On board the Steve hype train!
Today was the Sakurai Presents for "Steve & Alex" (no love for Zombies or Endermen, it seems), where Sakurai showcased the moveset and "Minecraft World" stage in great detail. And it's pretty awesome...
You can really see the love that went into making this. There is so much effort that went into crafting what's easily the most creative moveset in the entire game, it's like Sakurai's team is trying very hard to outdo themselves with the second Fighters Pass. Both Min Min and Steve are very exceptional fighters.
Well, the use of different tools is actually quite similar to Byleth, where in this case up attacks use the Axe and so on. So, that part was a little underwhelming. But the mining, crafting and block placing mechanics are so overwhelming, it totally makes up for it.
Steve will create his own meta around stage materials, which is absolutely crazy. This will be even a factor for competitive play, where there is quite the limited stage pool, but you will deal with a focus on different materials, like wood (Smashville, Town & City) or iron (Lylat Cruise), as a result, which is something you'll have to consider for counter-picks. This might even lead to a scenario, where you'll have to play the Battlefield version of Battlefield or the Omega-Version of Final Destination just to have the neutral resource distribution of these stage variants, unless they do that already by default. But hey, at least this way these redundant stages would have a use.
The crafting part is quite fun, where this is finally another character who makes use of the backgrounds of the stages. But unlike the Pokémon Trainer, who just stands there and shouts, this will actually be interactive. And it's such a good thing that you can call it to wherever you are with the Shield Special move, which is also a thing that so far was only utilized by a single character (Inkling).
Well, and then there's the blocks. It's funny how Sakurai first says that he has trouble doing his balancing play sessions during home office times and then introduces us to what's most likely one of the most overpowered mechanics in the game...
The block placing in the air is busted. That feels like one of the most broken moves ever and you can't even do that in Minecraft, where blocks only can be placed onto other blocks. But as someone who isn't that good at recovering and edge guarding, this might be a character for me, similar to Min Min.
It's also crazy how this is all one Special Move and Kirby will get all of this, if he absorbs you. He will be able to mine and place blocks in the air, just like you do. Well, the crafting might not be useful or even usable with Kirby, but the blocks certainly are.
And since all of this is one single move, that leaves room for even more crazy stuff. As if the blocks aren't already good enough, Steve also gets a good recovery with the Elytra. And the mine cart feature for the Side Special, as well as the TNT for the Down Special are the craziest things and give you so many ridiculous options. This is a troll fighter at its finest.
Of course most of this will be balanced by the resource gathering. You need a lot of wood and iron for the mine carts for example, but standing around and mining materials will make you very vulnerable. So, Steve could be an easy victim to rush-downs. He might also be quite bad on certain stages, where you only find little wood and iron.
The "Minecraft World" stage, however, turned out to be a little bit disappointing. I was expecting a stage similar to "Super Mario Maker", where it's something different every time. But apparently there are six hard-coded variants and it loads one of them at random. But still, you get six stages in one and they all really look pretty, where they have lots of nice elements from the original game.
It's also fun how everyone can actually break the blocks above the ground level. Of course it doesn't let you destroy the entire stage, but something like this needed to be part of a Minecraft stage. I just wish that the elements would be more random.
The Creeper and Pig Mii costumes are super weird, though. They just look so freaky... The Creepers would have been perfect for Assist Trophies and it's a shame they never add any of those via the updates. Of course these Mii costumes are based on player skins, but they feel like they are the rejects from the selection of alt costumes for Steve... Oh, and Travis Touchdown got a hard disconfirm, but the Bomberman Mii costume is really nice. Easily the best of the bunch.
But I can't wait and I can't believe that right after Min Min I get another fighter that I'm super excited about and that might turn into a really good secondary of mine. Thank you, Nintendo, Microsoft, Mojang, Sakurai and Bandai Namco for this! It's absolutely amazing!
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