Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Nintendo Selects DLC

Last night Sakurai tweeted in English that the selection of the DLC line-up is now done and was entirely made by Nintendo. Sakurai will then decide what fighters can be made from their selection.

And I have to say that I actually feel relieved about that. I was worried that the DLC might dive too deep into the 3rd party realms to a degree where I don't care anymore, but if Nintendo is behind the selection, they will most likely go for their own characters and content that matters for them.

Of course there probably still will be 3rd party stuff, but it will most likely focus more on content that is present on Nintendo systems. With Square Enix games like Bravely Default, Bravely Second or Octopath Traveler come to mind. Alternatively, there is Dragon Quest, where Nintendo used to be the publisher as well, but I'm not sure about having characters drawn by Akira Toriyama (the author of Dragonball) in the game. It might become a license issue. And I doubt that they would go for Disney's Kingdom Hearts in the same sense or curiosities like Geno.

The biggest Square Enix star would probably be the Chocobo as another Final Fantasy rep, however, since this creature is in countless Square games and even in games like Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu / Mystic Quest) on the GameBoy. The Chocobo was also a Mii costume in Smash 4. And overall I wouldn't mind, if they fleshed out the 3rd party franchises more instead of adding many one-character-parties.

Minecraft still will be a big deal in any case. Nintendo loves Minecraft. Sakurai loves Minecraft. And the world loves Minecraft. It's the second-most successful game of all time and Nintendo wants Minecraft on all their systems, where they even released a Creeper New 2DS XL. And with the DLC packs being made out of a fighter, a stage and some music, it's likely that "Steve" will become playable now.

Otherwise, however, Nintendo will probably focus on their own IPs to promote their games on the Nintendo Switch: games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze or Splatoon 2, even ARMS, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or future titles like Bayonetta 3, Yoshi's Crafted World, Fire Emblem: Three Houses and even Metroid Prime 4...

Usually Smash Bros. games are stuck in the previous generation, for example Super Smash Bros. Brawl focused heavily on contents from GameCube titles. But the DLC can change this for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where hopefully Nintendo will make sure of that.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Metroid Contents for DLC?

When it comes to playable fighters, Metroid really hit the jackpot in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with the additions of both Ridley and Dark Samus. And at this point it would certainly be presumptuous to expect anything new for the franchise in the five DLC outings, especially since they've covered all important characters by now.

However, Metroid really could use a new stage and if the rumors are true that Metroid Prime 4 is currently developed at Bandai Namco, the Smash team probably would have first hand insights into the project. And if Metroid Prime 4 will be released next year, a DLC pack in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate could be a good promotion.

Such a DLC pack would have the following guy as its fighter:

Sylux. We know little about him or her so far, but this will certainly change with the upcoming game. And his siphoning energy beams could create some potential for a new moveset. A stage would probably from the new game as well, where we currently can't predict anything.

Of course all of this is very unlikely. If Metroid Prime 4 was current, Sylux would probably end up as an Assist Trophy and they would completely ignore the game for a stage. And with the DLC they will probably focus on games and franchises that haven't had any (new) contents in the base game.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Zelda Contents for DLC?

The short answer: no.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will feature five packs of DLC, where each pack contains a new fighter, a new stage and some additional music. This is quite similar to what was offered for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, where some characters like Bayonetta or Ryu came together with their own stage and some songs. The big difference is that there seemingly won't be any standalone fighters except for the Piranha Plant, nor standalone stages. (And there won't be any Mii outfits, but they probably didn't sell much anyway.)

We should assume that each individual pack will form a themed unit, where the fighter, the stage and the music are all from the same game or franchise. Much like Bayonetta, the Umbra Clock Tower and several music tracks from the Bayonetta games. There is no reason to assume that one pack will have a Zelda character and a Metroid stage, though this particular combination certainly would be awesome.

And this puts Zelda in a difficult position, because there only will be nine new stages and one of them is already the Great Plateau Tower. They also re-designed Link based on Breath of the Wild and they brought back Young Link, so from the perspective of the Smash development team they are most likely done with the Zelda franchise, where they probably should focus on other IPs.

Also, with Skull Kid out of the picture, because he's still an Assist Trophy, there aren't that many potential characters left. Well, there's still this guy:

Tingle. And I would find it hilarious, if he made into Smash Ultimate as a fighter. He even used to be my most wanted at some point before Smash 4. But the outcry would probably be bigger than it currently is for Piranha Plant. And he doesn't really have an interesting stage to come with him. They could do the Tingle Tower from the Wind Waker, but it probably would end up quite similar to the Great Plateau Tower, just in the same setting as the Pirate Ship. (Alternatively they could go with the Rupee Tower from Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, but this would effectively turn him into his own franchise like Wario.)

