Yo!
So, hey, it's been a rough weekend but your ol' friend here (so we meet again...for the first time) has kind of well, yeah, gotten to see quite a bit of the demo of Smash Switch (it's literally called "Super Smash Bros." it seems) that they'll have at Nintendo World and let me say, WOW. I don't know if this is the floor demo at E3, or the build Nintendo'll be using for their tournament or whatever, but it's pretty damn packed for a demo. I got in about a good three hours overall with some of my friends, though I didn't play much, and typed down a bunch of stuff I saw. We tried to give every character a shot, though some less than others, with focus on the newcomers.
We could play VS., in either Time or Stock, and the demo also features two new modes to try out. First there's "Super Smash Run", it's like that thing from the 3DS game where you run around fighting foes. There's two courses available here though, "Appetizer Course" and "Main Course", with the former being simpler and the latter being longer. Three minutes for the former, five for the latter. Lots of enemies you beat up here collecting shit to power up, and then you enter a special match---we played it a few times, and some had us in a simple Free For All, one had us taking on a swarm of Pokemon (I think?) seeing who could beat the most up, and one had us working together against a Boss Character, Dyna Blade. It seems cool, though I never touched the 3DS one. By the way, during the Smash Run portion the screen is split-screen, at least on the demo kiosk.
There's also "Goliath Smash". This mode has one player play as an extra larger character, like screen-filling, and the others play as regular size. The extra large character has stamina, while the other characters have %---the giant character tries to knock the others off, though they move slower than normal and can't use specials or pick up items, while the smaller characters try to decrease the stamina using items. You actually choose from a selection of items when picking your character, the staples like the Beam Sword and Ray Gun, and that's fun. I feel like the smaller characters have it easier though, the Giant Character is kind of unfun to play as, but maybe it's up to what character you use. You play on slightly enlarged Q-version of stages by the way---I'm lazy to learn how to type the "omega" symbol, so I used Q. The giant character can fall off and instantly die, but you have to be sucky as they're pretty much unmoveable otherwise. Of course it happened to me though...
The demo has a nice selection of 25, 19 Vets and 6 Newcomers---or 7, if you count the Ice Climbers back. As for Vets, mostly the usual. None of them change much.
* Mario- I didn't see any Odyssey shit, unless it was very minor. Never saw his Final Smash come to think of it so maybe there.
* Bowser - Still rocking his cool Smash 4 look. So they gave DK a voice, but Bowser still roars.
* Link- No classic Link in demo, just BOTW and alt colors. Seems the same bar visual changes to match BOTW, but has a down angeled bow when he jumps.
* Samus- No ZSS playable, but Final Smash doesn't cause her to transform so I assume still separate chicks.
* Marth- Same. Still speaks Japanese, though I hope they change this in the final version. I need more Lowenthal in my life.
* Donkey Kong- Has that stupid Scooby Doo voice now. But his model seems more improved than anyone else. I like it.
* Yoshi - Same. Speaking of voices, his voice sounds more annoyin' than usual. Even for Yoshi.
* Pikachu - No more Skull Bash, now he does a flip forward and slams folks with his tail. Also spotted one of Ash's hats on him I think, the classic one with the green symbol.
* Captain Falcon - Same. I'm surprised they didn't give him anything from the newest F-Zero game......hahahaha.
* Lucas - I guess he's on the starting roster again. Seems to be the same as his Smash 4 self. * Pit - Same. Here's hoping they cut Dark Pit, he's definitely not an alt here like he was planned at first for 4.
* Palutena - Oh, I think they got the original voice back? Also she has AUTORETICLE and her projectile shield, but no warp or counter, now a flying move and fireworks. So a new set of default I guess, as I think these were alternate moves in Smash 4 though fuck Palutena. No idea from the demo how custom moves are used in Smash Switch. Oh, that crazy beam attack doesn't go sky high now.
* Little Mac - Still feels broke to me. I have bad memories of For Glory. * Villager - Same moves, but he's gotten taller now. He's all grown up...
* Shulk - THIS IS THE POWER OF THE MONADO. His Final Smash seems a bit spruced up with better models for his friends, but it's still Rikki and Dunban. Where's the fuck is Sharla?
* Ice Climbers - They're back. Seem the same as I remember 'em. Really glad to see them. * Duck Hunt - Same.
* Ryu - I guess the 3rd Party dudes are back. Seems the same. No Street Fighter V stuff as far as I can tell, though I don't know what Ryu's got now in that game. I mean, he seems like the dude who stays the same.
* Bayonetta - CUT HER SAKURAI. She still seems to kick ass as far as I can tell. I hate everything about this character.
