Now that all the Smash For content has released, and there is no more, I wanted to take a moment to do a bit of a retrospective and analysis on the entire marketing campaign/hype train for Smash For.
Smash For Wii U/3DS had some of the best trailers. Part of what really made them shine was the iconic opening used in every single one. Every time you heard that "shing" and saw this that cross and flames, you knew something big was coming.
An announcement too early, and random rumors rumbling
The hype train really started way way back in E3 2011. That was three years after Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out, which was met to mixed reception to say the least. Brawl brought something different than Melee, a slower game, but the biggest sticking point for most people was the random tripping. However it also had a larger roster, with more diversity, as well as a ton of content, including the Subspace Emissary. Many people had a sour taste in their mouths about issues such as tripping, and less than stellar online play. The only way to play with random opponents was in a laggy 4-player itemfest on hazard stages, which really did not satisfy the crowd that enjoys playing without items, and on stages without hazards. Brawl was great, but many fans wanted something more.
In E3 2011, the Wii U was revealed. The audience was confused about if the Gamepad was a new console or a Wii accessory. However there was one point in the reveal that stuck in a lot of Smash fans' minds: Iwata talked about how Sakurai was working on Kid Icarus: Uprising, and said he would be working a Smash Bros. game for Wii U and 3DS next. Many people felt like this "announcement" might have been premature, with the possibility of Sakurai not even being committed to working on another Smash game at the time, but either way, people were excited.
We heard small bits of details over the next year or so, including one that a Capcom character could potentially be in the game. In July 2012, Sakurai posted a whiteboard drawing for the game on his Twitter account. It had characters and items we had seen in previous game in the series, but it was most definitely a sign development was in gear for the game.
Later on, it was revealed in a Nintendo Direct that Namco Bandai was developing the game alongside Sora Ltd. This was an interesting tidbit of news that a lot of people didn't know how to feel about. On one hand, Namco Bandai had plenty of experience with fighting games, but at the same time they have done some bad things in the past. Fortunately, any fears were put to rest with this game, as it still retained the feel of a Smash Bros game, and still felt very much like a Sora and Sakurai project. At one point in an interview, Sakurai actually teased having Pac-Man in the game, and asked what people would think of his final Smash being turning into a giant Pac-Man and chasing people around like in the original arcade game. One fear many people had about Pac-Man was the fact that Namco might force a creepy "modern" Pac-Man to be in the game instead of the classic arcade Pac-Man. Luckily this wasn't the case, and in fact, Sakurai would have dropped Pac-Man if they did this.
The nightmare:
In the time between the initial "announcement" of the game and the actual reveal, there were many fake leaks, including title screens, the game's name, roster, and more. One of the most prominent ones was it being called "Super Smash Bros. Universe", and I remember someone made another fake one called "Super Smash Bros. Kerfluffle". Personally, from that point until it's actual reveal, I referred to it as "Kerfluffle".
Tying back to Smash eventually, Bayonetta 2 was announced as a Wii U exclusive during a Nintendo press event. I didn't get to watch the stream of the event live, but I remember my friend texted me that day and said "So uh....Bayonetta might actually have a chance to get in Smash now." Everyone was blown away by the fact that Bayonetta 2 was alive, now being published by Nintendo. Ever since that reveal, Bayonetta was my #1 most wanted character for Smash. I'm sure this applied to many other people too.
The Grand Reveal
2013 rolled around, and Nintendo had said that Smash would be at E3. Nintendo did their first Digital Event that year, instead of an actual press conference, and of course, as promised, Smash was revealed. The very first trailer starts out with the trailer opening we would come to know and love, but then opens to an Animal Crossing town. The Villager checks his mailbox, drops a letter sealed with a Smash symbol, and runs. It was also a trick as people thought it might be Smash, since it was the last game of the presentation, but then showed Animal Crossing after that opening. Then the first gameplay we see is from the 3DS version, which has nice bold outlines around the characters to accomodate for the low resolution of the 3DS, then we get to see the Wii U version. It looks great, and then suddenly...
This was where we first saw another iconic element of the trailers: The punny character introductions. Villager sort of shocked fans, since Sakurai stated about Brawl that he couldn't really see a way for an Animal Crossing fighter to work out, but he clearly found one with Villager.
