Super Smash Bros. Brawl Daily updates

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 3:48 am

Distant Planet

Pikmin’s protagonist, Captain Olimar, was forced to make an emergency landing on this unexplored planet.

Let’s just call it the Distant Planet for now, shall we?

The flooring in the middle of the stage is made of vines and is very bouncy.

As you play, you’ll see numbered Pellets fall from the Pellet Posies around the stage. Grab one of these and throw it into a nearby Onion to get items.

Here’s a Pellet and an Onion.

Also, this planet experiences frequent torrential downpours. When things get wet, you’ll want to stay away from the hill on the left, as it gets pretty treacherous.

Whoa, that’s some fierce rain right there!

Oh yeah—there are some fierce creatures prowling the area, so watch your step.

You sure it’s safe to stand there?

... ... What am I saying. Of course it’s not safe. Anyhow, take care that you don’t get gobbled up.

Chomp!

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:40 pm

Shiek

Use Zelda’s down special move to transform into Sheik! Once you do so, you’ll have access to a new character completely unique from Zelda.

Sheik doesn’t appear in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but we based her model on a design that was drafted up during the development of that game.

Sheik's Special Moves

Standard Special Move: Needle Storm
Side Special Move: Chain
Up Special Move: Vanish
Down Special Move: Transform
Final Smash: Light Arrow

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:41 am

Piknin & Olimar: Final Smash

<End of Day>

Captain Olimar always makes sure to return to his spaceship before nightfall when he’s out exploring new planets. Why is that?

That’s because nighttime on these planets is absolutely teeming with scaaary wild beasts! To avoid an encounter with those creatures, Olimar takes to the safety of space during the night.

So how could we represent this idea in Brawl...?

First things first. Get that Smash Ball!

There’s Olimar’s ship!

Blast off! The ship soars higher and higher into the stratosphere.

Stars fill the sky above.

Wild beasts everywhere! Aaaah!

Characters left behind on the ground take lots and lots of damage.

But dishing out damage alone won’t score you points. The more people in the brawl, the more damage you can expect this attack to do, but beware—another opponent may steal the KO you’ve worked so hard to set up.

In a one-on-one match, this Final Smash won’t deal as much damage, but hey, there’s no worry that someone else will steal your KO, either.

I guess you could call this balancing the gameplay, huh?

The ship comes crashing back to the battlefield
with a huge explosion! Maybe, if you’re lucky,
you’ll catch someone in the blast?

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:39 am

Sticker Power-Ups

Your battle against the Subspace Emissary will one of epic fury. Naturally you’re going to want to do everything you can to strengthen each character for the fight ahead.

And that’s where stickers come into the picture!

These should do the trick.

Did you think those stickers were just for collecting?

Well, it seems you thought wrong! The truth is startling, huh?

Each sticker houses a special power up. For example, some up your attack power, others bolster the damage from fire-based attacks, and some even keep you from flying as far when you take a hit.

You can find the details of each sticker’s power-up ability here.

On the Map screen, select the Sticker option to move to the sticker-application screen. You can switch between characters with the L and R Buttons.

Here’s a shot of the underside of a trophy base.

Now slap down one of the sticky stickers you’ve collected.

Generally speaking, the bigger the sticker, the more dramatic the power up.

The more stickers you put on a trophy base, the more powerful that character becomes, but you’ll need to consider your placement and sticker choices carefully as space is limited.

Fill in those bare spots with little stickers...

Leave no space unused!

When two stickers offering a similar power up are placed on a trophy base, only the more potent of the two power ups will take effect.

So, for example, if you had [Leg] Attack +4 and [Leg] Attack +6 stickers on the same trophy base, the added [Leg] Attack bonus wouldn’t be +10—it’d simply be treated as if you’d only put down the +6 sticker.

You should always remember to maintain balance in your sticker selections.

Also, some stickers can only be placed on certain characters. Stickers whose range of usage is limited in this fashion are proportionally stronger when placed appropriately. Do your best to find a good place for each sticker.

