Bros

Smash Bros Character Checklist: The Earthbound Series

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Like most fans of the series, I’m always eagerly hopeful to hear more about the Earthbound series, also known as the Mother series, from Nintendo. Earthbound on the Super Nintendo is a fantastic, quirky, strange, and even emotional game. Some may call it overrated, but it’s by far one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played.

While the series only has three games under its belt and fans outside of Japan had been left wanting for more Earthbound content for a long time, the past few years have been good to the series. Earthbound finally got a digital re-release on the Wii U and New 3DS, as well as a spot in the SNES Classic Edition’s lineup of titles. And for the first time ever, the original Mother game, going under the new name Earthbound Beginnings, was given a official release overseas. It was 25 years late in its arrival, but a game series that great is worth waiting for!

And speaking of waiting, fans are STILL waiting for an official translation of Mother 3 to be given to us. Nintendo knows we want it, and they’ve known it for years. But we wait, and wait, and wait, and no official announcement seems to be coming. But I for one am willing to wait patiently, as I can get my Earthbound fix with the other two games, as well as regular content from the series in the Super Smash Bros titles.

Of course, Earthbound hero Ness was one of those characters in the original Smash Bros where I had no clue who he was at first. It wasn’t until many years later that I gained a true appreciation for the series. Once Lucas joined the Smash line up in Brawl, my knowledge of the series had grown, and it peaked my interest in playing as the Mother duo. Because of this, Lucas is now my secondary main fighter (right after Yoshi) in every Smash game he’s shown up in.

But then comes the subject of adding more Earthbound characters to the Smash Roster. The most obvious choice would be the Earthbound Beginnings protagonist Ninten. But making him an individual fighter from Ness and Lucas would be an issue, considering Lucas IS already a partial clone of Ness. Creating a third character that has the same kind of play style would be almost redundant, but making Ninten an Echo fighter of either of the existing Earthbound reps is always an option.

But what about picking a DIFFERENT character from Earthbound Beginnings? The game does have several other protagonists. There’s Lloyd, Ana, Teddy, and even Pippi. And while I’m sure any of them could make for an interesting inclusion in the Smash roster, I feel like none of them really have enough support and popularity behind them to include them as playable fighters. So if not any of the heroes, then who could be brought in to represent the first Mother game? Well… how about the main villain?

Coming from beyond the stars to take over the planet, its the cosmic destroyer Giygas!

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Okay, I’ll be completely honest. I have no idea how Giygas would play in Smash. I really have no conceivable idea of what his moveset could be. I don’t even really know what you would make him LOOK like. The guy doesn’t even have any official art of any kind, the sprite above being the only existing visual reference I know of. All I know is that I want this to happen so very badly.

Including Giygas in Smash would be a case of essentially having to build a character from the ground up, seeing that there’s very little to work off of from his source games. Much like Captain Falcon, the Ice Climbers, or the Duck Hunt Duo, what Giygas could end up doing in Smash would be almost completely original to the character.

Of course, you could pull some reference from the different PSI powers used in Earthbound, since Giygas is known to use them as well. But there is one other point of  interest for a moveset that could be drawn from: the Legendary Pokemon Mewtwo. It’s thought that Mewtwo was inspired by Giygas, specifically his form from Earthbound Beginnings. They do share some physical similarities, and they both have psychic powers of course. While I wouldn’t want Giygas to be an Echo Fighter of Mewtwo, it could be possible to draw some inspiration from how Mewtwo operates in Smash in order to create a playable Giygas.

But even if deciding a moveset for the character would prove to be difficult, there is one part of it that I absolutely know how it should work: his Final Smash.

Picture this: Giygas traps you with his PSI, and the screen starts to warp, morphing into the familiar black and red nightmare from the end of Earthbound. Then, a text box pops up on screen saying “You Cannot Grasp the True Form of Giygas’ Attack!”, and your fighter is then promptly erased from existence (or at least they would be at high damage).