Then the trailer really got crazy. We saw the "New Challenger Approaching". The spiky hair and short stature, there's only one character this could be:
Mega Man was the natural third party character people wanted in Smash. We had Snake and Sonic in Brawl, and Mega Man was the next logical step. The most interesting thing about this was the fact that in recent years, Capcom had neglected Mega Man, treating him very poorly in general. There was that iPhone game that was really terrible, things like "bad box art" Mega Man in Street Fighter x Tekken, cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3, and more. But here in Smash, Mega Man looked just like everyone hoped, maybe even better. He had the stature of the NES sprites, the same animations from the NES games, and his attacks were all based on Robot Master abilities from the NES games.
Later on we got yet another new trailer. This one started out like it was just Wii Fit, and then suddenly...
And we have Wii Fit Trainer as a new fighter. This one brought a bit of controversy. Hearing "waste of a slot" was very common, but personally, one thing I love about Smash is oddball characters like that. Wii Fit Trainer made perfect sense representing the Wii era of exercise games being popular.
Over the coming years, we would get this game's equivalent of "Japan Time": The Pic of the Day on Miiverse. Sakurai would post a screenshot from the game, with a brief description every day. Some of them were just pretty screenshots, while some of them revealed significant new information. Sometimes Sakurai would troll too, infamously teasing Palutena with pictures like this:
There was also that screenshot of Zero Suit Samus in front of the full moon on the Luigi's Mansion stage. This was particularly interesting because she was in the exact same pose Bayonetta was in one of her original game's artworks. This was likely just a reference made by Sakurai, but for all we know, it could have been a potential tease for the character. I doubt she was even in development at this point though.
Later down the line we got the Rosalina trailer during a Direct. She is a character with an interesting mechanic that has never really been done before in Smash, having that control over two "characters" at once in a sense. It's almost like something from traditional fighting games such as Carl Clover from BlazBlue (for those that don't know, he had this doll/robot thing that part of playing him was controlling it too).
During the initial reveal of the game, one of the stages was some kind of arena, almost like a boxing arena. Many theories popped up that this was actually a Punch-Out based stage, and Little Mac might come in as a playable character. Those theories were right on the money, as we got a trailer for Little Mac. One of the things I loved about all these trailers, especially Little Mac's, was that they all retained something about the original game the character was from, be it an art style, or maybe a rivalry between characters (Pit being an angel in Bayonetta's trailer, for instance).
A Smash Direct in 2014, revealing a ton of information, as well as a few new characters. One of the most important points of this was the explanation of the online component of the game. It was stated that there would be two categories to online, For Fun, and For Glory, both with different modes under that. For Glory was exactly what many people felt like Brawl was missing.
Sakurai could have been teasing Mewtwo with the Greninja trailer, since the Water Shuriken charge reminded people of Mewtwo.
The Direct also confirmed that the 3DS version of the game would run at 60FPS, something myself and many other people were not expecting. This did contain the caveat that Assist Trophies and Pokemon would be animated at 30FPS, but this was not a big deal. Of course, the Wii U version would also be 60FPS.
The hype train accelerates to E3 2014
E3 came around, and Nintendo's plans for it were announced. A Smash tournament featuring many pro players from the Smash community would be held, as well as being able to play the game at select Best Buy locations. Then as details were given about the Smash tournament, a major announcement was dropped in the trailer. The control method was brought up, and a porn groove started playing, and there it was:
This was a particularly huge deal for a few reasons. The first of which, was that a large portion of the fanbase were used to Gamecube controllers. The Wii U also normally had no wired controller option, which was a concern for the game being competitive. This Gamecube adapter resolved all concerns with this.
The tournament was more casual consisting of 4-player matches with items turned on, playing on any stage. This was fine for what this event was though, since it's purpose was to show off the game. The tournament had many memorable moments such as this one, that showed off Mega Man's Final Smash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wnnv5zySAk
Fortunately for me, I lived in Austin, and one of the select locations was there. I got there over an hour early, and there were already a ton of people in line for the demo. It was cool to talk with other Smash fans waiting in line. A Nintendo rep near the front of the line had the 3DS version for people to try before they got to go inside and try the Wii U version. We knew the 3DS version would be 60FPS at this point, but actually seeing it in person was extremely impressive. Then I got to try the Wii U version, and yes, it was as excellent as I expected it to be.
At that same E3, there was a few new details of the game revealed. The first of which was Mii Fighters, which had an implementation that no one really expected. They all had customizable moves, and there were three classes, Brawler, Gunner, and Swordsman. There was also the reveal of Palutena, a character Sakurai had been trolling the fans about for a long time, and even rumored screenshots of her were floating around before.
