When I found out that the closest Best Buy to my location was near Jacksonville, I cannot say I was surprised (but I was still quite annoyed). Meanwhile in Miami, where I would've been had I not decided to stay up in Tallahassee for Summer classes, there was a Best Buy hosting the event that was literally only twenty minutes away from where I live. Nobody cares about Tallahassee, and I'm not criticizing them for that because I don't either! But still, it really sucked that the one Best Buy that exists up here didn't have the game. I don't really get that because that Best Buy is fairly close to the college scene, so I could only imagine it being ridiculously packed even with it being an odd Summer term.
If I really wanted to get hands on with this game, I was going to have to take a two-and-a-half-hour drive over to Orange Park, which would mark this as practically my first road trip that I've ever driven myself. As it turned out, I really wanted to get my own look at this game, so the drive did not stop me from going to that Best Buy. I'm not gonna get into full detail of that drive here, as that is best served for another blog, but I will say that I was pretty much fearing for my life, especially on the way back. I learned that a lot of truck drivers are really not qualified for what they do. I must've counted at least seven truck drivers drifting off the road and then swerving back onto the highway. Add a torrential downpour of rain into the mix, and you'll get a heart rate out of me that'll leave me feeling like I could have a heart attack at any moment.
When I got to the Best Buy, the first thing I wanted to try doing was pre-ordering the game just to get that coin they were giving out. It turned out, though, that they changed their minds about only giving away seventy, and instead they were going to give them to everyone but only when they came over to pick up their game. That was really cool of them, but unfortunately, I am not making another five-hour grand total of a drive just to pick up a game I could get in ten minutes (or download off the eShop). So I just went to stand in line for the game instead. For some reason, I imagined how handling the demo would work would just be some sort of free-for-all, as in everybody just goes up and plays the game. I never really have a practical way of thinking, so when I saw a line I couldn't say I was surprised, even though this is Orange Park. Do people really care about the very Northern end of Florida? Well, I guess Jacksonville may still have quite a population. Nonetheless, the line grew fairly large as time passes. I want to say about over a hundred people were there, which sounds like a really broad and obvious estimation. I saw somebody going around and counting, but I unfortunately completely forgot to ask her what she counted. Anyway, a lot of people did show up, even for it being Orange Park, so I cannot begin to imagine how terrifying it would've been in Miami. Thankfully I have a good sense about these things, so I would've shown up hours beforehand. When I arrived to this Best Buy, though--being two-and-a-half hours away--I was about half an hour early only. The line wasn't so bad then, thankfully, but the wait to play still took about two hours.
Oh, I just want to share this real quick since I did speak to a few people there and I don't want to leave any of them out. Unfortunately, I only got a name for one of them, and that wasn't the first person I spoke to. When I went to pre-order the game (before finding out I'd have to pick it up there to get the coin), I spoke with somebody who had asked if anyone else had seen the Invitational Tournament. When I told him I that I had, we of course went immediately to discussing that controversial Grand Finals match. He felt that Hungrybox should've won, and I suppose maybe so. I said I did agree that I wasn't really too much into ZeRo's playstyle of running down the clock, but what could I have done otherwise if I was him? I did say though that it wasn't very fun to watch, and then he said what really wasn't fun to watch was the Media Rumble. I found this funny because that as exactly what I thought. We didn't really talk too much about the individual players then. The guy I spoke to sort of complained that Zero Suit Samus was too overpowered, but I reasoned that the matchup between her and Kirby was just not slated to end well (not that I don't think Zero Suit Samus is overpowered either, but I'm not complaining!). The guy I spoke to felt that she was just way too fast and too easy to be campy with. We didn't get very far into this discussion, though, because pretty soon he was asked to step up and pre-order, and since I knew I had to pick up the game there, I just decided to wait in line. When he got in line, he wound up someplace else.
As I stood there, I noticed a woman approaching a couple of kids in front of me with a pair of 3DSs. My eyes widened as I thought to myself, "Oh, is that-- It is!" Not only did they have the Wii U version of the game there, but also the 3DS version as well! That was such an amazing surprise since the website only said that they would have the Wii U version. At first, I thought the Smash Run version was the only option they had, and it might've been, I'm not sure. I thought I saw someone else pick the normal fighting option though, as he seemed to be able to pick the stage that he wanted.
