My Interview with Calvin Lofton of VGBootCamp and Phenomenal EE Regarding Smash 4

[MugenLord]

While I was in the game room during the Otakon Anime Convention, I had the opportunity to play a few friendly matches with Calvin Lofton. Then I interviewed him for his opinion on Smash Brothers for Wii U and 3DS.

 

[mario123007]

Awesome! I saw many Smash Bros gameplay videos in VG boot camp's youtube channel. I haven't watch this video yet when I made this comment. I will comment again after I watch this video.

 

[Dott]

Great interview! Good to see the opinion of the man behind all the vgbootcamp streams.

 

[MugenLord]

Awesome! I saw many Smash Bros gameplay videos in VG boot camp's youtube channel. I haven't watch this video yet when I made this comment. I will comment again after I watch this video.

He is a very cool guy. I had no idea I was playing against the VGBootCamp Crew at Otakon. I was playing Smash Brothers Melee and I had won 9 games straight with Mario, and I kept hearing a bunch of guys shouting "Who is that Mario? He is pretty good" Then Calvin and PhenomenalEE got in and played teams against me and this random kid on my team. Calvin's Sheik is pretty good and I don't know any advance techniques at all so I had a hard time against his wave dashing for a bit till I caught on. We were all down to 1 stock except Calvin he was up by one stock, I was trying to take out EE's Yoshi but my useless partner died and took my stock without asking me so I was left at 57% with one stock. My partner died instantly again so I was fighting EE and Calvin both at the same time and did pretty good against them but I ended up losing lol.

 

[MugenLord]

I had a chance to interview both Calvin Lofton Co-Founder of VG BootCamp and their commentator Phenomenal EE. I wanted to hear his opinion on Smash Brothers Wii U and 3DS.

 

[mario123007]

He is a very cool guy. I had no idea I was playing against the VGBootCamp Crew at Otakon. I was playing Smash Brothers Melee and I had won 9 games straight with Mario, and I kept hearing a bunch of guys shouting "Who is that Mario? He is pretty good" Then Calvin and PhenomenalEE got in and played teams against me and this random kid on my team. Calvin's Sheik is pretty good and I don't know any advance techniques at all so I had a hard time against his wave dashing for a bit till I caught on. We were all down to 1 stock except Calvin he was up by one stock, I was trying to take out EE's Yoshi but my useless partner died and took my stock without asking me so I was left at 57% with one stock. My partner died instantly again so I was fighting EE and Calvin both at the same time and did pretty good against them but I ended up losing lol.

I am not a resindent in the USA but I know Melee's mechanic and that all kinds of stuff.
I know that if one dies in team stock battles, you are doomed.
CAN YOU BE MY MENTOR OF MARIO please? I'm a Mario main too.
Here's my 3ds friend code:1521-3033-2948

 

[Hong]

@ MugenLord
Thank you for bringing to us these interviews.

That said, it's a bit much to make two threads in under an hour's time, so I've merged them. Feel free to change the title to that which you please via Thread Tools -> Edit Thread at the top of your first post. Thanks.

 

[MugenLord]

I am not a resindent in the USA but I know Melee's mechanic and that all kinds of stuff.
I know that if one dies in team stock battles, you are doomed.
CAN YOU BE MY MENTOR OF MARIO please? I'm a Mario main too.
Here's my 3ds friend code:1521-3033-2948

I am not a pro, but I don't mind helping when I can lol. My Wii U ID is MugenLord and my 3DS FriendCode is 4339-2485-7226

@ MugenLord
Thank you for bringing to us these interviews.

That said, it's a bit much to make two threads in under an hour's time, so I've merged them. Feel free to change the title to that which you please via Thread Tools -> Edit Thread at the top of your first post. Thanks.

oh, sorry about that and thanks!

 

[SmashShadow]

GimR is love! GimR is life!

