Meh. It actually looks like I can pick up the GameCube version and get as much fun. I hope I'm wrong...

IntelSilver

@P4P: I assume you mean melee. Im sure we wont have to worry about balance. And I'm not understandins what you're saying about clones. The moves may look similar, but they work differently. (ie. Sonic can jump during his spin dashes, but Yoshi is confined to solid ground)

Sheetman

so it was t1 connection vs t1 connection and it was only 2 connections going on with 4 players and not 4 connections for 4 players.

...
...
Niiice one nintendo

P4P

@Justice7541: It is not in the same building.

"So, we conducted an online battle between Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto and the development team in Tokyo. The distance between Kyoto and Tokyo...is nearly the same distance between Los Angeles and Las Vegas."

bass.exe21

4 Things
1. Looks like fun
2. Looks like it'll get old fast just like Brawl
3. Looks like all the players play the same...there's maybe truly only 6 or 7 "moves"...and each character does 3 or 4 of them. For instance, Kirby's up move IS mario's up move that just looks different and sonic's ball attack IS yoshi's egg attack, Kirby's done stomp IS Yoshi's etc, etc, etc. Falco is Fox is Wolf is Captain Falcon is Ganandorf....dispite what the producer of the game said about clones. You change one or two minor things...to me...it's still a clone. Dont politic me with the "technical they're not clones" bs. He knows enough what we mean. He knows what we want and i don't think he delivered in that respect.
4. I hope they make the game actually balanced...unlike brawl where speed was the most important part and all the 3 or so Big characters got the shaft no matter how much you practiced with them.

P4P

Hah hah - I like the Sandbag appearing as an item late in the Samus fight.

Yes, I'm excited, blah blah blah... is Kotaku instituting a 'no spoilers on the front page' policy on this game yet? That'd be great, I really don't want to go Kotaku-dark for 6 weeks.

Tonx

That's it, definitely maining Sonic.

WiNGSPANTT

If you guys were disappointed by Snake watch the end of this video.
[www.gametrailers.com]

NotAZombie

I can't imagine why it would lag if they're basically in the same building as each other. Most Wi-Fi lag occurs because of distance, or because one guy has a crappy connection.

What would be nice is if they used a central server rather than ad hoc connections so that if some idiot has a crappy connection (or even decides to lag on purpose so he can win games), he experiences input lag and no one else.

I mean, it works for shooters and MMOs and the like.

Justice7541

For people nay-saying Solid Snake, I submit that the person playing him was no good. Notice how he mostly just shifted through moves, and most of the moves he did weren't really aimed at somebody? The mark of a true beginner.

Anyway, I am dying of impatience waiting for this game. It comes out in just one more week here in Japan, and the fact that I set up a party about a month in advance for THIS weekend with the special intention of playing tons of Smash Bros. makes me a sad panda.

DefenderShip

These levels look too small for Sonic to really use his speed which is why i would use him, for hit and run but there is nowhere to run me thinks bad things will happen to Sonic in the future. Cant wait. Is it here yet? No :( ok... What about now? Or now?

GUNDAM-RX-78-2

Lets see them play on some US Internet connections. Some people in the US have HORRIBLE connections.

I bet that play was on a direct connected t1 line.

xpnet

The first one was the English build. The second one was the Japanese.

Link's down + B move is a bit faster on the withdrawal and he seems to land more slowly. He's much more agile and his bombs can move the items that he hits with them.

Amazing. And this is online?!

blacksamurai87

PROTIP: Kyoto disconnected within 5 seconds.

Tokyo were playing the bots.

Ryumeka

I just watched both of those videos like 10 times each. I'm nearly in tears because it's still over a month away.

Ryadic

And as usual... Sonic gets punked.

dadeisvenm

@Saint Anima (PSN = PoeticMassacre): Kirby? Kirby? KIIIIRRRRBBBYYYY!!!!

blackadvent

What an odd looking game.

Shinamano

@ChadWardenn:
I think he was scared that he would fall into the blast.

