Super Smash Bros. Zelda Stages: Great Bay

Great Bay is finally back. This is the only Zelda stage from the first three Smash Bros. games that didn't reappear in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. So, it's good to have it back and it's looking better than ever, with some details taken from Majora's Mask 3D. Apparently you can now even spot a Piece of Heart in the background, where you would find it in the original game...

Well, despite the attention to detail the stage isn't entirely faithful to the original location, of course, because some creative liberties had to be taken to turn the Marine Research Laboratory into an actual stage, like turning it by 90° or having the giant turtle appear right next to it. The whole act of the Moon crashing on Termina was also altered and of course fastened.

It will be interesting to see, how the Moon Assist Trophy is affected by this stage. Ideally they would use the Moon from the stage for this, since the Assist Trophy even starts appearing in the same corner:

So, there could be a seamless transition from what's already present. The same could even happen with Tingle, if he happens to return as an Assist Trophy - you could simply have the Tingle on the stage do weird things.

Most of the Zelda stages usually depict an area from the early game, but Great Bay is an exception to this, much like Gerudo Valley (though you can visit the Gerudo Valley first thing as a child after leaving Kokiri Forest, if you wanted to).

Super Smash Bros. Zelda Stages: Hyrule Castle

With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate absolutely all stages from The Legend of Zelda are returning for a total of nine different stages, including the new Great Plateau Tower stage. It's the first time that really all past Zelda stages are featured in one single Super Smash Bros. game and we will celebrate this by going through each of the stages one by one, talking a little bit about them.

The first one is Hyrule Castle, which originated in the very first Super Smash Bros. game on the Nintendo 64:

It's based on Hyrule Castle from Ocarina of Time, however, the stage itself is labeled as a generic "The Legend of Zelda" stage in the stage select screen of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, while both the Bridge of Eldin and Skyloft got labeled as stages from Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword respectively. So, it's not necessarily an Ocarina of Time stage like Gerudo Valley, but if you count it as such, Ocarina of Time would be the only Zelda game that has gotten two different stages in the Super Smash Bros. series.

The castle itself was one of the more special stages in Super Smash Bros. 64 and is probably best know for its "Greenhouse", the little room on right side, where it's easy to combo opponents for a lot of damage. The stage also features tornadoes, which are reminiscent of the tornadoes in the first The Legend of Zelda game, despite being dangerous and not a helpful warp tool. But it could also be a throwback to the first BS The Legend of Zelda game, where tornadoes actually were used as an obstacle, which throws the player off the screen...

This stage didn't return in the series for quite some time, until it became DLC for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U. With that it suddenly became one of the most recurring Zelda stages, being featured in four different Smash Bros. games by now, much like Temple.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Yoshi's Crafted World?

Nintendo has published some character arts of alternate costumes, including a variant of Yoshi from Yoshi's Crafted World:

This looks nice at first, but I'm a little worried that you won't be able to distinguish between this and the default Yoshi skin. But the reason why I'm posting this is that this could also lead some more content from Yoshi's Crafted World, including a stage as a replacement for Yoshi's Woolly World, which is absent from the large list of returning stages for seemingly no reason...

So, it gives me a little bit of hope that we haven't seen all stages yet.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: 108 Stages Total?

We have yet another rumor about the totals of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but this time a slightly more positive one. According to the CoroCoro magazine, there are a 108 stages in the game, as translated by SourceGaming on Twitter.

This lines up perfectly with what I had expected after the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct in August, when they revealed the total of 96 returning stages, next to the three default stages and four new ones. There they showed us the stage select screen with six open slots in the bottom right corner:

image source

You have to account for the training stage in Training Mode, which wouldn't be visible in the normal Smash mode, so that's five open slots in this setup. 108 is also a very lovely number, if you're a fan of the show LOST like I am (it's the sum of "the numbers" in the series and often found in modern pop culture because of it, if you pay attention). So, I would be completely fine with this total, even if nine new stages aren't that many...

Well, it could be that this is simply speculation from CoroCoro's end or even a typo, because it seems odd that they are revealing the total before Nintendo does, but in any case it's what I would expect at this point.

It's certainly better than being stuck at 103, because I've seen way too many people insisting that 103 is the final total and we're not getting any more stages, because Sakurai didn't explicitly say that we would in the last Smash Direct. I do agree that we're probably looking at the final count of returning stages, because there was no reason to hold any of back at this point, unless they are completely new versions of the same stage, e.g. a Poké Floats 2.