That idea for a Final Smash is almost the sole reason that made me think of Giygas being a playable fighter. And it’s just so perfect, that I DESPERATELY want it to be a reality.

What do you think? Do you like my idea? Do you think I’ll get my wish? Or do you think my idea is about as likely as Mario being cut from Smash Bros all together? Let me know! But for now, Sparky is signing off. See you next time!

Smash Bros Character Checklist: The Pokemon Series

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If there is any one thing that you know is going to happen in a Smash Bros, it’s that we’re going to see at least one new character from the Pokemon franchise. With a game series that can add literally hundreds of new potential Smash combatants with every installment, it would be a huge shock if we DIDN’T see a brand new Pokemon on the roster.

After all, each installment of the Smash series has added at least one Pokemon to the fighting lineup. The original Smash Bros on Nintendo 64 gave us Pikachu and Jigglypuff. Melee brought Pichu and Mewtwo to the fray. Brawl introduced the Pokemon Trainer trio and Lucario. And Finally, the Smash 4 series had Greninja join in. So naturally, since a new generation of Pokemon was given to the world between the release of Smash 4 and the announcement of Smash Bros Ultimate, it only makes sense that a Pokemon from those games will drop in on the Smash Bros scene.

But with the release of Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, there are 85 Pokemon from the Alola region to choose from. Picking just one to go into Smash Bros is no easy task! But there are two important factors that go into choosing a Pokemon character: how popular they are, and how unique they are compared to other Pokemon.

Charizard was always an immensely popular in the Pokemon fandom, so it felt natural that eventually he became playable alongside his fellow Generation 1 starters. Likewise, Lucario was also a really popular Pokemon, and was a head-lining mascot of sorts for Generation 4, with his own title movie and the unique attribute of using Aura. And while Greninja was actually brought to Smash while Generation 6 was being developed, he also turned out to be a popular pick with a cool gimmick of combining ninja abilities with water that was built on for his Smash Bros appearance.

So what would be the Generation 7 equivalent to those three? A popular Pokemon with a unique gimmick that could be expanded on for a Smash Bros moveset? Well, look further then the Grass and Ghost Type archer owl, Decidueye!

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Remember how I said in my Zelda Character Checklist that I had my reasons for not picking Revali as the Zelda Champion to be in Smash? Well, this is why. There’s only room for one arrow slinging archer avian in Smash Bros, and if I had to choose between the two, I would pick Decidueye in a heartbeat.

With it’s signature move Spirit Shackle (a perfect candidate for a Neutral-B Special), Decidueye uses its own wing and feathers as a bow and arrow, a technique that makes it an individual among all 807 Pokemon. Using its feathers as weapons opens up a ton of potential for an awesome Smash Bros moveset, and I would absolutely love to see what kind of insanity could be brought to the battlefield alongside Decidueye.

And of course, since he’s a Pokemon, Decidueye has a good number of special moves that can be brought to Smash as well. The move Leaf Blade could make for an excellent addition to any part of Decideye’s set of attacks, perhaps turning its feathers into grassy swords for Smash Attacks. His Up-B could be Brave Bird, letting him take to the air with astonishing speed. His Side-B could be Leaf Storm, tossing a flurry of leaves into the air that then become rapid-fire projectiles. And his Down-B could be Feather Dance, causing feathers to swirl around him, dealing minor damage and providing a temporary attack boost.

And his Final Smash would be his Z-Move, Sinister Arrow Raid. Unleashing a volley of  super powered feather-arrows across the battlefield would be the most fitting choice, after all.

Of course, this is only one potential set up for the character. Given how many different moves there are in Pokemon, Decidueye could theoretically have any number of different moveset combinations. These are just the moves I think would suit the character best in Smash.