So at first I thought about going into detail of what waiting in line was like, since being a writer makes me feel like I have to detail everything. But for this blog, I'm just going to focus on what I experienced with the game. Before I reached the end of the line, I got the beautiful chance to try out the game on the 3DS. I guess the lady saw the sparkles in my eyes, because several people were in front of me waiting to play the game, but, after talking to me a bit, she decided I was going to be next to play the game. The way Best Buy was handling the demos was in this manner: A) For the Wii U, four players came up and played two two-minute matches. B) For the 3DS, I'm not really sure beyond knowing you had five minutes with the game, which was the length of one round of Smash Run. I figured if I decided on Smash Run, I would get the chance to play as three characters that day, so I decided I would check out Samus, Zero Suit Samus, and Greninja, all of whom I will explain later as I did in the last post.
Thinking back, I probably could've picked the normal "Smash" mode and got a little more out of it since I would've been able to see a couple more stages, and maybe another character. There was a problem I had, though, with only having two minutes to try out a character, which I'll get into later. Since I really wanted to see as many new things as possible, I decided to go with Smash Run. Smash Run had a few different submodes, but I just went with the original one, which involved destroying as many enemies before time ran out. This really just played out as a sort of score or time attack of the story mode from Brawl, and really the description of the mode explained it all. As Samus, I ran around pretty much hitting things very hard. There was one enemy that was sort of implanted in the ground, which I had a hard time dealing with so I moved on to others. As I explored the Smash Run stage, I came across a platform that suddenly shot up from the ground, taking me to a door that led to a ton of food, so I got to restore some nice amount of damage.
As I left, an event suddenly came up, and an arrow pointed me to the right, with the distance marked and a timer counting down. This may have just been me in the midst of confusion and trying to keep track of too many things at once, but it seemed like that event arrow would disappear even though I never actually reached the event. I really think it was just me being stupid, though. When I finally did reach the event, it turned out to be some boss. I made it really hard on myself as there were several enemies I just ignored, and in the end I had to bail because my damage percentage was getting too high. As you destroy enemies and open chests and whatnot, you'll find these powerups of different forms and sizes, each improving a certain quality of your character by an amount dependent on the size. I think you also find items and equipment, but I don't think they were useable in the demo.
In the end, I went up against Mario, Sheik, and another Samus, which was pretty dumb. Usually I don't think the CPU in Smash Bros normally picks the same character as what you're playing as, but then again it was just a demo. I feel I did pretty well during that match. Oh yeah, the stage I played on was Gerudo Valley. I managed to meteor spike Sheik into the pit below the bridge, and I'm not sure if I killed her or if she hit the spikes at the bottom, but either way, she wound up dying at some point and I got the point for it. I would've won that match too, but I was unfortunately not paying attention, and so the Twinrova sisters came out and blasted half the stage with ice magic, sending me flying through the blast zones. Because of that, I wound up in a Sudden Death with Mario, and I suck at Sudden Death so I lost to the CPU playing as Mario.
So as far as the 3DS version is concerned, it looks very nice. The graphics are good, the framerate is surprisingly smooth, and the 3DS's smaller screen did not really make it hard to see what was going on. The controls were also pretty good. There are only two things the 3DS really lacks from a GameCube controller, and that's the C-Stick and the Z button. However, because both triggers were used for the shield on the GameCube controller, one of those is still for the shield while the other is used for grabbing on the 3DS version. I didn't find it hard to adjust at all, but now I will have to start getting used to not having the C-Stick for a quick smash attack.
After this, I went back to waiting in line for the Wii U version. As I waited, I managed to get a picture of the character select screen. Keep in mind that this may or may not be the final design when the game is released.
With me was another fan of this game, and we spoke a bit about the Invitational Tournament as well as characters and stuff that we wanted out of this game. He also felt that Hungrybox should've won, but I think he was more along with my sentiment that ZeRo can't really be criticized since he played by what the rules were and went with the smarter choice of avoiding being hit. We moved on to better things to ramble about than that, though, and so he started telling me that he really wanted to see King K. Rool in the game. It's funny because I never really heard anybody suggest that before, but now I go online and I see that request a lot. I said that I wondered if it would be difficult since Rare created King K. Rool, and I mentioned the interview with Grant Kirkhope and how I remembered him saying it felt strange to see their creations used in Smash Bros. However, the fan I spoke to mentioned that Nintendo owns the license to pretty much all the things falling under Donkey Kong, and as such they also own the Kremlings. He also pointed out that the Kremlings are in fact enemies in Smash Run, which I nearly forgot about. So it'll be pretty interesting to see where Sakurai and the team for Smash Bros goes from there. Besides, there is quite a distinct lacking of villains in the roster right now. So far, only King DeDeDe and Bowser have been confirmed. Maybe Ganondorf and Meta Knight will return, but that would still mean we have yet to see any "evil" newcomers.
