GiantBreadbug
Smash Ace
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2011
- Messages
- 921
- Location
- Buckhannon, West Virginia
- NNID
- GiantBreadbug
- 3DS FC
- 5327-0910-4273
JESUS ROLLERBLADING CHRIST, HERE WE GO. READ EVERYTHING SO YOU DON'T MISS SOMETHING AND ALSO I AM INFINITELY WITTY SO YOU MIGHT NOT READ ONE OF MY HILARIOUS JOKES.
I have a serious problem. I am a big ol' Nintendo geeknerdfantardwhatever. I eat, sleep, and breathe Nintendo. I dunno why, but there's something about its franchises that just give me... hope? Joy? Excitement? All of the above. I've always been a mostly Nintendo gamer, but all three consoles have a place in my household, and I love the 360 and PS3 equally. But, for me, nothing compares to that little white box. In fact, I've been studying Computer Science at a university in hopes that I can someday work for Retro Studios in Austin, TX (a man can dream).
Given my passion for all things Nintendo, it would make sense that every time a Smash Bros. game comes around, I go nuts. Not only is the development and launch of a new Smash game a world-unifying event, but it also serves as a glorious partaaay, taking everything that makes the Big N great and putting it together in the most fantastic way. I could go on for awhile about why Smash Bros. is awesome, but you guys already know why it's awesome. I'll cut straight to the point of this blog post.
The Subspace Emissary in Brawl looked to be what every Nintendo superfan like myself had always wanted: A long, grandiose campaign with all our favorite Nintendo characters with awesome prerendered cutscenes added for extra awesomeness. It was a dream. Mario and Link dodging lasers, Olimar and Captain Falcon teaming up with Diddy Kong to free Donkey Kong, Kirby freeing Zelda and Peach from a ferocious Petey Piranha, and Fox reflecting a Dragon Pulse from Rayquaza with his reflector? Awesome. One hundred, million, kajillion times awesome. I watched those preview clips on the Dojo almost obsessively, imagining what kinds of evil my favorite characters would boldly face.
What we got... Needless to say I, as well as many of you, were somewhat disappointed. I'm not one of those who thinks the SSE was a complete waste of time. In fact, it was still fun for what it was worth. Unfortunately, it wasn't worth all that much. In the team's defense, it is incredibly difficult to get all those characters to work in a single story mode. Many characters are from completely different eras (Lucas/Ness, Ike/Marth) and different galaxies (Olimar, Fox, Samus). They did the best they could to make the story make sense within the Smash Bros. context, and they sort of half-succeeded. What we need is a huge, awe-inspiring story mode whose scope and premise fulfills what we were expecting from the SSE.
I've devised the following as an outline for what would be the ideal setup for the next story mode. There's no way this could possibly ever come to fruition, unless I was dying, in which case my last wish would be to have this exact concept added to Smash Bros. 4 (you're welcome, everyone). This is simply a best case scenario for myself and hopefully you, if you like what I've outlined here.
Please bear with me here. It may get a bit fanficy for your tastes at times, but I really tried to balance the storytelling to make it reasonable. And some of this is up to interpretation, especially the prologue. Comments, suggestions, questions, throw 'em all at me. Here we go, ladies and gentlefolk.
Here's a bit of a pretext. Basically, this is what I understand the Smash Bros. mythos to be, with perhaps just a bit of my own interpretation sprinkled in. Again, may be a bit fanficy, but it helps set up the grand scope of the mode.
Trophy descriptions for the Master Hand and Crazy Hand list them as the embodiments of creativity and destruction, respectively. The Master Hand creates, the Crazy Hand destroys. (Alright, guys. Get ready for some crazy fanfic bullsh*t.) These two have been around since the beginning of time or whatever. The only being as ancient as the Hands is... well, the Ancient Minister. The way I see it, these three are the "Gods" of Nintendo; they created everything we know about our favorite franchises (the Ancient Minister serving as the "body" to the Hands). The Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule, Unova/Sinnoh/Hoenn/Johto/Kanto, Planet Popstar, all of them saw their creation at the hands of the Ancient Trio. After the creation of the Nintendo Universes was complete, the trio created a kind of "middle" world, where the three could reside in peace. The Ancient Minister created many companions in his likeness, and prepared a place in the sky for them to watch over the world they lived in. Sometime after the whole creation jazz settled down, the Crazy Hand defected and began to manifest his power in the form of terrible desctruction. His anger and wrath were brought on because he was intensely jealous of Master Hand's perfect creations (Mario, G&W, Link, Pokemon, etc.), while his own were bland and unloved by the Ancient Minister (Tabuu was Crazy's first creation, and Tabuu was banished to Subspace after trying to help his creator induce destruction). The Crazy Hand fled somewhere after Tabuu's banishment, which may be why Tabuu was trying to escape from Subspace (to find his creator). Also, the creatures we saw in the SSE were some of Crazy Hand's first attempts at creating living beings. The ones we fought were copies infused with Shadow Bugs that Tabuu extracted from Mr. Game & Watch (who was actually Master Hand's first creation; the Shadow Bugs were an odd byproduct); the originals were shown being housed in the Halberd in the SSE. G&W being the source of Shadow Bugs is, oddly enough, canon. See? There is a bit of logic in here.