Superstar90 lieks mudkipz

Also, obligatory Chad Wardenn comment.
Smash Brother's Brawl? MOAR LIKE SMASH BROTHERS BAWL AMIRITE?

ChadWardenn

Well, in the first video the controls seemed responsive enough that Mario was constantly recovering from being knocked over the edge. That's a good sign.

doomstalk

Looks great. I was hoping Snake would win though...damn Kirby.

Saint Anima (PSN = PoeticMassacre)

I wonder, does the final smash make you invincible? Or just super armor?
If that guy that was behind Samus in the first vid while she was using her FS had a home run bat, could he have knocked her out of it? or at the very least done a bit of damage?
I wonder.

ChadWardenn

Haha, Kirby's final smash was pure gold. However, i wish they put Megaman in, instead of Snake even. I just don't see snake fitting into one of these games.

Mpalm.

@jesp3r:
Its a Shinku Hadoken/Iron Mans Proton Cannon :P

thisisasignin

I wanted to see Captain Olimar play. They should have had only new characters. Like Pit vs Ike vs Sonic vs Snake. And Dedede vs Diddy vs Wario vs Metaknight.

I don't really care to see gameplay from Kirby who seems to play exactly the same as the last game. But apart from that I enjoyed these clips. No lag at that distance. I'm pretty sure I can find thousands of players in Toronto and the sourrounding area.

Superstar90 lieks mudkipz

@jesp3r: The second is from the Japanese version.

Kirby's Final Smash is so win. And did anyone else notice how in the first match, Mario won while Sonic was in last place. Coincidence? I think NOT!

Sheetman

The Lag most likely will be input delay.

Sorwah

Kinda bummed that Zero-Suit Samus got knocked out before we could see any play.

Arloknox

Those were sweet videos. Snake didn't see too great though, maybe its just the person who played .

Kikouken

wow.. nice.

detraya

Kirby's FS can be done on air?! I smell advantage.

Rengenki

That's always a smart strategy... Do Kirby's Final Smash right near the edge of the screen so its inevitable that they fly off. Smart stuff.

Derkomai

btw, why does he say "Time!" in the first video, and "Time up!" in the second?

jesp3r

Forgot to add that I wonder if Ike's Japanese voice is going to be left in for the US version. Unlike Marth and Roy, Ike does have an English VA.

Rebochan

Samus final smash looks so.. overkill. Love it.

jesp3r

Snake unfortunately looks annoying, at best. Kirby's final smash was damn impressive though. :O

Furious_Liver

Holy crap, was that Jaleel White doing Sonic's voice?!

Rebochan

Can't wait for this!

tejstar

What the fuck man? Sonic just can't get no love. Even in SSBB he gets beat down and left in last place. The indignity.

@P4P: dude you can't be this blind. If you don't like SSB, fine, don't play it, don't buy it, don't bother. But the whole point of Smash is not just the combat...it's the characters, how they control and navigating the stages with the crazy background elements, the helps characters, power ups AND watching for what your opponents do. SSB has always been on helluva ride. SSBB looks to be no different. With the cast of characters and unlockables and new power ups, stages/elements...there's a lot to love in that package for the rest of us.

Could someone please answer me this one question and for the love of gaming I pray a Capcom rep reads or gets wind of this...

Am I the only one that wishes that if Cacpom were going to get port happy on Wii (as they obviously are) then where the hell is POWER STONE. There is only one game that is even close to what SSB is and that's Power Stone. Where is it? Why can't Wii owners get a new power Stone with Wifi support and achievements. New power ups, characters, stages...the works. I swear, I like Capcom most of the time but sometimes I really believe they can are as stupid as Sega when it comes to no brainer decisions and missed opportunities.

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

Hearing Mario say "WOOHOO!" for an hour would drive me mad. The shifting backdrops would likely give me vertigo and the constant flashing and VFx chaos would set off an epileptic seizure.

In short, I'm getting too old for this shit.

Immutablyme

@P4P: Right. Because online competitions and co-op, spectator modes, new collectibles, map creation and replay saving and trading, were all of course on the 64 version of the game too.