Of all the characters I’ve suggested for a Smash spotlight so far, I’m most confident in Decidueye’s inclusion. He’s the perfect candidate: a current, well liked Pokemon with a specialized fighting style suitable for Smash Bros. And I know I’m not the only one who wants him to be included. Plus, his inclusion would complete the trio of fully-evolved starter Pokemon on the Smash roster: Charizard for Fire, Greninja for Water, and Decidueye for Grass.

Honestly, this one is too good of a choice for it NOT to happen. I’ll be buying Smash Ultimate regardless of his inclusion, but this is one character I know I’d be pretty disappointed without.

But what do you think of my pick? Is there a different Generation 7 Pokemon you would want to see included in Smash Bros Ultimate? Drop a comment somewhere and let me know! I do know that another suggestion I’ve seen floating around in Lycanroc in one of his various forms, and I do admit that would be a pretty awesome choice as well.

For right now though, that’s all from me. This is Sparky, signing off!

Smash Bros Character Checklist: The Kirby Series

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I owe a lot to the Smash Bros series. It introduced me to so many Nintendo franchises and games beyond my little world filled with Mario and Pokemon. I had no idea who the likes of Samus, Fox, Ness, and Captain Falcon were until I played Smash Bros. And I might not have expanded my gaming experiences if not for seeing these characters in Nintendo’s all-star brawl. It’s the main reason I consider Smash Bros to be my favorite game series of all time.

And of all the Nintendo heroes that Smash Bros introduced me too, I think I’m most thankful for it introducing me to Kirby. I mentioned briefly in my Character Checklist’s Yoshi Series post that I was obsessed with playing as Kirby in he original Smash Bros. My playtime with the character absolutely dwarfed everyone else’s. I loved that he could fly, I loved that he could dive-bomb people by turning into a rock, and I loved that he could copy other fighter’s powers and turn them into his own. I couldn’t get enough of Kirby!

So when I saw that a Kirby game was coming to my beloved Nintendo 64, I knew I had to own it. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards became my first Kirby game, and it’s remained my absolute favorite in the series ever since. Kirby games are pretty special to me, and I jump at the chance to play them whenever possible. And of course, I’m always excited to see what new Kirby characters and stages will arrive in Smash Bros.

Kirby remained the solo representative of his games for the first two Smash Bros titles, until he was joined by Meta Knight and King Dedede in Smash Bros Brawl. No new Kirby characters were added to Smash 4, however. And in all honesty, finding characters TO add can prove to be a little difficult.

The Kirby series as a whole doesn’t exactly have a huge cast of main characters to choose from to go on the Smash Bros roster. Each game has its own villains and its own side characters, and very rarely will they end up in another entry in the series (until the recent release of Kirby Star Allies and its Dream Friends feature). The only truly consistent characters in the series are the three that are already in Smash Bros.

However, a lot of Smash and Kirby fans will point to Bandana Waddle Dee as being the perfect potential fourth-entrant in Smash from the Kirby Games. Since becoming a playable character in Kirby’s Return to Dreamland, Bandana Dee has become a regular cast member for the series alongside the main Kirby lineup. And if they DID pick Bandana Dee to be playable in Smash, I would be totally okay with it. He fights with a spear, so he could easily fill the same role I would like Mipha to fill on the Smash Roster. He’d make a great addition to the Smash cast… but I thought of someone who could be a much better choice, far more unique than the standard melee fighter Bandana Dee would most likely end up being.

I’m referring to the manipulative menace with a desire to rule Popstar, the devious boss from Kirby Superstar known as Marx!

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Of all of the one-off Kirby baddies that have shown up over the course of the series, Marx to me is one of the best, and possibly the most memorable. Under his cute exterior lies the heart of a villain who coerced the Sun and Moon into fighting (it sounds strange, but just roll with it), and used Kirby as a means to an end to get his wish to take over the planet granted. He’ll use whatever underhanded tactic he wants to get his way… which is a bit odd, because HE HAS NO HANDS!