In Nintendo's closed door event, Sakurai gave a presentation and revealed a new character trailer. This trailer turned out to be Pac-Man, and not only that, but a Pac-Man based on his original arcade form. It was really nice to see this gaming icon make it into Smash, and was another point toward Smash being a general video game crossover, rather than exclusively Nintendo.
Months leading up to release, the pipes are leaky
The next few months was an interesting time. There were rumored character lists, including some that were very close to what the final roster actually turned out to be. One of the biggest leaks came in August that year. A 4chan poster made a thread about what characters they thought would make it in, and which ones would be cut. A reply posted an edited version of the OP's image that contained never before seen character icons.
The internet can fake anything, but something seemed different this time. Oddly enough, this one turned out to be 100% correct. It marked which characters were cut, and showed the new ones. It has a question mark over Mewtwo, which turned out to be explained later in the 50 Fact Extravaganza that he was coming as DLC in 2015. Most interesting of the new icons though, was one of a familiar looking dog. The most obvious guess was that this was the dog from Duck Hunt. The leaker posted another image, showing that it was not only the dog, but the dog partnered with a duck and known as Duck Hunt. Eventually the full roster posted, and people were unsure whether to believe. After much more leaked footage, the street date in Japan was broken in September, and all of it was confirmed to be true.
The 3DS version was released, and well received, however it still left the question: What about the Wii U version? It was supposed to come out in a month and we knew almost nothing about it. The 50 Fact Extravaganza was announced, to tell all about it. Before this, there were interesting theories that the Wii U version would support 8 players, hence why stages like Palutena's Temple were so large. This was true, along with many other details. The biggest surprise, was the announcement of Mewtwo, and that he would be coming in 2015. He would be free to people that owned both versions of the game.
The DLC floodgates are open
Mewtwo coming as DLC opened up a lot of possibilities in peoples' minds. What other DLC characters might be coming? Would there be more stages? More modes? The possibilities were endless. Sakurai stated in an interview he was unsure about DLC, and judging by datamining, you could tell that when the game initially released, there was no concrete plan for DLC.
The Ballot Begins
In the April Nintendo Direct, an interesting Smash announcement was made. A web page was set up on the Smash website to suggest a character to be included in the game as DLC. There were fields for the character's name, game of origin, and reason for the character's inclusion. Players could enter any character they wanted into this. Of course this caused many people in the community to campaign for certain characters, and some believed based on private polls, that a certain character won. This opened up endless possibilities of what could show up in the game.
Can you impress us with Smash DLC? Shoryuken!
E3 2015 came around, and there would be a Smash presentation before the Nintendo World Championship. This presentation announced Roy, and discussed Lucas briefly. Biggest of all, despite being leaked the previous day, was the announcement of Ryu from Street Fighter being a DLC character. No one was prepared for the level of detail that was put into him. Sakurai went into detail discussing Ryu's moveset, and this character had an unexpected quirk where his original Street Fighter inputs worked for his moves, and made them stronger. This was the first time a traditional fighting game character was brought into Smash, and he was absoultely a worthy addition to the roster. Ryu violated one of the "Sakurai said..." rules, based on some interview where Sakurai said something along the lines of a fighting game character being "too difficult" to bring into Smash. In addition to Ryu, there were Mii costumes for other fighting game characters, including Virtua Fighter and Tekken.
What if I told you the rules don't exist?
After the passing of Satoru Iwata, everyone knew Nintendo Direct, the company, and gaming as a whole just would not be the same without him. In November, fans got their wish. At the end of the direct, Reggie appeared, saying there was one more trailer. Everyone assumed this was going to be Smash, however a curveball was thrown. There was no iconic "shing" this time, however some familiar sounding music played and what looked like stars were shown. Some people recognized the music. Then there it was, the Final Fantasy logo, and then the bomb dropped. It was Final Fantasy VII, this meant Cloud was going to be in the game. The vast majority of the internet was in disbelief when they saw this. Cloud was a character you would see on almost every single photoshopped roster on the internet. He represented the first Final Fantasy game that appeared on Sony consoles, instead of Nintendo consoles. In a way he kind of represented a betrayal, which was a reason most people wrote him off because they assumed Nintendo would never let him in.