The core gameplay? Might look unchanged, but what were you expecting? Slapping on a coat of graphical paint, adding more bells and whistles, and fine tuning what was already out there is what the gaming industry is built on, like it or not.

ampillion : Will comment for money.

@P4P: As smitty above me said, you can make that very arguement about any sequel. I really wont know till I play the game myself, but so far, based of what I've seen and read, it's shaping up to be a more balanced fighter than melee was. Plus, the level creator, online, and new single player should add alot to it.

And are you telling me Game and Watch played the same as.....well anyone?! That's....strange.

Sheetman

@IntelSilver: And you can make that argument for every sequel ever made...

smitty1123

@IntelSilver: i fear the same to be honest..and i to hope i am wrong.

maiky-nisute

I can just imagine a conversation between the two offices:
"Who was playing Mario? He was doing pretty good."
"Nobody was playing Mario. We played Pokemon Trainer and Jigglypuff."
"What?!"

Rockstar Ghede

@Sheetman
Yeah man i meant melee, sorry.
Oh yeah, sonic's attack and yoshi's is totally different. My bad. lol.

And i'm sure you think mario, luigi, dr. mario, Mr. Game and Watch, Mewtwo, Link, etc (all mid-sized characters), all played differently...

If they didn't change anything (and obviously you can see here that they didn't)...then wow to them and wow to people that are really THAT excited about this. It looks good, don't get me wrong, but i agree with intelsilver...just go play melee again. They ran out of ideas after the n64 version.

P4P

Old skool Starfox music ftw!

Neutral_Fanboy

Bluur, you avoid his smash by not letting him get the little smash icon thing or by turning that item off. Customization is part of smash bros., I wonder what items I will have to turn off as well. When we were seriously trying to see who was better, we turned off all the items and played on Final Destination.

TDub301

@ChadWardenn:

I think most final smahses make you invincible. For example Snake's actually takes him off the playing field, Fox gets in a tank, etc.

Bluur

Intelsilver, you are wrong.

P4P, take your trolling elsewhere. There is a whole site dedicated to giving us info about this game(not hard to find). This site is filled with new ideas that were not on the previous installments. What you said is a waste of time to read and I'm wasting time right now responding to it.

If Ridley isn't in this game, I will be showing up on Sakurai's doorstep with a sack of nickels...

TDub301

I'm a little bit worried about this game.

Like, how the hell are you supposed to avoid Kirby's final smash?!?

Character balance is a big concern.

I'm also wondering how many items I'm going to have to turn off to make this game more fair.

In Melee we just turned off health items, (except for food,) the Hammer, and the invincibility star and invisibility.

Bluur

The voiceover man's voice isn't as good as in Melee or SSB original.

crawl_to_china

On the average Japan has 40mbit lines, on the average in america? 1mb.

gl with the no lag.

clayfu

Actually, it isn't Sora, Ltd. playing. It's never been specified their involvement with the project (if any). And from the sounds of it, while a lot of Game Arts staff has been "borrowed" for developing this game, they aren't the only ones working on it.

That being said... Seeing stuff like this makes me anticipate the game even more... [sigh]

BPM III: 3rd Strike

This actually makes me want a proper StarFox sequel... well, moreso than I already did.

PatMan33

LOOKS BEAUTIFUL!!! lol maan i got to stop watching these vids i just cant wait another month when it suppose to be in my hands already by now ) =

MedelliaObscured

Fuck yes, this looks awesome.. I'm more impressed that I've finally seen a video in which the people who are playing actually, well, know how to play the damn game. Mario was recovering pretty damn well there with his forward+B cape maneuveur (despite how limited the horizontal movement is).

