<p align="left">Link’s B moves have just been announced, so there’s no need to discuss how to tweak Link into pure performance perfection, right? WRONG! There would be much to discuss even without todays update. And there’s still much to discuss with it. After all, Sakurai loves giving us about 30% of what’s really going on in any given update. So lets get right to it.Link was kinda lame in Smash64. Judging from all the improvements they made to link for Melee, the developers really wanted to make him better. They easily improved his hookshot, up+B recovery distance, and his ability to spam his opponents to death (not really to death, but they are very annoying). Link’s smashes are pretty unique, and his kicks are versatile. On paper, they must have thought link was going to be top tier. Unfortunately, Link has a couple of problems that prevent him from being great. His weight is great, but it gets him comboed by many characters. And he’s kinda slow. Oh, and his sword is very weak for the most part. All in all, Link has a hard time killing.</font><font size="2"> </font></p>
<p align="left">But lets focus on Links B moves. With such an array of projectiles, it’s no wonder they made link so slow.</p>
<p align="center"> <a href="http://smashboards.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/chibi_link_and_navi.jpg" title="chibi_link_and_navi.jpg"><img src="http://smashboards.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/chibi_link_and_navi.jpg" alt="chibi_link_and_navi.jpg" style="width: 355px; height: 327px" height="327" width="355" /></a></p>
<p align="center">Link is supposed to be grown up, yet, if he continues to be weak, then he’ll forever look like this in the eyes of Smash.</p>
<!--more--><strong>Boomerang:</strong> This move is quite neat in the hands of a good link. By changing the angle of the throw, a variety of trajectories can be achieve. The boomerang returns to Link if it hits a character or other object. If link catches it as it comes back, he can throw it quickly again. And again. And again. And at close range, this projectile can do around 18% of damage. That’s quite a lot for a quick projectile. What balances out this ability is, when Link misses, he can’t throw a boomerang for a short period of time. This move is great, but lets see what we can do anyway.
1. The Australians invented this nifty weapon to strike prey as it ran away from them as they hunted on the outback. The purpose is to stun enemies. In all of Links games the boomerang stuns enemies whether they are in the air or on the ground. What does it do in Smash? It kinda hits the enemy very weakly into the air. It would be foolish to give the boomerang lots of strength because, as I’ve stated, that’s not what its function is. So, it would be cool if it DID stun enemies. Nothing major. Nothing that lasts too long. Just a little hit that freezes enemies in the middle of their animations. If they’re in the air, they can slowly fall in place sort of like how Fox can slowly fall at first from using his reflector in mid air.
2. In Links’ games, the boomerang can retrieve items. Now that it’s a gale boomerang, it would only make sense to “lightly pull” in some items too.
3. For a crazier idea, link could have the ability to throw his bomerang out and have it hover in place in mid air by holding the B button. Link’s boomerang had this function in the game The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, but because he has the gale boomerang now, this idea is very unlikely and unnecessary.
<strong>Bomb:</strong> Link can pull a bomb from out of nowhere and throw it at you. You can’t really kick or punch this one because the explosion has multiple hits inside of it. It’s one of the few projectiles that can be dropped or thrown straight down. But what’s wrong with the bomb? It’s not very strong. And just as you’re thinking, weak hits can be followed up with other stronger attacks, when enemies explode, they can be randomly blown aside making it hard for Link to follow up. As it stands now, the bomb is good for racking up damage, but does that really sound like the function of a bomb?
1. Like in Link’s games, when the bomb is thrown on the ground, it shouldn’t blow up upon contact. In fact, it should roll. This new function will allow Link to easily leave traps on the stage. Leaving one on the edge would produce hilarious results.
2. The bomb needs to pack a punch. It doesn’t need to kill you like the bob-omb, but it does need to push characters around short distances in at least 8 directions. If it hits you from above you should be flung to the ground. If it hits you from below, you should fly up. If you’ve been paying careful attention, it looks like the bomb that blows up Eldin Bridge does this very thing. Check it out in the 15 second video clip. It would be interesting if the bomb gave the same amount of knock back at any damage level.
3. Link should be able to combine a bomb with his arrows or his boomerang. He had this ability in various Zelda games. It kind of makes things more interesting.