Somewhere after the Crazy Hand flipped sh*t but before the events of the Subspace Emissary, the Master Hand decided to hold a contest. He would invite his creations to his home world (the world in the SSE), to begin a grand sparring tourney that spanned the entire Nintendo Universe (essentially the idea of Smash Bros.). The idea was strictly friendly; Master Hand simply wanted a chance to interact with his offspring. So every so often, a Smash Bros. tournament was held (a sparring match, if you will). This is what we were beginning to see in the SSE, with the first combatants in the bracket being Mario and Kirby. This also helps me rationalize why all the characters were conveniently already in the SSE world. Then the whole Tabuu thing happened, and the third SSB tourney was interrupted. The characters of the Nintendo universe are aware of each other. They know that the others exist, but the only time they get to interact is during the Smash Bros. tournament. Villains are invited out of goodwill. Besides, the ratio of heroes to villains is so lopsided toward the heroes that the villains would be crushed if they ever tried to start trouble during a Smash Bros. tournament.
Buckle in, here's where it get's mothereffing crazy.
Story - The Ruined and the Trophies
The members of the starting roster (whatever that group of characters may be), minus the villains, receive their invites to the fourth Smash Tournament, and are the first to arrive in The World of Trophies (what I like to call SSE world). There will be a montage of cutscenes showing each character receiving their invites in their home worlds. As they arrive in the Midair Stadium (seen in the SSE's first cutscene) by their various means of transportation (perhaps with some hitching rides with others), the Master Hand approaches to greet them. Unexpectedly, the Crazy Hand strikes with a handful of the villains (some playable, and some not playable), destroying the stadium, and nearly taking out our heroes, but they are saved at the last minute by the Master Hand. The group looks into the sky to see the Crazy Hand open a wormhole and escape through it. The Master Hand knows Crazy Hand's destructive ways, and knows that he will wreak havoc on our heroes' home worlds with the help of the villains. The cast teams up with Master Hand to save their worlds (and along the way, learn the mysterious past of the Crazy Hand).
Over the course of the game, cutscenes will be shown featuring the Crazy Hand and the villains plotting various misdeeds in their base located on the opposite side of the World of Trophies. This place, called the World of Ruin, is where the Crazy Hand fled to after Tabuu's imprisonment in Subspace. This is a place filled with lonely, odd, and grossly designed creatures that the Crazy Hand created to keep him company. They are basically horrifying contortions of well known Nintendo characters, villains, and NPCs. The Crazy Hand was so desperate to be good at creating things and gain the approval of the Ancient Minister, he tried copying Master Hand's works - with the results being frightening, yet somehow sorrowfully lonely creatures. These creatures will be featured as bosses and minor enemies, and will be referred to as " the Ruined." Ruined characters will feature as bosses, NPCs, and grunt enemies (Ruined Peach, Ruined Sonic, etc.). The Ruined Characters who have playable counterparts will be bosses and midbosses in their source material worlds, and will use the same basic models/movesets of their playable counterparts with disturbing details and disproportions tacked on. Hey, remember the "Ruined Zoo" from the SSE? The one with Lucas and PT? That's where Crazy Hand's original creations (the enemies of the Subspace Emissary) were held for entertainment purposes, almost as if to mock them. Really makes you know that feel for the Crazy Hand. Perhaps this is what set him on his path of destruction?
