Smashboards Creates: Battle of AGES, a SEGA platform fighter

[Champion of Hyrule]

1. Virtua Racing
2. Nebulapolis
3. Tavern

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. Piggy Plains
2. Planet Flora
3. The Bermuda

 

[cashregister9]

1. Deathwatch
2. Nebulapolis
3. The Saloon

 

[Captain Shwampy]

1) The Bermuda
2) Derby Owners Club
3) Elheim

 

[darkvortex]

1. Deathwatch
2. Bermuda
3. Nebulapolis

 

[Flyboy]

1. Derby Owner's Club
2. Auriga
3. Virtua Racing (Genuinely think this is one of our major omissions)

 

[TORNADO BUS DRIVER]

1. Deathwatch
2. Bermuda
3. Virtua Racing

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, gamers, time is up and it is time to see the results:

Tavern: 2 points
Opera: 0 points
Nebula: 6 points
Elheim: 1 points
Racing: 6 points
D-Watch: 13 oints
Lake: 0 points
Auriga: 5 points
Saloon: 4 points
Derby: 5 points
Plains: 5 points
Bermuda: 11 points
Flora: 8 points
Bank: 0 points

And, well.....there we have it - the final misc. stage in this project is none other than DeathWatch!!!!!

Moving on now:

Job #291: Submit up to two assists from misc. SEGA properties

Just the same as with stages, it's now time to figure out the last misc. assist slot. I'm once again letting you all submit up to two for a wider net of ideas, and I'd also again like you to consider that this is the last one, so this is your last shot to get in anything that you want. Do also try to keep in mind how they fit in with the other two misc. assists in this pass, but that's not as important admittedly. So, well.....have at it!

 

[YoshiandToad]

I'm not giving up on getting some Endless representation(and thus Amplitude Studios representation) in until the bitter end(less)...and so this was probably the most inevitable submission:

Job #291:

(Horatio/Endless Universe)​

Let it be known that Horatio is not beyond compassion.

Whilst it is true he'd much rather your less symmetrical friends be diced and spliced into far more pleasing envisions of himself, Horatio is willing to stoop to the level of the less perfect and beautiful to form alliances (unlike those demonic Cravers).

So when Horatio sees you as a friend(aka an assist), what can Horatio do for you, a non-Horatio?

Why...splice and dice of course!

When summoned, Horatio appears in the foreground and with a simple elegant snap of his fingers, DNA chambers will materialise around the opponents, trapping them very momentarily. In a brief moment Horatio will perform a flourish and those who once terminally infected with non-Horatioiness will be magnifecently cured. Horatio will then bid you adieu and return to his regal duties on Horatio Prime for a time.

Yes, you see everyone becomes Horatio...apart from the summoner.

This could be your opponents. The ones cheering Horatio. Never the true Horatio. ​

As the Horatio abhore the individual, and praise the conformity of their race, the opponents will be temporarily robbed of their special attacks(although they can still punch, kick, fire guns, use items, etc, just absolutely fine), and lose access to their All-Star Move during their stint bathing in the light of true beauty.

The summoner, who let's be real actually gets the rawest deal by not getting to become one with the 'We', instead gets the booby prize of stealing a little All-Star power from every individual who has been turned into a Horatio clone when the splicing occurs.

So how can one use the Horatio to secure victory?

Horatio celebrating a supremecy victory alongside 'soon-to-be-Horatios'.​

• Summon Horatio when an enemy is attempting to make it back to the stage. The chamber will temporarily block their movement and naturally falls on it's own. A bit of a cheap tactic, but it works.
• With multiple opponents in a fray when everyone becomes Horatio it can momentarily confuse players with which Horatio they are. How many times have you been looking at the wrong character when the one you're controlling has accidentally leapt off the ledge? That.
• When an opponent is about to use their All-Star, Horatio can easily counter this. He both stalls All-Star moves due to individuality being seen as a punishable crime by the Horatio, and also steals some of that delicious All-Star meter DNA and splices it into the summoner, allowing them to build their own All-Star meter up fast.
  • This is particularly effective when used against MULTIPLE opponents where those All-Star meter splices stack up quickly, getting the meter to 3/4's full when used against three enemies at once and robbing them of 1/4 of each of theirs!
• The opponents are robbed of their special moves to avoid being too individual, instead getting similar default attacks.

What are the weaknesses of the Horatio Assist?