If you find placing down stickers yourself too much of a bother, just let the game do it for you by selecting Random.

Once you’re ready, apply all the stickers at once!

You can adjust the position of stickers until you choose to apply them, but you can’t place stickers on top of each other, so you’ll occasionally need to remove old stickers to make space for new ones.

Once you peel off a sticker you applied, you lose it for good! So take care when you lay down your stickers.

Stickers applied to a trophy base take on a gray tint.

Also, for some reason, you’re able to readjust the position of an applied sticker on its trophy base.

So while removed stickers are gone forever, you’ll be getting stickers left and right as you play—you’ll probably find that sticker you lost again. And, if you only use stickers you have doubles of, you’ll never lose one from your collection.

Plus, as I’ve said before, the higher you set the difficulty in The Subspace Emissary, the better your chance of running across rare stickers.

Going back to a previously completed stage and cranking the difficulty up for a second run is a good way to round out your sticker collection.

If you retry a beaten stage, you can adjust the difficulty level.

But if you should die and find yourself at the game-over screen, be prepared to lose half the stickers you collected.

Nooo! What a waste of good stickers!

Finally, remember that stickers are only of use within The Subspace Emissary. Sorry to say, but they’ll be of no use to you in standard brawls.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:39 pm

Zelda: Final Smash

<Light Arrow>

In the final battles of many of the Legend of Zelda games, you didn’t want to be low on arrows. A lot of times they were Silver Arrows, though...

Zelda’s ace in the hole is the magical Light Arrow, which you can use even as Sheik.

Ready for the Final Smash!

Draw the bow tight...

Fire! A beam of light pierces your enemy.

Your enemy is blown away by a tremendous force!

When you’re using Sheik, some of the characteristics of the attack will change, like the direction your opponent gets knocked in.

It’s good to use the character whose attack is best suited to the cover on each stage, but you probably shouldn’t worry TOO much about that.

After all, once they’re hit, they’re pretty much done for.

If you’re just playing one-on-one though, the Light Arrow might be easy to dodge. Try to create a situation where you have a good shot.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:49 pm

Iwata Asks

There’s a web page nestled within Nintendo’s official site where Mr. Iwata, President of Nintendo Co. Ltd., interviews other Nintendo employees. This corner of the website is known as "Iwata Asks."

For some reason, I, Masahiro Sakurai, was invited to one of these interviews.

Wha--?

But I’m not a Nintendo employee! I-is this OK? Are we seriously doing this? Oh, is that so? All right, well, if you insist!

I imagine this interview should give you a tiny glimpse behind the curtains to see what creating Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been like.

Go on and click the link below to check it out!

Wii.com Iwata Asks <Super Smash Bros. Brawl>

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:54 pm

Manaphy

It’s Manaphy! This Pokémon also appeared in a movie.

This Manaphy is quite different from the other Pokémon that appear in this game. So much so that you’ll think, is this even possible?! Or words to that effect.

It appears from the Poké Ball!

Heart Swaaaaaaaaap!

.........

Nothing happened...? No. That is not so.

Why, Zelda and DK have switched bodies! Wait... You mean, I’m her, and she’s me?!

AAAUUUGGGHHH!

You have to fight as your opponent for a while! They say it’s good to know your enemy.

But you haven’t really swapped places, so if you jump off the edge, it counts as a self-destruct for you. And your damage meter remains as it was.

After a certain amount of time, you go back to normal.
Phew. Good.

Things always seem to end well in this game, don’t they?

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:03 am

Mushroomy Kingdom

Ah, the Mushroom Kingdom. Most Smash players recognize this place from previous games in the series, where the world was represented in a pixel-art style reminiscent of the original Super Mario Bros.

But why the "y" on the end of "Mushroom"? What’s the difference?

Oh, so that’s why!

This time around, we’ve designed a stage that recreates the layout of World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros.—but with rich backgrounds added to the mix.