The overall plan of the Crazy Hand (kept secret from the rest of the villains) is to completely destroy all known Nintendo universes, and create one in their place where he rules instead of the Master Hand (centralized at the location of the World of Trophies/Ruin) with the Ruined at his command. Crazy is secretly working with the Ruined versions of the playable cast without the real villains' knowledge to achieve this. The IRL villains are under the impression that they are going to be given power over their home worlds (which is really what they've always wanted), when really they are helping to place devices that will warp their worlds/universes to a central location for destruction (the space surrounding the World of Trophies/Ruin). This final, ultimate destruction will come in the form of an Atomic Subspace Bomb (a fun and unexpected reference to SSE), a device that is capable of rendering a massive, self collapsing wormhole into Subspace (secretly developed by Tabuu during the SSE, and stored on the Halberd). The world of Trophies/Ruin will be shielded from this blast, as well as the Crazy Hand and his crew of Ruined creations. The rest of the known Nintendo Universe will be sucked into Subspace, and consequently suffer destruction via spaghettification at a singularity.
During the final moments of the game, the playable cast, the converted enemies, and the Master Hand confront and defeat the Army of the Ruined. They then come to confront Crazy at his chaotic center of destruction. After a long battle, the Crazy Hand is defeated, and the Ancient Minister (R.O.B. will only be the AM in important cutscenes) is about to destroy Crazy before the Master Hand interrupts, feeling bad that the Crazy Hand has suffered such ostracism because of him. The Crazy Hand decides to return the worlds to their rightful places, and to join the Master Hand once again in the World of Trophies. Also everyone hugs. This is mandatory.
Feeling abandoned and betrayed, the Ruined are outraged that the plan they worked so hard on is being cancelled, and that they will be left in the World of the Ruined alone. The Ruined playable cast (which is all that remains of the Ruined) release an enormous power that morphs them into one, single being. This hideous creature is an abomination, and one of the most terrible creatures ever wrought, called simply "Ruin." In its fury and wrath, it fuses with the Atomic Subspace Bomb and destroys the barrier protecting the World of Trophies/Ruined. Ruin plans on completely destroying everything forever; its rage is like that of the Crazy Hand's, but magnified a thousand times. The difficult/epic/final boss battle against Ruin takes place, and it is destroyed. The ensuing blast destroys the World of Ruin, leaving the World of Trophies an odd, half-sphere planet. The universes are restored to their original locations, and a cutscene depicting the entire crew arriving back in the World of Trophies is shown, where I assume there is a fun beach party. The playable characters stick around, and the fourth Smash Bros. Tournament officially begins!
Levels/Game Structure
The World of Trophies operates as a kind of hub world. You select a team of four characters from those that are available and leave the hub to enter the world map. The world map consists of different Nintendo Universes, with only a few unlocked at first. Worlds will not be unlocked until the main character from their series is unlocked outside of Story Mode (see the section below for more details), meaning that a decent chunk of the roster must be unlocked before you can complete this game. Examples of worlds include the Lylat System, Konga Jungle, Yoshi's Island, Skyworld. Depending on the size of the universe, the world may have a few sublevels (Mushroom Kingdom would contain Princess Peach's Castle, Comet Observatory, Isle Delfino, etc.) eventually culminating in a final battle with the series's main villain accompanied by their Ruined counterpart. These sublevels could also feature NPC "midbosses" of sorts with some Ruined ones thrown in (to continue with the Mario example, Big Bob-omb, Bowser Jr.'s Megahammer, Petey Piranha). If a world is featured that is relatively small, it will consist of only one level (a good example might be Diamond City). Every franchise represented with a playable character, as well as a few extras, is featured in the Story Mode in the form of a playable world. That may seem a bit difficult, since some worlds have very little source material to draw from (looking at you, Ice Climber), but Sakurai's a creative fellow. In the case of worlds that are featured without playable reps, they can be unlocked by meeting other special requirements. Stages from Vs. mode may also be featured as arenas in the Story Mode. All worlds will be unlocked and all side missions completed before the final showdown with Crazy Hand. The problem areas come into play with worlds that are based on Earth (Metal Gear, Sonic, Pikmin, etc.). All I can think to do is make the narrative details in these worlds as vague as possible to avoid conflicts.
