Well well well. Despite all of my predictions, Nintendo actually <em>did</em> show off <em>Super Smash Brothers: Brawl</em> for the press Wednesday evening. It consisted of only a trailer, but that trailer contained a wealth of information. First, here’s what we know about the title from interviews with those involved:
— The game will (or at least can) be played with the Gamecube controller for a classic control setup. Masashiro Sakurai, the director of the game, said that trying to add tilt functionality didn’t do anything but confuse the gameplay.
— According to Sakura, the “plan” is to have the game be on the Nintendo Wi-Fi network. He said one of the primary reasons that Brawl was created was so that Nintendo could have the game be online.
— The game will not be released this year. As suspected, it has been delayed into 2007.
Now, for the trailer. What have we learned from the trailer? Tons:
— The character models look absolutely gorgeous. The characters are shown from Melee, and then upgrading to their Brawl counterparts. Mario, Link, and Pikachu look absolutely amazing on the Wii. Link has also updated to his Twilight Princess look, with the chainmail underneath his tunic. Kirby looks largely unchanged.
— Two stages are shown almost immediately. One has the same setup as Kirby 64 or Battlefield from Melee, with a lower platform, two more floating on the sides, and one more platform higher up in the middle. The other stage looks to be an updated Peach’s Castle, although that may not be the case. The level looks more medieval, and might be Bowser’s castle. It is missing the stained glass window of Peach on the front, for starters. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
— There is an item that brings a Nintendog in front of the screen to block the action.
— There is an item that looks like a small floating coin with the Smash Brothers logo on it. When you grab it, your character glows with fire and you can perform a super move. When Mario grabbed it, he performed a screen-filling fireball attack. Link was able to combo Mario a bunch of times, with Triforces framing the action. And when Kirby was on fire, he donned the Chef Kawasaki hat and was able to cook Mario in a pot.
— For those who are afraid that these super moves will break the game, don’t be. Since they seem to be activated by an item, turning the item off should make these moves unusable.
— Newcomer - Metaknight! That’s right, Kirby’s enemy makes it to the Smash arena. He looks great, and has both a ground combo with his sword and an air combo.
— Newcomer - Pit! The angel from <em>Kid Icarus</em> makes his entrance by shooting a glowing arrow at Metaknight. He’s been updated a lot from his trophy in Smash Melee. Not only does he have his bow, but the top and bottom halves of the bow can break apart to become two blades.
— Having wings, both Metaknight and Pit can stay in the air for a time seeming to rival Kirby’s or Jigglypuff’s.
— Newcomer - Zero Suit Samus! It’s Samus without her armor, with some kind of strange weapon in her right hand. At first, it looks kind of like if a lightsaber came out of a gun handle, but after watching again, the lightsaber portion actually looks kind of bendy, so the weapon may be more whip-like.
— Newcomer - Wario! He rides in on a motorcycle in his Warioware uniform, and blows all the other characters away (literally) with a huge fart move.
— Newcomer - Solid Snake! I know, I didn’t believe it at first either. But this has huge implications as for other characters. Now that the third-party barrier has been broken, this opens the door for other characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega) or Megaman (Capcom). When asked, Shigeru Miyamoto said that they were in talks with other companies about using other third party characters, but wouldn’t say which ones.
Woo. So, I was completely wrong in my last entry. That’s perfectly fine with me! The delay to 2007 is disappointing, but at least now we know where our favorite series stands.
If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and go watch the trailer for yourself. Wii!!!
— The game will (or at least can) be played with the Gamecube controller for a classic control setup. Masashiro Sakurai, the director of the game, said that trying to add tilt functionality didn’t do anything but confuse the gameplay.
— According to Sakura, the “plan” is to have the game be on the Nintendo Wi-Fi network. He said one of the primary reasons that Brawl was created was so that Nintendo could have the game be online.
— The game will not be released this year. As suspected, it has been delayed into 2007.
Now, for the trailer. What have we learned from the trailer? Tons:
— The character models look absolutely gorgeous. The characters are shown from Melee, and then upgrading to their Brawl counterparts. Mario, Link, and Pikachu look absolutely amazing on the Wii. Link has also updated to his Twilight Princess look, with the chainmail underneath his tunic. Kirby looks largely unchanged.
— Two stages are shown almost immediately. One has the same setup as Kirby 64 or Battlefield from Melee, with a lower platform, two more floating on the sides, and one more platform higher up in the middle. The other stage looks to be an updated Peach’s Castle, although that may not be the case. The level looks more medieval, and might be Bowser’s castle. It is missing the stained glass window of Peach on the front, for starters. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
— There is an item that brings a Nintendog in front of the screen to block the action.
— There is an item that looks like a small floating coin with the Smash Brothers logo on it. When you grab it, your character glows with fire and you can perform a super move. When Mario grabbed it, he performed a screen-filling fireball attack. Link was able to combo Mario a bunch of times, with Triforces framing the action. And when Kirby was on fire, he donned the Chef Kawasaki hat and was able to cook Mario in a pot.
— For those who are afraid that these super moves will break the game, don’t be. Since they seem to be activated by an item, turning the item off should make these moves unusable.
— Newcomer - Metaknight! That’s right, Kirby’s enemy makes it to the Smash arena. He looks great, and has both a ground combo with his sword and an air combo.
— Newcomer - Pit! The angel from <em>Kid Icarus</em> makes his entrance by shooting a glowing arrow at Metaknight. He’s been updated a lot from his trophy in Smash Melee. Not only does he have his bow, but the top and bottom halves of the bow can break apart to become two blades.
— Having wings, both Metaknight and Pit can stay in the air for a time seeming to rival Kirby’s or Jigglypuff’s.
— Newcomer - Zero Suit Samus! It’s Samus without her armor, with some kind of strange weapon in her right hand. At first, it looks kind of like if a lightsaber came out of a gun handle, but after watching again, the lightsaber portion actually looks kind of bendy, so the weapon may be more whip-like.
— Newcomer - Wario! He rides in on a motorcycle in his Warioware uniform, and blows all the other characters away (literally) with a huge fart move.
— Newcomer - Solid Snake! I know, I didn’t believe it at first either. But this has huge implications as for other characters. Now that the third-party barrier has been broken, this opens the door for other characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega) or Megaman (Capcom). When asked, Shigeru Miyamoto said that they were in talks with other companies about using other third party characters, but wouldn’t say which ones.
Woo. So, I was completely wrong in my last entry. That’s perfectly fine with me! The delay to 2007 is disappointing, but at least now we know where our favorite series stands.
If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and go watch the trailer for yourself. Wii!!!