Even in death...there is beauty.​

Alas, whilst perfect, Horatio's DNA technology that he stole from the Endless(far less perfect beings), is not. Here are some slight drawbacks:

• Horatio's Assist Meter is very slow. Much like production of his ships in Endless Space 2 compared to other species, Horatio has a much slower summon rate than most assists as you simply cannot rush perfection. Before appearing he is stopping to admire himself in the mirror...and gaze beyond it. As a result, you won't be able to spam Horatio, so use him where it counts!
• Horatio as a rule aren't the strongest species in Endless, but they make up for it with technology. Whilst your opponent may not be able to use their special moves, they do now have access to a Horatio built laser gun that can pack a powerful blast capable of shaving a lot of a health bar. They're changed and mildly handicapped, but they are not unarmed.
• The Horatio cloning proncess sadly hasn't been perfected in this mobile version of the tanks, and players will return to normal after 15 seconds have passed. They'll have to live their lives(or at least until Horatio's assist meter fills up again) having known perfection and lost it.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Job #291: Gradriel De Valendia (Princess Crown)

The princess and soon to be crowned queen of Valendia. After ascending to the throne and hearing problems occurring through out the kingdom she sneaks out of the castle and sets out to see the world in order to become the true Queen her people deserve like her mother. Joined By Aria, a fairy she met, Gradriel sets out and relieves the people of her kingdom from the Demon Lords influence.



Gradriel is a small statured heavy sword fighter, her attacks are slow, but hit heavily. Getting caught in her combos is never a good idea, especially if shes uses her upper cut attack as a finisher. If you haven't KO'd her already, As a last ditch effort, from malice and anger, Gradriel has a chance of invoking Evil Gradriel, an older seductress form that uses powerful spells infinitely, shes however takes damage using these spells, so it doesn't last very long. Just make sure to avoid her at all cost until her energy depletes.

Near the end of the game you can unlock a Marvelous Melmo-ish transformation for Gradriel that turns her into a sorcereress with powerful magic spells, however you take damage with each spell used. pic.twitter.com/geEJylbk5j

— Grandis Gang Hideout (@Grandis_Granva) April 6, 2024

History of Princess Crown
Geroge Kamitani was originally an employee at Capcom. He worked on Saturday Night Slam Masters and D&D Tower of Doom, to which Dragon's Crown is a throwback too. He decided go finally direct his own game one day and went to Sega for funding however during this time in history the failed SEGA and Namco merger was currently being discussed which made Sega too busy to operate with funding a new title, however a friend of Kamitani who worked at Sega gave him directions to make a risky pitch to Atlus, there it was decided Atlus and Sega would co-develop it, this game would be called Princess Crown. The game abbreviated in Japanese is "PuriKura", the was on purpose by Kamitani as a reference to the first SEGA/Atlus co-developed project, the iconic PuriKura Photo booths. Atlus Kansai was formed to develop the title, ultimately though, the game was released near the end of the Saturn life, and was a commercial failure. Atlus Kansai went bankrupt and some of staff member went onto form Sound Factory who developed the Power Instinct games. Kamitani was blacklisted and lived in poverty with a Princesses Crown programmer for years after, He however never gave up his dream and formed Vanillaware in between. In 2007 he finally pulled through by releasing Odin Sphere. Princess Crown had many ideas for a sequel on the Dreamcast that eventually were re-used on Odin Sphere and Dragons Crown(which was intended to be the actual sequel on dreamcast). Many of the Vanillaware titles released now were all conceived in the 2000s and are only finally coming out now due to the financial problems Kamitani had going away. According to Naoto Hiraoka of Atlus, Princess Crown development was the foundation that established Sega buying Atlus in 2013.

While Princess Crown was a commercial failure, Gradriels design was super influential and caused a design archetype to emerge, the princess knight. This thread shows multiple examples of character designs that were clearly inspired by Gradriel.

In 2000, Capcom made Gaia Master with Princess Tiara, better known here as "Who is this I keep getting in the Kinu figurine collection?" Her transformed mode blended both versions of Gradriel. pic.twitter.com/CmrN1RvZXW

— Kerblombo (@kerblombo) December 18, 2017

 

[Speed Weed]

Job #291-1: Bruno Delinger

Guys I swear Dynamite Deka is like really important please I want to get at least something major from it in this project please oh god

When summoned, Bruno will show off his combat chops. First, he'll run up to opponents and fight them with his MMA skills, such as punches and kicks but also throwing them around or performing some wrestling-ish moves. However, he'll spice things up by also performing some good old-fashioned prop combat inbetween, such as spinning a broom around, spraying opponents with pepper spray, or lobbing a grandfather clock around. He's essentially an assist in the style of the "could almost be a character" ones from Ultimate, like Alucard and whatnot to reference how he was ROBBED /s

For my second assist pick, I'm juggling a few ideas. I have an earlier submission I think is worth revisiting, but I've got a couple other potential ones. Either way, it'll likely be another one from the Saturn era

 

[darkvortex]

Laura (D)
Laura is an interesting case. the protagonist of D, D2 and Enemy Zero, three unrelated stories in games created by gaming legend Kenji Eno. Laura was an idea head of its time, a virtual avatar who would appear in multiple games by the same creator, a different story and background each time. She was Laura Harris in the survival horror game D, an astronaut named simply Laura in the space horror game Enemy Zero, and Laura Parton in D2. Eno 's games are fascinating curiosities and are looking on as ahead of their time, despite their faults, he also has a history with Sega, having done music for Sega Ralley.