Playable Characters
The SSE unlocked characters for the other modes of the game, but this mode will operate the reverse way. When a character that represents A UNIVERSE THAT HAS NOT YET BEEN ENCOUNTERED IN THE STORY MODE yet is unlocked in Vs. Mode or however they happen to be made available, they will appear in Story Mode with a cutscene. Exactly how they appear will differ from character to character. Some will swoop in and help your team in a pinch, others will simply be shown showing up in the World of Trophies for the Smash Bros. tournament, and others will be introduced in other ways. This gives the narrative an element of surprise; you'll never know when or how characters will show up in the story. The order in which characters are unlocked in the other modes will be arranged in such a way that the main character of the series is unlocked first, allowing them to be the first to represent their series in the story. Villains are one exception to this rule in a couple of ways. Playable villains will not be added to your pool of characters when you defeat them. They will also not be added to your pool when they are unlocked outside of the story. When defeated in the story, they will flee and be seen again in different worlds and cutscenes. This is done to preserve an important plot point. Another exception is characters who belong to universes that have already been played through (mentioned earlier). For example, say you've already played through the Pokemon world in Story Mode, but at the time you hadn't yet unlocked Jigglypuff. Upon unlocking Jiggs outside of Story Mode, you'd see another cutscene much like the ones that introduce new universes. Adding these characters to your Story Mode roster are entails what are basically side quests. A notification appears that lets you know that another mission is available in an already-unlocked world, where your newly unlocked characters make their cutscene appearances. These side quests have unique NPC bosses. There is a minor problem with this approach: the prospect of randomized teams selected by the player makes the idea of prerendered cutscenes (entrances, pre-boss battles) within the separate Nintendo worlds improbable. However, if the Wii U is as powerful as we're being made to believe, then real-time scenes featuring your selected team arriving in the world/getting ready to face a boss shouldn't be out of the question. As I stated above, a character's world isn't unlocked in Story Mode until they are unlocked outside of the mode. This allows the player to sort of work on the Story Mode as they enjoy the other aspects of the game.
NPCs
I'd like to see this mode heavily feature NPCs. Sakurai threw Paletuna in SSE without her really serving any direct purpose (other than to give Pit the Sacred Bow), so I think seeing NPCs that didn't quite make the cut as characters get supporting roles (Rosalina, Anthony Higgs, etc.). Maybe even Assist Trophies could get in on the Story Mode action. I know this may be a touchy subject, and the question "If they're featured in Story Mode, why not make them playable?" may seem to arise. Again, this isn't a make-or-break feature of the single player expidition, but don't you think that they could be implemented in a neat way? Some NPCs would be bosses, as well. Eggman is a perfect example of an important NPC boss. There will be Ruined versions of most, if not all, NPCs. The Ruined versions will fight alongside their regular villain counterparts. NPCs will also appear in certain cutscenes, mostly to develop a sense of unity and crossover madness. They will appear in the hub world, but will only offer conversation, clever nuggets about Nintendo history, and hints if you get stuck.
Gameplay
There's not much you can do to tamper with the formula of Smash to adapt it to a story mode experience, so this mode will keep the basic Smash Bros. formula seen in Melee and Brawl's side-scrolling adventures. Also, FOUR PLAYER CO-OP. This may challenge the convention of a SINGLE PLAYER MODE, but it could certainly work, and it would be awesome. The level design, however, would be highly reflective of the worlds and settings depicted. Grunt enemies from each world, as well as the Ruined, would appear as foes in the game. A major complaint with the SSE was the generic locales and enemies, so I wanted to bring all of the good elements of the SSE (cinematic presentation, dramatic boss battles, awesome Nintendo crossover goodness), and Melee's Adventure Mode (familiar Nintendo areas) together. Post-game, as in after the defeat of Ruin, the mode takes on a new form. From the central hub (the rebuild Midair Stadium), you can revisit worlds using your built teams to gather collectables that you may have missed, or just stroll through the worlds and fight their bosses once again (with the Ruined characters not appearing anymore). Another new interesting feature is that completing the main story, Classic and All-Star modes are unlocked. This may strike you as odd an unnecessary, but here's how it would be better: Classic mode is essentially the idea of the Smash Bros. tournament outlined in the story (fight other characters until you reach the Master Hand). So, after the defeat of Ruin, and after everyone returns to the World of Trophies, Classic mode will be accessed from the hub. This is the only truly single player experience here; you'll be doing this by yourself (even All-Star). Classic is basically the easy version of All-Star (that's really how it's always been anyways), so picking between the two will simply be a matter of choosing whether you want a short, quick play, or a more complete run. The submodes will function exactly the same way they always have, only with cutscenes between the fights (and you won't be fighting your own character). Standard character trophies will be the reward for completing Classic, while Final Smash trophies will again be the reward for clearing All-Star.