 

[ミスティック Speed]

Wait.
Did I just hear positive feedback about Smash4?
Praise the lord....it's finally happened. -.- *sigh* About time. I hardly ever hear competitive players say anything good "competitive-wise" about this game....
Welp. The Melee-fanatics won't like this guy. How dare he compliment something that's not Melee/P:M...

 

[MugenLord]

Wait.
Did I just hear positive feedback about Smash4?
Praise the lord....it's finally happened. -.- *sigh* About time. I hardly ever hear competitive players say anything good "competitive-wise" about this game....
Welp. The Melee-fanatics won't like this guy. How dare he compliment something that's not Melee/P:M...

I think there will be something to like about the game once everyone actually have time to sit down with it long enough.

 

[ミスティック Speed]

I think there will be something to like about the game once everyone actually have time to sit down with it long enough.

Oh don't get me wrong here. I believe Smash4 will be the best competitive Smash game to date. I can't wait to play it and see other people discover the truth too.
There will always be those people who can never be satisfied unless it's just like Melee though. Sadly.

Also, thank you for conducting these interviews, they were truly awesome.

 

[MugenLord]

Oh don't get me wrong here. I believe Smash4 will be the best competitive Smash game to date. I can't wait to play it and see other people discover the truth too.
There will always be those people who can never be satisfied unless it's just like Melee though. Sadly.

Also, thank you for conducting these interviews, they were truly awesome.

I am hype for the game, every character in this entry is bringing something different to the table as far as gameplay. Link was my first Main back in the N64 days till I couldn't figure out how to win with him then I moved on to my boy Ness and finally took on Mario. Then with Melee things stayed the same, I stuck with Mario because Ness didn't feel as good as he was in the N64 version but Link was a bit better. Once Brawl was released I stayed with Mario once more and was totally disappointed with Sonic, but Project M changed everything and now Link became my first Main again followed by Mario, Ness, Sonic, and I am currently trying out ZS Samus.

When Smash 4 releases I will try out Mario, Link, and Ness(I know he has to return) to see have they improved or not. I will most definitely try Little Mac and most definitely Bowser! No prolbem, I was lucky to meet these guys, they were sitting right next to me and I had no idea it was them until EE starting shouting out "VG BootCamp" and Calvin sat right next to me with the shirt on. I said "Cool, I just started watching you guys on youtube"

 

[ミスティック Speed]

I am hype for the game, every character in this entry is bringing something different to the table as far as gameplay. Link was my first Main back in the N64 days till I couldn't figure out how to win with him then I moved on to my boy Ness and finally took on Mario. Then with Melee things stayed the same, I stuck with Mario because Ness didn't feel as good as he was in the N64 version but Link was a bit better. Once Brawl was released I stayed with Mario once more and was totally disappointed with Sonic, but Project M changed everything and now Link became my first Main again followed by Mario, Nice, Sonic, and I am currently trying out ZS Samus.

When Smash 4 releases I will try out Mario, Link, and Ness(I know he has to return) to see have they improved or not. I will most definitely try Little Mac and most definitely Bowser! No prolbem, I was lucky to meet these guys, they were sitting right next to me and I had no idea it was them until EE starting shouting out "VG BootCamp" and Calvin sat right next to me with the shirt on. I said "Cool, I just started watching you guys on youtube"

I really hope I get the chance to play with my old main again....
I don't really need to say who it is....since it's kinda obvious. xD But we totally should play together sometime once the 3DS version releases. No worries, I'm actually pretty good and competitive at Smash. ^^ I absolutely adore playing against Mario, especially good ones.
(Btw, what are your thoughts on Mewtwo? Do you think he has a shot at returning?)

 

[MugenLord]

I really hope I get the chance to play with my old main again....
I don't really need to say who it is....since it's kinda obvious. xD But we totally should play together sometime once the 3DS version releases. No worries, I'm actually pretty good and competitive at Smash. ^^ I absolutely adore playing against Mario, especially good ones.
(Btw, what are your thoughts on Mewtwo? Do you think he has a shot at returning?)