We spoke a bit about the possibilities for villains to appear in the game, and he mentioned all the hype for Ridley even though it remains uncertain whether he's playable. It's funny because even though the Pyrosphere stage seems complete and playable, that wasn't an option to choose from on the Wii U. I get the sense Sakurai is really enjoying himself there, ha ha. The fan I spoke to said that it may be an indicator that Ridley may be playable, but I am still not so sure about that. I honestly think King K. Rool has a better chance of appearing in the game than Ridley, and I love the Metroid series and would be totally cool with seeing Ridley as a character.
Before I talk about my experience with the Wii U game, just real quick, I have to post a picture of one of the best things I saw out of this.
At the end of the line was a survey asking for feedback on the event. So for Saturday's event, somebody wrote, "Less Sonic." Couldn't have said it better myself!
When we got up to the game, we were unfortunately handed the pro controllers. This was pretty disappointing and made me nervous about how I would play, but at the same time, I did not have high expectations for seeing the GameCube controllers at Best Buy. I tried to see the controls on the loading screen, but the loading screen went by way too fast. Luckily, if you've played Brawl on a pro controller, you will probably understand the controls. Besides, it is not too different from a GameCube controller. The only thing is now the stick for the C-Stick is above the X-Y-A-B buttons, and there is an extra Z-button. Unfortunately, I was too used to A) switching the A and B buttons around since A is on the bottom on an Xbox controller (I play Brawl on my computer. I paid for and own the Wii game, so chill), and B) the C-Stick being below the buttons. So I had a hard time adjusting to the new controller, and as such, I probably should not have picked Zero Suit Samus first. I kept jumping when I meant to attack, special attacking when I meant to normal attack, and vice-versa for both. I would forget where the C-Stick was at times. As a result of all this, I often fell off the stage or missed a chance to attack somebody. When I realized that I should've picked Greninja first to get a feel for the controls, I really wanted to pick Zero Suit Samus again. However, I fought my urge to adore using my main fighter again, and so I got to check out what Greninja was like instead.
It also did not help that I was kind of in a state of complete shock, awe, and nervousness, ha ha. I think this may be the first time I've ever experienced anything like this, but then again, it must be so for most other people as well. I was so excited that I actually didn't even see Zero Suit Samus right next to Samus on the character screen. I also did not notice which player I was, which sounds weird, but this was also sort of mixed in with how we did not stand in the order of which the controllers were connected. I know that has nothing to do with who is what player, but listen, in my mind, I always imagined players one through four standing from left to right in order, okay?
The stages we fought on were the Animal Crossing stage and the boxing stage. The Animal Crossing stage here seems pretty much a lot like the one from Brawl, only with more visual things occurring that don't affect the fight. On the boxing stage, I really tried to take advantage of the light stage hazard, where if you hit them enough times, they will fall and hurt anybody standing under. Or that's how it should supposedly work. When I managed to knock down the lights (after what must've been like twenty hits), they fell right through somebody with well over a hundred percent in damage. So in the end, I don't think the lights have a huge amount of payoff. I'm not sure if there is any way to keep track of how close they are to falling, but if there is, I would just wait until I notice that instead of spending a good half-minute trying to take the lights down.
As far as graphics and such are concerned, come on, it's a Wii U. May not be as good as a PS4 or XBone, but Nintendo has never been about centralizing a game on its graphics. The game is still gorgeous and everything that moves just looks so smooth. Again, watching Zero Suit Samus's animations really brings that out, and I love the new intricacies in her animations for her attacks, like when she twists around for her new forward-A smash attack.