Over the years of Smash hype, particularly during Brawl and this game, the community made up these "rules" of what characters could or couldn't get in. For instance, the most common "rule" was that the character must have starred or had a major role in a game on a Nintendo console. Snake was qualified by the NES port of Metal Gear, and of course Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes on the Gamecube. Pac-Man even met these qualifications. Cloud though? His appearances were too minor to be notable and barely counted in the eyes of most, which made him appear as an unrealistic choice. This announcement completely blew the lid off of the rules, and proves that Sakurai can get away with almost anything.
The obvious question of if Cloud was the ballot winner came up, but was not answered at the time. However, after Cloud's trailer, there was an announcement of the Final Smash Direct in December.
Just when you thought there was nowhere else he could go...
The Smash Direct date was announced, and it was time. There was a ton of speculation on who would be in. It was almost a guarantee that Cloud would be disucssed, and probably released that day. Beyond that, no one knew. King K. Rool? Wolf returning? Inkling? Who would get in the game?
The first announcement of the direct was immediately a new character trailer. This one was for Corrin, from Fire Emblem Fates. The trailer itself was pretty funny, showcasing the choice from the original games between Hoshido and Nohr, and then putting in a fourth option to join Smash. Corrin was yet another Fire Emblem character, but one that was quite different from the pervious ones. He had the ability to turn parts of his body into dragon parts, and use that with his attacks.
Corrin was met with a mixed reception. By many people, it was negative because Fire Emblem has 6 characters in the game now. Some, like me, were iffy at first, then saw him in action and were impressed. The character had parallels back to Super Smash Bros. Melee, when Roy was in that game, despite Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals not being released yet. Corrin was a similar situation.
Cloud was discussed, along with Mii costumes. The Mii costumes were of a lot of commonly desired characters that just didn't quite make the cut.
Then it was time for the big one: The final character. Sakurai is a trickster with these things, and before the trailer, he even said "This is finally the climzx."
The trailer opens and many were hoping it would not be another Kid Icarus character, as they didn't particularly care for Dark Pit being on the roster. Palutena said a challenger was approaching, and there was a brief first person flight animation, then a show of the full moon. For some, like me, I knew immediately what was happening, and had put the pieces together. Pit was an angel, Sakurai said "climax", the full moon, it had to be...
Bayonetta was met to an overwhelmingly positive reaction. This was a character many fans, including myself, desired. Personally, she was my ballot vote, and the #1 character I had wanted since Bayonetta 2 was announced. At the same time, I had written her off for the most part, thinking she was wishful thinking. I figured since she wasn't in the base game, she would unfortunately be considered too risque for Smash. I had brought up the possibility that maybe Wonder Bayonetta (a Wonderful 101 style rendition of her, from that game) could be in, but still thought chances were slim to none. It really didn't help that there was evidence that a Tharja (Fire Emblem: Awakening) trophy was cut from the game for this reason. Not only was Bayonetta in, she was 100% intact of her character from the main games. Very little had to be censored about the character, with the only real changes were no profanity ("Don't mess with a witch." instead of "Don't fuck with a witch.") and her Wicked Weaves were not as revealing of her body.
To most people, this more than made up for the lack of Snake being in the game. Her games stand in the eyes of many, as the greatest character action games of all time. For everything she represents, she makes perfect sense to be in Smash, and fits in so well.
In addition to the character, we also got a Bayonetta stage: The Umbran Clock Tower. This was set in the prologue sequence in the first game, where Bayonetta and Jeanne fought angels on the falling clock tower. It was a great idea for a stage.
The train has arrived at the station
Smash Wii U/3DS was now 100% done, and it was an insane ride. Characters previously thought impossible were in the game. Matchups you used to only see in flash games and fan art were now possible. This game was one of the few examples where the DLC was hyped by the community just as much, if not more, than the base game. With a very diverse cast, such a wide variety of gaming is represented here. Smash is no longer just a crossover fighter for Nintendo, it covers gaming as a whole. While it may have not been able to represent every major player in the gaming industry, what it has managed to represent is extremely impressive. Other fighting games don't quite get the same level of hype that Smash generally does, especially when it comes to the roster. The fact that this game looks like one of those "dream roster" photoshops you always see is nothing short of amazing.
Personally, I don't think there is anywhere else they can go with Smash. It's going to be extremely hard to possibly top this game somehow. This is part of the reason I think that the Smash NX game might be a "complete" version of this one.
Did you enjoy the Smash For hype train?
