Fatmanonice
Banned via Warnings
Hard to believe that an entire year has passed since SSB4 was officially announced, isn’t it? It doesn’t even feel like that long ago when Sakurai made his statement on Twitter that SSB4 would definitely be shown at E3 2013 and I made the decision to come back to Smashboards after a 2 ½ year hiatus. Since then, I’ve regained the modship that I had in the early Brawl days that I got shortly after the speculation days were over with. It just goes to show that a lot can happen in a year, especially in a year of Smash speculation.
I feel that the waiting game has become a major part of being a Smash fan. For Brawl, we had the game pseudo announced at E3 2005 then officially announced at E3 2006 only for it to not be released until early 2008. For this game, it was pseudo announced at E3 2011 but it wouldn’t be officially announced until E3 2013, with the 3DS version coming out later this summer and the Wii U version sometime near the end of the year. That leaves a lot of time for us fans to speculate but, thankfully, Sakurai is accommodating in that regard. Unlike a vast majority of gaming fanbases, we actually get daily updates ranging from the celebration worthy to groan worthy. For most of us, this time of the day becomes the sacred “Japan Time.” In the Western Hemisphere, this means staying up ungodly late to hopefully catch something worthwhile. Whether it’s something good or bad, we’re usually back again on a different night, risking being barely functional the next morning for school or work because it is quite a different experience when you catch the update live. There’s the buildup and the wild speculation that all leads up to crushing disappointment or wild, fanboyish fanfare. It’s all part of the ride that we Smash fans willingly put ourselves on when a new Smash game is announced.
I remember the Brawl days. Brawl was announced at a private showing hours after the initial Nintendo presentation at E3 06 and I only found out about it the next day because of how late it was shown. There was a lot of excitement but the reveal process was agonizing. The first 5 weeks after E3 we got little tidbits about Metaknight, Wario, Snake, Pit, and ZSS before Sakurai went back into hiding. What followed was about six months of mindless speculation before Nintendo World 06 where we saw… a handful of stages and Fox. Yet another six months passed and that was when a staple of Smash culture was born: the daily updates. For the next eight months, they largely dictated the eb and flow of Smash culture and, five years later, it would come back in a big way with the announcement of the New Smash Bros at E3 2013.
I’m sure a lot of you made some decent memories this past year thanks to the daily updates and Nintendo Directs and I want to hear about them. What did you like best? What didn’t you like? Was there a particular update that floored you with disappointment or raised your hype to incredible heights? How have things been for the past year? Now that we’re less than 24 hours away from Nintendo big E3 Presentation, let’s talk about the road between E3s and what it has meant for you as a Smash fan.
I feel that the waiting game has become a major part of being a Smash fan. For Brawl, we had the game pseudo announced at E3 2005 then officially announced at E3 2006 only for it to not be released until early 2008. For this game, it was pseudo announced at E3 2011 but it wouldn’t be officially announced until E3 2013, with the 3DS version coming out later this summer and the Wii U version sometime near the end of the year. That leaves a lot of time for us fans to speculate but, thankfully, Sakurai is accommodating in that regard. Unlike a vast majority of gaming fanbases, we actually get daily updates ranging from the celebration worthy to groan worthy. For most of us, this time of the day becomes the sacred “Japan Time.” In the Western Hemisphere, this means staying up ungodly late to hopefully catch something worthwhile. Whether it’s something good or bad, we’re usually back again on a different night, risking being barely functional the next morning for school or work because it is quite a different experience when you catch the update live. There’s the buildup and the wild speculation that all leads up to crushing disappointment or wild, fanboyish fanfare. It’s all part of the ride that we Smash fans willingly put ourselves on when a new Smash game is announced.
I remember the Brawl days. Brawl was announced at a private showing hours after the initial Nintendo presentation at E3 06 and I only found out about it the next day because of how late it was shown. There was a lot of excitement but the reveal process was agonizing. The first 5 weeks after E3 we got little tidbits about Metaknight, Wario, Snake, Pit, and ZSS before Sakurai went back into hiding. What followed was about six months of mindless speculation before Nintendo World 06 where we saw… a handful of stages and Fox. Yet another six months passed and that was when a staple of Smash culture was born: the daily updates. For the next eight months, they largely dictated the eb and flow of Smash culture and, five years later, it would come back in a big way with the announcement of the New Smash Bros at E3 2013.
I’m sure a lot of you made some decent memories this past year thanks to the daily updates and Nintendo Directs and I want to hear about them. What did you like best? What didn’t you like? Was there a particular update that floored you with disappointment or raised your hype to incredible heights? How have things been for the past year? Now that we’re less than 24 hours away from Nintendo big E3 Presentation, let’s talk about the road between E3s and what it has meant for you as a Smash fan.