The stage scrolls forward at a leisurely pace.

Pieces of familiar scenery scroll by.

The kingdom you once knew has turned to ruins over the long years, and it is now your battlefield.

You’ll get to enjoy a wide range of familiar structures. Also, since the stage slowly scrolls sideways, battles here will require you to come up with a very different strategy for winning.

Oh, and when you select this stage it will occasionally load an alternate underground stage.

This is the famous World 1-2. This one’s also quite charming.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:11 am

Super Mario Bros.: Ground Theme

Click on Link below to download:
"Super Mario Bros.: Ground Theme" ( 1:18 )

Composition Supervisor: Koji Kondo
Arrangement Supervisor: Koji Kondo

The Mushroomy Kingdom stage sports the most famous stage design in all of gaming.

And the world famous Mr. Koji Kondo, creator of the music for Super Mario Bros., has kindly done us the service of arranging this theme for the stage!

The original overworld theme in Super Mario Bros. had a certain, almost Latin flavor to it, but this time the theme features a piano arrangement that really goes along well with the atmosphere of Mushroomy Kingdom.

It’s just wonderful.

Mr. Kondo, thank you for your help!

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:59 pm

Test Battle: Tokyo vs. Kyoto

While it’s true you can battle over Wi-Fi, your connection environment and the distance between players can cause great changes in speed. That fact probably makes you a little uneasy.

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.

Here’s the video of that match.

http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/gamemode/wi-fi/wi-fi06.html

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:16 am

Masterpieces

Well, what do we have here...

Yes, that’s Super Mario Bros.

Several memorable characters compete for brawl supremacy—that’s Super Smash Brothers Brawl in a nutshell.

But what about the past fights for each of those characters? What were they like?

It may sound impossible, but you can experience those battles in Brawl as well!

That’s right, for the first time ever, you can play trial versions of these games by the miracle of Virtual Console!

That’s what Masterpieces is! Here you can relive the greatest battles of the biggest star characters through demo versions of their games.

Here are some of the titles you can expect to see available in Brawl. Crazy, isn’t it?!

Ice Climber
(1985, NES)

Super Mario Bros.
(1985, NES)

The Legend of Zelda
(1987, NES)

Kid Icarus
(1987, NES)

Kirby’s Adventure
(1993, NES)

Super Metroid
(1994,Super NES)

Star Fox 64
(1997, Nintendo 64)

Whoaaa. Makes my head spin just seeing all those. You won’t need to be connected with Nintendo WFC to play these games.

Just remember, there are some NES classics in there as demos, so expect some of the time limits on those games to be so short that all you can do is laugh at how hard they are.

I’m almost...to the top!

Ahaha! Oh man, out of time already?!

That’s what a good demo is all about. It gives you just enough to let you appreciate the game. Plus it’s a lot of fun to see just how far you can go before the little time that you have runs out.

If you take a liking to one of the trial versions, you can always buy the full game through the Shop Channel! You might even find a couple titles that divert your attention from Brawl for a while.

Some titles come with save data.

But hmm, it seems there are still titles hiding in the Masterpieces section.

Titles?! What games don’t I know about?! That discovery is part of the fun, isn’t it?

Masterpieces are called masterpieces for good reason, and each of the well loved characters here come from a past that is worthy of that title.

To end, I’d like to take this opportunity to send my thanks to all the game creators and affiliated parties who helped in making this possible.

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:04 pm

Vault

The top menu contains six different modes, but I’ve decided to introduce the finer points of each mode one by one.

Here’s the top menu.

Let’s do a rough overview of the mode known as the Vault.

The Vault is where items you’ve collected or created in Brawl are stored. Objects you’ve received as rewards or downloaded usually appear here.

This is the Vault menu!

Trophies & Stickers

●Trophy Gallery

Browse your collection of trophies here.

●Trophy Hoard

Line up your trophies and take photos of them.

●Sticker Album

View all of your stickers laid out neatly in an album.