@P4P:
And whoever says this is the same thing as Melee is completely WRONG. Obviously you don't understand the underlying more in-depth mechanics to the game. Melee had wavedashing, dash dancing, and L-cancelling. Due to the way that Brawl uses jumps and dodging now, wave dashing is completely obliterated--something's that's been irking Melee fans as wavedashing was an essential skill for professional tourneys. I heard there's a way to L-cancel but it's different than it is in Melee. Plus, the dodge mechanic is revamped for Brawl too. Dodging in the air now dodges in the direction you were jumping (and depending on the momentum you're at, the dodge will go farther). Also, after an air dodge, you can either attack or jump--something that wasn't possible in Melee. And, lastly, the game is supposedly a bit more floatier--obviously to help with the air game and combo mechanics. The people who say the game is the same as Melee never played Melee hardcore as some people do--most of the people who bash Melee for being an incompetent fighter don't know how deep the system is in reality; there's a lot more underneath Smash Brothers in terms of strategy and skill than a lot of other fighters present out there in the market.

September

@Rebochan: While that would be ten kinds of awesome, I'm sure we aren't THAT damn lucky.

MakoAoyama

The week following March 9th, I'll be growing a beard, eating only whatever is in arms reach and not leaving the area surrounding my tv set. It's official.

thischarmingman

@Shevek: Yeah, chaos is fun! When I die in Smash Bros, I sometimes get to laugh at the hilarious circumstances that led to my unlikely death!

I'm just sayin'... you know... I don't laugh that often at Tekken or Virtua Fighter. And it never happens in Street Fighter, unless I'm playing as/beaten by Dan Hibiki.

Oh, okay, yeah, I guess I laugh quite a bit while playing Guilty Gear. Dr. Faust rules!

Tonx

For people wanting more gameplay footage, there is a 5 min video showing off a variety of battles that can be found here. Why do I get a feeling that there are going to be people that turn the voices into Japanese just for Sonic's voice?

Sonden

What a horrible waist of an update fo Smash Bros Dojo...
I'ts like saying "The game, WORKS!..."
well, at least kotaku provides an extra video...

MajorWedgie

So Kirby's FS pulls people in, eh? Hax!

Infradead

@bloog:

I think you can say that, or something like that about a lot of games ("Bioshock is just an FPS underwater", for example). :)

Smash Bros. is great fun. The chaos is the best part! If you haven't played it, I'd say give it a try. If you have and didn't like it, so it goes.

Shevek

@Tcata: Then I challenge you to a duel, good sir!
@bloog: It's random, chaotic, and small alright. (I'm assuming you mean 'small' as in "In fighting games, the the majority of the screen should be fighting characters, not background").

As for what people see in the series? Other than the character/inside reference roster? (That would be the bulk of what they are advertising.) Having played it, though, I'd add a high amount of polish, a good sense of self-depricating humour, a battle system that is original, and a surprisingly deep system of mechanics. It's also based in competitive play over single-player play, which instantly adds to the long-term appeal for a lot of people.

For me? It's like the Street Fighter II explosion at the arcade. That game was the best of the genre even years later, and competitive play made it last for years after that.

Tonx

Those are pretty interesting videos. The first Mario player seemed to be pretty good at the game, and had a few nice recoveries. This game really needs to come out already. You know, unless they're adding a few new characters... and bringing back Marth.

Anemone

@Tonx: I will totally be that guy. In fact, I'd be throwing the boomerang at the people in the blast to pull them closer.

Tcata

2 high speed corporate connections in a heavily networked Japanese internet infrastructure, and there's little lag?
Say it ain't so!

Tcata

Man, the guy playing Link was a total ass - he stood behind Samus as she fired her mega-cannon or whatever it is, posed while everyone else got the tar beat out of them, then loaded up a smash attack to bust Samus off the stage when she was done. I would totally go after that guy!

Tonx

This is kind of a trollish comment, but I will never understand what people see in this series (other than having loads of famous characters).
It's so random, chaotic, and... small.

bloog

Turn off all items :P That's the best way, lol. At least me and my friends refrain from playing with items (because all of them offer a serious advantage in some way, form, or shape) and it tests solely our skills rather than our item throwing/usage abilities. We play with them on once in a while for kicks though. Fun smacking someone over and over with a fan lol.

