years, but the best summary I can give you is that she's a child with strong pyrokinetic powers. Perhaps too strong, to the point where she ends up burning her father, stepmother and stepsister alive in a fit of rage. Yeah.

In spite of this, Annie is incredibly childlike in her mannerisms, but don't underestimate her fire magic - or her teddy bear Tibbers.

Annie's Passive Ability is Pyromania. Whenever she casts an ability, she gains a stack, and at 4 stacks, her next ability that connects will stun the enemy.

Annie's Active Abilities are Disintegrate, Incinerate, Molten Shield and Summon Tibbers.

Disintegrate and Incinerate are fairly simple. Disintegrate hurls a fireball at the target, while Incinerate deals damage in a flame cone in front of her.

Molten Shield is more of a support ability: Annie can imbue herself, an ally or Tibbers (we'll get to him in a sec) with a shield and bonus movement speed for a few seconds. What's interesting about the shield is that it doesn't simply block damage per se - rather, enemies that attack Annie while she is shielded are dealt recoil damage. I could probably see this being a down special, since that's where utility moves are usually put. Would be an interesting kind of counter, I suppose.

And finally, time for the big boy. Summon Tibbers does exactly that - it brings Annie's beloved teddy bear, the last gift from her mother, to life... as a fiery monstrosity that rips people apart. When he appears, Tibbers deals damage to enemies near him, and after that, he can be controlled separately from Annie, much like a puppet character in a fighting game. I'd wager this would probably be a Final Smash akin to Piranha Plant's, with Annie being able to move while Tibbers attacks from the background.

Spoiler: Ashe, the Frost Archer

Ashe is one of the first Champions you play, during the game's tutorials. She, much like Annie, is consistent in appearances, and also has a good amount of skins to support that. It also kinda helps that you have some interesting moments with her in Championships.

Lore-wise, Ashe is a queen of one of the tribes of the Freljord - one of the many "countries" in League's lore. The Freljord, unlike other nations, is not exactly unified, and Ashe's goal is to do exactly that, using a bow made of... well, it's easier to call it magical ice. Her story arc - if you can call it that - is basically a political feud with other tribes - in particular with the one led by her former childhood friend, Sejuani.

In-game, Ashe's use of a bow means she belongs to the Marksman class, of which she's arguably one of the most basic.

Her Passive Ability is Frost Shot. Basic attacks and abilities apply Frost to enemies, slowing them down. Attacking an enemy that already has Frost will deal bonus damage. Additionally, her critical hits don't deal extra damage, but rather enhance Frost's slowing effects (yeah, these are a thing in MOBAs too, and are very important at that).

Ashe's four Abilities are Ranger's Focus, Volley, Hawkshot and Enchanted Crystal Arrow.

Ranger's Focus gives me an opportunity to talk about Active Abilities that also have Passive effects. Normally, you're unable to cast it with only mana. But here's the thing: Ranger's Focus gives Ashe another kind of stack for every basic attack she hits. After 4 stacks, you're able to actually use this ability, making every basic attack faster and also making it fire five arrows instead of just one.

Volley makes Ashe shoot arrows in a cone, with each dealing damage and applying that enhancement of Frost's effects. In League you only take damage from one arrow no matter how many hit you, but in Smash I'd imagine eah arrow would deal damage individually.

Hawkshot is actually something I don't think would work one-for-one. It stores up to two charges, and when fired, it grants Sight of the area in its path and destination. Sight is important in League, because most of the map is covered in a kind of fog-of war, meaning you can only see the areas surrounding your team's Towers, yourself and your teammates. But it has no practical use in a fighting game, so I dunno.

And for the Ultimate, time for that「B I G S H O T」. I can feel your pained groans and it pleases me.

Enchanted Crystal Arrow shoots a big-ass ice arrow in the target direction, granting Sight (again, useless in Smash) and dealing damage, as well as stunning the first enemy it hits. Additionally, enemies around the main target receive 50% of the damage and become afflicted with Frost Shot's slow.

This is where I'm gonna leave things for now. I think it's best that I do about 3 Champions per post, otherwise it might really take up half a page, and it would probably look too convoluted for people to attempt reading.

 

[GoodGrief741]

I'm laughing to myself because I'm imagining a very awkward compromise where Sora gets into Smash, but all the Disney characters are replaced with Nintendo ones in their clothes, so you get Mario, Luigi, & Yoshi dressed as the KH versions of Mickey, Goofy, & Donald.

You call that awkward? That would be awesome!

You would murder someone for liking Waluigi?

swoosh.mp4

 

[DarkFalcon]

You would murder someone for liking Waluigi?

What woah woah. Now where'd you get that idea? Who do you take me for?

It's something much worse. Eternal torment, whispering to every Waluigi fan while they sleep. Saying: He's already in Smash as an item.

Truly the most cunning devil of all time I am...hmm, yes.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

I'm laughing to myself because I'm imagining a very awkward compromise where Sora gets into Smash, but all the Disney characters are replaced with Nintendo ones in their clothes, so you get Mario, Luigi, & Yoshi dressed as the KH versions of Mickey, Goofy, & Donald.

"Hey-a there, fellas! Did-a someone-a mention the door to-a darkness?"

 

[Guynamednelson]

And it has cool music

Huh, never knew YouTube had auto-generated videos for OutRun's soundtrack, synths and all.

I love how the Wii U version of All-Stars Racing Transformed had Miis drive a Ferrari Testarossa-esque car because of OutRun.

 

[Shroob]

What woah woah. Now where'd you get that idea? Who do you take me for?

It's something much worse. Eternal torment, whispering to every Waluigi fan while they sleep. Saying: He's already in Smash as an item.

Truly the most cunning devil of all time I am...hmm, yes.

I thought you had to go to the dark web to see horrid acts of violence.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Bandai Namco is changing their logo, effective next year https://t.co/53rXVnOhSj pic.twitter.com/k2WxNYZS81

— Wario64 (@Wario64) October 1, 2021

the minimalist corporate logo trend needs to go I swear

like imagine Sega or Capcom or Square Enix changing their logo in a way that takes away their identity

 

[Siggy88]

With all this talk about Sora lately, I've been wondering....

How would you even start such a negotiation? Through email? In person? Formal meeting between boards?
Or just two persons spitballing ideas? Just one guy going "Now this is going to sound crazy, but hear me out."

I mean, that's literally how Kingdom Hearts got started.