Voting is closed! All Mii Costume submissions will be accepted.
- Sonic - 36
- Ryu - 22
- Pac-Man - 21
- Crash - 19
- Erdrick - 9
- Cloud - 6
- Red - 4
- Adventurer - 3
Please welcome our first third-party fighters;
Sonic, Ryu, and Pac-Man! They will be coming alongside
Green Hill Zone, Suzaku Castle, and Pac-Maze.
In addition, content from all
Sega, Capcom, Namco, Activision*, and Square Enix franchises will be eligible for additional third-party content!
(*)Due to the uncertanity of the buyout, Microsoft content is
not included with Activision.
Job 42: Submit movesets for Wario, Ganondorf, and/or Sonic!
Job 43: Submit up to two third-party Assists!
This assist may be from any property owned by Sega, Capcom, Namco, Activision, or Square Enix.
Submissions close tomorrow - Maybe not around noon-time, but ASAP after that.
Job #42:
I'll be the first to admit I'm hardly qualified to give a moveset to Wario or Ganondorf, but I may as well take a shot at Sonic.
Unlike my moveset for Link, who's generally seen as being quite solid, Sonic's movesets in the mainline
Super Smash Bros. series do have a couple of problems that I want to take the opportunity to try and solve. The main problems that people typically have with Sonic in the series are as follows:
- Sonic's speed, whilst being great at allowing for an aggressive rushdown playstyle, also makes him exceptionally well-suited to camping out of reach of opponents, making matches uninteresting to watch and unengaging to play. Proficient Sonic players can simply run in, land one or two hits, and then camp for the rest of the game.
- Sonic having a number of moves with similar animations (such as his visually similar Down and Side Special moves) makes his moveset appear uninteresting and doesn't feel like an effective or fair representation of his wide number of abilities within his home series.
- A lot of Sonic's animations aside from just his attacks feel a little uninteresting too. His idle animation has been brought up by a lot of people as appearing a little stilted.
Not to be reductive, but I think the central problem here is
blandness. For a variety of reasons, Sonic feels bland to play as, play against, and watch. As such, I want to try and do what I can to remedy this.
My concept is that Sonic's moveset overall centres on speed, making him a solid fit into the
rushdown category. He's centred primarily on stringing together combos, intended to be played flamboyantly and with suitable flair for the Blue Blur - but as a result of this, he's also somewhat of a glass cannon, being one of the lighter characters in the game and thus struggling against powerful attacks that manage to hit him. The intention behind this is to represent how his gameplay typically functions - in lieu of a healthbar, Sonic can only take up to two hits in his source games (depending on whether he has rings.) Whilst an accurate interpretation of this would be farcical, representing it in terms of more traditional gameplay feels fair, and I think it's a good way to create a character who relies on risk and reward - needing to evade and outmanouvre his opponents in order to succeed. The problem here is that Sonic will naturally end up again being good at camping, so I'm going to remedy this with one of his specials.
Aside from this - a lot of Sonic's basic moves will be based on
Sonic Battle as opposed to
Sonic: The Fighters. This might seem like a bit of a weird choice, but my reason for this is partially because of the nature of these moves.
Battle was a game made post-
Adventure - intended to represent the newer, "cooler" Sonic and his more flamboyant personality, whereas
Fighters was a late Classic-era game, with more "rubberhose" animations and an overall more cartoonish aesthetic. Whilst one or two moves could still pull from
Fighters, having
Battle as a prominent inspiration (alongside a wide variety of other games, of course) would lend well to a more unified-feeling moveset overall. There's obviously more overall - one example of this is how Sonic's up throw has him manifest a tornado to launch his opponent upward, similarly to the Blue Tornado move in
Sonic Heroes, or how his down tilt has him use the somersault kick from
Sonic Adventure 2 and the
Advance games. He's intended as a solid hodgepodge of various moves, but "coolness" is
essential.
One more thing I think would be fun: landing particularly hard attacks on Sonic has rings burst out from his body, a little like in
Fighters. They don't actually do anything, with it just being an aesthetic addition, but I do think it would be both pretty funny and a neat reference - whilst not taking away from his "cool" aura if you're playing him well. The rings disappear shortly after bursting out from Sonic anyway, so it shouldn't be too processor-intensive.