September

As far as I'm concerned, No items only on final destination is about as similar to the actual game as Grifball is to a normal Halo 3 game.

Bluur

@DCSimian:

Tell that to sports fans.

Bluur

Items vs. no items, final destination vs. everything else, wave dashing vs. no wave dashing...bottom line, play as you want and have fun...that's the whole point of the game. You know...fun.

DCSimian

@September:

and I'm going to stand my ground. I'm not saying the reflector or cape don't have uses outside reflecting items. That's just ignorant. However that is one of their major uses.

On top of that, using items well, (grabbing them with air dodge, z grabbing them while running by,) is part of the game and they are useful skills. Not having any items on is like playing without part of the game. It's like playing Street Fighter without ever using special moves, or playing Soul Caliber with no ring outs.

Also arguing that low tier characters don't matter is a moot point, they're still in the game and can still be used, so they should be taken into consideration.

I'm also not arguing that any characters aren't threats with items off , I'm saying you aren't doing justice to the characters. Marios cape was made for reflecting items,and Fox's reflect, despite how redonkey-lous it is as a normal move, was made for reflecting items and projectiles.

Having items on also balances some of the characters that don't use projectiles, such as Marth and Sheik, who are dynamite up close but don't have a special move response to getting a bomb thrown at their face.

Bluur

@Bluur:

I'm sorry but I find this really false... Turning items off is the best way for a fair match. Look at the professional tournaments; there are no items for a reason. Besides characters that are crippled without items are crippled with them on--Bowser, Pichu, Game and Watch, others are considered LOW tier characters in the world of Melee because they're already weak to begin with.

FOX is most definitely NOT consequenced by losing items--he's considered a high tier character in Melee and packs serious amounts of whoopass. That reflective shield? STILL used even without items on; you know why? It's the fastest move in the game 1/60th of a frame is how much it takes for the move to be activated. Have you seen people get shined blinded and knocked off the edge? It's an effective tactic with or without items. Mario's cape reflection? Also used to get back on good ol' ground if knocked off the edge--it provides horizontal distance to get closer.

I've played tons of games with items off and I'll tell you that most of the characters still put up a fight as long as you're competent and know how to use that character well. Ganandorf with wavedashing is a threat.. heck even Ice Climbers can give you a beating if you know how to desync the Nana and use the grab combo.

September

@Tonx:

Avoiding a final smash and then retaliating is just common sense.

Bluur

Well, what do you know? Good old Jason Griffith managing to place his mediocrity in THIS game too.

GuardianEarth128

@TDub301:

The problem with turning off all the items is that it criples certain characters. Fox, Mario, anyone with a reflect becomes less effective, and Mr. Game and Watch can make food, so you're crippling him as well.

Really you're unbalancing the game at that point.

Preventing Kirby from getting the icon shouldn't be the only way to avoid a soupy fate, that's just stupid. After all, if it lands right next to him then you have no chance to avoid a needless death.

Bluur

Hadn't thought about how lag might be an issue. That scares me a tad. Then again, it'll be an awesome game either way...but online battles are a big fatty gob of thick icing on the cake.

ultimatepancakesensation

I like that the post carnage screen (sorry, Halo's effectively made that phrase a permanent part of my vocabulary) looks like the original Smash Bros.'s screen. It's like some kind of old school charm.

Archem

I don't know how a match between Tokyo and Kyoto is supposed to show us how the online play don't lag, since it's pretty close ! Throw me a match between L.A. and Montreal and I'll be impressed !

Shteve

Actual gameplay of Snake and Ike? This is a great week.

Dudemeister

I don't know how I feel about this. Hopefully we will see more stages that aren't just non interactive movies.

And the announcer sounds annoying now. Maybe the pitch of his voice is wromg?

Netnavi

@NotAZombie: HOLY... 3/9/08: my life will be complete.

equin0x

@Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.: Power Stone was for sure the SSB of the Dreamcast.