But it's hard to believe that there won't be any new stages at this point, were it's easy to come up with five of them. Here's what my hopes and expectation would be:

• New World: Stage based on Minecraft, possibly with Wither and Ender Dragon bosses
• Ancestral Steppe: Stage based on Monster Hunter 4 with various boss monsters from the series
• A Golden Sun stage, e.g. one of the Lighthouses
• Grassland Groove: Stage based on Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, revealed together with Dixie Kong Echo Fighter
• Planet SR388: Stage based on Metroid: Samus Returns with Diggernaut and Metroid Queen bosses

Well, the first three are simply based on what we've heard and seen so far. The Ancestral Steppe was already shown to us and could be only part of the Spirits Mode, but it also could be another new stage, which they wanted to introduce later on, since the focus was on Rathalos and Assist Trophies at the time. They did the same with New Donk City Hall, which got shown during E3, but it wasn't properly introduced yet.

If Isaac or any other Golden Sun character gets into the game, they will need their own stage. And the rumors from Vergeben included Minecraft content, where a stage would be the best possible representation, next to trophies and bosses. It would be similar to Monster Hunter, where these third party franchises don't get a character, but are represented in the form of stages, Assist Trophies and bosses.

The last two would simply be my personal picks, because I really like these games and they are still quite new. Both the Metroid and DK franchises also have two absent classic stages, which didn't return for Ultimate, so they could use some compensation...

What three of these ideas have in common are new bosses, which might be important for the Spirits Mode, because like Dracula they might be used there to an extent, while the stage is also available in the normal Smash mode.

As much as I would love to see another Zelda stage, we already got one with the Great Plateau Tower and we got all classic Zelda stages back, so we shouldn't be greedy here. Metroid, DK or any of the other franchises that aren't Zelda or Mario probably need it more.

But of course if there is any other character from a franchise that doesn't have a stage yet, then he/she/it would probably get one as well, for example if Nintendo really could get Banjo & Kazooie from Microsoft. And we still have R.O.B., who is the only character on the official page, who doesn't have a stage in his background as of yet... So, maybe he finally gets his own stage after all these years.

And of course there is the possibility of DLC, where they could add as many new stages as they wanted and maybe even bring some of the missing returning stages back as well in some new forms, like a Poké Floats 2, a new version of Rainbow Road or even Yoshi's Crafted World. The DLC stages probably would get their own tab at the top, much like stages made in a potential Stage Builder.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Only 2 Fighters Left?

So, everyone is currently going crazy over the promotional box art of the Special Edition of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in North America:

The sides of the box depict the characters in the game in their numbered order, but in groups of nine, where one group goes over one and a half rows. So, the other side of the box probably starts with the original eight characters and Dark Samus, where it then continues on the side that we see here.

A total of 72 characters would be possible on the current box layout with six rows and six columns on each side of the box, while the current character total (counting Echo Fighters, but counting both the Pokémon Trainer and the Mii Fighters as one) would be 70. If you add Isabelle next to King K. Rool, there should be two open slots on the box, but there is only one. And that's because there is one open slot on the other side for an Echo Fighter. The numbering is off right before the last group, between the Mii Fighters and Corrin, so one of these characters might get an Echo Fighter:

• Palutena
• Pac-man
• Robin
• Shulk
• Bowser Jr.
• Duck Hunt Duo
• Ryu
• Cloud

The likeliest out of these is certainly Ryu with Ken, who has been rumored for a while now and who makes a lot of sense considering that he basically was the original Echo Fighter in a fighting game. But others could have Echoes as well, for example Medusa (Palutena), Celica (Robin) or even Zack (Cloud).
 

But with this there would be only one unique fighter left... If this "box theory" holds true, I very much hope that Skull Kid will be the final newcomer, because it would be very disappointing to not have him in the game after all, considering all the things that hinted at his inclusion.

Some speculate that it will be Incinerour, because Vergeben (the possible leaker that I've mentioned before) has a 7th generation Pokémon on his list, next to Ken. All of his other suggestions - Ridley, Simon Belmont and Isabelle - all came true, so he's most likely onto something. But it would be super disappointing, if the last playable fighter was the tenth playable Pokémon. Update: Vergeben has by now confirmed that the Generation 7 Pokémon is indeed Incineroar, here.

Anyway, Vergeben also keeps mentioning that there might be another Square Enix representative, which would already be one more character than what fits on the box. There also might be content based on Minecraft, where it would be very weird, if Nintendo didn't use the chance to make a deal with Microsoft for a character. Here's a summary of what he currently has to say... Of course, all of this could simply lead to DLC and that's it for the main game.

But still, I'm having a hard time believing that there are only going to be two more newcomers. We're around the half point between the game's big reveal at E3 in June and its launch on December 7th. If there were really only eleven newcomers in total, they would have spaced the reveals out more evenly and not reveal half of them in a single Direct. There's probably going to be at least on more dedicated Smash Direct for the game, which would then pale in comparison to the one from August, if there's only one more Echo Fighter and one more unique newcomer left to be revealed. It would reduce the hype significantly...