I'm no pro at smash but I can hold my own pretty well though, but as far as Mewtwo returning I don't know anymore. I think this has been the most Sakurai has ever trolled before. I wish I can find the article, but back during a Pokemon X and Y conference last year. One of the developers of the Pokemon game asked Sakurai "will we see a return of Mewtwo" Sakurai replied back "We're thinking about it"

Update: Here is the Article http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/34700/sakurai-considering-mewtwo-for-next-smash-bros-games

 

[mario123007]

I am not a pro, but I don't mind helping when I can lol. My Wii U ID is MugenLord and my 3DS FriendCode is 4339-2485-7226

added!

 

[Renji64]

Good interviews. Gimr does have a good point about the reduced landing lag i hope they take the feedback seriously.

 

[lilt]

Man. MugenLord you look sexy with your hair. And I'm not gay at all.

@ topic: Good and interesting interview

 

[Hong]

Man. MugenLord you look sexy with your hair.

I agree with this immensely.

Simply gorgeous. A few microphone gripes aside, you carry yourself very well with interviews.

 

[ferioku]

Thanks for those interviews. They weren't only giving positive feedback but constructive criticism as well, As he said, hopefully Nintendo will push Sakurai to change a lot of things to increase the competitive aspects of this game. They never did this in Brawl and that was probably why nothing changed (I hope)!

 

[MugenLord]

I agree with this immensely.

Simply gorgeous. A few microphone gripes aside, you carry yourself very well with interviews.

Thanks and I know about the microphone problem, I get so excited when I interview it causes me to move away from the camera too much lol. I will work on my interviewing skills more though lol.

Thanks for those interviews. They weren't only giving positive feedback but constructive criticism as well, As he said, hopefully Nintendo will push Sakurai to change a lot of things to increase the competitive aspects of this game. They never did this in Brawl and that was probably why nothing changed (I hope)!

Hopefully Sakurai will change the game a bit, we've only seen the older build so who knows what the recent build might end up being like. We just don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if they released a trailer showing off changes they made for the game. We can only wish right lol?

 

[ferioku]

Hopefully Sakurai will change the game a bit, we've only seen the older build so who knows what the recent build might up being like. We just don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if they released a trailer showing off changes they made for the game. We can only wish right lol?

Haha, that's exactly my though on this, hopefully a trailer or a direct maybe?

 

[MugenLord]

Haha, that's exactly my though on this, hopefully a trailer or a direct maybe?

I would prefer a direct more, because they could go into full detail about it. See I am pumping myself up for something that may not happen lol.

 

[Raijinken]

Only odd thing, I thought VGBootcamp verified at Bestbuy that Dash Dancing was technically doable, but had an extremely tight window (I wanna say it was their Wii Fit Trainer movelist video). Good interviews, though. The hype train is drifting over the rings of Saturn now.

 

[MugenLord]

Only odd thing, I thought VGBootcamp verified at Bestbuy that Dash Dancing was technically doable, but had an extremely tight window (I wanna say it was their Wii Fit Trainer movelist video). Good interviews, though. The hype train is drifting over the rings of Saturn now.

Who are your main's in smash and are you thinking of taking up any of the new characters in Smash 4?

 

[Raijinken]

Who are your main's in smash and are you thinking of taking up any of the new characters in Smash 4?

I started in 64 with Captain Falcon, with Pikachu as my secondary. When I started playing Melee, I initially mained Dr. Mario (as a fan of the game), then picked up Roy and then Marth. Marth kinda stuck with me (I also subbed Doc, Roy, Cfalc, Link, and Ness in Melee), and after Fire Emblem hit the States, it quickly became my favorite game/series, so I stuck with Marth for Brawl, and subbed CFalc, Ness, G&W, and Trainer.

Project M combines my favorite aspects of both games, so it's my main game now, and while I can't decide on a set main (I really dislike sharing mains with players nearby, and one of my friends is a set Marth main), I favor Marth, Roy, Ness, Captain Falcon, Mario, Samus, Mewtwo, G&W, and Link.

