NintenDolts - Nintendo Video Archive: March 2008

I don't like the Final Smashes. Some are just too powerful.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl

Although I love Brawl, I don't think it had as big of a splash as Melee.

They only added like 16 characters to Brawl, but they took away 5 and replaced them with similar new characters (Pichu became Pokemon Trainer, Mewtwo became Lucario, Dr. Mario became Wario, Roy became Ike, and Young Link became Toon Link). So that's only 11 additional characters. Plus they added Lucas who's very similar to Ness, Diddy's like DK, Wolf is very similar to Fox, and Zero Suit is Samus. So I say they only added 7: ROB, Pit, Olimar, Snake, Sonic, Meta Knight, and Dedede.

Of these characters, I'd really only have asked for Pit, Olimar, and Dedede. (The others I'd ask for are below.)

If Brawl only added 7 additional/unique characters, with 16 new characters total, how many did Melee have?

Super Smash Brothers Melee

14 New Characters: Bowser, Dr. Mario, Falco, Ganondorf, Ice Climbers, Marth, Mewtwo, Mr. Game & Watch, Peach, Pichu, Roy, Sheik, Young Link, and Zelda.

8 Additional/Unique Characters: Bowser, Ganondorf, Ice Climbers, Marth, Mewtwo, Mr. Game & Watch, Peach, and Zelda.

So while Brawl innovated in many areas (online, one player, and expanded levels and items), they didn't blow me away with the new characters. The amount of new characters added was a little less impressive than the amount of new characters added to Melee.

Here's who I would have liked to see in Super Smash Brothers Brawl (I know some are trophies or bosses, but that isn't the same)...

24 Additional Unique Nintendo Characters: Captain N (cartoon), Nester (Nester's Funky Bowling and Pilotwings 64), Little Mac (Punch Out), the Ice Hockey trio (Ice Hockey, NES), Mike Jones (Startropics, NES), Isaac (Golden Sun), Balloon Fighter (Balloon Fight, NES), Stanley the Bugman (Donkey Kong 3, Arcade), Lolo (Adv of Lolo, NES), Dr. Wright (Sim City, SNES), Doshin the Giant, Custom Robo - Ray, Ridley (Metroid), Hammer Bros. (SMB 1), Lakitu (SMB 1), Wart (SMB 2), Zoda (Startropics), King K. Rool (DKC, SNES), Tatanga (SML, Gameboy), Eggplant Wizard (Kid Icarus), King Hippo, Andross (Star Fox), Ganon (original Zelda), and Mother Brain (Captain N version).

DISCLAIMER: I know it's painful. And I know they wouldn't be able to add them all at once. However, they seem to have run out of innovation and vision in this area, and it seems to be a shame. They just need a little imagination to make the moves different in order to make sure the game is still fun, even with 50 or so characters.

Part of the joy of playing the first two Smash Brothers was discovering the obscure Nintendo characters you haven't heard of and then playing as them. That's pretty much just Pit and ROB, this time around.

As far as other non-Nintendo characters go, I think they should go all-in, or all-out. I know the creators of Snake and Sonic asked for them to be in the game, but if the Nintendo legends asked these companies to include their characters, they'd say yes. I mean Capcom (creators of Mega Man) has already been making games for Nintendo. All the rest have similarly close relationships. They'd just start with the strongest relationships, and then show the growing roster to all the other companies as they get outside to characters like Crash and Spyro (who are also on Nintendo systems now).

I'd actually divide these up into three games: Nintendo only, mascots only (cuter platformers), and action/adventure games only (usually the taller characters who carry weapons). So there'd be some overlap between the Nintendo only version and the other two.

Here are the 24 new Nintendo characters I'd like to see...

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Captain N (80s cartoon series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_N

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Nester (Nester's Funky Bowling, VB, and Pilotwings 64, N64)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nester

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Little Mac (Punch Out series, 2 arcade games, NES, SNES)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Punch-Out%21%21_boxers#Little_Mac

I really like his new design in Smash Brothers Brawl. He's an assist trophy.

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Ice Hockey Trio (Ice Hockey, NES)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Hockey_%28video_game%29

The Ice Hockey trio were a large man, a skinny man, and a man of an average build...

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Mike Jones (Startropics) (2 Startropics games, NES)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Jones_%28StarTropics%29

The first game was popular enough for a sequel, but they made the mistake of releasing the sequel on the NES after everyone had switched over to the Super Nintendo. I believe that's the only reason why this series died.

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Isaac (Golden Sun series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_Golden_Sun#Isaac

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Sun

Isaac's assist trophy in SSB Brawl:

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Balloon Fighter (Balloon Fight, NES)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_Fighter

How can you not include him with a name like "Fighter?"

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Stanley the Bugman (DK3, Arcade)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_the_Bugman

I didn't really like his design in Super Smash Brothers Melee...

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Lolo (Adventures of Lolo and Eggerland, A long-running series on the NES and earlier platforms)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Lolo

While Lolo was never published by Nintendo, Nintendo now owns the creators, HAL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_Laboratory

HAL is also the creator of Kirby, Earthbound/Mother, Dr. Wright (Sim City 64), and the Super Smash Brothers series.

"Lolo and Lala, the games' protagonists, have appeared in the Kirby games under the monikers Lololo and Lalala, where they play a more antagonistic role. Both game series are made by HAL Laboratory, Inc."

