New Character (Pre-Order Bonus): Tom Nook
New Echo Fighter: N/A
New Stage/s (Pre-Order Bonus): Metal Cavern
New Assist Trophies (Free!): Piranha Plant
New Pokémon (Free!): Golem (Rollout), Chandelure (Will-o-Wisp)
New Items (Free!): Parasol
New Mii Fighter Costumes (Pre-Order Bonus): Metal Mario (Brawler)
Acting as a smaller update to get people excited for the future of DLC, the "pre-order" update is unique in that it adds all of its content for
free if you pre-ordered the game. If not, you can still purchase it seperately. As such, I wanted this selection to consist of nice, but not earth-shattering, additions - no negotiation required, all first-party, all a little... surprising.
Tom Nook replacing Piranha Plant is my first weird pick, and I'll admit it's one with reason. I think the whole "heroes and villains" thing that Ultimate's marketing had going on was interesting, and seeing Tom Nook jokingly presented as a "villain" to the Animal Crossing series seems like it'd be cute, but pretty funny. That said, he's also got plenty of potential for a unique money-centric moveset, and I think he'd be a surprising fan-favourite inclusion. Even after Isabelle got into the base roster... three characters makes sense for
Animal Crossing, in my eyes.
No Echo Fighter this time around. It's still early days, so it'd be best to keep things simple and succinct.
The new stage being Metal Cavern is somewhat of a throwback to
Smash 64 and a love-letter to long-time fans. It's not really a stage a lot of people have requested compared to, say, Pac-Maze or Poké Floats, but it'd be a surprising and fun inclusion to bring back in my mind. Not only this, but it'd keep the "retro" vibe the other 64 stages have going on!
In terms of items and such, our first new Assist Trophy is Piranha Plant. When summoned, it'll be inside a pipe and will reach out to opponents in an attempt to bite at them. Not only this, but it can recede into the pipe - with the pipe retracting into the ground and then popping out elsewhere on the stage, with the Piranha Plant inside! I think this is a good role for the character to fill, and it makes sense to again go for an iconic choice over something less obvious.
We get two new Pokémon this time too - given Gen VIII isn't out yet, I'm keeping these three to some of the older series.
- Golem uses Rollout, retracting into his ball and rolling across the stage a total of three times before disappearing. Each roll is progressively faster, but if he hits a wall, item, or attack, he'll be knocked out of his rolling state and will look dazed and confused before disappearing.
- Chandelure uses Will-o-Wisp, with blue flames emitting from its candles and orbiting it as it drifts across the stage for a while, doing fire damage to anyone it hits. The little flames tend to orbit slowly around it, and move outward over time, making Chandelure more and more of a threat.
Next, your new item - Parasol (from the
Kirby series!) It works similarly to other batting weapons, replacing your jab with a swipe with the parasol. However, whilst holding the parasol, you fall very slowly through the air - using the parasol to break your fall. If you attack whilst in this state, you'll drop to the ground, and can't activate the parasol again until you tough the ground.
Lastly, our bonus costume. I'm opting to replace Rex with Metal Mario, a Brawler costume, mostly because I just think it makes sense to include a "playable Metal Mario" with Metal Cavern, plus it'd be a good callback to Smash history,
and it'd be pretty flashy.