As for Sonic's special moves:
Neutral Special: Homing Attack. Look, this is pretty much fine as is. I will say this much, I think it'd be neat if you could fast-fall after using the attack so as to continue your assault and have the option to use the Homing Attack as a tool to rapidly get up close to your opponent in a unique way. But honestly, that's about it.
Side Special: Boost. This isn't by any means original, but I do think that this could be an effective way to force Sonic to interact with the opponents more. Inputting this move has Sonic suddenly boost forward, a little like Banjo & Kazooie's Wonderwing in
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. When used on the ground, this has Sonic run forward whilst using it - though when used in the air, it'll launch him forward instead in the form of a more traditional recovery move. The move continues for as long as you hold the Special button down whilst moving, though if you turn around or stop moving at all, the move ends. Note that when used in the air, Boost is still gravity-affected, though the momentum of Sonic's movement is carried - making it a great (if temporary) horizontal recovery move. It also
doesn't leave Sonic inactionable when in the air - allowing him to attack with an aerial afterward or use his Up Special directly afterward - but can only be used once in the air at a time as with other recovery moves.
The move envelops him in a traditional light blue aura when used. Notably, Boost provides Sonic immunity to projectiles and even grants armour on his head which he'll lean forward as he moves. However, the armour being only on Sonic's
head means that particularly low attacks can still run a risk of tripping him up, so you'll want to be careful - don't just Boost willy-nilly. The main difficulty here is that Boost has a cooldown -
not in the form of a meter, but more akin to Wario's bike in the
Smash series, where you're unable to use the attack for a short while. Notably, landing attacks on opponents increases the speed at which Boost's cooldown passes - so you're actively rewarded for playing in an offensive manner as opposed to camping, hopefully working to alleviate Sonic's "baiting" gameplay phase and make him more interesting up close.
In terms of visuals, whilst there isn't a meter of any kind on Sonic's UI, Sonic is accompanied by a White Wisp. When Boost is available, the Wisp will look excitable as it floats beside him - and when used, it'll leap into Sonic as the move's used. When the move ends, the Wisp looks tired, though it looks less tired as the move recharges. The Wisp doesn't interact with gameplay in any other way, and can't be attacked at all, but instead works a little like R.O.B.'s rocket lights in
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - as a visual indication of your move's status.
Up Special: Spring. I'm going to be real here when I say this was the most difficult one to come up with. I did briefly consider Tails, but that... didn't feel quite right. That being said, I wanted a move that would come out quickly and allow for versatility and speed combined. Considering that Boost is his side special, I didn't want another move that looks visually similar - nor did I want another move with Sonic in a ball - so I ended up going with a slightly retouched Spring. In this case, when used, you can alter the direction the spring launches you if used in the air by inputting a direction. It's not by much (about 30 degrees to either side) but it massively enhances Sonic's aerial options. As with the original, Sonic
isn't inactionable following the move's input, but can only use it once in the air at a time. When used on the ground, Sonic doesn't bounce as high, and the Spring disappears by the time Sonic hits the ground. I didn't want him to be massively stage-control focused, so with this in mind, the move's less suited to exactly this. However, it is still a pretty good surprising move to pull out in a pinch - it comes out pretty fast, after all.
Down Special: Spin Dash/Bounce (or Bound). I've been giving this some thought, and I've decided that the normal Spin Dash works pretty much the same as it would in the
Super Smash Bros. series. However, I will suggest this much - you can also charge the move purely by holding down the button, but the maximum form of charge by doing this is around 70% of its full potential. This allows for additional leeway and less guesswork for newer players who might not intuitively understand how Sonic's Spin Dash might work, but still rewards you for performing it correctly.