The Pirate Ship also excludes Tetra as a possible character now, because that would have been her home stage. Impa could be still a thing, but she honestly was never that interesting, nor popular, plus she would have been an ideal Echo Fighter for Sheik, but there won't be any Echo Fighters in the paid DLC (unless maybe one of the new characters comes with an Echo like Simon and Richter).

Well, it still could be that Nintendo might release a couple of Echo Fighters as free DLC or as a separate DLC Pack. There would be lots of good potential here, like Dixie Kong for Diddy Kong or Jeanne for Bayonetta, which also probably would be the best shot at one more Zelda fighter in the form of either Impa or Princess Hilda.

But this is a big "IF", so overall we shouldn't expect anything for Zelda in the upcoming Smash DLC.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Final Direct Letdown

The last months have been a joy ride. The anticipation for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and all the theories for what could be still be included in the game were a lot of fun and the main focus of this blog for five months straight. But this probably ends soon.

The Direct was quite the hype killer. "Kencineroar" became a reality. The box was right and we really only had Ken and Incineroar left, which is certainly disappointing and didn't really end the roster on a high note. At least Sakurai wasn't lying or exaggerating when he said that we shouldn't expect many more fighters... But he could have spaced out the reveals more evenly, keep some of the bigger ones for the end, instead of revealing half of the additions in August.

On top of they deconfirmed many potential popular characters as Assist Trophies, including Shadow, Isaac, Spring Man and... Skull Kid. They didn't even bother with showing the latter during the Direct, he was simply put on the website, where it's like Nintendo wasn't even aware that the fans expected him. They also deconfirmed Echo Fighters for DLC (for now), so there goes my hope for a playable Princess Hilda yet again.

The whole Spirits Mode was lame. We are not getting trophies, but glorified stickers, where for each one you have to do lazily made substitute missions. "The Imprisoned in Smash? Well, we sure are too lazy to make him an actual boss, so we will just let you fight a giant K. Rool!" This reminds me partly of the Hyrule Warriors DLC, where they used huge Bokoblins as the four Giants from Majora's Mask and the Sealed Grounds as Clock Town, while Skull Kid was Lana wearing a costume.

It feels so lazy and it really hurts... There could have been so much amazing content in this game, but instead we are getting quick efforts left and right.

Stages are another disappointment. Yes, we're getting five more stages for a total of 108, but the five new stages will be DLC. So, there's only four new stages in the base game and so many missed opportunities for great stages from recent games, like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze or Metroid: Samus Returns. Having 99 old stages back is nice and all, but we already know all these stages, so they aren't as exciting.

At least there could have been a Stage Builder, so I can make my own new stages. But no, this feature was cut altogether. And this alone doesn't feel like the "ultimate" Smash to me (given, the game is subtitled "Special" in Japan, but hey, it's what it is in English). This was probably the biggest disappointment of the Direct. I can live with not getting the characters that I was hoping for, but the Stage Builder was one of my favorite features in the previous games, which probably just got cut because it would have meant more development effort. Or they thought that people wouldn't want to make their own stages, now that we have so many old stages back...

The Metroid fan in me is happy that we got Ridley and Dark Samus, but he's also disappointed that there were no new Metroid stages. The Zelda fan in me is happy that all Zelda stages are back and we're getting a new one with the Great Plateau Tower, but he's also disappointed that there were no new Zelda fighters and that almost every potential character got deconfirmed as an Assist Trophy again, like in Smash 4.

Well, as for a Zelda newcomer, I initially didn't expect one and I probably should have kept listening to this notion, instead of obsessing over the possibility that Skull Kid could make it in as a playable fighter this time. But with the August Direct it really seemed like this possibility was a reality with all factors combined. If they had revealed Skull Kid as an Assist Trophy together with the Moon, this wouldn't have happened, but instead they kept him off the list until the last second, keeping up the hopes of Zelda fans for all this time. This was really unlucky und poorly executed by Nintendo.

Of course DLC is a thing, but there will be only five packs from what it seems and the Piranha Plant. This character is certainly fun, but after the big blow from today I can't laugh about it right now. Maybe later. Hopefully, Vergeben was right about Minecraft as well and there will be a Minecraft pack. I would like that very much. I don't care about the rest, because there is probably nothing in it for me...

 

ARMS is out of the picture with Spring Man being an Assist Trophy (unless they are going for some other ARMS character, like Ribbon Girl, Min Min or Twintelle) and so seems to be Xenoblade Chronicles 2. This doesn't really leave much for fighters from newer Nintendo games. Maybe some older stuff, but older Nintendo characters feel more like something that they would do in the base game, like Ridley.

Most of it will probably be 3rd party anyway. Vergeben confirmed that there will be another Square Enix character. Nintendo could also be making deals with Bethesda for Smash and there might be something coming from Bandai Namco as well, like Heihachi from Tekken or KOS-MOS. Ryu Hayabusa from Koei Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series feels also like a must.