After that second match, that was the end of my time there. I grabbed a Super Smash Bros pin and completely left in my stupor, forgetting entirely to watch a few more matches and speak with the person who counted how many people were in line. It was also getting a little late, and I had a long drive back home. So in all, I spent about five hours driving, two and a half standing in line, and maybe about ten minutes actually playing the game because again, we only played two two-minute matches. Unfortunately, I was well in over my head in assuming I would be able to get a true feel for the changes to Zero Suit Samus's character in two minutes against three other people, with controls I had to take a moment to understand. I was a little disappointed at first during my drive back, but as I think more and more about this, I am actually just more amazed by all of it, and I really can't complain. It was so cool getting to be one of the first people ever to play this game, months before it was even ready to be played. Throughout the whole day at Best Buy, the game kept crashing on the Wii U. Sakurai even said during the Invitational Tournament that he was surprised the game hadn't crashed once. So in all I think I was very lucky and privileged to have that chance to see the game. And on top of that, I got to have the surprise of seeing the 3DS version there, which I honestly did not expect.
But as I said, two minutes was not enough for me to get a feel for a character. This means I won't have much to say about Zero Suit Samus outside of what I observed from E3 and a little of what I noticed as I played as her. The same would've gone for Greninja, but someone else, going by Martakia on Twitter, played as him on the 3DS version and gave me quite a lot of detail. As for Samus, I got a better feel for her than anybody else, so I have quite a few things to say. I think I have more information about Samus and Greninja than Zero Suit Samus actually because what I got was from time spent with the 3DS version, and since Martakia and I had five minutes to spend with a character as opposed to two, that's what allowed me to get more info on them. It is unfortunate that I couldn't have had that time with Zero Suit Samus on the Wii U, but it's understandable because there were quite a lot of people there for a Best Buy located in Northern Florida. I would also like to thank the event coordinators at Best Buy for being just so cool about it and not being as aggressive on photography as other stores seemed to have been. I hardly even believed other stores prohibited that when I saw that on Reddit a couple of days later.
Ah, but I am digressing from the heart of what matters here, right? So let's get to it: my experience with three characters from Smash 4!
Zero Suit Samus: Faster, Better, Stronger!
So while I didn't get to play as Zero Suit all that much, I still know very well that if Sakurai has done anything with her, it definitely hasn't been nerfing her awesomeness from Brawl. In Brawl, she is like what, the second-fastest character? One of the things I was worried about was how her speed would compare, and as it turns out, it looks like Sakurai has made her even faster. She seems to be able to go across the stage in like half the time it takes for other characters. And because they really wanted to work on Zero Suit Samus's "bad" recovery in Brawl,* her jumps are ridiculously high. Just watching her move in and of itself is simply amazing. Also like in Brawl, she seems to be fairly light. Not as frail as a glass cannon, obviously, but probably still just as hard to DI and SDI out of attacks with. Now to be honest, I don't think I'm that good at DI, and I am probably not the right guy to tell you about DI in Smash 4, so just keep that in mind.
Overall, Zero Suit Samus's attacks feel more or less the same, with the notable exception of a couple. There are still some minute changes in all of her attacks, though. I don't believe I can really cover every single one, and the same is said for Greninja and Samus. But I will do the best I can to describe these moves.
- Neutral A: Sammie's classic one-two-three jab is back, and seems about just as fast. I do not know if you can still hold down the A button to have her jab forever until someone walks into it. I hope that's still in merely because that was cool, but I'm not wholly concerned with that. It appears her jab still hits as quickly as it did in Brawl. I think there's something about its hitbox being in the very first frame in Brawl? Forgive me for my use of Smash terminology is, to be frank, terrible. Still, point is her neutral A is still just as great as it was in Brawl. Somebody dodge-rolled my Paralyzer Shot and I managed to instantly punish him the moment he got out of the dodge with this triple A combo.
- Forward-Tilt A: I haven't seen as much of this move. I think the kick either hits harder or does a little bit more knockback (or both). That seems to be the general theme for most of Zero Suit Samus's moves.
- Down-A: Another move I did not see much of a difference in due to how little I've seen it.
- Up-A: Looks to be a little bit longer in execution, but I may be wrong.
- Side Smash: Her horrible whip attack has now been replaced with a neat kick with the jet boots that actually has two hitboxes, functioning very much like the Plasma Whip special attack. The knockback seems somewhere from moderate to moderately high; whatever the case, it is a hell of a lot better than that terrible side whip from Brawl. To be fair, I actually did like the side whip, but I used it very sparingly, mostly as a follow up to a double Down Smash combo. This move seems to take a little less time to hit with, so it leaves less room for punishment against Samus. Of course, anyone behind her will get the advantage, but the same could be said for all side attacks.
