Nintendo Direct 09/04/14 Report – Smashing!
April 9, 2014
With the year creeping along ever slowly, one game that’s still quite unknown at this point is Super Smash Bros for 3DS & Wii U. All we know is characters, and not much else. That said, Nintendo held themselves a Nintendo Direct to explain quite a lot on the upcoming fighter. Firstly, Nintendo did not announce a name for the upcoming game, but did confirm that the 3DS version will be released before the WiiU version. No solid dates were announced other than “Summer” for 3Ds and later in 2014 for the WiiU version. Sakurai made the point excessively that in terms of characters & stages, both games will pretty much be identical – with some differences in stages due more to technical limitations. Such as simpler stages for the 3Ds version, and less songs per stage. Also interesting to note that the 3DS version will be running in 60FPS, even with 3D turned on, but will drop to 30FPS when some Assist Trophies and Final Smashes are active.
As far as characters go, the Direct announced four. One of the big things direct Masahiro Sakurai mentioned was that characters who could transform have been dropped, and instead have been made separate characters. As such – Zero Suit Samus and Shiek are now seperate characters, with much more fleshed out movesets. The two new characters (who were announced in trailer form) were the Pokemon Charizard and Greninja. There was also a significant amount of deal shed on certain returning characters and the newer characters – such as Little Mac having a huge advantage on the ground, but is absolutely atrocious in the air; every iteration of Mega Man (from X, Legends, Star Force & Battle Network) forming a part of his final Smash; Yoshi now standing upright and having a different move set and Olimar only being able to control only three Pikmin and making it easier and more vital to manage.
There were also a host of options announced for not only stage customization, but also how online play works. For starters, the base idea of multiplayer with friends or with randoms is still present, but there’s been a number of changes and additions. For online multiplayer with randoms, you can now choose “For Fun” or “For Glory” sets. For Fun allows you to play random stages, allows for traditional Smash Battles, 4 player fights and has items. For Glory is more akin to a tournament – 1 on 1 fights, no items and Final Destination only. Speaking of the latter point – just about every stage in the game is announced to have a variant that makes it like Final Destination. Sakurai also confirmed that there will be a much more defined ability to report troublemakers and griefers online.
Custom Move Sets were also announced, which were confirmed to only be available in local play and in multiplayer with friends. The most time was spent on describing Smash Run – an exclusive multiplayer mode for the 3DS version of the game. You start off by playing a mode similar to Adventure Mode in prior Smash games, as you explore a giant map picking up items, powering up and fighting enemies. After five minutes, all four players are taken into a standard Smash fight, fighting with these powered up characters. You’ll also be able to equip items going into battles to help make your time a little easier. Sakurai compared this mode to the “City Trial” mode from Kirby’s Air Ride.
With E3 set to happen in less than two months, it’s safe to expect some more news on that game then.