<strong>Arrows:</strong> I don’t know what they were thinking when they designed this move. If you use the move without charging, a sad little arrow flies about two inches in front of Link. This hardly has a chance of hitting anyone. And because Link isn’t too mobile when using this attack, an uncharged arrow is practically useless. Because the arrow has virtually no knock back, using it off the edge of a stage has a higher chance of saving opponents than killing them. But when charged this move becomes one of the best moves in the game, right? Sadly, no. With all the time Link invests in charging his arrows, he doesn’t get very many rewards. Sure the arrows fly faster and they do more damage, but by the time Link charges it up, it becomes quite obvious what’s going on. A player of any level can simply shield or jump onto a platform to get out of harms way. And because Link is firmly rooted to the ground, there’s hardly a point of using this move. This is really sad considering that Shiek and Donkey Kong can charge and cancel charging their B specials on the ground and in mid air. And after their attacks are fully charged, they have the choice of releasing the powered up attack when they feel is best. The only cool thing about Link’s arrows is they stick in the ground. These grounded arrows have the ability to block certain projectiles and attacks. Unfortunately, these situations aren’t very many or very frequent.
1. In many of Link’s games, the arrows can hit enemies, and drag them across the screen to be pinned up against the opposite wall for a short period of time. If Link’s arrows could do this in smash, then there would be a reason to use the sad little uncharged shot. If this arrow hit an enemy, they would be dragged down to the stage and pinned to the ground. In other words, it would be a spike. A spiking projectile? KirbyKid, isn’t that broken beyond belief? Well, in order to shoot Link’s arrows down, the arrows have to have very little to no charge. When this happens, the arrows travel very slowly. So the short period of “pinned” time wouldn’t last long enough to make this move extremely dangerous. Also, you can always give the opponent the option to wiggle to reduce the “pinned” time. According to the update, Link’s fires his arrow quickly and straight. You can see in action in one of the early videos of Brawl. So we wouldn’t have to worry about arrow spikes anyway.
<strong>Spin attack:</strong> This move doesn’t come out extremely fast, and it’s not extremely strong. Fortunately it does last longer than most attacks, and it has a bit of range that extends in front and back of Link. If you think this attack is too good, Link is still vulnerable from above and below (if you can duck that low like me). But if that wasn’t enough, for some UNKNOWN reason, if you shield any part of this attack, you can drop your shield and the swinging blades will no longer hurt you. This gives you an easy opening to charge a smash attack that Link can’t get away from. This would have been the only thing I would have suggested fixing, but today’s update gave me another idea.
1. Sakurai said Link can charge his up+B now. Its safe to assume that charging mean more power. This is already a plus. But, like in his games, it would be cool if Link could slowly walk forward with his sword held in front or in back of him as he charges. This sword would be an active but weak hit box just like from Link to the Past or Four Swords. If anyone runs into the sword during this time, the charge would be canceled.
2. Also, just like form Link’s past games, when charging, his shield is placed on his back. This shield should be able to block projectiles and weak attacks. Remember my new shield ideas from previous blog entries. It’s all coming back!
Link was sooo close to being awesome in Melee. We can only sit back and hope that Sakurai and team put their magic into all the characters this time around. In the mean time, I’ll finish the favor by spreading <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=QjBtY0ub6lQ" target="_blank">some Germ</a> around. And <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=XVvxh0aCQJQ" target="_blank">more Germ</a>.
<p align="left">But lets focus on Links B moves. With such an array of projectiles, it’s no wonder they made link so slow.</p>
<p align="center"> <a href="http://smashboards.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/chibi_link_and_navi.jpg" title="chibi_link_and_navi.jpg"><img src="http://smashboards.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/chibi_link_and_navi.jpg" alt="chibi_link_and_navi.jpg" style="width: 355px; height: 327px" height="327" width="355" /></a></p>
<p align="center">Link is supposed to be grown up, yet, if he continues to be weak, then he’ll forever look like this in the eyes of Smash.</p>
<!--more--><strong>Boomerang:</strong> This move is quite neat in the hands of a good link. By changing the angle of the throw, a variety of trajectories can be achieve. The boomerang returns to Link if it hits a character or other object. If link catches it as it comes back, he can throw it quickly again. And again. And again. And at close range, this projectile can do around 18% of damage. That’s quite a lot for a quick projectile. What balances out this ability is, when Link misses, he can’t throw a boomerang for a short period of time. This move is great, but lets see what we can do anyway.
1. The Australians invented this nifty weapon to strike prey as it ran away from them as they hunted on the outback. The purpose is to stun enemies. In all of Links games the boomerang stuns enemies whether they are in the air or on the ground. What does it do in Smash? It kinda hits the enemy very weakly into the air. It would be foolish to give the boomerang lots of strength because, as I’ve stated, that’s not what its function is. So, it would be cool if it DID stun enemies. Nothing major. Nothing that lasts too long. Just a little hit that freezes enemies in the middle of their animations. If they’re in the air, they can slowly fall in place sort of like how Fox can slowly fall at first from using his reflector in mid air.
2. In Links’ games, the boomerang can retrieve items. Now that it’s a gale boomerang, it would only make sense to “lightly pull” in some items too.
3. For a crazier idea, link could have the ability to throw his bomerang out and have it hover in place in mid air by holding the B button. Link’s boomerang had this function in the game The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, but because he has the gale boomerang now, this idea is very unlikely and unnecessary.
