>TFW you actually work for NoA and nobody outside of people directly working on the game except for Reggie get to know the roster its that top-secret.
Any leak that isn't from someone claiming to be Bill should be taken as bull****.
I do stuff with retailers and occasionally things like help setting up deals/agreements such as us sponsoring EVO this year (and in the coming years).
The employees who aren't working on the game, do get to play specific builds of it that have most of the announced characters and stages playable in the office, and new stuff is added when they update the build around once a month.
Pyrosphere isn't one we can play on anymore, it was removed from the demo build back in February.
Ask me anything, I guess.
"Can you, without a shadow of a doubt, disconfirm Ridley?"
No I cannot. He isn't playable, an assist, nor is Pyrosphere a playable stage. This was likely done to raise mystery on whether or not he is playable. He wasn't on Pyrosphere when it was playable late last year, but stuff has been changed since we've gotten our hands on it the first time. The Yellow Devil wasn't in the build until around the same time Pyrosphere was taken out, and it wasn't until later were you able to destroy him.
I cannot confirm or deny any characters that haven't already been done, stuff that was announced the previous month usually gets added to the build.
The only things I can really talk about that hasn't been formally announced are that Green Hill Zone from Brawl is unchanged on 3DS, and the Pokemon stage on WiiU's tentative name is "Kalos League" and is a travelling stage where it stops with various changes to its platform layout.
"Is Nintendo aware of the Smash communities and who they want? Are they aware of how popular Ridley, K. Rool, and Mewtwo are? Do they even give a ****?"
A lot of people here really want K. Rool. He's arguably the most wanted character. Mewtwo isn't as popular here due to everyone thinking there's plenty of Gen1 Pokemon (3 if you count Jiggs) already and that he wasn't fun to play as in Melee, characters that are surprisingly popular among people in the office are [Bandanna] Waddle Dee and Mach Rider (as the retro-revival character).
"How does it play? Have the physics or anything been tweaked since the E3 build?
Is Robin fun?"
Its really fun, leagues better than Brawl.
The physics and characters have changed since the E3 build (which is actually the build we had in mid April). There's a bit more hitstun and characters fall a bit faster, ending lag has been greatly reduced, unless you used an Air Dodge, which in case it is slightly longer.
Robin, Lucina and The Captain are being added in next week's update.
The only thing about any of them that I know that you guys don't, is that according to guys who have been playing the builds with those characters is that Falcon Punch now has some armor.
Bowser hasn't changed much aside from a few attacks being weaker in terms of damage percents done, he's still Top Tier.
"There's a guy on Smashboards [Ninka] who knows a guy who knows a guy who works at NOA apparently, and he made Brawl skins of E3 demo recolors a few weeks before E3 to prove his legitimacy. Anyways he says;
>Shulk is playable
>Bowser Jr. is playable and has alt skins of all the Koopalings
>Duck Hunt Dog is playable
>Dark Pit is playable
>Doctor Mario is back as a clone
>Ice Climbers, Lucas, Snake, and Wolf are cut
Is there any truth to any of this. It's such a **** leak that I'm worried."
I can't prove or deny any of those, but I did see a Bowser Jr. Trophy in a results screen from playing Smash Run, so I'm guessing its false. Also having his alts be the Koopalings would be a lot of work and several of them have completely different body types which would mess with hitboxes.
"TELL ME ABOUT CANCELING ATTACKS"
Are you talking about stuff like crouch canceling and L-Cancels?
Better stick with Melee then. They were removed as they wouldn't register half the time when testing the game online with more than 2 players so they were removed all together. The fix is just reducing recovery animations/landing lag.
"When did you get your job?"
I've been working at NoA for 4 years.
Employees tend to keep working for a very long time, a lot of people here were working here in the 90s.
"Hey did you guys catch that in the smash direct at minute 36 there's some pink text that translate to Boss hp 100.000 in palutena's stage?
what's the stage hazard?"
As of right now, there is no boss on that stage. But then again, it wasn't until months later after the game was first shown did we get to be able to fight the Yellow Devil.
A boss on that stage would make sense, as we joke that the stage is Ridley-sized, it really needs something to fill the stage as its roughly twice the size of Hyrule Temple. Hades would be my first guess as to who could be a boss, he is big enough and a fan favorite character.
"So do all the hard-hitters have armor up the *** now or what?"
Mac isn't that good unless you're on FD. Dedede doesn't have armor outside of his Up B, he's not as powerful as he was in Brawl but his recovery makes up for it.
Characters like Fox and Shiek are not nearly as good as they once were. Pikachu is still great, Marth isn't as fast anymore and really doesn't feel like he should be compared with the others.
"Sheik doesn't have landing lag after using her needles midair, not to mention her new special moves"
I was comparing SSB4 Shiek to Melee Shiek, she has improved over Brawl.
SSB4 Shiek is still good, better than most characters, but she's no longer S/Top Tier.
As far as "tiers" are considered, over here we just class them unto:
Top - which has characters like Kirby, Pit, ZSS and Bowser
High - which has characters like DK, Greninja, Villager, Toon Link, Samus, Rosalina, Palutena (default moves) and Ike.
Mid - which has characters like Charizard, Dedede, Diddy, WFT, Fox, Little Mac, Pac-Man and Marth
Low - which has characters like Megaman, Zelda and Mii Brawler
There was a "Bottom" tier but there wasn't much of a difference between the best and worst characters to have 5 separate tiers.
"Do the Mii Fighters only take up one slot?"