Oh, and what you're waiting for are the new faces included in this demo, but I can't say for sure if that's all that'll be shown at E3---these are the ones Sakurai is nice enough to let you feel, let you touch, and let you taste without paying money. I'm totally betting there would be a 3rd Party MIND BLOW inclusion at E3, and I guess that reveal is big enough that they're not letting you use it in the demo because nobody new outside Nintendo pops up here.
* Inklings. Yeah, you knew they were coming. Splatoon <<<<<<<<<<<<< ARMS, but I get why people flock to these little squid kids. Um, you have male and female variants with different colors. They're pretty wild looking in how they fight, the paint sticks on folks (seem to be the moneyshot in showing off the Switch's power as it looks cool) and racks up damage, but they can run out of juice and gotta recharge. They also have a like horizontal version of Luigi's missile by turning into a squid. All their normals seem to involve them whipping out different weapons, they're like one of those crazy anime fighters characters with how fast they switch between weapons and such. Folks are gonna enjoy them.
* Captain Toad. Can you imagine it, but he's a "Summoner". Dude is FREAKED as most of his attacks summon various enemies like Shy Guys near him. You gotta space a foe between the Shy Guy, or whatever, and Toad because the enemies can knock him back. But the knock back is set and doesn't actually hurt you, I think you can strategize some neat tricks with this. Oh, and he really doesn't jump---some bird snatches him (he's scared) and carries him up, but it's basically like jumping. It's not that Wingo dude who does it. He can also make a piranha plant appear out of the ground which sprouts up, and he can climb on its vine like a ladder, and he's got a Pick-Axe for his Smash Attacks. He's a weird character, like almost all of his moves have this disconnect between when you perform them and the actual effect. No one seemed to really "get" him, but probably some Smash maniacs will end up making him top-tier. No Peach in demo so does she still have Toad is a question.
* Stenee. I don't know much about Pokemon, but it's got the PokeBall logo and looking her up she's from Sun and Moon. She's cute---for a Pokemon I guess? She jumps around a bunch, she fights with leafs and such, and there's some little Pokemon she even playfully kicks around like a soccer ball. It's uh the one she evolves from I think if I remember what it looked like right. It was definitely pink though. My last Pokemon game was Diamond and Pearl so I remember there was that little cherry dude, but she doesn't evolve from it right? She's brand new huh?
* Ridley. Yo, he's in. And he's amazing. Okay, okay, he's like really big, the biggest, he gets hit a ton but he really soaks it up. But he moves weird, with moving stages being a bit problematic we noticed. But he can fly. Like, you press B button, and he spreads his wings. He actually has no specials unless he's flying, then he stuff like mid-air body slams, fiery breath, and tail whips. Otherwise when he's grounded he just has close-range attacks with his claws and mouth. When he flies tho he's a lot lighter, and that damage he takes really takes its toll. So it's like risk-reward. He actually works for the most part though. His win-record---everyone wanted to try him out---was flawless. He always won. Um, maybe that's an issue. But yeah, you just tank everyone on the ground, and then you swoop in for the kill. A good hit when he's flying'll kill him, but he's nimble enough to outmaneuver. Oh, and you can't camp too long because flight time is limited. About, uh, twenty seconds and there's some invisible recharge time. But you can do a lot in that time. People are gonna love him. But he's probably Meta Knight 2.
* Robobot Armor. KIRBY'S BEEN REPLACED! No, but seriously, no Kirby in the demo but here you've got Kirby riding the Robobot Armor. Kirby ain't cut, so I guess Sakurai just doesn't give a fuck if there are two Kirby running around. It plays basically like how you'd expect a mecha too, and it's loaded with weapons like Mega Man---its body can morph into different shapes, but I noticed it stays the basic pink look here. We used its B which seemed to be the robot's copy power, but I don't quite get it---after you use it on a foe you get a charged shot like Samus or Mewtwo, and the color and mechanics of the charge seems to change. It seems based on something---like Mario gave it a fiery red charge shot, but Yoshi gives it the same type of charge shot. And then copying Link and Pikachu seemed to give it a yellow electrical one. This was my personal favorite in the demo.
* Athlete. This guy's logo a ball. He looks kind of like an older Ness. Apparently he's like G&W, those early non-licensed NES sports games. He starts as a baseball player, but can become golfer, tennis player, or soccer-er. He changes through Specials. And once changed, his outfit switches and he has unique normals. Like four dudes in one. His Final Smash has him summoning the entire Ice Hockey team to swarm the opponents, cutscene like like Falcon's or Duck Hunts. I guess this is our retro bro, though I was booking for Takamaru.