OH MY GOD I'M SO TIRED I MIGHT DIE. I might have left some stuff out, but I'm so exhausted... Enjoy, folks. I hope it wasn't too unbearable. This was really just a way to get my thoughts down. Go easy on me.
I have a serious problem. I am a big ol' Nintendo geeknerdfantardwhatever. I eat, sleep, and breathe Nintendo. I dunno why, but there's something about its franchises that just give me... hope? Joy? Excitement? All of the above. I've always been a mostly Nintendo gamer, but all three consoles have a place in my household, and I love the 360 and PS3 equally. But, for me, nothing compares to that little white box. In fact, I've been studying Computer Science at a university in hopes that I can someday work for Retro Studios in Austin, TX (a man can dream).
Given my passion for all things Nintendo, it would make sense that every time a Smash Bros. game comes around, I go nuts. Not only is the development and launch of a new Smash game a world-unifying event, but it also serves as a glorious partaaay, taking everything that makes the Big N great and putting it together in the most fantastic way. I could go on for awhile about why Smash Bros. is awesome, but you guys already know why it's awesome. I'll cut straight to the point of this blog post.
The Subspace Emissary in Brawl looked to be what every Nintendo superfan like myself had always wanted: A long, grandiose campaign with all our favorite Nintendo characters with awesome prerendered cutscenes added for extra awesomeness. It was a dream. Mario and Link dodging lasers, Olimar and Captain Falcon teaming up with Diddy Kong to free Donkey Kong, Kirby freeing Zelda and Peach from a ferocious Petey Piranha, and Fox reflecting a Dragon Pulse from Rayquaza with his reflector? Awesome. One hundred, million, kajillion times awesome. I watched those preview clips on the Dojo almost obsessively, imagining what kinds of evil my favorite characters would boldly face.
What we got... Needless to say I, as well as many of you, were somewhat disappointed. I'm not one of those who thinks the SSE was a complete waste of time. In fact, it was still fun for what it was worth. Unfortunately, it wasn't worth all that much. In the team's defense, it is incredibly difficult to get all those characters to work in a single story mode. Many characters are from completely different eras (Lucas/Ness, Ike/Marth) and different galaxies (Olimar, Fox, Samus). They did the best they could to make the story make sense within the Smash Bros. context, and they sort of half-succeeded. What we need is a huge, awe-inspiring story mode whose scope and premise fulfills what we were expecting from the SSE.
I've devised the following as an outline for what would be the ideal setup for the next story mode. There's no way this could possibly ever come to fruition, unless I was dying, in which case my last wish would be to have this exact concept added to Smash Bros. 4 (you're welcome, everyone). This is simply a best case scenario for myself and hopefully you, if you like what I've outlined here.
Please bear with me here. It may get a bit fanficy for your tastes at times, but I really tried to balance the storytelling to make it reasonable. And some of this is up to interpretation, especially the prologue. Comments, suggestions, questions, throw 'em all at me. Here we go, ladies and gentlefolk.
Here's a bit of a pretext. Basically, this is what I understand the Smash Bros. mythos to be, with perhaps just a bit of my own interpretation sprinkled in. Again, may be a bit fanficy, but it helps set up the grand scope of the mode.
Trophy descriptions for the Master Hand and Crazy Hand list them as the embodiments of creativity and destruction, respectively. The Master Hand creates, the Crazy Hand destroys. (Alright, guys. Get ready for some crazy fanfic bullsh*t.) These two have been around since the beginning of time or whatever. The only being as ancient as the Hands is... well, the Ancient Minister. The way I see it, these three are the "Gods" of Nintendo; they created everything we know about our favorite franchises (the Ancient Minister serving as the "body" to the Hands). The Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule, Unova/Sinnoh/Hoenn/Johto/Kanto, Planet Popstar, all of them saw their creation at the hands of the Ancient Trio. After the creation of the Nintendo Universes was complete, the trio created a kind of "middle" world, where the three could reside in peace. The Ancient Minister created many companions in his likeness, and prepared a place in the sky for them to watch over the world they lived in. Sometime after the whole creation jazz settled down, the Crazy Hand defected and began to manifest his power in the form of terrible desctruction. His anger and wrath were brought on because he was intensely jealous of Master Hand's perfect creations (Mario, G&W, Link, Pokemon, etc.), while his own were bland and unloved by the Ancient Minister (Tabuu was Crazy's first creation, and Tabuu was banished to Subspace after trying to help his creator induce destruction). The Crazy Hand fled somewhere after Tabuu's banishment, which may be why Tabuu was trying to escape from Subspace (to find his creator). Also, the creatures we saw in the SSE were some of Crazy Hand's first attempts at creating living beings. The ones we fought were copies infused with Shadow Bugs that Tabuu extracted from Mr. Game & Watch (who was actually Master Hand's first creation; the Shadow Bugs were an odd byproduct); the originals were shown being housed in the Halberd in the SSE. G&W being the source of Shadow Bugs is, oddly enough, canon. See? There is a bit of logic in here.