When summoned, Laura will stand around with a gun and run around the stage, shooting. Monsters will appear and attempt to chase her. These monsters will instead attack other fighters if Laura gets in the way.

Dogs Bower
From the Dreamcast launch game Blue Stinger. The story follows emergency rescuer Eliot Ballade after he is stranded on the monster-infested Dinosaur Island and allies with fellow survivors to find the source of the monsters. Dogs is one of the other survivors. He wields a giant cross bow to start with and is known for his unusual speaking patterns and catchphrases.

He will appear and shoot of up to four crossbow bolts at a time, each at a different speed and power. He will sprout a different phrase each time.

 

[Speed Weed]

I've decided I'm going all the way back and pulling out a pick I nominated at the tail end of base game, that being Sir Pepper. As I mention in the original post, Clockwork Knight is a series that SEGA references a lot more than you'd think, and so I think it has this really interesting place in history as a game with a.....surprising amount of prestige for what one might intitially dismiss as obscure mascot fodder. If anyone wants any ideas I also considered Yoko from Last Bronx or one of the athletes from Decathlete

Sir Tongara de Pepperouchau III from Clockwork Knight
View attachment 353119
Sir Pepper is the protagonist of the Clockwork Knight series, a duology of 2D platformers for the Saturn. Pepper is a toy knight who lives among many other living toys in the room of a girl called Betsy. Each night, these toys come to life through the singing of the princess Chelsea, a doll who lives inside the room's clock. Pepper is after Chelsea's heart, but unfortunately, he's somewhat clumsy and a bit of a laughing stock. One day, a mysterious force kidnaps Chelsea, which ****s things up because if she ain't there to sing, those toys ain't waking up. To make matters worse, a spell has been placed on many of the toys that turns them evil. And so, Pepper must journey forth, fighting off the forces of evil to save Chelsea.

So Clockwork Knight was a heavily-marketed game in the Saturn's early days, but after the Saturn, the series just kinda.........disappeared. It died with the Saturn really. So of course, the logical thing to assume would be that this is just one of many random scrimblo franchises that are propped up by fans but completely ignored by SEGA, right? Surely this sounds like the kind of game that would be shunted off to the vaults and never given any mention again, right?

Right?

Wrong.

So I've been a SEGA fan for a while, but around maybe 2 years ago, I started to gain a greater fascination with their history and dug way deeper than I ever had before. One of the most fascinating little running themes I've seen in my more recent journeys as a SEGA fan is the realization that SEGA actually ****ing love to reference this game. For one, Pepper makes a cameo in Segagaga. The series has a significant presence in the SEGA Freaks collection of trading cards from the Saturn era. The series has made several appearances in SEGA albums, often through the ending theme, "A Lullaby", which has shown up in, among other albums, Segacon, a massive collection of tracks from across SEGA's history up to the end of their console-making days (said tracks were based on a fan vote btw!); Radio DC, a very off-beat collection of remixes that are framed as if you're listening to a radio station; and SEGAROCK, an album consisting simply of rockin' remixes of various SEGA tunes. These are all up on YouTube btw, I'd recommend you check them out. Said song has also made an appearance in, of all things, the Yakuza series, as one of the various SEGA tracks that can play in certain places. Pepper also made a cameo in the ****ing PSO2 anime of all things. And lastly, he also showed up a lot when SEGA were celebrating their 60th anniversary, getting both his own lil pfp when they did those and also a spot in that big banner they did. So that's quite a resume! And this is all crazy to me cause this series is like, the last thing I'd expect them to reference this often. But it's the world we live in, and so I think it's reasonable to give it a shoutout. I don't really think he has to be playable, but just a lil something would be nice. I think he fits right in as an assist.

When summoned, Pepper would start running around, smacking people with his keyblade. He'll also sometimes pick up and throw opponents.

I mention several times it's been referenced already in the quoted post, but as a fun aside it's worth mentioning one more development that's happened since then - SEGA ran a Christmas stream where Takenobu Mitsuyoshi hung around and sang some SEGA songs, and among those was Clockwork Knight's ending theme, "A Lullaby".....but what's interesting is it was what looked to be a completely new arrangement. I've never heard this version anywhere else, I've no idea if it was from some album or composed specifically for this stream or if it was just something they had kicking around internally for a bit, but if you wanted more proof of the surprising amount of reverence SEGA has for this series, there ya go.

