#chorus men

[cosmoscaptainyuri]

What to heck?! Chorus Kid in real life?!

[rhythm-rally]

Hiiii if requests are still open, could you draw the bandleader of the Frogettes surrounded by the Chorus Kids? Thanks a bunch and also I love your art and presence!

They are everywhere.

[rhythm-rally]

ℍ𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕪 ℍ𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕟🎃💜🧡

[netbug009]

I want the Chorus Men to finally be in the new smash.

PLEASE

[anactualtree]

DAY 19: Behold, the「CHORUS MEN」

[smashmusicideas]

Smash’s Most Wanted #08: the Chorus Kids

The Character(s): This trio of adorable, fanged homonculi are among the more iconic characters in Rhythm Heaven, heading up a bizarre glee club led by what I think is a dog conductor. Like the rest of the series’ cast, you respond - in this case, by tapping the Nintendo DS stylus - to the beat of their singing and try to get a perfect score.

While they are somewhat anemic as actual characters, it’s their goofy charm that makes them beloved, and so well represents the similar charm of Rhythm Heaven. Like Shy Guys, they take a visual concept that by all rights should be truly horrific and make it adorable and friendly. But it’s something else that drove so many Smash Bros. fans to their support, something unexpected.

Pros: Rhythm Heaven has slowly become a fairly prominent IP for Nintendo, an appealing mixture of low-resolution casual aesthetics, old-school hardcore pattern recognition, and catchy pop music by Tsunku. Smash has shown itself to adapt truly disparate styles with ease, but even still this one fits remarkably well - though it makes sense, considering its developers’ history making WarioWare. It’s readily outsold other Nintendo rhythm games like Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Elite Beat Agents, or Jam with the Band; a representative could collectively represent that entire genre.

Because the series is based around intense “tap[s] to the rhythm,” this could also create a truly unique fighter in Smash, one based entirely on battling to a beat. Like the fights in MOTHER 3, it could involve buffing normal attacks with timed repeated hits of the “A” button. The game are already shades of this - Donkey Kong’s Final Smash involves hitting notes to hit skulls, and Wii Fit Trainer has what’s basically a quicktime event for her “Deep Breathing” special - but these kids could take this to an entirely new level.

While it’s initially hard at first to see why they’d be chosen over other Rhythm Heaven characters, their iconic weirdness actually make some sense as mascots. “Glee Club” is a well known level in the DS game, and they’re even featured on the box art. Similar sprite Marshal from Rhythm Heaven Fever might work better as a single, named character, but Kids’ team spirit could provide them with more unique moves. Although an Ice Climbers-style trio is out, they could work well as a single unit, linking together for crazy tandem fighting maneuvers. Having a group could also just better represent their rhythm by moving in step to the beat of the action. They highlight why it’s fun to bring in characters so removed from the norm of fighting games, something that can also be seen in the number of fan-designed movesets.

Of course, their winning personality has little to do with why I’m discussing them; it all comes down to the Leak. One of the main controversies for Smash 4 was the legitimacy of the “Gematsu Leaks,” a series of e-mails to the gaming site Gematsu that claimed insider information and newcomers in the final version. Correctly predicting Wii Fit Trainer, Villager, Mega Man, Palutena, the Miis, Pac-Man, Shulk, Little Mac, and “Pokemon from X/Y” (though not mentioning Rosalina), it wildly accrued both support and derision with its various comments before eventually being debunked when Robin and Lucina were announced and Chrom disconfirmed. Interestingly, though, the character that garnered the most attention were the “Chorus Men,” the Kids’ Japanese name. It seemed an insane choice, which ended up giving them a lot of focus. Because of it, they’ve ended up a well liked dark horse candidate.

Recently, hacking into Super Smash Bros for Wii U found a few unused series symbols, which would have represented more prominent series like the Warp Star for Kirby. Among the characters’ icons was a single set of incomplete data only known by the filename “rhythm;” it’s hard to imagine another franchise. While other series were undoubtedly considered before being dropped, at least some actual programming work was done on what was almost definitely a Rhythm Heaven character.