●Sticker Center

Enjoy arranging your stickers.

●Coin Launcher

Fire off volleys of coins to snag new trophies and stickers!

Stage Builder

You can create all sorts of stages here.

Build stages like this one!

And this one!

If you connect to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, you might find something new waiting for you here.

Album

Check out your best snapshots here.

All the shots you take can be found in the Album!

It looks like you might have a new snapshot waiting as well.

Challenges

Once you’ve received a reward for completing a challenge, check here to see what you need to do to complete other challenges.

Replays

Save up to 3 minutes of game play per replay.

Of course, you can record your brawls...

And your Home-Run Contests!

And your runs in Target Smash!!

And your exploits in Multi-Man Brawl!

The power to record and send out brawl replays is in your hands. You can even zoom in for a close-up on individual characters while viewing replays.

Masterpieces

Savor the "authentic" battles past for many famous characters through Virtual Console trial versions!

Chronicle

This bonus feature lets you peruse Nintendo’s library of past titles. Missing titles in your Chronicle will gradually fill in as you obtain stickers and other things related to those games. (However, there are some titles that will not be displayed until the very end.)

Mm hmm... ...This is just nuts.

How on earth did we squeeze all these modes in here? I’ve clearly gone overboard with Brawl.

But still, it’s not like I want everyone to play through every single portion of the game. I think I’d rather you played small portions of the areas you find interesting a little at a time.

Whether you choose to go solo or play with friends, you’re covered, because Brawl is about playing the way you want to play.

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:17 pm

First Songs in My Music

In Brawl there are many ways to add music to your collection, from picking up CDs to unlocking secret songs. However, the number of tracks you can access from the first time you boot up is also quite impressive!

Therefore, I thought I’d go ahead and post a list of songs available from day one.

First Songs in My Music

Look at all those songs. Look at those big names....

Just think, that big list of songs is going to do nothing but grow as you pick up CDs and unlock additional melodies.

Man, having all this great music in Brawl is such an honor!

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:05 pm

Brawl

Brawl is what some might call the standard mode for the Smash series. There’s quite a bit to do on the character-selection screen, so I’d like to give you a quick rundown of what you can expect to find there!

There’s no need to memorize all this, though. Uh-uh.

Behold, the character-selection screen!

<Choosing a Character>

Move your little hand-shaped cursor around the screen and drop your token on a space of your choosing to select a character.

First you grab it, then you place it down.

<Changing Your Character’s Colors>

Tap your selected character to change his or her outfit.

Now that’s styling!

On this screen, you can also select which character you start a match as when playing Pokémon Trainer or Zelda/Sheik.

Just give the character of your choice a tap and you’re good to go.

For those times when you don’t care who you play, you can let the game decide by placing your token on the Random space. This time, unlike in Melee, you won’t know who you’re going to play as until the match starts.

Today I feel like playing Random.

<Name Entry>

Tap on the area marked with a pencil icon below a player’s selected character to select and enter a name for that player.

You can also register new names right from the character-selection screen.

<Fighting Computer-Controlled (CPU) Players>

Tap on the area marked with a player’s number (ie. Player 1) or name to exclude that player from the fight or switch that fighter over to a computer-controlled player.

All panels for CPU characters are grey!

You can adjust the difficulty of CPU players by tapping on the area where you’d normally tap to select player names.

This time around, raising the difficulty level for CPU players will put you up against some pretty fierce competition.

<Changing the Rules>

Access the rules menu by tapping on the area with "2-minute KO fest!" written into it.

Tap right here.

Switch the rules to a Stock match and it looks like this.

And here’s where you can adjust item settings.

You can adjust the match length for Time brawls from here as well.

<Setting a Handicap>

If you turn on Handicaps in the rules area, you can set it from the character-selection screen.

This ought to make things a bit more thrilling.

<Team Brawl>

Tap on the area marked Brawl in the upper-left portion of the screen to switch play to Team Battle. The most common form of Team Battle is 2 on 2.