For Smash 4, I have mixed views on the newcomers. Wii Fit Trainer holds no draw for me, and as someone who skipped gen 6 of Pokemon (and is a fire/psychic trainer at heart), I have no desire to ever play as Greninja. Villager looks entertaining, though I've never played Animal Crossing (I sink waaay too much time into sim games and know I'd get trapped in a time vortex).

The Mii Fighters look entertaining, but I don't expect to play as them very often (of course, I'll be randoming for a while after release, and am bound to end up on them eventually). Palutena looks fun, but I will have to see how she plays before I make a real judgement call. Pac Man looks to exceed my expectations on all fronts, as I'm a Namco Museum fan and glad to see so many references (even if I wish they'd given us a Tales character instead). I am glad for Lucina's presence, and while I see her as a dumbed-down Marth, I'm always up for more Fire Emblem characters.

The real hype, though, is for Little Mac, Megaman, and Robin. I was a fan of Punchout on the NES, and while I don't expect to really play that much Mac (relative to others), I am interested to see if the game will be balanced enough for him to compete, when the series has historically been aerial-focused, and his aerial game is rather miserable (I'm hoping the Aerial Lag Reduction fans lose this battle).

I am quite excited for Megaman, and have so many questions about how his combos will work, how he can approach, and whether or not his Buster can be reflected by Fox/Palutena/whoever else (Hope not, that would make some of his matchups very harsh). I'm a bit disappointed they chose the notoriously useless Leaf Shield (and as of today's pic of the day, Plant Barrier) as his Down B, but I love the rest of his moves. I plan on him being my secondary main, with Marth now being third.

Robin, of course, is my absolute most hype, and will be kicking Marth out of my favorite Smash character spot. Partially because I was chatting with friends months before the reveal and said he'd be refreshing and be easy to make a moveset for, and suddenly it happened and was (largely) exactly as I had hoped. I'm still hoping for some save-data reading options so I can import aspects of my own Avatar from my Awakening playthroughs, but even without that, I'm going to enjoy the character. My sole disappointment is that he has to use the ugly Bronze Sword, though from a "your better weapon has broken" standpoint, I can understand it. The canon-freak inside me also complains that he has Resire/Nosferatu as a spell, but it's no worse than giving Ness PK Fire.

I'll be getting the 3DS version at launch, and provided there's a Wii U bundle for the U version, I will be getting that at/near launch as well. If such a bundle doesn't exist, it'll have to wait, as I don't have a Wii U. Feel free to add me for some games some time, my friend code is under my avatar.

 

[MugenLord]

I started in 64 with Captain Falcon, with Pikachu as my secondary. When I started playing Melee, I initially mained Dr. Mario (as a fan of the game), then picked up Roy and then Marth. Marth kinda stuck with me (I also subbed Doc, Roy, Cfalc, Link, and Ness in Melee), and after Fire Emblem hit the States, it quickly became my favorite game/series, so I stuck with Marth for Brawl, and subbed CFalc, Ness, G&W, and Trainer.

Project M combines my favorite aspects of both games, so it's my main game now, and while I can't decide on a set main (I really dislike sharing mains with players nearby, and one of my friends is a set Marth main), I favor Marth, Roy, Ness, Captain Falcon, Mario, Samus, Mewtwo, G&W, and Link.

For Smash 4, I have mixed views on the newcomers. Wii Fit Trainer holds no draw for me, and as someone who skipped gen 6 of Pokemon (and is a fire/psychic trainer at heart), I have no desire to ever play as Greninja. Villager looks entertaining, though I've never played Animal Crossing (I sink waaay too much time into sim games and know I'd get trapped in a time vortex).

