A new Nintendo Direct was released live last Thursday. The video showed off more than 50 new things that Super Smash Bros for Wii U has over the 3DS version. And while all of the new additions are great in their own right, I’m going to give you my personal top 10 most interesting, exciting, or downright weird bits of information that the trailer has to offer.
10. New Stages
Tons of new stages have been shown off in the trailer. Most of the stages are bigger and offer more variety in architecture than the 3DS version. One stage based off of Yoshi’s Wooly World, a game that isn’t going to be out until much later after Super Smash Bros. for Wii U’s release, has fighters jumping on a teetering hanging mobile with appropriately fuzzy rocket ships and clouds. Another stage is the Pyrosphere from Metroid: Other M where fighters can have Ridley, a giant wyvern-like alien, join their side and fight opponents alongside the player who claims him. And another is the Donkey Kong Country inspired Jungle Hijinks, which has a foreground and a background that fighters can navigate with barrel cannons.
But the most interesting, as well as the silliest idea for a fighting game stage even for Smash Bros., is the Miiverse Stage. The stage, which will not be ready by the time of the game’s release, is almost identical structurally to the Battlefield stage. But it is unique in that it takes random messages from Nintendo’s online community service and places them in the background for fighters to see. Considering that most Miiverse messages look like this, I’m not sure that this feature is such a good idea.
- New Classic Mode
Traditionally, Classic Mode has the player complete a set path of matches leading up to a final fight with Master Hand. In the 3DS version, players can change up the path they take to complete different challenges with varying difficulties. However, the Wii U takes a Battle Royal approach the concept. The player is instead put on a board with many other fighters. Players must defeat groups of fighters along the board in order to rank the highest and progress to the final fight with Master Hand. Changing the difficulty works just like the 3DS version, where you bet coins to raise the difficulty and earn better prizes. There are also random events like rival opponents and intruding fighters to help spice things up. There is also a co-op mode in case you have a buddy.
- Better Online
Online battles in the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. was plagued by constant lag and slow connection times. Due to the more powerful hardware, the Wii U version looks to have much more functionality. If you can get your hands on a Wii/Wii U LAN adapter, then you can connect it to Ethernet to guarantee even smoother gameplay. Nintendo also plans to implement customizable tourneys after the game’s release.
- More Customization in Regular Matches
Speaking of customization, a ton of variety was added to regular matches in the form of new options. Special smash returns to the series, which means you can set matches with mega, metal, fire breathing bunny characters to your heart’s content. Coin matches, where you try to collect coins on the stage and beat opponents to steal their coins, also returns.
But the most interesting customization option (and one that deserves a 7.5 spot on my list) is the ability to have a match with up to 8 fighters. Having 4 players on screen is chaotic enough, so playing a match with 8 people on screen is going to be quite the experience. You can only choose the larger stages from the selection when having a match with more than 4 people, but this is OK as playing on a small stage will likely lead to frustration. So if you ever wanted to include everyone at your party so you can hate each other as fast as possible, this is the game for you.
- Event Mode
Event Mode has players complete a set of matches with unique rules. You might be fighting the fastest characters in the game or trying to swallow up 6 opponents with Pac-Man’s final smash. I loved Event Mode in Melee and Brawl. So when it was not included in the 3DS version, I was quite a bit disappointed. So I was really excited when they included it in the Wii U version. The challenges are laid out much like a skill tree, where you complete certain challenges to expand a different branch for new ones. You can also list it normally; unlocking new challenges will still function the same way. If you fulfill challenges a certain way, such as doing them with an unlockable character, then you can unlock a different challenge than the one that you were going to unlock normally. There is also an easy, medium, and hard difficulties to each challenge, and the amount of rewards ramp up appropriately.
- Stage Builder
I was also very psyched when they announced the return of stage builder. My sister and I spent hours with the mode in Brawl, both creating stages and playing them. In the Wii U version, instead of placing blocks in a grid format, you can freely draw your terrain on the Wii U gamepad. This allows for more freedom in creating stages than ever before. So if you want to draw phallic shapes that would make even Sigmund Freud blush, be my guest.
- Special Order
Special order is an intriguing new mode to the series and is led by our two favorite pair of hands. The mode is divided into two different types. Master Orders, led by Master Hand, has players spend coins to complete different challenges within regular matches, such as fighting 11 fighters or winning a stamina match with 130 HP. The more expensive a challenge, the better the prizes your get. Crazy orders, led by Crazy Hand, has players pay an entry fee (or use a pass obtained through Classic Mode) and then complete a series of regular matches under an overarching time limit with each match getting progressively harder. If you run out of time or lose a match, then you lose all of your prizes. But if you decide not to fight a regular match and instead beat Crazy Hand, they you get to keep all of your prizes. The Who Wants to be a Millionaire approach of Crazy Orders allows for a much higher degree of high risk/high reward than Master Orders.
- Mewtwo is on the Way
If players purchase both the 3DS and Wii U versions of Super Smash Bros., then they are eligible for a free download of Mewtwo in spring of 2015. Otherwise, you need to pay for him. Half of me finds this to be a bit of a shady business practice for Nintendo, but the other half is excited that another fan favorite is coming to the new versions, especially since he was left out in Brawl. This also opens up the possibility of other fighters returning through new DLC, such as Roy and Snake.
- Amiibo functionality
Nintendo’s own brand of Skylanders and Disney Infinity figures is releasing alongside the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. The figures are able to exchange information through the Gamepad and join you in your game. Once inside your game, you can fight against it and even train it to level up and even adapt to your play style. So if you use a lot of up smashes and ignore items then your Amiibo will do the same. Amiibo characters can also join you in the various co-op modes in smash like Classic mode and the stadium games like Home Run Contest. You can even have your Amiibo characters fight your friend’s Amiibo characters in order to earn more experience. Considering that most people spend too much money on figures already, I think that this will be a much utilized feature.
- Smash Tour
If the phrase “Mario Party meets Smash Bros.” doesn’t make you soil yourself in sheer ecstasy, then I don’t know what will. Smash Tour has players go around a board collecting stat-boosting items just like in Smash Run on the 3DS as well as new fighters to play as in matches. There are also items to help you such as stealing fighters from other characters. Random events also occur, such as a Koffing clouding up the board or a Banzai Bullet Bill blowing up players. After all the checkpoints on the board have been reached, all players compete in a 5 minute long match where the players’ lives are represented by the different fighters they acquire. If a player loses all of their fighters, they’re eliminated. This is not a last man standing type of match, however, but one where players compete to get the most KO’s. Naturally, the player with the most KO’s wins. This looks to be the centerpiece of parties and I can’t wait to play it.