Well guys, that's it I suppose. Once again Sakurai passes out on the chance of including the biggest remaining Nintendo all-star, Ridley is once again not a playable character. So with all that in mind, here's a closure and farewell post from me:
I'm not even sure where to begin with this, yesterday's Direct was simply a big ****ing mess. The game looks fun, yes, but everything in the way of characters, except Yoshi and Sheik who look awesome, had me scratching my head or quite simply think of Sakurai as an idiot. This is going to stray a bit off-topic from Ridley for a little while, but I do want this to be about my general thoughts on the Direct too, since you won't be seeing me post very much anymore.
I'm probably one of the only people who let out a "Yes!" when Sakurai trolled by saying ZSS was cut, it's always just been Sakurai's poor excuse of saying that there are multiple Metroid reps, and I'm not buying it. Samus is still Samus for ****s sake, there is more to Metroid than her. But hey, whatever excuse he has to buff up her boobs even more I guess. She also has those weird boots now, which is simply nothing short of silly. I guess he also thinks that including 3 Metroid ATs makes for some fair representation, and while Dark Samus and Mother Brain are crazy cool ATs it just doesn't even things out. ATs aren't supposed to be used as an excuse to not include characters, especially not when many of us just turn them off.
Now Charizard himself looks ****ing amazing. I never really wanted to play Pokémon Trainer due to his odd mechanic, but his 3 Pokémon are the coolest ones in Smash, so it was a bit of a shame. Now Charizard is alone at least, buuuuuuuut with that said I don't believe Squirtle or Ivysaur can stand on their own legs on this roster as much as I'd like it, and with Greninja being added and Pokémon being up to 4 reps, there's already tense competition between Mewtwo and Jigglypuff. So yeah, Pokémon representation is all over the ****ing place now. Speaking of Greninja, holy **** Sakurai. Now I haven't been very vocal about my dislike for WFT and Rosalina, at most I've liked comments that are vocal about their dislike for them, but I don't like them. But Greninja, that's on a whole other level. Including Greninja would be like including Infernape back in Brawl, they're in exactly the same spot. The absolutely only reason Greninja is here is for Game Freak to throw in their promotional fodder for the anime, since Ash is obviously going to get a Greninja at some point. Greninja is not worthy of being in Smash Bros, and that's not something I've said about many characters before. Once Gen VI is over he'll sink down into the ground, just like every starter that doesn't originate from the Kanto region, and by that point he'll have been just as bad an inclusion as Jigglypuff was to begin with. Point is that Pokémon characters like that don't age well, they aren't timeless like Lucario, Charizard or Mewtwo. With this, I dislike half of the current newcomer inclusions, while I don't plan to play Villager or Little Mac despite them being deserving. It's really shaping up to be a piss-poor newcomer roster, especially compared to Brawl's godlike cast. Mind you I like Greninja okay as a Pokémon, he was my X & Y starter, but he's just not Smash material AT ALL. So when we take all this into consideration, and two timeless Pokémon like Ivysaur and Squirtle are most likely cut, it should be obvious that someone ****ed up here.
Oh yeah, and the 3DS version coming out before the Wii U version is just so stupid. I mean, rarely anybody will buy a Wii U for Smash now that they can not only get the same game on the 3DS which has an infinitely better library, but they can get it half a year earlier. The Wii U now has to rely on MK8 more than ever. I'll also be honest and say I kind of wish I'd have held off on buying one now until next christmas. But oh well, at least we're getting a summer release of some sort (until it's delayed of course.)
Now of course these are all miniscule things compared to the biggest let-down of the stream: Ridley is a stage hazard in Pyrosphere. I'm not going to desperately try and think Sakurai is simply trolling us, because he isn't, at least not anymore. Ridley was shown exclusively in the stage-boss section, in fact the whole section seems to have been dedicated just so Sakurai could slap us in the face. I'm 100% sure Sakurai thinks that Ridley being a stage hazard is going to get us all really excited. The whole way he has handled this whole Ridley thing has just left me with so little respect left for the man. I still respect Sakurai's work, but I do not respect him very much as an individual anymore outside of his willpower, harsh as that might be. He should know more than anyone how wanted Ridley is, and therefore shouldn't tease him for over half a year, only to have him revealed a stage hazard in such a half-***** manner. The guy even has the guts to still not even show him despite deconfirming him, almost as if he thinks he's making some sort of epic build-up to Ridley's great and surely appreciated role. No way man, you don't tease something like this for this long just to pull such a stupid stunt. I'd have respected him a bit more if he just outright burst the bubble early on, I even said that the first day Pyrosphere was announced. I usually find Sakurai's trolling funny, like despite wanting her gone I could still see the fun in his fake-out regarding ZSS, or how he almost made all Palutena fans' hearts stop simulatenously. But those are fun because the outcome of the jokes are good, and are revealed immediately after. You don't delay something like this 7 months just to give your fanbase a turd to the face, that's the surest way of killing hype, and I gotta say Mr. Sakurai, you sure did that well, this turd was all wet and ****.
I still can't understand what'd keep Ridley away either, so many fans have proven time and time again that Ridley can fit, and with Sakurai constantly saying that size problems are null it just doesn't make sense. Either Sakurai has a personal vendetta against Ridley's inclusion as a playable character, or he lacks the imagination to make him playable, and the latter wouldn't surprise me given his bad track-record concerning proper Metroid representation (lava stages anyone?) and blatantly having ripped off a DoA stage. I'm not going to think too much about it though, I don't want to delve into the mind of the guy who brought Greninja into Smash, that's just a lost cause. I guess Charizard will have to sate my Dragon needs, he was pretty ****ing badass in the trailer afterall.
I also want to note that there were an awful lot of deconfirmations in general in this Direct, it was actually kind of awful to see all these characters that many people wanted just get thrown away to the side.
But hey, at least the Kremlings are back, aye?
So yeah, I guess I'm coming to the closure of the post. Overall this Direct was a BIG hype killer for me. I've said this since Day 1 I returned to Smash speculation, and I'm going to keep it. With Ridley's deconfirmation, I no longer have any reason to participate in Smash 4 speculation. The only newcomer left that I care about making it in is K. Rool, but with the Gematsu leak having immensily strong back-up I've lost faith in him too. Even without the leak, K. Rool himself, as much as I like him, wouldn't be able to keep me participating. He's only been my 3rd most wanted character afterall, so it's tough for him to stand all on his own, and no way I'm dedicating much time to speculation just for my favorite veterans' sake. The only reason I've come here to begin with, the only reason I posted on here every day, and checked the Smash website every day, is because of Ridley, and without him I don't have any reason to be here until the game's release. I do want to note that the game still looks fun, I like many of the changes we saw in the Direct, it's just the roster, the only source of proper speculation, that's shaping up to be ****.
So with all that said, it's been my pleasure everybody. It's been fun though, and part of me wishes it hadn't already ended here in April, but on the other hand I'd rather get the news earliest possible too, instead of having the release of the game be overly bittersweet as was the case with Brawl. I'll stick to my opinion that the Ridley community has been the best place to be in both the Brawl and Smash 4 speculation periods, and I have no regrets having dedicated so many hours and days to the cause, even if it's all been for nothing in the end. So until release, see you all, and have fun.