The Mii Fighters look entertaining, but I don't expect to play as them very often (of course, I'll be randoming for a while after release, and am bound to end up on them eventually). Palutena looks fun, but I will have to see how she plays before I make a real judgement call. Pac Man looks to exceed my expectations on all fronts, as I'm a Namco Museum fan and glad to see so many references (even if I wish they'd given us a Tales character instead). I am glad for Lucina's presence, and while I see her as a dumbed-down Marth, I'm always up for more Fire Emblem characters.

The real hype, though, is for Little Mac, Megaman, and Robin. I was a fan of Punchout on the NES, and while I don't expect to really play that much Mac (relative to others), I am interested to see if the game will be balanced enough for him to compete, when the series has historically been aerial-focused, and his aerial game is rather miserable (I'm hoping the Aerial Lag Reduction fans lose this battle).

I am quite excited for Megaman, and have so many questions about how his combos will work, how he can approach, and whether or not his Buster can be reflected by Fox/Palutena/whoever else (Hope not, that would make some of his matchups very harsh). I'm a bit disappointed they chose the notoriously useless Leaf Shield (and as of today's pic of the day, Plant Barrier) as his Down B, but I love the rest of his moves. I plan on him being my secondary main, with Marth now being third.

Robin, of course, is my absolute most hype, and will be kicking Marth out of my favorite Smash character spot. Partially because I was chatting with friends months before the reveal and said he'd be refreshing and be easy to make a moveset for, and suddenly it happened and was (largely) exactly as I had hoped. I'm still hoping for some save-data reading options so I can import aspects of my own Avatar from my Awakening playthroughs, but even without that, I'm going to enjoy the character. My sole disappointment is that he has to use the ugly Bronze Sword, though from a "your better weapon has broken" standpoint, I can understand it. The canon-freak inside me also complains that he has Resire/Nosferatu as a spell, but it's no worse than giving Ness PK Fire.

I'll be getting the 3DS version at launch, and provided there's a Wii U bundle for the U version, I will be getting that at/near launch as well. If such a bundle doesn't exist, it'll have to wait, as I don't have a Wii U. Feel free to add me for some games some time, my friend code is under my avatar.

Cool, I will most definitely add you, you can find my 3DS code in my profile as well. I am also stubborn when it comes to characters even when they are bad. I know Little Mac aerial game is going to suck but I am going to try to learn him to the best of my ability. I've been an EarthBound fan since the game's release so hopefully Ness improves in the new game, but I am hoping Link rises to the top a bit more. He was my Main Main since N64.

 

[Raijinken]

Cool, I will most definitely add you, you can find my 3DS code in my profile as well. I am also stubborn when it comes to characters even when they are bad. I know Little Mac aerial game is going to suck but I am going to try to learn him to the best of my ability. I've been an EarthBound fan since the game's release so hopefully Ness improves in the new game, but I am hoping Link rises to the top a bit more. He was my Main Main since N64.

My hope is that balance will be good enough (and/or patched, as Sakurai has expressed interest in) for all characters to be viable at all levels of play. But even if not, I always main by favoritism, rather than character strength.

 

[mario123007]

Cool, I will most definitely add you, you can find my 3DS code in my profile as well. I am also stubborn when it comes to characters even when they are bad. I know Little Mac aerial game is going to suck but I am going to try to learn him to the best of my ability. I've been an EarthBound fan since the game's release so hopefully Ness improves in the new game, but I am hoping Link rises to the top a bit more. He was my Main Main since N64.

No matter in which Smash Bros game my main is always Mario, but now I still hope Mr.Game and Watch to return, I am also glad that they had buff up Mario's smash attack a bit.

 

[MugenLord]

No matter in which Smash Bros game my main is always Mario, but now I still hope Mr.Game and Watch to return, I am also glad that they had buff up Mario's smash attack a bit.