Somewhere after the Crazy Hand flipped sh*t but before the events of the Subspace Emissary, the Master Hand decided to hold a contest. He would invite his creations to his home world (the world in the SSE), to begin a grand sparring tourney that spanned the entire Nintendo Universe (essentially the idea of Smash Bros.). The idea was strictly friendly; Master Hand simply wanted a chance to interact with his offspring. So every so often, a Smash Bros. tournament was held (a sparring match, if you will). This is what we were beginning to see in the SSE, with the first combatants in the bracket being Mario and Kirby. This also helps me rationalize why all the characters were conveniently already in the SSE world. Then the whole Tabuu thing happened, and the third SSB tourney was interrupted. The characters of the Nintendo universe are aware of each other. They know that the others exist, but the only time they get to interact is during the Smash Bros. tournament. Villains are invited out of goodwill. Besides, the ratio of heroes to villains is so lopsided toward the heroes that the villains would be crushed if they ever tried to start trouble during a Smash Bros. tournament.
Buckle in, here's where it get's mothereffing crazy.
Story - The Ruined and the Trophies
The members of the starting roster (whatever that group of characters may be), minus the villains, receive their invites to the fourth Smash Tournament, and are the first to arrive in The World of Trophies (what I like to call SSE world). There will be a montage of cutscenes showing each character receiving their invites in their home worlds. As they arrive in the Midair Stadium (seen in the SSE's first cutscene) by their various means of transportation (perhaps with some hitching rides with others), the Master Hand approaches to greet them. Unexpectedly, the Crazy Hand strikes with a handful of the villains (some playable, and some not playable), destroying the stadium, and nearly taking out our heroes, but they are saved at the last minute by the Master Hand. The group looks into the sky to see the Crazy Hand open a wormhole and escape through it. The Master Hand knows Crazy Hand's destructive ways, and knows that he will wreak havoc on our heroes' home worlds with the help of the villains. The cast teams up with Master Hand to save their worlds (and along the way, learn the mysterious past of the Crazy Hand).
Over the course of the game, cutscenes will be shown featuring the Crazy Hand and the villains plotting various misdeeds in their base located on the opposite side of the World of Trophies. This place, called the World of Ruin, is where the Crazy Hand fled to after Tabuu's imprisonment in Subspace. This is a place filled with lonely, odd, and grossly designed creatures that the Crazy Hand created to keep him company. They are basically horrifying contortions of well known Nintendo characters, villains, and NPCs. The Crazy Hand was so desperate to be good at creating things and gain the approval of the Ancient Minister, he tried copying Master Hand's works - with the results being frightening, yet somehow sorrowfully lonely creatures. These creatures will be featured as bosses and minor enemies, and will be referred to as " the Ruined." Ruined characters will feature as bosses, NPCs, and grunt enemies (Ruined Peach, Ruined Sonic, etc.). The Ruined Characters who have playable counterparts will be bosses and midbosses in their source material worlds, and will use the same basic models/movesets of their playable counterparts with disturbing details and disproportions tacked on. Hey, remember the "Ruined Zoo" from the SSE? The one with Lucas and PT? That's where Crazy Hand's original creations (the enemies of the Subspace Emissary) were held for entertainment purposes, almost as if to mock them. Really makes you know that feel for the Crazy Hand. Perhaps this is what set him on his path of destruction?