Just think of it: a Smash Bros fighter without any kind of arms, hand, fists, or claws to speak of! Imagine all the creative ways they could make a fighter like that work! Would he primarily attack with kicks? Maybe he could smack people around with his little jester hat? He could do all kinds of flips and acrobatic moves to get his damage in, and just thinking about the possibilities he could hold gets me excited!

And even though he has no arms, Marx still has plenty of special attacks in his arsenal that can be translated into a Smash Bros move-set. For his Neutral B, he could summon in his ball and begin rolling around on it. He could move left or right, dealing damage as he rolls the ball into opponents. And he could stop the move in various ways, either jumping off it to gain extra height, or kicking the ball to attack, with the attack changing depending on what button you press or what direction you hold the control stick. His Up-B would let him sprout his wings and let him fly briefly to recover, and his Down B could be some variation on his teleportation or warping techniques. Alternatively, his Down-B could also be one of the moves where he summons ice balls or thorny vines.

His Side-B I imagine as a three-stage chargeable move, allowing him to rotate between his different projectile attacks. For a light charge, Marx would use his crescent shaped blades, acting as short-range boomerangs. For a medium charge, the attack would change to his flurry of arrows, dealing several rapid attacks in front of him. And a full charge of the move would launch his laser attack, inflicting a heavy blow to anyone who’s unfortunate enough to get caught in it.

And or course his Final Smash would be his black hole attack, sucking in everything around him and dealing heavy damage. I can’t think of anything that would be more appropriate!

Marx may not seem like a likely pick, but he and many other characters from Kirby history have been brought back into the spotlight as Dream Friends in Kirby Star Allies. This opens up all kinds of possibilities for new Kirby characters in Smash, and of the whole bunch I feel like Marx would be the best pick. He’s a classic and memorable Kirby bad guy, and I’d be totally psyched to see the crazy things he would be capable of in Smash Bros!

So what do you think of my choice? Is Marx the best pick, or would you prefer another character like Bandana Dee? Be sure to let me know your choice! But for now, Sparky is gonna sign off. Stay tuned for the next Character Checklist!

Smash Bros Character Checklist: The Metroid Series

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There are times where I don’t know what to make of the Metroid series. It wasn’t a game series I dabbled in until the age of the Nintendo Wii, when the Virtual Console came into existence and let me play all the old NES and SNES games I missed out on. I finally got a chance to play the original Metroid and the fan-favorite Super Metroid, and I liked both games a lot. But at the same time, I didn’t go crazy over Super Metroid like so many people do.

I want to say Metroid isn’t one of my favorite game series. But at the same time, I kept playing the games. I loved playing all the main console Metroid Prime titles, and I enjoyed Metroid: Other M immensely despite the game’s status of ‘worst Metroid game ever’ it tends to have. Heck, one day while I was in college I walked through a snow storm to the local game shop just to buy a Metroid II cartridge (which turns out is my favorite Metroid game), dragging my best friend along with me and torturing us both with the frigid winds. True story.

So yeah, I guess I do like Metroid a lot more than I really think I do, if that makes any sense. At the very least, I like the games enough that I really would like to see more Metorid Characters make it onto the Smash Bros roster. And let’s face it, the Metroid representation in Smash is… almost pitiful.

Bounty Hunter and Metroid heroine Samus Aran was one of the original 12 Smash Bros fighters. But for whatever reason, the number of Metroid characters on the Smash roster has only grown by one since 1999. And that second Metroid character is a second version of Samus. If you as me, it’s about darn time the Metroid series gets it’s dues and gets more characters on the fighting scene.

But who should be selected? There are a lot of iconic Metroid characters, after all. It should be someone BIG. Someone LARGE and in charge. The character they pick has to be a HUGE deal to make it into Smash! They’d have to be a GIANT among-

Yeah, the punchline is that it’s Ridley.

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I KNOW, I KNOW! Some of you reading this are already rolling your eyes. The reason Ridley isn’t in Smash Bros by now is clear: he’s too big! Despite the fact that Ridley is one of the most iconic of Nintendo bad guys, he can’t be in Smash Bros because he’s just too huge of a monster.

