Super Smash Flash 2 Spotlight: Dark Ermac- The Tournament Organizer

Super Smash Flash 2 is sometimes overlooked when it comes to the fanmade Smash games. Many do not realize it has a vibrant competitive scene with its own top players, notable tournament organizers, and intricate development history. Each Wednesday over the month of September will feature an article covering a unique aspect of the game or scene. We've discussed the history of the game, met a top player, and met a top streamer. This week we'll learn a bit about the tournament scene of the game with a prominent TO: Dark Ermac.

Dark Ermac's gaming life started back with Super Mario World played on his cousin's SNES which got him hooked on gaming ever since. His love of Nintendo games stayed strong and it lead him to look for a possible fan made Smash game online. "I had played the first two games to death, but they started to grow old and I wanted more.I always thought it would be really cool for someone else to make a Smash Bros game that featured characters and such that I thought weren't really possible for the real games due to not being Nintendo-related."

Most of the games he found were striped down versions of his favorite game or simple unfinished. That is until he found the original Super Smash Flash. "Nowadays, a lot of people like to hate on the game due to its many flaws. Sonic OCs, only one attack button, Anime characters, wonky collisions, and glitches everywhere but at the time it was unlike anything else."

So what lead him into hosting tournaments for the game? It all began with hosting spontaneous online tournaments smash 64 on Emularena Grounds but grew into something a bit more when he met LiteTheIronman on /r/smashbrosonline. "Back then, most tournaments allowed the players to play their games on their own time, but this resulted in tournaments that would take months to complete and weren't a good indicator of player skill in the NOW sense. He hosted a Brawl tournament, but he used IRC to arrange an online, real-time tournament a la the ones I used to do on Emularena. and I thought, 'Why didn't I ever think of doing this?'"

When an Wi-Fi event for Project M called Project M: Origins had to be canceled at the last minute Dark Ermac ran Project M Origins: Revival in its place and the turnout was good. This kept him hosting online until he began The Smash Island series. While it's now one of the more popular tournaments for Super Smash Flash 2 it didn't start that way. It began as a Smash 64 tournament, and eventually became an all purpose tournament with Melee, Brawl, and Project M in the mix.

With the severs shutting down the tournament interest was started to die so he added Super Smash Flash 2 for Smash Island IV where all of the other events had to be canceled due to lack of interest. From there onward Smash Island events were purely for Super Smash Flash 2 with the all time best best being Smash Island XII.

"It currently hold the record for most signups for any SSF2 event ever, with over 200 people taking part. I even got mentioned on the official SSF2 Facebook page, which just drove that number even higher. Of course, on the actual day of the event, only ~50 people showed up, but that was more than enough for me. It probably had the most diverse player base, too. I had people coming in from South America, Europe, North Africa, and even a Pakistani player showed up!"

Hosting events online comes with its own set of challenges. The servers can sometimes go down, players have to be disqualified due to lag or being unable to connect, and potential drama. "Sometimes the players themselves create drama due to some perceived problem that 'made them lose the game'. I've had at least one case of someone faking a desynch when they realized that they could not win. I had a single set that stretched on for nearly 2 hours because of a combination of player feuding and lag." Despite these issues he plans to keep hosting with the next Smash Island event likely to be held on Octobor 24th.

Hopefully this has gotten some players interested in tryout out Super Smash Flash 2 and potentially entering tournaments online. For those who would like a chance to play soon Dark Ermac recommended the upcoming X Series tournament hosted by fellow tournament organizer DoqK. It takes place this Saturday, September 26th so go learn more and maybe enter.

 

Someone hurry and get first comment!

 

SSF2: Puts a generic RPG swordsman over Pac-Man. :U

Probably overlooked for a good reason IMO.

Really though, I still find his assist trophy status insulting.

 

SSF2: Puts a generic RPG swordsman over Pac-Man. :U

Probably overlooked for a good reason IMO.

Really though, I still find his assist trophy status insulting.

Honestly, Pac-Man was added as a AT long before his inclusion in Smash4, so him as an AT was better than not being in it at all(at the time he was added). That being said, there was a legit Pac-Man Leak during apex this year so, its very possible that he's being moved to a playable character.

 

But the thing is the Pac-Man World games were still very popular when the game was made. They weren't that old you know. And also the fact people were expecting a moveset based on the 3 World games, highly requesting them.