The overall plan of the Crazy Hand (kept secret from the rest of the villains) is to completely destroy all known Nintendo universes, and create one in their place where he rules instead of the Master Hand (centralized at the location of the World of Trophies/Ruin) with the Ruined at his command. Crazy is secretly working with the Ruined versions of the playable cast without the real villains' knowledge to achieve this. The IRL villains are under the impression that they are going to be given power over their home worlds (which is really what they've always wanted), when really they are helping to place devices that will warp their worlds/universes to a central location for destruction (the space surrounding the World of Trophies/Ruin). This final, ultimate destruction will come in the form of an Atomic Subspace Bomb (a fun and unexpected reference to SSE), a device that is capable of rendering a massive, self collapsing wormhole into Subspace (secretly developed by Tabuu during the SSE, and stored on the Halberd). The world of Trophies/Ruin will be shielded from this blast, as well as the Crazy Hand and his crew of Ruined creations. The rest of the known Nintendo Universe will be sucked into Subspace, and consequently suffer destruction via spaghettification at a singularity.
During the final moments of the game, the playable cast, the converted enemies, and the Master Hand confront and defeat the Army of the Ruined. They then come to confront Crazy at his chaotic center of destruction. After a long battle, the Crazy Hand is defeated, and the Ancient Minister (R.O.B. will only be the AM in important cutscenes) is about to destroy Crazy before the Master Hand interrupts, feeling bad that the Crazy Hand has suffered such ostracism because of him. The Crazy Hand decides to return the worlds to their rightful places, and to join the Master Hand once again in the World of Trophies. Also everyone hugs. This is mandatory.
Feeling abandoned and betrayed, the Ruined are outraged that the plan they worked so hard on is being cancelled, and that they will be left in the World of the Ruined alone. The Ruined playable cast (which is all that remains of the Ruined) release an enormous power that morphs them into one, single being. This hideous creature is an abomination, and one of the most terrible creatures ever wrought, called simply "Ruin." In its fury and wrath, it fuses with the Atomic Subspace Bomb and destroys the barrier protecting the World of Trophies/Ruined. Ruin plans on completely destroying everything forever; its rage is like that of the Crazy Hand's, but magnified a thousand times. The difficult/epic/final boss battle against Ruin takes place, and it is destroyed. The ensuing blast destroys the World of Ruin, leaving the World of Trophies an odd, half-sphere planet. The universes are restored to their original locations, and a cutscene depicting the entire crew arriving back in the World of Trophies is shown, where I assume there is a fun beach party. The playable characters stick around, and the fourth Smash Bros. Tournament officially begins!
Levels/Game Structure
The World of Trophies operates as a kind of hub world. You select a team of four characters from those that are available and leave the hub to enter the world map. The world map consists of different Nintendo Universes, with only a few unlocked at first. Worlds will not be unlocked until the main character from their series is unlocked outside of Story Mode (see the section below for more details), meaning that a decent chunk of the roster must be unlocked before you can complete this game. Examples of worlds include the Lylat System, Konga Jungle, Yoshi's Island, Skyworld. Depending on the size of the universe, the world may have a few sublevels (Mushroom Kingdom would contain Princess Peach's Castle, Comet Observatory, Isle Delfino, etc.) eventually culminating in a final battle with the series's main villain accompanied by their Ruined counterpart. These sublevels could also feature NPC "midbosses" of sorts with some Ruined ones thrown in (to continue with the Mario example, Big Bob-omb, Bowser Jr.'s Megahammer, Petey Piranha). If a world is featured that is relatively small, it will consist of only one level (a good example might be Diamond City). Every franchise represented with a playable character, as well as a few extras, is featured in the Story Mode in the form of a playable world. That may seem a bit difficult, since some worlds have very little source material to draw from (looking at you, Ice Climber), but Sakurai's a creative fellow. In the case of worlds that are featured without playable reps, they can be unlocked by meeting other special requirements. Stages from Vs. mode may also be featured as arenas in the Story Mode. All worlds will be unlocked and all side missions completed before the final showdown with Crazy Hand. The problem areas come into play with worlds that are based on Earth (Metal Gear, Sonic, Pikmin, etc.). All I can think to do is make the narrative details in these worlds as vague as possible to avoid conflicts.