Smash For Wii U/3DS had some of the best trailers. Part of what really made them shine was the iconic opening used in every single one. Every time you heard that "shing" and saw this that cross and flames, you knew something big was coming.
An announcement too early, and random rumors rumbling
The hype train really started way way back in E3 2011. That was three years after Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out, which was met to mixed reception to say the least. Brawl brought something different than Melee, a slower game, but the biggest sticking point for most people was the random tripping. However it also had a larger roster, with more diversity, as well as a ton of content, including the Subspace Emissary. Many people had a sour taste in their mouths about issues such as tripping, and less than stellar online play. The only way to play with random opponents was in a laggy 4-player itemfest on hazard stages, which really did not satisfy the crowd that enjoys playing without items, and on stages without hazards. Brawl was great, but many fans wanted something more.
In E3 2011, the Wii U was revealed. The audience was confused about if the Gamepad was a new console or a Wii accessory. However there was one point in the reveal that stuck in a lot of Smash fans' minds: Iwata talked about how Sakurai was working on Kid Icarus: Uprising, and said he would be working a Smash Bros. game for Wii U and 3DS next. Many people felt like this "announcement" might have been premature, with the possibility of Sakurai not even being committed to working on another Smash game at the time, but either way, people were excited.
We heard small bits of details over the next year or so, including one that a Capcom character could potentially be in the game. In July 2012, Sakurai posted a whiteboard drawing for the game on his Twitter account. It had characters and items we had seen in previous game in the series, but it was most definitely a sign development was in gear for the game.
Later on, it was revealed in a Nintendo Direct that Namco Bandai was developing the game alongside Sora Ltd. This was an interesting tidbit of news that a lot of people didn't know how to feel about. On one hand, Namco Bandai had plenty of experience with fighting games, but at the same time they have done some bad things in the past. Fortunately, any fears were put to rest with this game, as it still retained the feel of a Smash Bros game, and still felt very much like a Sora and Sakurai project. At one point in an interview, Sakurai actually teased having Pac-Man in the game, and asked what people would think of his final Smash being turning into a giant Pac-Man and chasing people around like in the original arcade game. One fear many people had about Pac-Man was the fact that Namco might force a creepy "modern" Pac-Man to be in the game instead of the classic arcade Pac-Man. Luckily this wasn't the case, and in fact, Sakurai would have dropped Pac-Man if they did this.
The nightmare:
In the time between the initial "announcement" of the game and the actual reveal, there were many fake leaks, including title screens, the game's name, roster, and more. One of the most prominent ones was it being called "Super Smash Bros. Universe", and I remember someone made another fake one called "Super Smash Bros. Kerfluffle". Personally, from that point until it's actual reveal, I referred to it as "Kerfluffle".
Tying back to Smash eventually, Bayonetta 2 was announced as a Wii U exclusive during a Nintendo press event. I didn't get to watch the stream of the event live, but I remember my friend texted me that day and said "So uh....Bayonetta might actually have a chance to get in Smash now." Everyone was blown away by the fact that Bayonetta 2 was alive, now being published by Nintendo. Ever since that reveal, Bayonetta was my #1 most wanted character for Smash. I'm sure this applied to many other people too.
The Grand Reveal
2013 rolled around, and Nintendo had said that Smash would be at E3. Nintendo did their first Digital Event that year, instead of an actual press conference, and of course, as promised, Smash was revealed. The very first trailer starts out with the trailer opening we would come to know and love, but then opens to an Animal Crossing town. The Villager checks his mailbox, drops a letter sealed with a Smash symbol, and runs. It was also a trick as people thought it might be Smash, since it was the last game of the presentation, but then showed Animal Crossing after that opening. Then the first gameplay we see is from the 3DS version, which has nice bold outlines around the characters to accomodate for the low resolution of the 3DS, then we get to see the Wii U version. It looks great, and then suddenly...
This was where we first saw another iconic element of the trailers: The punny character introductions. Villager sort of shocked fans, since Sakurai stated about Brawl that he couldn't really see a way for an Animal Crossing fighter to work out, but he clearly found one with Villager.