Similarly to FazDude's suggestion, when used in the air, Sonic enters a Spin Dash and spins downward into the ground in the form of a stall-and-fall of sorts (though the "stall" is pretty minimal.) However, this is more directly based on a combination of Sonic's Aqua Shield in
Sonic 3 & Knuckles and the Bound in
Sonic Advance 2, having Sonic bounce upward if he hits the floor or another enemy whilst using the attack. (Note that Sonic doesn't actually gain a visual shield when performing the move, though.) Furthermore, it's possible to influence your direction whilst both falling
and rebounding - not by a massive amount, but enough to make it possible to manouvre slightly (with increased manouverability after the bounce.)
If you let go of the special button before hitting the floor, you won't bounce, however - instead landing on the ground and acting as an alternative fast-fall with quite low landing lag. When at the apex of your rebound, Sonic will unfurl back into his default aerial pose - but inputting Down Special again before this point has Sonic once again move downward. Whilst this makes the move
slightly spammable, it's not a particularly repeatable move - it deals solid knockback in the form of a meteor smash, and it's quite punishable if you keep repeating it given the pretty limited aerial options you have whilst moving downward.
I did briefly consider making this more akin to the Drop Dash, but here's the thing - I don't think Sonic needs
another rapid horizontal movement tool. Remember, every movement tool intended as an offensive tool can just as easily be used as a retreat. This gives him more of a unique feel in his specials overall.
Final Smash: Super Sonic. Whilst it was obvious that this should be Sonic's Final Smash, it was a bit weird trying to think of exactly how it should work. My eventual decision is that Sonic is controllable and can fly freely during the move - damaging opponents when he does so. Aside from this, inputting the special button during this time boosts Sonic forward at some speed, dealing slightly more damage to the opponent in question. Unlike
Brawl's version, though, this one's a lot more controllable. It's a pretty powerful Final Smash, but it moves away from the cinematic feel of a lot of
Ultimate's by replacing it with a more controllable one... though creating chaos on the entire stage (and actually being good) feels fitting for seven shiny rocks that some guy has spent like 30 years trying to put in a cannon or something.
Job #43:
As for Assists, I wanted to take a look at a couple that we haven't yet seen in the mainline
Smash series. I may as well start with Namco.
Assist Name: Galaga
Assist Origin: Galaga (1981)
Company: Bandai-Namco
Whilst
Galaxian was Namco's first major arcade hit, its sequel -
Galaga - has become an icon of culture. Whilst not necessarily to the same level as
Pac-Man,
Galaga is a fundamental title in the shoot-em-up genre that's practically required reading for the genre as a whole - and it's prominent enough in the public consciousness that a joke has been made about it in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so it's inarguably marketable enough to warrant inclusion in this brand new
Smash title.
Galaga also has the great distinction of being a title that's seen a wide variety of ports and rereleases, many of which have been on Nintendo platforms - such as the port to the NES, which in fact made it onto the NES Classic Mini. Needless to say, this arcade classic's got some history behind it - and it wouldn't feel out of place in a celebration of Nintendo's own history, either.
Whilst the Boss Galaga exists as an Assist Trophy in the original games, my take on this is that both the Zako (bee) and Goei (butterfly) enemies also get introduced here. When summoned, the background darkens and the Galagans rapidly enter formation at the top of the screen, before beginning to divebomb toward the bottom. Whilst this is designed with deliberate similarities to the original game, these movements occur much faster one after the other, allowing the assist to remain balanced and fun whilst still maintaining the reference. The Galagans will attempt to track opponents, though can quite easily miss and end up flying in circles trying to hunt them down. It's possible to defeat them by landing an attack on them (with them only having a very small amount of health each, around 5%), but if they hit you, you'll take a small amount of damage and some knockback (with the Zako dealing slightly less damage than the Goei). The Boss Galaga that are present (of which there are four) will attempt to tractor-beam you, but doing so is much less potent than the
Smash original.
The difficulty with taking them on is the number of them - there's a lot of them, after all. However, with them deliberately being designed to be small and weak, AoE attacks or attacks with solid range and sizeable hitboxes (such as sword disjoints or even projectiles) work well to take them on. After a predetermined amount of time, they'll fly back upwards off the screen and the darkened background will fade. This would be around 20 seconds, so it's not
too game-breaking.