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Smash Bros. Dojo Updates

by Mike Gamin - October 19, 2007, 8:42 am EDT
Total comments: 7 Source: SmashBros.com

Little Mac and a control description highlight this week of updates!

The Dojo blog isn't the only place for information now, as several gameplay videos have been slipping out since a demo of the game has been made playable to the press and public. Still though, the demo was limited, so expect new information from the Dojo most of the time!

It's floating!

New Stage: New Pork City
The Mother series got its stage on Monday. New Pork City's most obvious feature is its scale, as it's compared in the blog to Hyrule Temple from Melee. That means that if characters decide to only run away from each other, the dynamic camera will zoom out so far that it's hard to see exactly what's going on. This scale can really change strategies, specifically in stock matches, where hiding out can be a beneficial tactic. A variety of things will be going on during the fights on this stage. There's a swinging ship ride, lots of platforms, and an underground area to fight in. To top everything off, a pink Ultimate Chimera with a yellow chick on his head may appear and launch players to their doom. The damage dealt will be extreme, as death is described as "pretty much certain."

Ping!

New Game Mode: Home-Run Contest
As reported earlier, the Home-Run Contest will be returning in Brawl. The new features are described in detail in our original article. The biggest addition will be that two players can play cooperatively and competitively locally and over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Because Home-Run Derby is a secondary mode, this points to the possibility that almost every mode in the game will be playable online. The announcement on the Dojo was also prefaced by "STADIUM:" which could also point to the possibility of having a separate set of mini-games collected in a Stadium mode to go along with the Subspace Emissary and general versus battles.

Remote Only Configuration

Controls: How to use the Wii Remote
Wednesday, the Dojo snuck in an update that describes the use of only the Wii Remote to play Brawl. This is one of the four different control possibilities the game will feature. The post goes into detail about just how the seemingly analog dependent features of the game have been translated to the d-pad. Obviously, movement will be handled with the D-pad. The lack of analog here is overcome by using double taps to initiate dashes. There is no dedicated jump button, so up is mapped to jumping. Smash attacks, which used to be initiated by slamming the stick in a direction just before pushing the attack button, can now be performed in two ways. Most like the original way of doing them, a player can press a direction on the D-pad and the attack button at the exact same time. This will perform a smash attack in the direction pressed. Players can also simply press the special move and attack button together. It's currently unclear which smash attack this method will perform, as they are all direction dependent. You can tell the developers ran out of buttons quickly, as the shield is mapped to the B trigger of the Wii remote. They admit on the blog that this is a bit odd, but they seem to think it will work well. For the full button layout, refer to the image at the right. You can click on it to see a bigger version.

Free money!

New Pokemon: Meowth
Meowth can pop out of random Pokeballs. He simply unleashes a Pay Day attack that is described as a "slow coin barrage." It looks like he'll just be one of those medium tier, damage-dealing Pokemon.

Upper cut!

New Assist Trophy: Little Mac
There are quite a few people out there that were hoping Little Mac would be a playable character. While they will be disappointed that he isn't, at least he is in the game. Popping out of Assist Trophies, Little Mac rushes out and does a left, right, uppercut combo. It looks like it will do significant damage. The designers did get his scale right, as he only comes up to Samus's chest. That's one short fighter!

Peach Blossoms?

New Final Smash: Peach's Peach Blossom
Princess Peach's final smash is probably one of the few that doesn't deal any damage directly. If she gets a Smash Ball she'll start performing a dance as cherry peach blossoms fall from the sky and two dimensional Peach art pans in from the sides. At the end, peaches will fall from the sky and characters on the screen will fall asleep, the severity of which depends on how close they are to Peach herself. While they are sleeping, Peach can run around eating the peaches to restore health. All of the sleeping characters are also opened up for some free hits, so you'll want to smash attack them off the screen!

That's it for this week. Nothing ground breaking, but still fun for all of the crazy fans out there. This won't be the only Brawl coverage coming from NWR this weekend though. Expect hands-on impressions and videos from our staff members currently on the floor at the E for All expo!

Talkback

planetidiotOctober 19, 2007

I know they were going for simple, but they really should have had 3 action buttons on the remote, or ideally 4 button SNES layout.

DAaaMan64October 19, 2007

I know IGN said those remote controls were good and I don't know. I couldn't get used to pressing up for jump on Melee, plus I am shield and dodge freak so that B button shield is really weird. Someone should have snuck in a wave dasher too, that way we can find out if you can still do that technique. face-icon-small-smile.gif

PaleMike Gamin, Contributing EditorOctober 19, 2007

I do think pressing up will work ok for Jumping. It feels funny in Melee because it's a stick, not a d-pad. I'm still totally confused about Smash attacks. I can't wait to hear what Windy and Aaron have to say about how they work with just the Wii remote.

EnnerOctober 19, 2007

I'm guessing the 1 + 2 combination will always be the forward smash unless there's a tiny window press a direction afterwards. As for the direction combination, looks like a straight up press together. Hmm, this makes me wonder how tilt ground moves will feel.

As an aside, never put a lot of thought that Smash is a three button + direction control game. Makes me imagine an arcade cabinent set up!

KlapauciusOctober 20, 2007

So a Gamecube/Gamecube-style controller can be used, with Gamecube controls? right?

My guess is that Nintendo only let people use the Wiimote in order to force Smash vets to at least give it a try. I'll bet quite a few were just going to go straight to the GC controller without even trying the rest.

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