Update: They showed Young Link's Final Smash on stream and it's simply the Triforce Slash. No Fierce Deity or anything. The disappointment continues...

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Final Direct Expectations

Well, it's time. In a few hours we should finally know everything there is to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Of course it's possible that there might be one more fighter reveal later during this month, but we should have an almost complete picture after the Direct.

I still expect it to start with a new franchise to Smash. According to Vergeben, Isaac is still an Assist Trophy in the game, so there goes the idea of major Golden Sun representation. But there are still many possible 3rd party entries like Minecraft, Banjo Kazooie, Tekken or even Tales of Symphonia.

 

I personally would be really happy about Minecraft, because this is one of my favorite games ever. Steve seemed like a strong contender here, but it really could be that there will be Minecraft content in the game without a playable character, like a stage ("New World"), an Assist Trophy (Creeper) and a boss (Ender Dragon), similar to Monster Hunter...

 

Now, I was hoping that they would get the obligatory Pokémon newcomer out of the way with some other Pokémon announcements, like they did for Isabelle, but this didn't happen yet... However, they could simply reveal such a character in the middle of the Smash Direct, since another Pokémon is about as special as some more Echo Fighters. It doesn't feel like something that they would use at the beginning or the end of a Direct.

In case of Incineroar it makes sense to feature him in a boxing ring. They could have Little Mac to fight off multiple Pokémon, until Incineroar appears to finally beat him. They could even reveal Ken in the same trailer as a fiery challenger for Incineroar...

 
But as long as it ends with Skull Kid, I'll be happy. This is really the one character I want the most for Smash at the moment, now that we already have Ridley and Dark Samus, while Skull Kid also had the most evidence for him outside of supposed leaks.

Otherwise I'm mostly interested in the remaining stages, as well as a good Stage Builder. Bring the features from Brawl back and let us use all of the game's backgrounds.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Princess Hilda?

Well, this will be a broken record, but I still wanted to do a separate post for this, since I've been doing this with all potential Zelda newcomers for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate so far. But ever since the concept of "Echo Fighters" was introduced, I've kept bringing her up: Princess Hilda from A Link Between Worlds.

The idea mainly stems from Princess Zelda's new design, which comes from A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds. It looks amazing, but it also invites the possibility of Hilda as her Echo Fighter, who is like Zelda's dark mirror image. A playable Princess Hilda has been a big topic for me with Hyrule Warriors: Legends and its final DLC characters, where sadly she didn't take that last, open character slot, but now Super Smash Bros. Ultimate can make up for it.

Hilda could also turn into a more unique Echo Fighter, at least when it comes to the different attack animations. The Special Attacks based on the Goddess spells could use a purple, orange and yellow color scheme for an inversion. She could also use her staff for the different spells and the Phantom probably should be replaced by a Lorulean soldier. For the Final Smash she will trap someone in these dark tentacles, like she did with Yuganon, which would work like Zelda's Triforce attack, but with a different animation.

Still, she would work mostly the same as Zelda, so this character would primarily focus on presenting a visual difference, similar to Princess Daisy. But right now it doesn't feel likely that we'll be getting many more Echo Fighters and on the list of potential characters, which includes classic characters like Dixie Kong, she doesn't really have a high priority...

SoulCalibur VI Looking Good as Ever

Say hello to Ivy Valentine, sexy dominatrix since 1998. Some might say that a scantily clad character design like that is a "relic of the past", but others might find this to be unadulterated fun in video games.

And it's nice to see that Bandai Namco doesn't feel the need to cater to any social justice warriors by altering what makes Ivy ultimately Ivy. I personally don't even find her "beautiful", because she's rather masculine, but her scandalously revealing appearance is part of her character and her fighting style. It's distracting and it's supposed to be, where she uses her body as a weapon in multiple ways.

And as unrealistic as this might be, it's something that you would only find in a video game, where some things should just stay like they were in the late 90s. The Dead or Alive series already toned down their female character designs quite a lot, something the series always has been known for. But by making them look more "realistic", it also lost some of its appeal... So, it's good to see that at least SoulCalibur doesn't shy away from some unrealistic boobs.

In a way Ivy is quite similar to Cia in Hyrule Warriors, who also fights with a whip-like weapon and wears revealing outfits to seduce and distract. I'm afraid that they make her more "chaste" in the next game, but then she wouldn't be the same Cia any longer...

Also, both games stay on a comic level of violence. Being a blade-based fighter, SoulCalibur could be a lot more extreme, but I bet that no one would complain, if you could actually cut Ivy into bloody pieces. But shame on the game for having jiggling breasts! :D

Anyway, SoulCalibur VI got released today, it looks great and I'm still hoping that it will be coming to Nintendo Switch with Link as a guest character and maybe someone from the Fire Emblem series.

It would also be interesting to have a character from the series in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where my vote would go to Ivy, since she seems like one of the most iconic and recognizable characters of the SoulCalibur franchise.