....Wait, there was? I'm curious.

 

Capps I'm disowning you. This heavily disappoints me.

Also SI13***** is inaccurate anyway because 250 people didn't sign up, Dark Ermac added them to the bracket himself.

 

Ssf2 is great and i love these haters are gonna hate but this is still one of the best smash fan games out there.And a section for ssf2 character disscussion as will as tourney discussion would be great

 

Smash Flash 2 still has a terrible gravity coding.
Also, Smash Flash 2 is the only Smash-related game to have Link be faster in air than anyone (and let's hope they keep that).

 

simple unfinished.

Mistakes are temporary, but the internet is forever

 

When are we gonna see a SSF2 Major in the USA?
That people actually notice?

 

Capps I'm disowning you. This heavily disappoints me.

Also SI13***** is inaccurate anyway because 250 people didn't sign up, Dark Ermac added them to the bracket himself.

I did and interview, I wrote what I was told in my interview. But if you have feedback I'd most certainly prefer it in a more constructive format. Claiming to disown someone isn't a great way to get them listening.

 

I did and interview, I wrote what I was told in my interview. But if you have feedback I'd most certainly prefer it in a more constructive format. Claiming to disown someone isn't a great way to get them listening.

Yes you're right. My apologies, I'm just salty.

 

I saw the "leak" and it's already been debunked as fake.

So yeah, SSF2's roster is still ****ed.

I'm sticking with Smash 4.

((And again, having Pac-Man as an assist trophy of all things as his PIZZA SHAPE is just insulting.))

 

I saw the "leak" and it's already been debunked as fake.

So yeah, SSF2's roster is still ****ed.

I'm sticking with Smash 4.

((And again, having Pac-Man as an assist trophy of all things as his PIZZA SHAPE is just insulting.))

SSF2's roster is still incomplete, nobody said you had to pick one or the other.

 

I saw the "leak" and it's already been debunked as fake.

So yeah, SSF2's roster is still ****ed.

I'm sticking with Smash 4.

((And again, having Pac-Man as an assist trophy of all things as his PIZZA SHAPE is just insulting.))

So because a character you want isn't in the roster is crap? It at least has original twelve and a good amount of other iconic Smash characters like Zelda, Bowser, Meta Knight, Peach, Wario, Sonic, etc. The Shonen Jump characters and Lloyd (which I'm guessing would be the obscure swordsman you mentioned earlier?) were all added really early into the development of the game, which makes sense if you've seen the first SSF.

On the topic of Pacman specifically, as an aspiring game designer I'd honestly be confused on what do with the character in a Smash game if Smash 4 hadn't paved the way. Even Sakurai himself was confused with what to do for Pacman and dismissed him as a character in Brawl. Considering that the SSF2 roster was finalized before Pacman was confirmed for Smash 4, it's likely that Cleod9 and the SSF2 dev team were confused on what to do with him as well. That doesn't exactly put the nail in the coffin for Pacman though. The devs are clearly taking some inspiration from Smash 4 with some things (see the redesign of Megaman in the latest SSF2 Beta trailer) so maybe Pacman could be a last-minute addition.

The roster is definitely incomplete and there is more to add. No roster in developed can be confirmed to be "****ed". Fake leak or not, Pacman could very well turn into a playable character.

 

On the topic of Pacman specifically, as an aspiring game designer I'd honestly be confused on what do with the character in a Smash game if Smash 4 hadn't paved the way. Even Sakurai himself was confused with what to do for Pacman and dismissed him as a character in Brawl.

Because they (and possibly you, no offense) never bothered to look at these games which still annoys me to this day.

And to add insult to injury, they make him an assist trophy as nothing more than his 8bit sprite, chomping away. It only saddens me when people don't understand that there is more to Pac-Man than his arcade roots and being a "Pizza missing a slice".

Llyoid adds nothing other than being another generic RPG swordsman... something Smash in general has pretty much enough of at this point.

 

Because they (and possibly you, no offense) never bothered to look at these games which still annoys me to this day.

And to add insult to injury, they make him an assist trophy as nothing more than his 8bit sprite, chomping away. It only saddens me when people don't understand that there is more to Pac-Man than his arcade roots and being a "Pizza missing a slice".