And of course the box art isn't final yet and will most likely change before the release, where they could just make the character icons smaller and add another row or two columns, where then there would be space for 14 more newcomers. I wouldn't expect that many, but they could just leave a couple of slots open on each side... They could also keep the Echo Fighters separate or put some characters (like the original eight) on the back of the box for the final products. So, there are many possibilities, how this could change and make room for additional characters.

Overall I can think of at least six newcomers, which feel very likely at this point, judging from missing Assist Trophies, missing alt colors, still secret Final Smashes, hints dropped by Nintendo and also Vergeben's possible leaks.

Unique newcomers (Team Sun & Moon):

• Isaac from Golden Sun
• Incineroar from Pokémon Sun & Moon
• Skull Kid

Echo Fighters:

• Dixie Kong
• Shadow the Hedgehog
• Ken Masters

Other possible Nintendo characters would be Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X, Captain Toad, Bandana Waddle Dee or even Dillon... Plus, there are many more potential semi-clones or Echo Fighters, like Impa, Princess Hilda, Black Shadow, Medusa or Jeanne.

In addition there could be more licensed newcomers from Square Enix, Bandai Namco (e.g. Heihachi from Tekken or someone from SoulCalibur) and even Microsoft (e.g. Minecraft Steve or Banjo & Kazooie).

There's so much potential that it would really hurt, if only two of all these would still make it into the game after Isabelle. Of course there could always be DLC, but there we already have newer characters waiting to be added, like Rex and his different Blades from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, where KOS-MOS and T-elos could even become their own thing, or Spring Man and Ribbon Girl from ARMS.

So, the if the box tells the truth, it will certainly be disappointing.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Edition of Nintendo Switch Announced

Okay...

I'm still waiting for a Special Edition of the Nintendo Switch to finally buy one, but preferably it should be one for Zelda and preferably it would look a little bit nicer than this thing... Unlike with the "Pokémon Let's Go" Edition they didn't even bother with adding special colored Joycons, they just took the grey ones and added some decals to it. The grey ones probably aren't hat popular, so they had to get rid of them somehow. It reminds me of the first Nintendo 3DS and its Zelda 25th Anniversary Edition, where they took the black system and added gold decals. But that one was worth a purchase and looked a lot nicer.

And the dock of the Smash Edition doesn't really look all that nice either. Just some character arts put at the two sides, similar to the Pokémon Edition... Nintendo can do better than this and I probably won't be buying this one.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Isabelle Announced

Isabelle was confirmed last night as the newest newcomer to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and this was quite surprising. Well, it wasn't surprising that she's going to be playable this time around, since I've speculated as much in both my assessments about missing Assist Trophies and potential Echo Fighters. But it was still surprising to see her now and to see her as a semi-clone, effectively, getting her own number on the roster.

I've kept saying that she has the potential to be unique and it's good that they didn't go the Echo route with her, because she looks like a lot of fun, especially with the Fishing Rod. Animal Crossing certainly had some potential left in its sleeves for different moves.

But she's still partly based on the Villager and has some of his moves, which does confirm that semi-clones, like Dr. Mario, Young Link or Wolf, really still can happen. So far it seemed like a new character would either be fully unique or squeezed into the Echo role, where we jumped between the two extremes. But it doesn't have to be that way after all, though Isabelle certainly feels quite unique overall and is one of the more advanced semi-clones, so to say.

It leaves me a little bit sad that they didn't go the same route with Dark Samus, but I can still understand the design choice that was made there. Isabelle at least looks quite different from the Villager, but both Samus and Dark Samus have the same shape and therefore can look quite similar, where it makes only sense that they behave similarly as well. It's the same case for Peach and Daisy and this will also probably remain true for Dixie Kong and Shadow, if they are going to be Echo Fighters.

But if Medusa becomes playable, she will certainly become a semi-clone of Palutena now, featuring different Special moves. And for Impa there is also some potential, because she has quite different proportions from Sheik and is a tad larger. So, maybe the could turn her into a semi-clone, if she's really playable...

Skull Kid is still the most likely contender for a Zelda newcomer, however, and the Direct certainly didn't change any of it. He's in pretty much the exact same spot as Isabelle. Both used to have Mii outfits in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, which were seemingly based on popular characters. Both used to have an Assist Trophy in the same game, which is now absent. And both now got a new Assist Trophy from their games, essentially replacing them. So, Skull Kid looks even more likely after Isabelle's addition, since he shares all of her evidence and got even more of his own, like Young Link's secret Final Smash (which is totally Fierce Deity).