More:
http://kirby.classicgaming.gamespy.com/info/cameos/lola.html

Kirby's Dreamland:

Kirby's Avalanche:

Kirby Superstar:

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Dr. Wright (SimCity, SNES, and SimCity 64, Japan's 64DD)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity

As an assist trophy in Brawl (not playable):

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Doshin the Giant (64DD and GC)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doshin_the_Giant

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Custom Robo - Ray (64DD and GC)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custom_Robo

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Ridley (Metroid series)
http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Ridley

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Hammer Bros. (SMB and Super Mario series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goomba#Hammer_Bros.

This is from the Mario cartoon:

As an assist trophy in SSB Brawl:

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Lakitu (SMB and Super Mario series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_Bros.#Lakitu

He's actually an assist trophy in Brawl, but they should have made him in 3D:

From New Super Mario Bros (DS):

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Wart (SMB2, NES)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mario_series_characters#Wart

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Zoda (Startropics 1 & 2, NES)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoda%27s_Revenge:_StarTropics_II

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King K. Rool (DKC 1-3, SNES, and Donkey Kong series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_K_Rool

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Eggplant Wizard (Kid Icarus, NES & GB)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggplant_Wizard#Enemies

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Tatanga (SML, GB)
www.mariowiki.com/Tatanga

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mario_series_characters#Tatanga

Tatanga was introduced in Super Mario Land, which is where Daisy came from.

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King Hippo (Punch Out series, Arcade, NES, SNES)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Hippo#King_Hippo

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Ganon (Legend of Zelda, at least 3 games, NES, SNES)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganon

This is the original pig Ganon. He's unique because he wouldn't play like Ganondorf at all. He'd rely on his magic spells and girth.

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Andross (Star Fox series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_the_StarFox_series#andross

Not the SNES polygon version. I mean as the actual ape character:

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Mother Brain (Metroid series and Captain N cartoon)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_%28series%29#Comics_and_cartoons

This would be of the Captain N version:

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So, yeah, these are older characters (mostly), because that's what they haven't done as well with. They haven't dug into their past as well with this version. Now, they tried to do that with trophies and such, but they didn't do that with playable characters.

SSB 1 had 6 new characters from the 80s: Donkey Kong, Link, Luigi, Mario, Ness (originally Ninten), and Samus.
SSB 1 had 6 new characters from the 90s: Captain Falcon, Fox McCloud, Jigglypuff, Kirby, Pikachu, and Yoshi.
Total characters from new series': 9

SSB 2 (Melee) had 5 new characters from the 80s: Bowser, Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch, Peach, and Zelda.
SSB 2 (Melee) had 7 new characters from the 90s: Dr. Mario, Falco, Ganondorf, Marth, Mewtwo, Sheik, and Young Link.
SSB 2 (Melee) had 2 new characters from the 00s: Pichu and Roy.

SSB 3 (Brawl) had 3 new characters from the 80s: Pit, ROB, and Solid Snake (only Pit is from an actual Nintendo game).
SSB 3 (Brawl) had 7 new characters from the 90s: Diddy Kong, Dedede, Meta Knight, Pokemon Trainer, Sonic the Hedgehog, Wario, and Wolf (only Sonic is from a new series to SSB).
SSB 3 (Brawl) had 6 new characters from the 00s: Ike, Lucario, Lucas, Olimar, Toon Link, and Zero Suit Samus (only Olimar is from a new series).

As you can see, they are concentrating on more recent characters. That's okay, but some of these other 80s games were amazing, and they should introduce their new gamers to these characters for an opportunity to revive some of these great series.

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18 Non-unique Nintendo Characters: Waluigi, Birdo (SMB2), Daisy (SML, GB), Toad (SMB), Pauline (Donkey Kong), Baby Mario, Funky Kong (DKC), Dixie Kong (DKC 2), Krystal (Star Fox), Slippy (SF), 3 Koopalings (Lemmy Koopa, Wendy Koopa, & Morton Koopa, from SMB3 and SMW), and 5 more F-Zero racers (Samurai Goroh, Mr. EAD, Black Shadow, Gomar & Shioh, Bio Rex).

13 Unique Non-Nintendo Characters: Mega Man, Q*Bert, Pac-Man, Simon Belmont, Crash Bandicoot, Frogger, Spyro, Ninja Gaiden, Pitfall Harry, Contra dudes, Cloud on a Chocobo (Final Fantasy), Mog the Moogle (Final Fantasy), Blue Slime (Dragon Warrior), Paperboy, and Lara Croft.

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Now my thoughts on two of the only three characters they added that I would have wanted in Brawl...

Pit

I love Pit. I think they did a great job redesigning him. I was a little worried, because I hated the 3D design they gave him for his trophy in SSB: Melee.

But they made him very cool like adult Link. I think they should make a Zelda-like Kid Icarus game. It would rock!

I'm glad they didn't use his Captain N design:

Or his previous game designs:

From SSB Melee:

The fans are dreaming:

Olimar

I worked on the first GC game of Pikmin as a tester/text editor. I was rooting for Olimar. I was glad to see they added him.

I also submitted a ton of ideas for the sequel to Pikmin, and most of them made it in there. The only ones that didn't were all my online ideas.

Check out our original Zelda and Mike Tyson animations if you get a chance. Thanks!

- The Emperor

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Go here for the updated version of this post:
http://theanimationempire.blogspot.com/2008/03/thoughts-on-super-smash-brothers-brawl.html