After all the commotion across the net on Saturday, Nintendo has gone ahead and released a Smash Bros Direct video to detail all the new content that had been leaked 24 hours prior.
They’re really pulling out all the stops with this version of Smash. Roy’s return to the series is something fans have been asking for since his appearance in Melee. His new look goes pretty well with all that power he’s packing. His Final Smash seems particularly devastating.
Lucas was a known returning fighter already, having been announced alongside Mewtwo a few months back. Lucas and Roy will be released as a package deal for $3.99 per version (Wii U or 3DS) or $4.99 for both. A whole buffet of new stages, costumes and trophies have been released as well. Dream Land, Hyrule Castle and Peach’s Castle stages from the original Super Smash Bros are returning. Dream Land has an Omega mode that will remove those pesky platforms from the level, so it will be a flat little stage to test your opponent’s mettle.
One of the bigger stage releases is the Miiverse stage. This is one of the more technical ones, if only because of how it actually works. The stage will recognize which fighters are in the arena. Then it starts pulling posts from their specific Miiverse pages online. So you’ll be seeing sketches popping up in the background, cheering on your favorite character. This stage will be free for the Wii U and every fighter (that’s 51 so far) will have a dedicated community page for fans to post to. So be sure to spam your best sketches to get a better chance at showing up in a fight halfway across the world.
The ride doesn’t stop there, dear readers. More costumes than you can shake a Home-Run Bat at have been thrown to the masses. Zero (MMX) and Megaman.exe (Battle Network) round out the Megaman series costumes for the Swordfighter and Gunner respectively. A hilariously cutesy Isabelle costume for the Gunner has players shooting out of a party popper and Boy and Girl Inkling costumes let you run around as a squid kid. Alternatively, a floppy squid hat will let you run around like one of your run-of-the-mill crazy people.
Not to be left out, the Mii Brawler gets three new costumes from two third party games. Jacky Bryant’s slick looking leather jacket and Akira Yuki in his iconic polygonal first appearance from Virtua Fighter stand firm next to Heihachi Mishima’s younger self from Tekken. All of these costumes will set you back $0.75 a pop, or $1.15 for both versions (Wii U and 3DS).
With Splatoon making an appearance in the game, it only makes sense to see a new trophy or two appear. Be ready to see a flock of them as you play through the game.
The biggest news from this video, and the biggest Smash news for the last few weeks, comes in the form of new challenger, Ryu, of Street Fighter fame.
He looks, quite simply, amazing. Sakurai’s team seems to have put an incredible amount of effort into his “Smashification” and it shows. He’s mostly based off of his Street Fighter II appearance, but also has a healthy mix of other moves from over the years. It’s going to be very interesting to see how tournaments treat his appearance. His alternate colors seem to be the same as the game he’s pulled from, and his stage, Suzaku Castle, comes packaged with him. Ryu will cost $4.99 per version, or $7.99 for both.
All new/returning fighters come with their own trophies for players to earn, including the special effects trophies from All-Star mode.
Finally, the news that every Nintendo fan was *really* hoping to hear. Amiibos have been confirmed for, not just the new and returning characters, but also the Mii Fighters as well. Each class of Mii Fighter to boot. The next wave will feature Falco, ROB, Duck Hunt and Mr. Game & Watch. Game & Watch will get special treatment in that, since he is flat, there will be multiple versions of him to swap out on the base. Nice bit of customization there, Nintendo!
Woof! That seems to be about it. What more can we expect from Nintendo in the next few hours and days? E3 is just about to be underway. Speculate along with us in the comments below. For future updates from the Mario Empire and all related content, keep your ring-side seats parked here at The Nerd Stash!