 

[TORNADO BUS DRIVER]

Phantom R (Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure)
From the cult classic rhythm puzzle game for the 3DS. A young street artist named Phantom R who must solve the mystery of his missing father and ends up clashing with a resurrected Napoleon Bonaparte (Yes really, the game gets weird).

When summoned, Phantom R will pose and start to dance, this will both speed up and slow down the battle depending on the music being played by the assist. Backup dancers and a dance floor will appear for extra flair. The final pose will send anyone caught in his attack flying.

Flogian Bros.
If this is our last assist then I want to get weird.

Moigle and Hoigle are a pair of brothers who live and work in a junkyard. Hoigle is the shorter of the two and the one mainly controlled by the player in the platforming video game. Moigle is the larger brother and must be interacted with in order to have him do actions.

When summoned, Hoigle will run around throwing bombs while Moigle just stands there. However, if Hoigle gets attacked then Moigle will get upset and start to attack, slamming down on fighters.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Re-submitting Nigel but for assist this time

Job 286 (2): Nigel and Friday the Treasure Hunters (LandStalker)
View attachment 383710
I was sorta against Nigel but I reviewed some of his appearance in Time Stalker on the Dreamcast and became more confidant for him. Nigel is 88 year old Elf(thats super young in Elf years) treasure Hunter that one day happens upon a sprite, a nymph like creature, called Friday running away from a terrible trio of thieves Kayla, Ink, and Wally because of her knowledge of the location of King Nole's Treasure. After many trials they finally find the treasure and defeat Gola the Dragon God and continue going on more adventures despite the infinite well they have accumulated.

Several years later, Nigel now 91 years gets sent to a colony of parallel dimensions where he meets Sword, the protagonist of Time Stalker, Pyra the mage in training from Shining the Darkness, and Lady from Lady Stalker. With masterful skills from Treasure Hunting, he can find traps laid out in dungeons, identify treasure, and has the highest charisma and luck out of all the playable characters in the game making it easy for him to find rarer items and catch monsters laid out in dungeons.
View attachment 383712
(I originally wanted the protagonist of all the Stalker games to be alt costumes but they are way to different for that to work.)

Nigel may look like an average Swordfighter but for a treasure hunter he has many supplies up his sleeve. With the sword of Gaia he can cause earthquakes, use Lightning spells, curse spells, Crossbows, and use a multitude of traps in his disposal Bomber Traps, Blizzard traps, Slash & Spear traps, Lighting traps, Gas Geyser traps, Ceiling traps, etc all come with their own effects in battle and can do violent damage if caught in one. Nigel is very much a trap setter fighter, he sets them up and trick his opponents. Now you're probably wondering what does Friday do? In the original LandStalker she would revive Nigel with fruits every time his life reaches zero (similar to the fairy mechanic in Zelda), Now obvious that wouldn't be fair, but Time Stalker did add a lot of fruits she could use such as elemental fruits, buff/debuff fruits, status effect fruit, all of which can be used in battle to help Nigel.
View attachment 383713

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

Assist 1: Vectorman - Seriously, I'm suprised that a Vectorman fighter/assist hadn't been included with how far we are into this. So let's change that. When Vectorman is summoned, he starts attacking opponents with attacks he does in his game(like Sukapon, Guile, Alucard and Akira in SSBU),

Assist 2: Rob (Angry Birds) - Since the Angry Birds rights have been purchased by SEGA, we should at least get some Angry Birds content. When Rob is summoned, he runs to the edge of the screen/platform and starts building. After he is finished building, he puts what he built(a scrap car like what is used in Bad Piggies) and uses it to run into the opponents, stunning them or if they're on low enough health, sending them off screen.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Considered a few options I wanted to see get represented such as Wonderland Wars, and Spikeout, but there's one major Sega property I don't think we've really touched on much...

Job 291-b: Derakkuma (maimai)

It's Derakkuma!
This tiny polar bear that was raised as a lion is here to bring some noise!

When summoned, Derakkuma will appear and summon a pair of circular rings from his 'mane'. These shockwave rings will grow larger taking up the entire screen and stage, meaning this assist can potentially be very useful at clearing opponents away from the summoner if they're feeling crowded.

When the ring touches an opponent it'll hurt them and knock them backwards. If you get knocked back you'll have to deal with the ring AGAIN as it continues to expand. Too many and you'll be knocked out of bounds!
HOWEVER there is an easy enough counter, if the opponent uses a basic attack with the correct timing, they'll hit the rhythm and be unaffected, harmlessly letting the rhythm past them.

You can also dodge past the rings of course, but the distance between the first and second expanding rings makes dodging the first and not getting hit by the second surprisingly tough.

It's all about rhythm and hitting those notes in maimai, so get your dancing shoes on and beat the beat!