I wasn't counting on Mario being my main, he was the character I avoided until he was the last character I tried and realized how much of an all around character he is. I enjoy playing him and his pressure is pretty good especially with his Fire Balls. I really want Link to be good in this game -___-

 

[mario123007]

I wasn't counting on Mario being my main, he was the character I avoided until he was the last character I tried and realized how much of an all around character he is. I enjoy playing him and his pressure is pretty good especially with his Fire Balls. I really want Link to be good in this game -___-

No matter if you count Mario as your main or not you have to be good with him because he is a character that will always be in Smash Bros,he has no specific advantages or disadvantages,that is why I like him.
I think Link got buff up in this game too, and he is one of my main also.
I had added your 3ds friend code. Be sure to add mine!

 

[JamietheAuraUser]

Good interviews. Gimr does have a good point about the reduced landing lag i hope they take the feedback seriously.

Link's 5-7 frame FAir and BAir want a word with you I think. Actually BAir might be 7-9, hard to tell 'cause the end of his BAir landing and the beginning of jump startup look almost the same.

 

[MugenLord]

No matter if you count Mario as your main or not you have to be good with him because he is a character that will always be in Smash Bros,he has no specific advantages or disadvantages,that is why I like him.
I think Link got buff up in this game too, and he is one of my main also.
I had added your 3ds friend code. Be sure to add mine!

ill add you today, just been busy editing videos for my Youtube Channel.

 

[LordShade67]

GIMR's thoughts on Smash 4 are pretty much how I feel about the game currently......yeah, that's all I've got.

 

[MugenLord]

GIMR's thoughts on Smash 4 are pretty much how I feel about the game currently......yeah, that's all I've got.

I've notice everyone has what characters they are maining in their signature, how can I do that?

 

[DakotaBonez]

I've notice everyone has what characters they are maining in their signature, how can I do that?

Go to the top right where you can see your profile name and face next to the alert flags icon.

Click your face and select "Signature"

Then, when your typing your signature, you should see a box with a smiley face in the top where the bold, italicize, insert media, insert image, etc icons are.


After clicking the smiley face box, Select the Smash 4 tab and click the character's face.

 

[κomıc]

Great interview. Nice hair too.

 

[JV5Chris]

Wait.
Did I just hear positive feedback about Smash4?
Praise the lord....it's finally happened. -.- *sigh* About time. I hardly ever hear competitive players say anything good "competitive-wise" about this game....
Welp. The Melee-fanatics won't like this guy. How dare he compliment something that's not Melee/P:M...

This guy? GimR is a prominent figure in the Melee scene. Just like D1's impressions and Ken+KoreanDJ impressions, there are positive remarks on improvements from Brawl. His critique of the game is similar as well, close to HuGs thoughts on movement in Smash 4.

Yes, many Melee players have reservations, but they will compliment notable positive changes. If this interview comes as a surprise to you, it's a sign you're a bit out of touch here.

 

[Turokman5896]

No matter in which Smash Bros game my main is always Mario, but now I still hope Mr.Game and Watch to return, I am also glad that they had buff up Mario's smash attack a bit.

Another Mario main! My friends think I'm crazy for maining Mario, but then wonder how I do so well as him...

 

[MugenLord]

Go to the top right where you can see your profile name and face next to the alert flags icon.

Click your face and select "Signature"

Then, when your typing your signature, you should see a box with a smiley face in the top where the bold, italicize, insert media, insert image, etc icons are.


After clicking the smiley face box, Select the Smash 4 tab and click the character's face.

Thanks, I will look into it in a second.

This guy? GimR is a prominent figure in the Melee scene. Just like D1's impressions and Ken+KoreanDJ impressions, there are positive remarks on improvements from Brawl. His critique of the game is similar as well, close to HuGs thoughts on movement in Smash 4.

Yes, many Melee players have reservations, but they will compliment notable positive changes. If this interview comes as a surprise to you, it's a sign you're a bit out of touch here.

Are you getting both versions of Smash 4? What are your mains?

Great interview. Nice hair too.

Thanks, I am going to Summer Jam at the end of the month. Hopefully I will run into some other familiar faces in the smash community who I can interview.