Super Smash Brothers 4 coming this summer (3DS) and winter (WiiU)

[Alberto7]

Apparently the New 3DS (both normal and XL versions) will have its 3D effect visible from almost any angle, which is honestly a huge improvement. I was never that big a fan of the 3D effect on the 3DS (although it's VERY neat that you don't need 3D glasses to see it), but a big reason for that is that you could only look at it head on. I'll probably like it a lot better on this new version, and actually use it more (assuming I get one, of course).

Also, better battery life. That's a biggie, too, even though the battery life is already pretty good on the regular 3DS XL.

 

[Alberto7]

dat Fierce Deity alt-color for Link

I really hope it's not some kind of grand master photoshop...

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Hoping the same. I'm starting to believe blurry, tilted photographs are a sign of a fake, though.

 

[StevenC]

Looks real to me! Majora's Mask was my favourite Zelda, so this is great.

I guess Alph will have the Pikmin three lineup instead of Purple and White.

 

[InfinityCollision]

Fierce Diety costume is legit. There's a 3DS demo available to play right now in Japan and we've gotten some info out of it over the past couple of days. Some of the cast isn't available and custom moves, equipment, etc aren't available, but there's been a lot of good info surfacing.

I doubt Alph has any gameplay changes, he shares a slot with Olimar (4 costumes for Olimar, 4 for Alph). The announcer does say "Pikmin and Olimar/Alph" as appropriate though. Haven't really kept up with Olimar beyond that, never liked playing him much.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Fierce Diety costume is legit.

 

[Alberto7]

^ Exactly.

 

[TheHandOfStone]

AYO this is kind of a big deal. I think you watch it here.

 

[InfinityCollision]

3DS demo featuring Mario, Link, Pikachu, Megaman, and Villager went live on the Japanese Eshop a few hours ago. Rumor is the demo might be released internationally on the 19th.

 

[TheHandOfStone]

 

[InfinityCollision]

Yup. Thankfully he's the only character that can do that so far.

As more global things go, I've heard it's really easy to punish hits on shield if they don't shield break. Apparently you can also tech meteor smashes if you get hit while already standing on the ground, leading to free guaranteed punishes when the hit should've popped you up for a combo.

 

[TheHandOfStone]

"Unsafe on hit" is rarely a good design decision.

 

[InfinityCollision]

Exactly, and the ability to tech grounded hits like that doesn't really make sense regardless A move partly intended to initiate or continue combos definitely shouldn't be setting the opponent up to punish a hit confirm.

The shield stuff is just as bad. It's not a frame trap or anything of the sort, it's "I can land almost anything out of shield stun before you're even out of endlag/landing lag." Or in Megaman's case, an upb out of pretty much any hit I get that shields are super weak in Sm4sh (word is 2x dtilts from Sonic is enough to shield break), but if you don't get that break then you're screwed. If you do go for a break... Rolls seem pretty fast now and anything that could break a shield in one hit is pretty laggy. You could still get punished on a read.

Kind of curious how far this extends. It's not out of the question that otherwise viable strings might be unsafe on hit against targets with very fast jabs/nairs given that characters look to be exiting hitstun between hits.

Side note, the Gust Bellows item seems to be OP as hell Huge range, strong knockback, good duration. It's like a FLUDD on crack, ie actually good instead of "why does this even exist".

EDIT: It's begun. JP street date officially broken.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I have so little of a clue as to half the stuff you just said and it makes mefeel sad and out of touch. I understood easier to break shields but not much else. Dumb it down for a filthy casual like myself?

 

[InfinityCollision]

-You know how you can't act for a bit after you get hit? The same is true while in shield and is referred to as shield stun. 64 and Melee had a decent amount of shield stun (hitstun in general is high in 64, which is a factor in the prevalence of "true" combos), Brawl had a bit less. How safe your attacks are on shield is a factor in how aggressively you can play. In Sm4sh, shield stun appears to be so low that you can consistently punish attacks on your shield with a grab or possibly other attacks as long as your shield doesn't break. Attacks that are powerful enough to shield break in one hit tend to be slow enough that you could just roll away and punish anyway.