The demo also has ten stages, 3 old and 6 new, though Smash Run took us to different stages for the Pokemon Battle (I don't even know if it was Pokemon or what the stage was) and the Dyna Blade fight. I recognized the stage there as the place you fought her in Super Star I think.
* Battlefield: A new version, kind of like the original but a bit more high-tech with glowing runes and ancient-machinery going on. The weather seems to change each time you pick it, visually only, like one fight being sunny, and another having a tornado rip around the background. The characters actually seemed to have slight wind-based effects, with hair and clothing blowing. The new theme for Smash Switch plays here, it sound like a weird mix of Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4, though mainly 4.
* Mario Galaxy: Like identical to Smash 4.
* Shy Guy Heights: It's Captain Toad's level, it's two stages connected in the center with a bridge mechanic you can hit hard enough to cause the two to drift further apart. There's a lot of nooks and crannies in the the two stages to hide in and stuff, I enjoyed messing around. Also Shy Guys are hanging around and I fucking love Shy Guys. Has an acapella version of the Treasure Tracker theme sung by Toad, very cool but kind of annoying.
* Death Mountain: This level has you on that salamander robot as he climbs around a volcano---he's the platform, but he shifts ever so slightly especially with his tail. And there's also giant meteors raining down on occasion. But it's not too annoying. The music is something from BOTW I'm sure but I don't remember much musically about that game.
* Bright Savannah: Everyone's favorite level generally, it's that awesome "Lion King" shit from Tropical Freeze. Well, at least visually and with that awesome song---it's a traveling stage. But not too bad, you jump around these dancing trees with moving platforms as the screen scrolls, and it has a part where you run along snake platforms like the level from Tropical Freeze. There's actually a part where it breaks for about a minute as you fight on a totem for a breather. That's used as the Q-version too.
* Halberd: They brought it back from Brawl and Smash 4. It's got that jazzy Meta Knight theme. Seems a bit touched up I think?
* Mahi Mahi Resort: The Splatoon stage. Uh you've got water that goes in and out revealing platforms. You got that weird gibberish Splatoon music playing, I don't know which one. It's a pretty large stage with a lot of platforms when the water recedes, as the camera will zoom out to accommodate this.
* Snowman Village: The Ice Climber's stage...it doesn't seem to be from Ice Climbers, it's just this weird snow village with a giant snowman in the center with platforms, and the edge of the stage slopes inwards forming a halfpipe. I guess this is supposed to be where they live? You have giant snowballs that roll in from the side on occasion, moving in the halfpipe, before eventually building up enough momentum to fly off the screen. Music is a very, very, very, very comfy rendition of Ice Climbers.
* Sanderson House: Hey, a Chibi-Robo Stage? Yeah the icon is a little plug. Didn't expect this. You play in a "giant" living room, with a couch as the main platform---you can go under it, or over it, as it's a walkoff stage. Going under really fucks things up as characters bounce around like a wild due to the ceiling at high damage. There's trash that pops up you can toss at opponents too. Big humans (the Sandersons I assume) stomp around the background on occasion. The song is super simple but moving around adds notes to it.
* Suzaku Castle: Heard Ryu's theme only.
We saw a bunch of items, Poke Balls, and Assist Trophies, but I don't remember 'em all that well---there wasn't an option to choose to see what was in.
Items you had a Teddy Bear that soaked up damage when you held it, and that duplicating Cherry from Mario. It makes a second version of you pop up and move around the map randomly, but we noticed it never seemed to attack. It was easy for us to see through, but the CPU not so much. There's, um, Meowth's coin that when you hold it a bunch of money flies out of you and it seemed to bump up our end of match coins we won, though we couldn't use them. But it didn't seem to do anything in the match?
I don't know a lot of Pokemon, but there was a little blue centipede who just said "fuck ya'll" and left when we summoned him, Hitmonchan appeared and a did a three-hit combo ending with a flaming uppercut, one of them unleashed an anime-style glowing sword that took off like the whole stage, and some of them like this rad roided dude popped out of what my friend told me was "Beast Balls". Seemed like a lot of hold-overs from the ones I remember from Smash 4.
Most of the Assist Trophies I recognized from Smash 4, but I noticed the karate dude from Wario, Bandanna Dee (sorry folks), whose spear has huge reach and can hit you clear across Battlefield, that elephant from Yoshi's Story which blocks your path, Blanka from Street Fighter who jumps around using electrical attacks, some dude I assume is from a Light Gun game as the little reticle appears where he runs and causes a small explosion, I think it's Gumshoe?, and a couple other new faces I'm not sure of I think, though maybe they were ones returning from Brawl. That bat girl is back I think. I did not see Waluigi if that means anything.
And that's it for the demo. Enjoy next week.