<strong>Bomb:</strong> Link can pull a bomb from out of nowhere and throw it at you. You can’t really kick or punch this one because the explosion has multiple hits inside of it. It’s one of the few projectiles that can be dropped or thrown straight down. But what’s wrong with the bomb? It’s not very strong. And just as you’re thinking, weak hits can be followed up with other stronger attacks, when enemies explode, they can be randomly blown aside making it hard for Link to follow up. As it stands now, the bomb is good for racking up damage, but does that really sound like the function of a bomb?
1. Like in Link’s games, when the bomb is thrown on the ground, it shouldn’t blow up upon contact. In fact, it should roll. This new function will allow Link to easily leave traps on the stage. Leaving one on the edge would produce hilarious results.
2. The bomb needs to pack a punch. It doesn’t need to kill you like the bob-omb, but it does need to push characters around short distances in at least 8 directions. If it hits you from above you should be flung to the ground. If it hits you from below, you should fly up. If you’ve been paying careful attention, it looks like the bomb that blows up Eldin Bridge does this very thing. Check it out in the 15 second video clip. It would be interesting if the bomb gave the same amount of knock back at any damage level.
3. Link should be able to combine a bomb with his arrows or his boomerang. He had this ability in various Zelda games. It kind of makes things more interesting.
<strong>Arrows:</strong> I don’t know what they were thinking when they designed this move. If you use the move without charging, a sad little arrow flies about two inches in front of Link. This hardly has a chance of hitting anyone. And because Link isn’t too mobile when using this attack, an uncharged arrow is practically useless. Because the arrow has virtually no knock back, using it off the edge of a stage has a higher chance of saving opponents than killing them. But when charged this move becomes one of the best moves in the game, right? Sadly, no. With all the time Link invests in charging his arrows, he doesn’t get very many rewards. Sure the arrows fly faster and they do more damage, but by the time Link charges it up, it becomes quite obvious what’s going on. A player of any level can simply shield or jump onto a platform to get out of harms way. And because Link is firmly rooted to the ground, there’s hardly a point of using this move. This is really sad considering that Shiek and Donkey Kong can charge and cancel charging their B specials on the ground and in mid air. And after their attacks are fully charged, they have the choice of releasing the powered up attack when they feel is best. The only cool thing about Link’s arrows is they stick in the ground. These grounded arrows have the ability to block certain projectiles and attacks. Unfortunately, these situations aren’t very many or very frequent.
1. In many of Link’s games, the arrows can hit enemies, and drag them across the screen to be pinned up against the opposite wall for a short period of time. If Link’s arrows could do this in smash, then there would be a reason to use the sad little uncharged shot. If this arrow hit an enemy, they would be dragged down to the stage and pinned to the ground. In other words, it would be a spike. A spiking projectile? KirbyKid, isn’t that broken beyond belief? Well, in order to shoot Link’s arrows down, the arrows have to have very little to no charge. When this happens, the arrows travel very slowly. So the short period of “pinned” time wouldn’t last long enough to make this move extremely dangerous. Also, you can always give the opponent the option to wiggle to reduce the “pinned” time. According to the update, Link’s fires his arrow quickly and straight. You can see in action in one of the early videos of Brawl. So we wouldn’t have to worry about arrow spikes anyway.
<strong>Spin attack:</strong> This move doesn’t come out extremely fast, and it’s not extremely strong. Fortunately it does last longer than most attacks, and it has a bit of range that extends in front and back of Link. If you think this attack is too good, Link is still vulnerable from above and below (if you can duck that low like me). But if that wasn’t enough, for some UNKNOWN reason, if you shield any part of this attack, you can drop your shield and the swinging blades will no longer hurt you. This gives you an easy opening to charge a smash attack that Link can’t get away from. This would have been the only thing I would have suggested fixing, but today’s update gave me another idea.
1. Sakurai said Link can charge his up+B now. Its safe to assume that charging mean more power. This is already a plus. But, like in his games, it would be cool if Link could slowly walk forward with his sword held in front or in back of him as he charges. This sword would be an active but weak hit box just like from Link to the Past or Four Swords. If anyone runs into the sword during this time, the charge would be canceled.
2. Also, just like form Link’s past games, when charging, his shield is placed on his back. This shield should be able to block projectiles and weak attacks. Remember my new shield ideas from previous blog entries. It’s all coming back!
Link was sooo close to being awesome in Melee. We can only sit back and hope that Sakurai and team put their magic into all the characters this time around. In the mean time, I’ll finish the favor by spreading <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=QjBtY0ub6lQ" target="_blank">some Germ</a> around. And <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=XVvxh0aCQJQ" target="_blank">more Germ</a>.