This text...

...changes to this.

Tap on the flag in the upper-left area of the box to change your team assignment.

When everyone has finished making their selections, those famous words "READY TO FIGHT!" will appear on screen. Once you see those words, press the button on your controller that functions as "Start" or tap the words themselves to move to the stage-selection screen.

Here’s that stage-selection screen.

I’m sure you see that icon marked Melee Stages down at the bottom of the screen, don’t you? Tap here to access several Melee stages for your playing pleasure.

I couldn’t quite get every stage into Brawl...

But there’s more! There’s a switch at the bottom here marked Custom Stages. Tap on this to access the custom stages you made in the Stage Builder.

So many situations are possible when you try combining various configurations of characters, stages, items, and individual rule settings. I’m hoping you make full use of these choices and have a lot of fun.

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 3:34 pm

Game Mode Introduction Movie

I’ve introduced quite a number of game modes to you here on the Dojo. However, the sheer number of modes is such that I worry I might have confused some of you with all these explanations.

So I decided to rig up a short movie that showcases each mode. There are so many modes that the video moves at a rather brisk pace, but it lets you absorb everything in one quick shot.

... ...Or it might just confuse you further.

Sorry about that, but there’s just so many modes in here, you know?

Watch the movie here

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 3:43 pm

An Announcement about Future Updates

January 31st, 2008. Super Smash Bros. Brawl has officially gone on sale in Japan. Is everybody having fun with it?

However, Smash won’t come out in North America for a bit and sadly, Europe has an even longer wait until the game releases.

For the past eight months or so, Smash Dojo has served as a source of basic information for the game, but with the release of Brawl, the Dojo will take on a new role.

From here on out, the Dojo will begin to introduce the hidden characters, hidden stages, and additional features in Brawl that have gone unmentioned until now. I’d like to continue to add on to the Dojo so that players of Brawl can come back to this website following it’s completion and view Smash Dojo as a sort of guide for the game.

I plan on continuing updates for another two months, so please continue to enjoy the site.

Just remember, I’ll be posting information on hidden characters and other in-game secrets, so you should take caution when viewing the site if you want to save those surprises for later.

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:35 pm

Ness

Despite being a hidden character, Ness pops up briefly in the opening movie.

As this is Ness’s third appearance in a Smash game, I imagine he’s quite the veteran fighter at this point. Maybe he’s even used to this by now.

• Play five matches in Brawl
• Reflect 10 projectiles
• Get Ness to join your party in The Subspace Emissary
• With the exception of the last of the three methods listed above, you’ll need to face Ness in a brawl and beat him after satisfying the above conditions to unlock him.

Ness's Special Moves
Standard Special Move: PK Flash
Side Special Move: PK Fire
Up Special Move: PK Thunder
Down Special Move: PSI Magnet
Final Smash: PK Starstorm

Tips

Let’s take PK Thunder, a move which both Lucas and Ness can perform. Sure, the move may look similar, but there are quite a few differences between these two versions of the move.

Lucas’s PK Thunder passes through enemies. Ness’s does not.

Lucas’s PK Thunder is easier to control and can turn in a tighter circle. Ness’s, by contrast, needs more space to turn around but moves at a greater speed.

When propelled into an opponent by his own PK Thunder, Lucas scores multiple small hits. Ness smashes the opponent with a single hit that sends the opponent flying!

Of course, the moves that look different also work differently as well.

Ness’s side smash is a bat that requires a lot of start up time to get swinging but really hits hard.

Only Ness uses a yo-yo for his up and down smashes.

His PK Fire bursts into a column of flame that can score multiple hits!

Ness’s PK Starstorm causes blue stars to rain down and out in a wide fan-shaped pattern.

You’ll need to log lots of time with him and really know his moves to really put him to good use, I bet.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 1:57 pm

Port Town: Aero Dive

Port Town Aero Dive is the huge track that appears in F-Zero GX/AX.