For many people this confirmed a popular opinion, that the leaker had to have been privy to ideas only at an early stage in the games’ development. It’s a theory supported by Smash Run; outside of the “Subspace Emissary” baddies, the only enemies unconnected to a playable franchise are the Polar Bear (from Ice Climber, whose protagonists were cut during development for technical reasons) and the Sneaky Spirits from Fever - and the latter seems far too coincidental. If the Chorus Kids could work, what’s to stop them from joining?

Cons: There’s really only one major problem, and it really comes down to recognition and sales. Rhythm Heaven has some memetic value in the west (particularly thanks to the luchador), but it’s far more niche than in Japan. There’s definitely value, I think, in promoting region-specific characters; look at how huge Marth, Roy, and Lucas all got, at least partially because their Japanese-only releases made them seem more “exotic.” But those were all characters who slowly got fans, more than a few of whom may have or did dismiss them originally.

After the release of the Wii U version, Sakurai mentioned that among the characters considered and cut was at least one from series that he felt was less likely to continue. And although Nintendo never officially wrote the series off after Rhythm Heaven Fever’s disappointing sales (which came out a year before Smash 4 started development), there seems to have been a general sense that it had lost some of its steam. I suspect that with over 45 other characters and 80 combined stages, some things just had to be dropped, and a character from a younger, smaller set of games was the “kindest” cut.

I may be at risk of harping on this point too much, but the financial element of DLC is undeniable. Even if they were planned, it’s harder to economically justify committing to characters from a niche series - though considering how fantastic the trailers have been (and how they’ve galvanized even fans who weren’t interested), even more difficult characters could be sold more easily than you might think. I was very much not on board for Pac-Man or the Miis, but their footage turned me around.

A similar blessing and curse is the lack of supplemental material in Smash outside of the series’ surprisingly high number of trophies. Combining them with a series stage - or at least adding some pop songs to Gamer or Boxing Ring - could make the deal sweeter for people less inclined for them alone. But that would demand still more work, even with the lower graphical ceiling to capture the series’ art style. It’s a gamble; putting in more effort increases the risk if it isn’t popular, but by just ignoring newcomers entirely you lack the ability to create those new cult characters or add elements that feel new and exciting. No one wants just returning veterans.

Final Thoughts: A few months ago, Nintendo announced Rhythm Heaven: the Best+, a combined sequel and compilation pack that appears to include the Kids’ Glee Club level. It’s set to be released on June 11 in Japan, and while it seems to have only been confirmed there so far, it’s not at all implausible that it will come to the US. And from this title, the opportunity for synergy presents itself. More than a few people have thought about the ways Nintendo could combine new characters with upcoming games, like selling an absurdly likely Wolf around the time the upcoming Star Fox game is released (way less likely: releasing MOTHER 3 on the Virtual Console after Lucas comes out). Many fans want to see more new series introduced, and tactics like this could be very useful for bringing them into Smash.

Oddly enough, though, the thing that most improved the the chances of these guys - or anything from Rhythm Heaven - may be the Gematsu leak itself, which turned the idea of the game getting a fighter from a crazy pipe dream at best into something a lot of fans still want to see. While it really only spread in English-speaking countries, that’s led them to getting a kind of support the series would have never gotten outside Japan. In some ways, it seems like there’s quite a bit more interest from the US, much of which came from people who expected to see them in action. It’s uncanny.

I wasn’t the only person who was charmed by these guys in the “leak,” and it’s interestingly to see how extensively fans took to them as well. Maybe it’s how implausible they seem, or their surreal cuteness, but they’ve really inspired people to an extent that matches the best of Smash.

That video’s creator, Kevin Fagaragan, also made this GIF mockup of a Chorus Kids moveset, which is...pretty damn amazing. Really want that Down Smash and Neutral Special now.