Then the trailer really got crazy. We saw the "New Challenger Approaching". The spiky hair and short stature, there's only one character this could be:
Mega Man was the natural third party character people wanted in Smash. We had Snake and Sonic in Brawl, and Mega Man was the next logical step. The most interesting thing about this was the fact that in recent years, Capcom had neglected Mega Man, treating him very poorly in general. There was that iPhone game that was really terrible, things like "bad box art" Mega Man in Street Fighter x Tekken, cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3, and more. But here in Smash, Mega Man looked just like everyone hoped, maybe even better. He had the stature of the NES sprites, the same animations from the NES games, and his attacks were all based on Robot Master abilities from the NES games.
Later on we got yet another new trailer. This one started out like it was just Wii Fit, and then suddenly...
And we have Wii Fit Trainer as a new fighter. This one brought a bit of controversy. Hearing "waste of a slot" was very common, but personally, one thing I love about Smash is oddball characters like that. Wii Fit Trainer made perfect sense representing the Wii era of exercise games being popular.
Over the coming years, we would get this game's equivalent of "Japan Time": The Pic of the Day on Miiverse. Sakurai would post a screenshot from the game, with a brief description every day. Some of them were just pretty screenshots, while some of them revealed significant new information. Sometimes Sakurai would troll too, infamously teasing Palutena with pictures like this:
There was also that screenshot of Zero Suit Samus in front of the full moon on the Luigi's Mansion stage. This was particularly interesting because she was in the exact same pose Bayonetta was in one of her original game's artworks. This was likely just a reference made by Sakurai, but for all we know, it could have been a potential tease for the character. I doubt she was even in development at this point though.
Later down the line we got the Rosalina trailer during a Direct. She is a character with an interesting mechanic that has never really been done before in Smash, having that control over two "characters" at once in a sense. It's almost like something from traditional fighting games such as Carl Clover from BlazBlue (for those that don't know, he had this doll/robot thing that part of playing him was controlling it too).
During the initial reveal of the game, one of the stages was some kind of arena, almost like a boxing arena. Many theories popped up that this was actually a Punch-Out based stage, and Little Mac might come in as a playable character. Those theories were right on the money, as we got a trailer for Little Mac. One of the things I loved about all these trailers, especially Little Mac's, was that they all retained something about the original game the character was from, be it an art style, or maybe a rivalry between characters (Pit being an angel in Bayonetta's trailer, for instance).
A Smash Direct in 2014, revealing a ton of information, as well as a few new characters. One of the most important points of this was the explanation of the online component of the game. It was stated that there would be two categories to online, For Fun, and For Glory, both with different modes under that. For Glory was exactly what many people felt like Brawl was missing.
Sakurai could have been teasing Mewtwo with the Greninja trailer, since the Water Shuriken charge reminded people of Mewtwo.
The Direct also confirmed that the 3DS version of the game would run at 60FPS, something myself and many other people were not expecting. This did contain the caveat that Assist Trophies and Pokemon would be animated at 30FPS, but this was not a big deal. Of course, the Wii U version would also be 60FPS.
The hype train accelerates to E3 2014
E3 came around, and Nintendo's plans for it were announced. A Smash tournament featuring many pro players from the Smash community would be held, as well as being able to play the game at select Best Buy locations. Then as details were given about the Smash tournament, a major announcement was dropped in the trailer. The control method was brought up, and a porn groove started playing, and there it was:
This was a particularly huge deal for a few reasons. The first of which, was that a large portion of the fanbase were used to Gamecube controllers. The Wii U also normally had no wired controller option, which was a concern for the game being competitive. This Gamecube adapter resolved all concerns with this.
The tournament was more casual consisting of 4-player matches with items turned on, playing on any stage. This was fine for what this event was though, since it's purpose was to show off the game. The tournament had many memorable moments such as this one, that showed off Mega Man's Final Smash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wnnv5zySAk
Fortunately for me, I lived in Austin, and one of the select locations was there. I got there over an hour early, and there were already a ton of people in line for the demo. It was cool to talk with other Smash fans waiting in line. A Nintendo rep near the front of the line had the 3DS version for people to try before they got to go inside and try the Wii U version. We knew the 3DS version would be 60FPS at this point, but actually seeing it in person was extremely impressive. Then I got to try the Wii U version, and yes, it was as excellent as I expected it to be.
At that same E3, there was a few new details of the game revealed. The first of which was Mii Fighters, which had an implementation that no one really expected. They all had customizable moves, and there were three classes, Brawler, Gunner, and Swordsman. There was also the reveal of Palutena, a character Sakurai had been trolling the fans about for a long time, and even rumored screenshots of her were floating around before.