- Up Smash: That plasma whip is back again, and still racks up some fair amount of damage. I am not sure if it still has the momentum effect that was present in Brawl, where you could dash and then suddenly do the Up Smash while sliding. What I have seen was a way better knockback; I think this move may have even killed somebody at ninety to a hundred percent! In Brawl, you'd have to be pretty well over a hundred and fifty to get a kill, if you were lucky.
- Down Smash: Samus's very iconic, very punishing stun is back. Double Down-A combos are still doable. The stun seems to last the same amount of time. This was never a move that needed to be change, and it seems the developers knew that very well.
- Neutral Aerial: I have not seen this move much in action.
- Forward Aerial: The one-two kicks seem to do either a bit more knockback or a bit more damage. Whatever the case, chaining this attack is still possible.
- Back Aerial: Samus's devastating back-kick is back and possibly even stronger than it was in the last game. I thought I saw her kill somebody at ninety percent with it. Whatever the case, it is still just about as considerably powerful as it was in Brawl.
- Up Aerial: Now this kick actually seems to have been a bit nerfed. Unfortunately, I haven't really seen many KOs with this move at lower percentages under a hundred (this was totally possible in Brawl), but it is important to consider that the range of the blast zones really do play a part in this. If there is one thing that I have seen from this, it's that the move can still combo into itself pretty nicely.
- Neutral B - Paralyzer Shot: Pretty much about the same as in Brawl. Very useful for spacing, and the stuns seem to last the same length.
- Side B - Plasma Whip: Also a little bit similar. It seems the tip's knockback has been a bit lessened, but there are still two hitboxes, and being hit by both of them can still be bad. Hell, being hit by the tip at higher percentages can still be devastating. Also, this move still naturally provides good spacing. I think it may be a tad bit slower to execute, though.
- Down B- Flip Jump/Kick: Yes! This was probably my favorite move! As we see, it is still in the game, and has a very nice visual of afterimages added to it. More importantly, the kick still meteor spikes, but both the kick and the jump have an awesome property implemented into them. As in Brawl, you can footstool or "flipstool" off somebody's head with the flip jump, but now if they are on the ground, you can even dig them into the ground as would happen with a Pitfall. The kick also seems to make you bounce off the enemy, which is really awesome because now it will help a lot with recovery from killing people offstage with it.
- Up B: Ah, the new rocket jump and kick. This replaces Samus's Plasma Wire ability, which was actually really useful and thus I am kind of sad. However, this kick still has really awesome merit. I saw a Nintendo rep do a double down smash and follow up with this move, which hit the target multiple times and followed up with a kick that seems to have strong knockback. I'm not sure if this move makes Samus suffer from "recovery paralysis," and I hope not, because I honestly think this move will be a bit harder to recover with.
Then of course we have her Final Smash, which is just absolutely ridiculous. She calls in her gunship, takes flight, and shoots down her enemies. It is really Snake's Final Smash, only with out the lag between firing and hitting the target because Snake lobs grenades from a grenade launcher. I think Samus's Final Smash is a bit more accurate too. It is also long as Hell, so long that it is enough to very easily turn the tide of a fight and land as many as possibly five KOs from it. This is the very reason why Smash Balls are turned off in most fights that I play.
This mostly all just stuff I observed from watching, though. I am not wholly sure how each of these moves really play out. Sadly, two minutes was just not enough for me to really understand these moves. My main concerns are centered on her Up B. Will she still be able to do a tether recovery if her Up B misses? Will she still be able to choose the Plasma Wire from the custom moves? The Plasma Wire played a spectacular role in some devastating combos out of Brawl. Still, I can see good potential for Samus's new Up B, and if Plasma Wire is gone for good, I am sure I can adapt to her new Up B and find ways to really destroy with it.
Samus: Notably Less Clunky and Pathetic
In Brawl, Samus in her Power Suit was, to be honest, completely useless for me. The only way she seemed to work was by camping and nailing down opponents with projectiles. The latter makes sense, because she is projectile-based, but in Brawl she just seemed to hinge upon those moves. Her attacks did very little knockback with the grand exception of just one. She did not even seem to do all that much damage with them. Her movement was slow, and in the air she was very floaty and an easy target for characters with a good air game.