Even series creator Masahiro Sakurai himself stated that if they put Ridley in Smash, he wouldn’t be Ridley anymore once they were done with him. He would have to be scaled down in size, he would have to have his wingspan shrunk, and he wouldn’t be able to fly around freely like the menace that he is in his home series. Instead, they turned Ridley into a Boss the the Subspace Emissary and a Stage Hazard on the Pyrosphere stage in Smash Bros for Wii U. That way, Ridley stays true to his character, and he gets to be in Smash Bros in some form. I mean, If you can’t adapt a character faithfully, then what’s the point of making them a playable fighter?

But… COME OOOOON! It’s Ridley! Who in their right mind WOULDN’T want to play as Ridley in Smash? And if this game series has taught me anything, it’s that any character can be turned into a proper playable fighter if you try hard enough. Custom mods for Smash Bros games have proved time and time again that Ridley CAN be adapted for Smash Bros into a believable playable fighter. Sure, he’s still a gigantic monster of a character. But I think that would make for an interesting dynamic: a character that’s both huge and powerful, but at the same time is a wildly easy target for everyone to hit. It could work! Please, Sakurai? PLEEEEAAASE?

Okay, in all seriousness, I do know that a playable Ridley in an official Smash title will probably never happen. But this creates a problem: if you can’t have Ridley as a Smash Bros fighter, then who CAN you have? The most well known and recognizable Metroid characters you could pair up with Samus are almost all giant monster creatures just like Ridley.

Thankfully, I think I have the perfect choice: a Metroid villain that is both iconic to the series AND is human-sized who would fit perfectly into free-for-all combat. And that character is Dark Samus!

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I do realize that having a third Samus on the Smash Bros roster sounds redundant. But Dark Samus is much more than another form of Samus: she is the reincarnation of the titular Metroid Prime, and serves as the main antagonist of the original Metroid Prime Trilogy. And with a fourth main-series Prime title coming to Nintendo Switch, it would be the perfect opportunity to bring the character back to the spotlight and make her playable in Smash Bros. She was good enough to be an Assist Trophy, so becoming a combatant is the next logical step!

The biggest question about the character would be how to differentiate her from both normal Samus and Zero Suit Samus. While regular Samus is focused more on combat strength and projectiles, Zero Suit Samus sports an emphasis on moving and attacking quickly. So how would Dark Samus operate? I envision her as a best of both worlds: quick and powerful, giving her a brutal fighting style suiting the character’s nature.

I can see her easily being an ultra violent and vicious sort of fighter. The kind of fighter who launches volleys of projectiles, shoots Phazon point-blank in her opponents faces with her grab attacks, and isn’t afraid to beat you completely senseless if you get too close to her. While a lot of Smash characters have a goofiness or a wild personality to them, it would interesting to have a character who’s one goal is to outright destroy everything in their way, not caring about much else.

But how would you balance out a completely brutal character? Again, mixing together how Samus and Zero Suit Samus function would be a good way to do it. Dark Samus would be a floaty and relatively light-weight character, making her easy to knock around. And at the same time, her attacks could be given little impact to offset a high-damage fighting style. It would make you have to work a bit for KOs. It would be a tough balancing act when it comes to designing the character, but I think it could work out overall.

And as an added bonus, Dark Samus could have an alternate costume of another ‘Evil Samus’. The villain from Metroid Fusion known as SA-X is every bit of a brutal threat as Dark Samus is, and fitting the two together as a joined Smash character would be just awesome. It would also be a great gift for long time fans of the series! I haven’t even played Metroid Fusion, and I still really want to see that happen.

And that’s really all I have to say about that. I think both Ridley and Dark Samus would make fantastic entrants into Smash. But do the lovely people out there have any other Metroid character suggestions? Be sure to let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear all your ideas.

Till next time, Sparky is signing off!