Ninety minutes?! Holy crap, let's get crackin'!
The Rundown:
Zero Suit Samus: Special Moves... no down-b. =(
Seriously, that specific special is probably the one that the Smash community was looking forward to the most. And what's even worse is that Zamus' special moves are rather... pointless. I mean, two tether recoveries? Bleh! But, I admit, the paralyzer is rather cool.
But with the reporters from different gaming sites giving us some hands-on info from the demo they've been playing, we know that Zamus' super is getting her armor back and producing a minimal affecting ray / beam. Again, rather disappointing. But that does answer some questions! Now there's a little more chance of knowing that we'll be able to start off as Zamus in the beginning of a match. Hurray for reporters!
Kirby's Final Smash turned out to be a little different than what the E3 2006 trailer made it seem. I thought that it'd focus on one character, cooking them in the pot, then sucking them up to copy their Final Smash ability. Yes! We need the extra epicness of such!
But hey, this version of Kirby's Final Smash works just as fine! =P
And about the DS Kirby Cooking game featured on the Japan version of the site: I thought that was just advertisement? I didn't know the lyrics were "let's make Smash Bros.!". Interesting.... haha!
Ashley's Theme was a song which I leaned both ways to. It was good in the way that I thought it sounded pretty awesome (yes, the US version as well), and bad in the way that the US Ashley didn't even fit the 9 year old girl we know and love. So, I'm sort of in between with this song. Sort of... "meh".
Proof of taking Snapshots while in a normal match made my day! I just hated it when something either extremely cool or funny were to occur in a match and you weren't able to take a snapshot for the memory. All of the snapshots that I took in Melee are all mostly planned, since most of the time nothing exciting ever happens in camera mode. Brawl is seriously just exceeding Melee into infinity!
Oh, and I loved Mario's face in that certain screen shot. I've even requested that Gypsy Lee make a signature out of it, hehe! As for the Kirby screen, that was my second choice as the stock =]. And that blurred-out pinkish button, yeah, that's "record match"
or maybe not. Taking reference to the "maybe online gaming isn't the only way to compete" quote, maybe they're trying to create some sort of photo-rating system? Sort of similar to Pokémon Snap? Who knows?
Sonic.the.Hedgehog.!
Oh, delay? Ehhh... >.>
But seriously, what an exciting update on Wednesday! I mean, whose stomach DIDN'T drop when you saw the smile on the "blue blur's" face? Very awesome! Plus, the two videos that we got were superb. ESPECIALLY the
"Nintendo Fall Press Conference 2007" "Sonic Joins the Brawl!" video ;]. The "Live and Learn" song was so pwnful and inspiring, that I just had to make it the song for my myspace page! =S
As for Sonic's special moves-- as expected they resolve around the spin dash. I mean, that was just too predictable. But it was nice to see Sonic's third jump being the spring, that fit really perfectly if you ask me!
Lastly, the delay works well for me. I wouldn't of had enough time to save up money to get a Wii + the game at release. Now that the date has been pushed back about two months I'll have enough money to start the fun with the majority of you guys (first day of release). But, that's more of a selfish reason. Here's a "bright-side" reason: more time into the game means more of what comes out. Quality for.the.win.!
RoundTable:
It's so odd going from your crystal clear voice to something smoggy and choppy. But oh well, no johns! Second episode of RoundTable, awesome!
The game speed does seem a little faster, and I'm pretty glad that the game is taking its roots more from SSB64, which is the better game out of the two we have now, in my opinion. The character intros being back is one of the things that I'm sure everyone noticed first. Very awesome. But SP is right, when it's four players everything happens too fast to notice.
And, isn't Snake's intro the "kept you waiting, huh?" thing we saw in his video? Alternative intros, Samurai? Now we're thinking!
The announcer is VERY awesome! I like change usually, and this announcer completely surpasses Melee's! I just can't get over that "Sudden Death--GO!" ridiculous narration. Very awesome, very attractive. Sakurai's done right with this one! Mmhmm!
Norfair was a nice selection for a Metroid stage representative. Although you can see how it relates to past Metroid stages, there's just some sort of unique and original feel to it that just makes you love it. It's also nice to see a new setup with the platforms instead of the basic one on top, two on bottom sides style. The lava-waves is a nice touch as well.
I agree with the both of you that the character and stage select screen is very clean and awesome. I especially love the stage select-- the Melee version seemed so unorganized and just crammed together. I also love how we get a bigger view of what the stage looks like to the left of the screen, very useful for some first time players!
And the darkening background after obtaining of smash ball = FATALITY!!
The AI was actually pretty advanced for a level 3. The lower levels are meant to be easy, for those players who aren't as skilled as some others. But the AI only seems to be flawed in recovery (as meant to be for lowered levels). Hopefully this means that level 9 computers will be someone of a human-thinking challenge this time around. Just in case someone can't reach access to WiFi.
I agree, the transitions between the different sections of the Castle Seige was random and rather disappointed. And I would much rather have that part be full-on aerial, it would've been awesome if you could just dair + DI yourself across the screen.
As for alternate costumes / colors, they were all exellent! Albino DK, Fire Flower Mario, Dark Link, etc. etc. etc..
Nice discussion on the Final Smashes and balancing, guys. That was really interesting to listen to, and I agree with mostly all of it. Final Smashes are indeed Sakurai's way of balancing out characters, and as you said Youko: if you're asking for no supers in matches, then you're asking for God Tier Metaknight / Sonic.
Zelda's, PT's, and Lucas' exclusion from the demo was rather disappointing. So many questions could've been answered if they were included into.
For the demo problem: someone suggested that they could include the demo in the Super Mario Galaxy game. That'd give both Nintendo and us what we wanted =P
[2 minutes later:] Right, what SP said >.<
... o.o news? BIG, news?
Tri-membered RoundTable? Very awesome!
The RoundTable was awesome this week! In a non-offensive comment, it was much more enjoyable than last time's version (which was still awesome btw!)! I really don't think you should have any set time, just go on and talk in detail the way you guys do until you're finished. Don't rush, but don't slug either. Just be normal with it all.
Awesome job guys!
Brawl Viewpoint:
W00t! Loser's turn =)
Lighting simply mean positioning and brightness / contrast of the light!
Huh... unlocking regular trophies to involve more Assist Trophies would be a cool idea, actually. And, wasn't the main boss of Melee Giga Bowser? o.O
Nice sticker entrance comment, made me laugh
Sorry about the lack of a long review, but there really wasn't much to critique on. I agreed with most of you, and with that there's not much to comment on.
Sweet job, Loser!
Easteregg:
Brawl rules! Yeah...
Can't wait for next week, Youko!
Good job everyone! ;o