Playable Characters
The SSE unlocked characters for the other modes of the game, but this mode will operate the reverse way. When a character that represents A UNIVERSE THAT HAS NOT YET BEEN ENCOUNTERED IN THE STORY MODE yet is unlocked in Vs. Mode or however they happen to be made available, they will appear in Story Mode with a cutscene. Exactly how they appear will differ from character to character. Some will swoop in and help your team in a pinch, others will simply be shown showing up in the World of Trophies for the Smash Bros. tournament, and others will be introduced in other ways. This gives the narrative an element of surprise; you'll never know when or how characters will show up in the story. The order in which characters are unlocked in the other modes will be arranged in such a way that the main character of the series is unlocked first, allowing them to be the first to represent their series in the story. Villains are one exception to this rule in a couple of ways. Playable villains will not be added to your pool of characters when you defeat them. They will also not be added to your pool when they are unlocked outside of the story. When defeated in the story, they will flee and be seen again in different worlds and cutscenes. This is done to preserve an important plot point. Another exception is characters who belong to universes that have already been played through (mentioned earlier). For example, say you've already played through the Pokemon world in Story Mode, but at the time you hadn't yet unlocked Jigglypuff. Upon unlocking Jiggs outside of Story Mode, you'd see another cutscene much like the ones that introduce new universes. Adding these characters to your Story Mode roster are entails what are basically side quests. A notification appears that lets you know that another mission is available in an already-unlocked world, where your newly unlocked characters make their cutscene appearances. These side quests have unique NPC bosses. There is a minor problem with this approach: the prospect of randomized teams selected by the player makes the idea of prerendered cutscenes (entrances, pre-boss battles) within the separate Nintendo worlds improbable. However, if the Wii U is as powerful as we're being made to believe, then real-time scenes featuring your selected team arriving in the world/getting ready to face a boss shouldn't be out of the question. As I stated above, a character's world isn't unlocked in Story Mode until they are unlocked outside of the mode. This allows the player to sort of work on the Story Mode as they enjoy the other aspects of the game.
NPCs
I'd like to see this mode heavily feature NPCs. Sakurai threw Paletuna in SSE without her really serving any direct purpose (other than to give Pit the Sacred Bow), so I think seeing NPCs that didn't quite make the cut as characters get supporting roles (Rosalina, Anthony Higgs, etc.). Maybe even Assist Trophies could get in on the Story Mode action. I know this may be a touchy subject, and the question "If they're featured in Story Mode, why not make them playable?" may seem to arise. Again, this isn't a make-or-break feature of the single player expidition, but don't you think that they could be implemented in a neat way? Some NPCs would be bosses, as well. Eggman is a perfect example of an important NPC boss. There will be Ruined versions of most, if not all, NPCs. The Ruined versions will fight alongside their regular villain counterparts. NPCs will also appear in certain cutscenes, mostly to develop a sense of unity and crossover madness. They will appear in the hub world, but will only offer conversation, clever nuggets about Nintendo history, and hints if you get stuck.
Gameplay
There's not much you can do to tamper with the formula of Smash to adapt it to a story mode experience, so this mode will keep the basic Smash Bros. formula seen in Melee and Brawl's side-scrolling adventures. Also, FOUR PLAYER CO-OP. This may challenge the convention of a SINGLE PLAYER MODE, but it could certainly work, and it would be awesome. The level design, however, would be highly reflective of the worlds and settings depicted. Grunt enemies from each world, as well as the Ruined, would appear as foes in the game. A major complaint with the SSE was the generic locales and enemies, so I wanted to bring all of the good elements of the SSE (cinematic presentation, dramatic boss battles, awesome Nintendo crossover goodness), and Melee's Adventure Mode (familiar Nintendo areas) together. Post-game, as in after the defeat of Ruin, the mode takes on a new form. From the central hub (the rebuild Midair Stadium), you can revisit worlds using your built teams to gather collectables that you may have missed, or just stroll through the worlds and fight their bosses once again (with the Ruined characters not appearing anymore). Another new interesting feature is that completing the main story, Classic and All-Star modes are unlocked. This may strike you as odd an unnecessary, but here's how it would be better: Classic mode is essentially the idea of the Smash Bros. tournament outlined in the story (fight other characters until you reach the Master Hand). So, after the defeat of Ruin, and after everyone returns to the World of Trophies, Classic mode will be accessed from the hub. This is the only truly single player experience here; you'll be doing this by yourself (even All-Star). Classic is basically the easy version of All-Star (that's really how it's always been anyways), so picking between the two will simply be a matter of choosing whether you want a short, quick play, or a more complete run. The submodes will function exactly the same way they always have, only with cutscenes between the fights (and you won't be fighting your own character). Standard character trophies will be the reward for completing Classic, while Final Smash trophies will again be the reward for clearing All-Star.
OH MY GOD I'M SO TIRED I MIGHT DIE. I might have left some stuff out, but I'm so exhausted... Enjoy, folks. I hope it wasn't too unbearable. This was really just a way to get my thoughts down. Go easy on me.