As of right now, they are one square on the roster, but you then click on the one you want on your character panel, kind of like how you could pick the Pokemon you wanted to lead off with when using the Pokemon Trainer in Brawl.
"Do you know if it's true the mii fighters are toggleable by random?"
I don't know if the specific Miis will be toggle-able in the final build, but in our build you can get a Mii Fighter by selecting random, and the Mii chosen will be random (we only have Reggie, Bill, Iwata, Miyamoto and Sakurai Miis on our demo, all of them are the same size and use the default outfits).
">Bowser top tier
>Dong, Ike high tier
>Mii brawler low tier
What about the other Miis?"
Gunner was high but got bumped down once we realized how he could easily be countered (weak air game). He's like Megaman, except heavier, slower/less mobile and with more KO moves (but a comparable amount of damage)
Swordfighter is mid, he has good combo potential and speed, but low knockback and his attacks don't do much in terms of damage.
Note these are just the Miis using the default size, with no equipment and their default specials.
Note, Mid Tier characters in the game, are still very viable. There are no characters like Meta Knight who break the game or ones like Melee Fox/Falco that are just all-around the best.
"What would you change about the game physics if able to? Also, how short is the hop? Seemed pretty long for ZSS...wavedashing is out right?"
I like the physics in the current build, the short-hop depends on the character (one's with higher/longer full jumps have higher short-hops). I want Smash 4 to be its own thing, not Melee HD, not Brawl 2.0, the game is great as is. Anyone can pick up and play it, and the skill ceiling is much higher than Brawl.
No wavedashing, this is common knowledge.
"Do you guys feel pressure to be "progressive?""
No.
Nobody cares about SJW stuff in our games because they already have universal appeal in terms of race/sex. Nobody cares that Kirby is referred to being male, or that Mario is white. We all agree that games should be about fun, not an agenda.
"Is Yoshi buffed?"
He can jump out of shield and is slightly better all-around.
Also, people who are jumping straight from Melee will probably ***** to no end because their main got nerfed.
"How bad is Link this time? He always seems to get **** on.
Also, what makes my new main Megaman low tier?"
He's not **** this time, not Top Tier, but not ****.
Megaman was better but did get nerfed back in March. He's really light and doesn't have much in terms of KO moves, he can deal a good amount of damage though. Note, he is currently Low Tier, but he's not like Brawl Ganon or Mewtwo levels of bad.
"I have mained Marth since Melee; do you think he is still useful as a character? I will probably adapt to his changes, but I was just wondering how bad his situation was"
He's slower, a little weaker, can't chain grab much (his throws did get buffed considerably, and his reach nerfed), and his sword is a little shorter (not much though). He's Mid Tier and still very viable.
"W-Wait you guys heard about the Gematsu leak?
How did you react? Did Nintendo try to contact Sal Romano or something?"
The E3 2013 one was panic inducing.
Gematsu 2 was less so, the only problem we had with it was that nobody wanted Chrom.
"Is there anyway you could prove you actually work there? You said you don't have cards or anything, but could you say if there's an upcoming event that we don't know about I.E something like comic-con/best buy smash fest? If that ends up true, then we might believe your ****."
Its not upcoming, but we struck a deal to have Smash 4 at EVO until 2017 and for a 15th anniversary tournament there for Melee
"What are Palutena's default moves?"
Heavenly Light
Rocket Jump
Reflect
Lightweight
She's got great smashes and air attacks.
"Is Chrom a skin? What are his and takamaru's reception around the office?"
No and slight disappointment.
"Since you play primarily Greninja, DDD, and Ike, what can you say are their weaknesses? Also, do Greninja and Ike have a satisfying feel to them when you land a good smash/KO?"
Triple D is slow and doesn't have armor, you need to be great at spacing.
Greninja is light, he lacks good KO potential.
Ike has a problem with characters who can deal damage from long range and his throws aren't good. Ironically, Megaman is great against Ike until he comes up and KOs you at 60% with his front air.
"Is Peach available to play in your build? Is so, what's different?"
Her Final Smash is a placeholder, and she's similar to Melee Peach and Reggie's main.
"did you have any input on the rules for the invitational? Will the rules for upcoming EVO tourneys remain as they are now for melee tourneys? How does Nintendo feel about Project M?"
No. Similar to the invitational, but no items (unless if the players want it with them), we don't talk about PM.
"How's pac-man?"
He's a rushdown character, good air game, mediocre on the ground, think Little Mac but the opposite.
"Tell me something we don't know about custom movesets. Like, what does Kirby or Link or Samus get?"
Kirby's only available moves are Ice Breath and Great Swing (the running hammer swing from Super Star). [Ice Breath is neutral B]
Fox gets a stun blaster shot
Nothing on Samus yet.
"Do you think Pac will be a bit more viable than Mac since his air game is better than his ground, or are they both similarly mediocre?"
Its a matter of what stage you're playing on.
Mac dominates on FD, Pac is better on Battlefield.
"Can you tell us of any Assist Trophies we haven't seen yet?"
A handful from Brawl that nobody really liked (like that propeller like thing and, Hammer Bros)
Issac and AW troopers are not one of them
"Wait, since you guys only play 4vs4 what right do you have to talk about tiers!
Also the tourney rules, how similar are they to the E3 ones.
Like is it seriously 4vs4 until the finals, and is sudden death really on after that poor reception?"
We do 1v1s a lot and the tiers reflect 1v1s.
4player matches allow for more entrants, but the format isn't finalized. We will also be holding some of our owns and really like the idea of having ones that are 2v2.