Llyoid adds nothing other than being another generic RPG swordsman... something Smash in general has pretty much enough of at this point.

Lloyd is the ****.

 

Lloyd is the ****.

I beg to differ :U

 

I beg to differ :U

So really your only beef with the game is that Lloyd is a playable character and Pacman is AT? Well, think of it like this: If you have a game that's been in development since'07(meaning that most of the overall decisions were made before even brawl was released), at that time SSF2 meant to be a sequel of SSF1(which the devs stated was more of a reboot now) was meant to include many of the characters that were originally included in the orginal, including Lloyd. The devs stated that it was the most time consuming to make characters, and stated that after they are/were even regretful about adding certain characters(including Tails, Goku, Ichigo and Naruto) so removing already established characters would be a wrong move on the devs part. You complain about then one CURRENT characters when we haven't even seen the entire roster yet, and don't even know the whole story. If the devs had the same mindset they do now then, this would be a very different game.

Hey, we've got people complaining about added newcomers, looks to me like SSF2 has finally made it.

 

I don't know... Why do all of you people love a generic RPG swordsman so much? He brings nothing. I'm sorry, But the fact anyone would chose him over Pac-Man boggles my mind. It's just stupid. And making him nothing more than his "Pizza Form" is insulting, pretty much adding to they think "Pac-Man does nothing but chomp". Have they EVEN, oh I don't know...

looked at these games?

And no, That's not my only problem. Sora? Chibi Robo? Freakin' Goku? I know this is a fan game but good god. If you are going to chose an Anime character, please don't go with the beefy guy with yellow hair shooting laser beams making loud noises. It just gives me a headache IMO.

Really one of the only good reps I have seen is Bomberman, because... I don't know: He fits the atmosphere of Smash Bros?

 

I don't know... Why do all of you people love a generic RPG swordsman so much? He brings nothing. I'm sorry, But the fact anyone would chose him over Pac-Man boggles my mind. It's just stupid. And making him nothing more than his "Pizza Form" is insulting, pretty much adding to they think "Pac-Man does nothing but chomp". Have they EVEN, oh I don't know...


And no, That's not my only problem. Sora? Chibi Robo? Freakin' Goku? I know this is a fan game but good god. If you are going to chose an Anime character, please don't go with the beefy guy with yellow hair shooting laser beams making loud noises. It just gives me a headache IMO.

Really one of the only good reps I have seen is Bomberman, because... I don't know: He fits the atmosphere of Smash Bros?

This will be my last comment on the matter. You're missing the point. People have been telling you the reason why he appeared in the game before Pacman (it started development in 2007 and was considered as a sequel to a game which featured these obscure characters) and you're ignoring them. I for one have no connection to Lloyd: I've never played a Tales game before and I don't use Lloyd or even the three characters you mentioned below much in SSF2. Pacman is an awesome and Nintendo-relevant character and totally deserves to be playable more than a lot of characters imo. It's just that with the way the game was being developed at the time, it wasn't meant to be.

As for the quality of the trophy itself, it's the 8-bit version because it's his most recognizable form and it does what Pacman is generally known to do. It would be cool if he appeared in his regular form for a bit then started doing his thing, but that's honestly pretty trivial. Also Pacman and the rest of the assist trophies were added back in January 2011, before the roster had been finalized and standards had been increased. There's time for improvement before the final release, whether spicing up the Assist trophy a bit or adding Pacman as a playable character.

If your going to dislike the game, at least do so for the right reasons.

 

Believe it or not, Sora was a highly requested 3rd party character at the time of his inclusion and Chibi-Robo is said to be the GameCubes last Classic as well as growing in popularity and relevance in recent years.

I don't disagree that more could have done more with Lloyd to make him less "generic", and I always assumed that once they resprited him he'd get a few other moves from his game and his anime.

We've already told you why certain things were done, so your entire argument is invalid, If you choose to hate the game for the mistakes that were made early in development(as is the case with all games in general) then that's your opinion. I hate how SSF2 is ragged on for having certain characters in it, do you think people would have less hate if Goku won the fighter ballot? Its sad to think that a game is tossed to the side due to early mistakes instead of accepting those mistakes as being apart of the game, a mistake can turn into one of the games greatest achievements. People need to learn that sometimes that one mistake you wish you never made, turns out to be the one thing you know you'll never regret.