-If you've ever seen someone get hit into the ground/a platform/a wall and immediately bounce or roll into an upright position, that's called teching a hit. In the other games, if you're on the ground and get hit downwards you get bounced up into the air. That's still true in Sm4sh, but it's now possible to immediately tech that hit. So if you got hit by say, Captain Falcon's down-aerial stomp... yeah it's gonna hurt a bit, but you can tech it and punish him before he's able to act again.

-I mentioned that there's been a rarity of true combos ever since 64. Generally "combos" (more accurately strings) in the other games are based on positional advantage (I can keep hitting you, you can't hit me back) or are just fast enough that your opponent is out of hitstun but can't get a counterattack/defensive option out before you hit them (frame trap). Hitstun on moves that would allow you to combo (weaker attacks like tilts and multihit attacks) seems low enough that an opponent can likely at least attempt a countermeasure at most points in any strings I've seen thus far. Megaman's upb puts Roll out on what's likely the very first frame, hence the video above.

There are other things that I see as at least potentially good (new ledge and throw mechanics both seem promising for the game as a whole even if they potentially hurt certain characters), but those particular things concern me a little. The teching thing at least smells unintentional, but I'm not sure about the others.

At this point it looks like we've seen the final roster...

Spoiler

If you've seen the ESRB leak, that's everyone.

Vets that aren't returning:

Spoiler

Ice Climbers, Lucas, Wolf, Snake, Mewtwo, Roy, Pichu, Squirtle/Ivysaur

Newcomers:

Spoiler

Rosalina & Luma, Bowser Jr., Palutena, Robin, Little Mac, Greninja, Duck Hunt Dog, Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, Dark Pit, Lucina, Shulk, Pac-man, Megaman

I'm a little miffed about the cuts (mainly the first 5 I mentioned), as they include several characters that I or my friends play quite a bit. Maybe there will be DLC later, who knows.

 

[TheHandOfStone]

I'm actually glad the ICs are gone, even with the changes to throws. Getting chainthrown to death sucks and I don't want the risk of it happening again.

 

[asher]

Balls, they've dropped two of my mains. Ah well.

I hope they address some of those issues though...

 

[StevenC]

Demo confirmed for 19th September.

Platinum Club Nintendo users get an email today with 4 codes.

I don't know if any of you are Platinum users, but if you are and don't need all 4 codes, let me know!

http://www.twitch.tv/Nintendo Live event on at the moment

 

[piggins411]

Pretty excited about several of the newcomers actually, although one of them makes me scratch my head quite a bit:

Spoiler

Dark Pit

Really?

 

[InfinityCollision]

I'm actually glad the ICs are gone, even with the changes to throws. Getting chainthrown to death sucks and I don't want the risk of it happening again.

One of my buddies is a longtime ICs main, so he's not real happy right now. I've never minded them personally - the Brawl chaingrab was one of a million infinites (F*CKING DEDEDE AUGH), not that we ever played much Brawl. Wobbling, yeah, but it's potentially escapable if you react fast enough and you kind of get a feel for when they're trying to set it up after a while since it requires a completely different approach from the usual IC shenanigans. Much less significant for their game as a whole. Now Sheik's grab game... but that's my bias as a Marth main talking

Plus I have a ton of respect for the guys who can play ICs like this. It's almost like controlling two independent characters at that point, really cool to watch.

Personally I'm most bummed about

Spoiler

Wolf

being gone, he was probably my 2nd most played character in Brawl and I play him a lot in PM too. The Marth changes aren't too encouraging either, so I'll probably have to spend some time finding a new main.

Pretty excited about several of the newcomers actually, although one of them makes me scratch my head quite a bit:

Spoiler

Dark Pit

Really?

I'm REALLY disappointed with his implementation thus far. Withholding judgement til we know what all his custom specials are, but right now he looks veeeeeeeeery clone-y and that seems like a waste considering the variety of options they had in the source material.

EDIT: Ditto for the codes, would be much appreciated.