In Nintendo's closed door event, Sakurai gave a presentation and revealed a new character trailer. This trailer turned out to be Pac-Man, and not only that, but a Pac-Man based on his original arcade form. It was really nice to see this gaming icon make it into Smash, and was another point toward Smash being a general video game crossover, rather than exclusively Nintendo.
Months leading up to release, the pipes are leaky
The next few months was an interesting time. There were rumored character lists, including some that were very close to what the final roster actually turned out to be. One of the biggest leaks came in August that year. A 4chan poster made a thread about what characters they thought would make it in, and which ones would be cut. A reply posted an edited version of the OP's image that contained never before seen character icons.
The internet can fake anything, but something seemed different this time. Oddly enough, this one turned out to be 100% correct. It marked which characters were cut, and showed the new ones. It has a question mark over Mewtwo, which turned out to be explained later in the 50 Fact Extravaganza that he was coming as DLC in 2015. Most interesting of the new icons though, was one of a familiar looking dog. The most obvious guess was that this was the dog from Duck Hunt. The leaker posted another image, showing that it was not only the dog, but the dog partnered with a duck and known as Duck Hunt. Eventually the full roster posted, and people were unsure whether to believe. After much more leaked footage, the street date in Japan was broken in September, and all of it was confirmed to be true.
The 3DS version was released, and well received, however it still left the question: What about the Wii U version? It was supposed to come out in a month and we knew almost nothing about it. The 50 Fact Extravaganza was announced, to tell all about it. Before this, there were interesting theories that the Wii U version would support 8 players, hence why stages like Palutena's Temple were so large. This was true, along with many other details. The biggest surprise, was the announcement of Mewtwo, and that he would be coming in 2015. He would be free to people that owned both versions of the game.
The DLC floodgates are open
Mewtwo coming as DLC opened up a lot of possibilities in peoples' minds. What other DLC characters might be coming? Would there be more stages? More modes? The possibilities were endless. Sakurai stated in an interview he was unsure about DLC, and judging by datamining, you could tell that when the game initially released, there was no concrete plan for DLC.
The Ballot Begins
In the April Nintendo Direct, an interesting Smash announcement was made. A web page was set up on the Smash website to suggest a character to be included in the game as DLC. There were fields for the character's name, game of origin, and reason for the character's inclusion. Players could enter any character they wanted into this. Of course this caused many people in the community to campaign for certain characters, and some believed based on private polls, that a certain character won. This opened up endless possibilities of what could show up in the game.
Can you impress us with Smash DLC? Shoryuken!
E3 2015 came around, and there would be a Smash presentation before the Nintendo World Championship. This presentation announced Roy, and discussed Lucas briefly. Biggest of all, despite being leaked the previous day, was the announcement of Ryu from Street Fighter being a DLC character. No one was prepared for the level of detail that was put into him. Sakurai went into detail discussing Ryu's moveset, and this character had an unexpected quirk where his original Street Fighter inputs worked for his moves, and made them stronger. This was the first time a traditional fighting game character was brought into Smash, and he was absoultely a worthy addition to the roster. Ryu violated one of the "Sakurai said..." rules, based on some interview where Sakurai said something along the lines of a fighting game character being "too difficult" to bring into Smash. In addition to Ryu, there were Mii costumes for other fighting game characters, including Virtua Fighter and Tekken.
What if I told you the rules don't exist?
After the passing of Satoru Iwata, everyone knew Nintendo Direct, the company, and gaming as a whole just would not be the same without him. In November, fans got their wish. At the end of the direct, Reggie appeared, saying there was one more trailer. Everyone assumed this was going to be Smash, however a curveball was thrown. There was no iconic "shing" this time, however some familiar sounding music played and what looked like stars were shown. Some people recognized the music. Then there it was, the Final Fantasy logo, and then the bomb dropped. It was Final Fantasy VII, this meant Cloud was going to be in the game. The vast majority of the internet was in disbelief when they saw this. Cloud was a character you would see on almost every single photoshopped roster on the internet. He represented the first Final Fantasy game that appeared on Sony consoles, instead of Nintendo consoles. In a way he kind of represented a betrayal, which was a reason most people wrote him off because they assumed Nintendo would never let him in.