Like Tetra, the Chorus Kids are the kind of characters who really need their popularity known to succeed, assuming that the polls are going to seriously influence developers later. If we’re getting Smash DLC into 2016 (and ending the poll in October implies they’re at least considering that), I think they could actually have a pretty good chance nearer towards the end. So run! Fly! Move boldly! Make your voices heard, and let’s see these tykes take to the stage!

[pakoblog]

[thinkingalexis]

Let's talk about this smash Rumor

http://i.imgur.com/73yoyiY.png

So last time I took a popular rumor not very seriously I was wrong so this time I want to give this heavier consideration. The rumor is just a text based rumor and it could just be me being hopeful but I believe this is possible. The rumor is most likely true but I will consider it real for now. So the Major part of the rumor is that syncing the 3ds and Wii U version gives Ridley, Dixie, Impa, chorus men and mewtwo as playable characters. These are all characters that deserve to be in the game regardless of who id prefer.  Then we have the Tower of Smash, a mode where you go up 100 floors with a party of 4 one stock characters.  They claim event mode is cut but Co-op all star, co-op classic, tournament mode, break the targets, stage builder.  The challenges are apparently to be themed based on series showing an image when you finish it all. The leaker claims 55 stages are in the game 15 of with are brought in from previous games. Lastly claims a November 21st release date for the Wii U version in america. I'll go over all this in detail in the order I spoke about it. 

So the leaker gave small details on each character. Ridley apparently lacks wings without activating his up B with gives him wings. It sounds interesting and I think he could be a pretty fun character to control. I wonder how long his wings would work and how exactly they would. Chorus men is something I hate because I was very against the gamerstu leak and that bias hasn't left me. However, they sound cool in the game and I could see them being fun to play as. Dixie is a character I've wanted to see in smash for a while since in the Donkey Kong country series she has been playable 3 of 5 times with is as many as Donkey Kong.  I think she will play pretty well and the apparent mix of skills of her family is cool. Impa is a character that I really started to enjoy more during my Hyrule Warriors research. I hadn't really played to much Zelda and never really got far enough in any game where she was a warrior. Really she has a lot of amazing talents in the series and I think she could be totally separate from sheik. Lastly, we have Mewtwo who would be a returning character and that's pretty awesome. I think all of us Pokemon fans want to see mewtwo in action.

So Tower Mode is a thing the leaker claims will happen and i'm shocked I didn't think of it in my post thinking up modes for smash wii u.  The person gave a lot of details on the Tower of Smash. You select a party of 4 going to one on one matches each floor. You are totally healed between rounds and can freely switch characters. The match can have a whole lot of gimmicks but the big deal is Bosses appear every 10 floors, These bosses include some awesome ones like Dyna Blade and Mecha Dragoon. You can restart at any 10th floor level you have reched and continue. This mode sounds pretty amazing and honestly i'm really excited to try this mode if it's real. This isn't buying another 60 dollar game levels of awesome but if this is true then so are the character and that would put it at that level. 

Now we have the returning modes. Break the targets is to go back to being based on individual characters with will be pretty cool. Tournament mode is no surprise but I do hope it's upgraded. Stage builder returns and is lo longer limited by theme. That's everything that really matters from what the person leaked and that's about all the changes I really wanted. The co-op stuff is cool but Id hope the Tower of Smash also had a co-op option. Id like to see options to the kind of tournament hosted being able to switch from Swiss, double elimination, single elimination and maybe a few other options. 

Then we have the final bit, the November 21st release date has been heavily rumored for a while now. It's not unlike Nintendo to put up a 3ds and Wii U release on the same day but two megatons like Smash Bros and Pokemon does seem a bit less likely. I can see this happening but it also kind of says they don't have super high hopes for Smash Bros. Pokemon OR/As is obviously going to steal away more of the thunder because people can be playing smash bros on the pre-order pick up line. Id love for this release date because it's just a bit earlier then I expected but honestly they need to push it up to when ever the Japanese release is. We have a nice long part of November without Nintendo games so why not push up smash. Well regardless we will know about all these rumors truth very soon since the very latest the game comes out is December.