I Won an Early Smash Demo Code!

I was out for lunch when all of a sudden I see "You've won!" pop up on my phone, and at that point I literally jumped up in the restaurant and shouted (good thing I was with friends so I didn't look as psychotic as I really am). It's really awesome that I've been able to really get a good look at this game before it's come out, and not just through this demo alone but also through the Best Buy demo and all the awesome people streaming the full Japanese version right now. Folks, we are living in a time where so many amazing things can be accomplished just by going on the Internet, which can also be kind of scary if it's that easy to do some pretty nasty stuff, but that's another point for another world away from this blog. Even as not-so-far back as Brawl, if you had told me while I was waiting for it to come out that I was going to get to try out and see a lot of stuff about the next Smash game, including an exclusive demo, I would've thought you were crazy.

So what do I think of the demo? Well, you can only play as Mario, Link, Pikachu, Mega Man, and Villager, and you can only play on Battlefield (but with the option of using its Final Destination mode), but I am sure as Hell not complaining (well, maybe aside from they could've picked a much more fun character than Link because Link sucks). I've experienced just how entirely ridiculous Villager is, as he can combo very easily with all of his moves, and his specials are pretty ridiculous. None of this should be particularly new to anyone following the game, but Villager's side-B's and up-B's have what feels like an infinite recovery. It isn't, but it might as well be because neither moves will run short on you unless your opponent lands a good hit or two. People have literally recovered from underneath stages like Final Destination with Villager's balloon recovery (the up-B). Then on the offensive, Villager's side-B, which throws a Loyd Rocket, can be used in conjunction with like a dash attack or something to really pressure opponents with what is almost basically a wall. Villager's down-B, the tree, takes a while as you have to plant it, grow it, and chop it down, but when you grow it/chop it down, it has tremendous launching potential. You can edge guard with the down special and obliterate anybody coming from below the stage or falling from above if you can get them right. It is absolutely amazing. Then you have his standard special, which pockets almost any projectile (seriously, from the Villager's own bowling ball in his smash attack to Pikachu's fucking Thunder, to even some of Mario's F.L.U.D.D. water) and allows you to use it for, I think, twice as much damage and maybe knockback. Villager's dash attack combos nicely into an aerial. His aerials can combo nicely into each other. His dash attack can combo into an up tilt or up smash. His down tilt can combo into various things, namely more aerials. His side tilt can combo into a smash at low percents, or a dash at higher damage. His down smash... well, in theory, can combo into literally anything, even the fucking tree, but the opponent may break out of the pitfall stun it causes before then. Villager's aerials, due to being good at comboing into each other, can gimp players offstage very well. Villager, Villager, Villager!

Does this LOOK like the face of mercy?

Really my only sour note about the demo is that I can't play as Zero Suit Samus, but who cares? Speaking of Zero Suit Samus, I have finally found a way to explain the difference of being cheap and just using her to her full potential. In Brawl, she could pull off huge, high-damage strings of combos with her jabs, up-kicks, her up special, her down smash, and her aerials, namely. She could also buffer her dash attacks at the very last frames of her dash-attack animation, allowing one to pull a sort of infinite string of dash attacks that can potentially combo into each other. My friends wail and call this "cheap," but it ain't entirely easy, and really a good defensive game will just screw Zero Suit Samus up a lot. Still, people are quick to deny her as a character that requires skill to use, so allow me to show you all what being "cheap" really is.



So basically, what's happening here is Zero Suit is jumping off of Robin and using the hitstun to her advantage, allowing her to zap Robin with an endless string of paralyzer shots. If you've played Smash, or maybe you haven't, and think this would be really difficult to pull off, you'd be right as this should normally be impossible. You can't actually jump, or footstool, off of someone and be low enough to return to the ground in an instant. This has been confirmed to actually be a bug, since doing this on anyone else will end up causing Samus to jump too high into the air to return quick enough and exploit the hitstun. So you see, this is being cheap. I would never do this in a serious match (but against friends Hell yeah I would do this to fuck with them). Exploiting a bug like this that leaves an opponent powerless is cheap, but everything about Samus that is intentionally put into the game isn't. No, not even the fact she is the only character, it seems, who is capable of stunning opponents, because her down smash and paralyzer shot is actually easily avoidable. You'd normally only see them used as spacing or hard punishment.

And with that, I'm off to continue being excited for this game. Stay hype, my friends.