Over the years of Smash hype, particularly during Brawl and this game, the community made up these "rules" of what characters could or couldn't get in. For instance, the most common "rule" was that the character must have starred or had a major role in a game on a Nintendo console. Snake was qualified by the NES port of Metal Gear, and of course Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes on the Gamecube. Pac-Man even met these qualifications. Cloud though? His appearances were too minor to be notable and barely counted in the eyes of most, which made him appear as an unrealistic choice. This announcement completely blew the lid off of the rules, and proves that Sakurai can get away with almost anything.
The obvious question of if Cloud was the ballot winner came up, but was not answered at the time. However, after Cloud's trailer, there was an announcement of the Final Smash Direct in December.
Just when you thought there was nowhere else he could go...
The Smash Direct date was announced, and it was time. There was a ton of speculation on who would be in. It was almost a guarantee that Cloud would be disucssed, and probably released that day. Beyond that, no one knew. King K. Rool? Wolf returning? Inkling? Who would get in the game?
The first announcement of the direct was immediately a new character trailer. This one was for Corrin, from Fire Emblem Fates. The trailer itself was pretty funny, showcasing the choice from the original games between Hoshido and Nohr, and then putting in a fourth option to join Smash. Corrin was yet another Fire Emblem character, but one that was quite different from the pervious ones. He had the ability to turn parts of his body into dragon parts, and use that with his attacks.
Corrin was met with a mixed reception. By many people, it was negative because Fire Emblem has 6 characters in the game now. Some, like me, were iffy at first, then saw him in action and were impressed. The character had parallels back to Super Smash Bros. Melee, when Roy was in that game, despite Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals not being released yet. Corrin was a similar situation.
Cloud was discussed, along with Mii costumes. The Mii costumes were of a lot of commonly desired characters that just didn't quite make the cut.
Then it was time for the big one: The final character. Sakurai is a trickster with these things, and before the trailer, he even said "This is finally the climzx."
The trailer opens and many were hoping it would not be another Kid Icarus character, as they didn't particularly care for Dark Pit being on the roster. Palutena said a challenger was approaching, and there was a brief first person flight animation, then a show of the full moon. For some, like me, I knew immediately what was happening, and had put the pieces together. Pit was an angel, Sakurai said "climax", the full moon, it had to be...
Bayonetta was met to an overwhelmingly positive reaction. This was a character many fans, including myself, desired. Personally, she was my ballot vote, and the #1 character I had wanted since Bayonetta 2 was announced. At the same time, I had written her off for the most part, thinking she was wishful thinking. I figured since she wasn't in the base game, she would unfortunately be considered too risque for Smash. I had brought up the possibility that maybe Wonder Bayonetta (a Wonderful 101 style rendition of her, from that game) could be in, but still thought chances were slim to none. It really didn't help that there was evidence that a Tharja (Fire Emblem: Awakening) trophy was cut from the game for this reason. Not only was Bayonetta in, she was 100% intact of her character from the main games. Very little had to be censored about the character, with the only real changes were no profanity ("Don't mess with a witch." instead of "Don't fuck with a witch.") and her Wicked Weaves were not as revealing of her body.
Bayonetta was the star of an action game series from Platinum Games. She was created by Hideki Kamiya, who has an outstanding track record for action games over the years. The second game was published by Nintendo, who saved the project from certain death.
To most people, this more than made up for the lack of Snake being in the game. Her games stand in the eyes of many, as the greatest character action games of all time. For everything she represents, she makes perfect sense to be in Smash, and fits in so well.
In addition to the character, we also got a Bayonetta stage: The Umbran Clock Tower. This was set in the prologue sequence in the first game, where Bayonetta and Jeanne fought angels on the falling clock tower. It was a great idea for a stage.
The train has arrived at the station
Smash Wii U/3DS was now 100% done, and it was an insane ride. Characters previously thought impossible were in the game. Matchups you used to only see in flash games and fan art were now possible. This game was one of the few examples where the DLC was hyped by the community just as much, if not more, than the base game. With a very diverse cast, such a wide variety of gaming is represented here. Smash is no longer just a crossover fighter for Nintendo, it covers gaming as a whole. While it may have not been able to represent every major player in the gaming industry, what it has managed to represent is extremely impressive. Other fighting games don't quite get the same level of hype that Smash generally does, especially when it comes to the roster. The fact that this game looks like one of those "dream roster" photoshops you always see is nothing short of amazing.
Personally, I don't think there is anywhere else they can go with Smash. It's going to be extremely hard to possibly top this game somehow. This is part of the reason I think that the Smash NX game might be a "complete" version of this one.
Did you enjoy the Smash For hype train?