When I played as Samus on the 3DS, I don't really know if I noticed a huge difference. The changes are there, but is she really "Best Character" material as Sakurai seemed to have stated? I still think Zero Suit Samus is better, but that may just be because I like faster characters (except Sonic, screw him). But the improvements are there, though. When she jumps, she seems to go back to the ground quite faster. It's not like Pikachu or Zero Suit who can go back to the ground quickly, but it is also not like Peach whose dress seems to give her ridiculous aerodynamics. She also seems to run and move just a little bit faster. I would say her speed and jumping is average, which is a heck of a lot better than what we got in Brawl. Now let's see her attacks:
- I just realized, I might actually have more to say about Zero Suit Samus than anybody else since I just watched so much of her and paid so much attention to her moves.
- Neutral A: Samus's one-two seems a bit quicker. Can't really say much about the damage/knockback department.
- Forward-Tilt: lol i actually dont even remember samus's forward tilt woops.
- Down Tilt: Samus's considerably ridiculous explosion into the ground in Brawl is actually either just as strong or a little weaker. Nonetheless I think it is still a good KO move.
- Up Tilt: I haven't tried or seen Samus's up tilt. Which is weird because that was also one of her decent moves from Brawl. Sorry!
- Side Smash: Here we go. You see, when I tested out Samus, I was focused on her Smash attacks, pretty much because her Smash attacks were mostly jokes in Brawl. Her Side Smash, barely redeeming in Brawl, is a bit stronger now. I haven't KO'd anyone with it but I have knocked the other Samus back quite a bit at around seventy percent.
- Up Smash: This Smash was so much of a joke in Brawl that I forgot to try it out in this game.
- Down Smash: Seems considerably stronger. I managed to launch someone from the ground at around ninety percent and follow up with a Screw Attack that killed the opponent. That was easily the coolest thing I've ever done with Samus.
- Neutral Aerial: I did not test this out.
- Forward Aerial: Feels more or less the same really. Might have better knockback, again I'm not sure.
- Back Aerial: Fairly strong, but not as strong as Zero Suit's back kick, I think.
- Up Aerial: I have not seen this or tested it out.
- Neutral B - Charge Shot: The Charge Shot is quite a bit quicker than before. You can still dodge and save it. It is still quite a killer at high percentages. Sakurai said something about "consequences" for charging too often, but I don't think I noticed anything. Maybe I didn't do it enough.
- Side B - Missiles: More or less the same I think. The Super Missile does more damage the father it travels, I think, but this may have worked the same in Brawl as well.
- Down B - Morph Ball Bombs: I never understood the point of this attack in Smash Bros, so I never used it. I thought I actually saw someone launch someone else in the air with this; if that is true, looks like they are finally useful.
- Up B - Screw Attack: Samus's Screw Attack has been given the incredible useful hitbox at the end that knocks back enemies caught in her attack. This was the pivotal mechanic that made that Down Smash-into-Up B combo one of the best kills I've ever landed as Samus.
Greninja: Everyone's Favorite Gen VI Starter Seems Ridiculous
Before I begin, I'd really like to thank Martakia for the info on Greninja, because otherwise, my report on Greninja would be tremendously worse than Samus's since I don't even have a frame of reference for comparison. Because I don't know his moveset by heart as I do with Samus and Zero Suit Samus, I am not going to give a list.
Greninja is a fairly fast and nimble character. Definitely nowhere near Zero Suit Samus, but maybe somewhere along the lines of Sheik. Greninja's jumping seems a bit floaty, although I'm not entirely sure if that's true. As far as damage and knockback is concerned, I don't think he's as lightweight as Zero Suit Samus, but he's definitely no heavy guy. Maybe a little bit moderately below average.
I know very, very little of his aerial attacks with the exception of one, which I'll get to in a second. I don't actually know his Neutral A move, but his forward-tilt is ridiculous. When I played as Greninja in the boxing ring stage, I managed to bounce somebody back and forth off the ring's walls quite a few times with that one move. The guy I was hitting and I started laughing, but then his friend came and smacked me around a bit. I used Greninja's up-tilt a little bit, and I think I was able to kind of juggle with it. On the matter of the side and up tilts, Martakia said that the way these tilts function mechanically are a lot similar to Fox's, making it very easy to trap an opponent.