Dr.Chocobo

NEW UPDATE ON SMASH BROS. DOJO!!!!
Well we were testing brawl to see if there are any lag time during wifi play, even if one team was in Kyoto and the other was in Tokyo and we came to the conclusion that...
NO!!!!
The game runs smooth like butter.
So here's a video of us playing it while you just sit there and watch.
enjoy
-Masahiro Sakurai (Sora Ltd.) -

zagan

@Kazidoom:

If Player A can't win against Player B because of an Item then Player A wasn't that good to begin with. If you challenged the best Smash Bros. players and told them they can't use items but you could, trust me, you'd still get your ass handed to you. Items are a part of the game, if you can't use them effectively or are automatically hindered by other people using them then you are not utilizing the game's elements to the max.

NeoAkira

@Kazidoom:

If you're so good you should learn how to avoid most of the items and use them better than the other player. Short of the healing items, nothing can't be avoided in Smash.

Remembering where people lay mines, hitting players so they drop thier own bomb-ombs, NOT charging the super shot because you know Mario will just jump in front and cape it, items take skill.

Bluur

@Shteve:

Exactly. I mean, I can understand turning hearts off. My friends and I probably turn off about 5 items. If I were in charge of the tourneys, I'd let every player select 2-3 items they don't want on. After that it's fend for yourself.

On a seperate note, anyone here get the 4,999 message in Melee? Basically if you played that many games a message would tell you that you just paid 1 cent per game.

We got it on two copies of the game in college 0_0. It's really all we played.

Bluur

@Shteve: Player A is good at the game. Player B is bad. Player A has a crap item next to him in a match. Player B gets a great item. Player B wins. That's just part of the game. However, if you were betting $10000 on that match I'm not sure you'd see it that way. Leaving the outcome of the game to luck is fun with friends but just isn't practical for serious players.

Kazidoom

@Saint Anima (PSN = PoeticMassacre): Yeah the guy who did play as snake seemed pretty.... bad... I mean I certainly hope his character isn't inherently poor..

Saith17(xbl)

@P4P: I think you best shut up your whining until the game comes out, ya? If you think Sonic's spin-dash works the same, deals the same, and delivers the same as Yoshi's Egg Roll, then you're an idiot flat-out.

thereturnoftheufo

@jesp3r: Because one is Japanese and the other is American.

thereturnoftheufo

@September:

I don't see how playing without items shows more your "talent". Items are a big part of the game, taking advantage of them is a skill too. Playing without items is kinda boring, I've made some tournaments with friends and the idea was to have fun, not to find who's the best !

Shteve

I think what a lot of people are overlooking is that Smash Bros. has a wicked variety of ways to play the game. The fact that the "items vs no items, crazy stages vs final destination" argument even exists is testament to a wonderful offering of customization. This all goes into Nintendo's "make a path for anyone to play" policy.

I know a lot of people on this thread play the game WAY too much. To the point, likely, that your casual friends don't even want to play against you. But I'm sure almost all of you had also made special condition stages with tweaked handicap and whatnot that still made that person able, if not willing, to play. Now there are even more ways of handicapping the fight, more items to use or not use, and the ability to MAKE your own stage. If the worst arguments about a game are not "should I play it?" but "how should it be played?", they've done something right.

DefenderShip

@Bluur:
The Smash Ball moves around and takes a bit of damage before anyone gets it, so if it started by Kirby there's a good chance it wouldn't end by him.

Volcan

Meh they delayed it almost a month! There goes my beeday gift.

timeywimey

@Kazidoom:

Items or not, good players tend to win against bad players most of the time ... If a hockey ref give 1 or 2 bad penalties to the montreal canadiens, that doesn't mean they'll lose for sure against the Tampa Bay Lightnings ... So it's not cause the worst player of the two get a star right next to him that he'll win ...

Shteve

@Tonx: Hehe I found that actually quite funny. And besides, thats just common Smash gameplay :P

Jaiden

It was worth watching that video just to see Sonic get Zero lasered like a bitch.

:D

Random J

Does any one know the details on wi-fi play? Like can two people at my house go up against two people from a friends house? Do you need more than one wii?

Dawud