Unfortunately, I don't know too much about Greninja's Smash attacks. They seem to have small hitboxes, or maybe I was just being dumb. I was really trying to break those water swords out, I think mostly just for the novelty of seeing them though ha ha. So yeah, not much on Greninja's Smash attacks.
I'm going to be up front and admit right now I really don't have much to go by on personal experience for Greninja. I don't remember very well what he did in the stuff that I would watch, and again, that two-minute round was not enough time for me to really digest what Greninja was like, especially since he's a new character. I can briefly go over his special moves, which I guess I'll do right now
- Neutral B - Water Shuriken: Greninja can charge up a water shuriken and throw it at the enemy, much like Lucario/Mewtwo's Aura Sphere. However, you have to hold B to charge the attack. According to Martakia, this move also easily racks up damage percentage and can trap opponents, making a good set up for a combo. When I played as Greninja, I really saw this play out. The water shuriken hits multiple times, hence the consistent racking of damage especially if you trap somebody. Then I ran up and did a dash attack, which I followed up with an aerial of some sort. It was pretty nice. The only downside to this move is that it takes a while to charge.
- Side B - Shadow Sneak: I never used this move. I only wanted to mention that, according to Nate, when you use it you'll see Greninja's shadow move across the floor. I didn't really notice this but if that's true that is really cool. The move itself seems to be a lot like Meta Knight's move, where he teleports to something and strikes.
- Up B: This is literally Pikachu's recovery, only with a water theme to it. Pikachu's recovery is really good, so this one is also pretty good.
- Down B - Substitute: I never used this move, but it seems tricky to pull off. The counter window is very small and very early. I'm not wholly sure what happens if it is pulled off; I know Greninja pulls out a substitute from Pokémon, but I don't remember if he counterattacks. I assume he does, though, as that has been what every counter move in Smash ever was.
So that was my time at Best Buy, really. It was very fun getting to speak to some of the members of the Smash community while waiting for this new game, and again, I am amazed I even got to play the game for ten minutes. I am simply amazed by all that I've seen of this game at all during E3; never before had I spent as much time with a game showing on E3 as I had with this one, which I believe was shown off for a grand total of six hours, hence why these posts are so long. This is also pretty much why Super Smash Bros 4 is most likely going to be my Game of Show out of E3 this year. I was originally pretty upset that the release date was pushed back to October 3rd, but after watching all this stuff for it, I was literally so hyped up for the game that my hype actually overtook my disappointment rather than adding to it and making me even more impatient for the game. When you can make me that excited for a game as to refresh my patience for it, you have done pretty much everything and more than what you needed to do to market the game for me. So congratulations, Nintendo and Mr. Sakurai, for pretty much winning this event before I had even finished Nintendo's streams to begin with.
On blog matters, the next E3 post will be entirely devoted to Nintendo, since they went all out and spent three whole days talking about and showing their upcoming games just nonstop. I am just really impressed by that, I have never seen anyone do that at E3 before. Unfortunately, the press conferences and Nintendo are going to have to wait, because one of my teacher's poorly mismanaged her lesson plan for the Summer online course I'm taking, and now I have to sit through three hours of lectures during finals week, which is this week. And to give you a clearer idea of my situation: A) She did not release the lectures until today, B) I have a study guide to work on tomorrow, and C) I have my final on Tuesday. Good job, FSU Nutrition professor, good job.
I also may be getting a Twitter for this blog, as Martakia heavily recommended that I'd do so, and I've honestly been thinking about getting one for some time. The thing is that I don't think I would be as active on it as I should be, and if you actually follow this blog (which holy shit thank you so much), you'd know I have a hard time keeping up with this one even. However, we'll see as time plays out, because I do know there are certain things I think about that don't seem to deserve a full fledged post but at the same time I feel I need to share them.
So yeah. Thanks for reading my stuff on SM4SH. I hope I can get back to this blog and get on to writing about Nintendo's phenomenal show as soon as I can.
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* Zero Suit Samus's recovery in Brawl was actually not "bad" at all, it was just tricky to pull off in bad situations. If you are way off the stage and out of jumps, you'll need to use her tether recoveries as quickly as possible. The main thing that could screw you up then is actually somebody grabbing the ledge as you slide up from the tether grab, or being hit again. But really, this should rarely happen to begin with, as you should only really be going offstage with Zero Suit Samus when you are confident and certain you can get the kill. It is also needless to say the less people you are fighting against the safer it is to go offstage.
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