The main platform for this stage zooms along the track, stopping randomly in several locations, each of which has its own unique terrain.

You start here.

Hop on the platform as it whizzes around the track.

The platform will randomly stop off in one of many locations.

Since this is a rather daring course, the configuration of the terrain in each location within it is appropriately treacherous. Expect lots of steep slopes and ups and downs.

We’ve even included that famous stepped portion of the track.

Th-there’s a wall in the middle of the course?!

Sometimes the platform will even separate completely from the track. When it does, you’re in store for some really great views of the course.

The track looks so 3-D from up here.

Boy, all this talk of angles and curves gets me in the mood to watch a neck-and-neck race. Guess I’ll have to settle for a lightning-fast round of Smash.

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 2:39 pm

Final Destination

There’s always one of these, huh? This is the simplest stage.

It’s completely flat—no surprises here!

As for the terrain, there’s just a flat platform and nothing else. There’s not much to talk about either, so let’s just look at the flow of the lovely scenery.

A galaxy drifts lazily by...

You start to enter a wormhole-like thingy...

Then the wormhole disappears and suddenly...

...There’s a beautiful starry sky.

Just as you think it’s getting dark, there’s a single glint of light.

Looks like the interstellar clouds start to swirl about.

Then, a lovely ocean view!

Actually, this place is kind of a continuation of the opening sequence...

Gradually everything starts to tilt...

...It’s all upside-down, and keeps on turning...

...And then somehow it returns to the beginning.

In Final Destination, the characters, who have been battling in more imaginary worlds, come closest to a real-world setting.

That’s the reason why you feel like you begin far away and, bit by bit, arrive at a realistic world.

The boss Master Hand can also be found on this level.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:48 pm

Assist Trophies

Even after Super Smash Bros. Brawl goes public, there’ll be a bunch of Assist Trophies that haven’t been introduced yet.

I don’t want you to get confused and ask, "What the heck is THAT?" So I’ve gotten these together and made a guide for you!

<Metroid>

Like the name says, this Assist Trophy is from the game Metroid. It’s an artificial life-form that absorbs all kinds of energy.

In our game, it also attaches to the head and starts to drain its victim. Since it will increase your damage, try to shake it loose.

No! Stop! Get off my head!

<Tingle>

Tingle’s appeared in quite a few games, most recently as you see him here in "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker." This self-styled fairy is 35 years old and still single!

He calls up all sorts of effects at random.

"Tingle! Tingle! Kooloo-limpah!"

<Kat & Ana>

These girls appear in the WarioWare series. They’re twin ninja kindergartners! And when you put their names together, it spells "Katana."

They have a brilliant dance combination that can cut people to pieces!

Run away! Run away! But...there’s nowhere to run!

<Jeff>

Dr. Andonuts’s son. In EarthBound, he uses his supersmarts to create lots of inventions.

In our game, he uses the Multi-Bottle Rocket 5. He can launch four mini-rockets and one mega-rocket.

Guided missiles... Lovely.

<Helirin>

The Helirin is from Kuru Kuru Kururin. It’s a flying machine with long rotor blades that slowly rotate.

But it doesn’t really carry out attacks. It becomes part of the terrain, so you can ride on it. Sometimes it even gets in the way!

An unforeseen accident!

<Jill & Drill Dozer>

Jill is the daughter of the boss of the bandit gang known as The Red Dozers. She rides the Drill Dozer, and she means business.

Her weapon is a giant drill, of course! The drill and nothing but the drill! She never thinks of retreating, it seems.

Man, I’m even afraid of dentist drills...

<Nintendogs>

These guys appear in Nintendogs, of course. They play kind of close to the screen, but let’s just indulge them, OK?

This Nintendog is a Labrador retriever. Labradors are really popular all over the world.

They wait for things to get really heated, then they come and tease you.

<Lakitu>

The famous character Lakitu appears in 2-D. He’s from the Super Mario Bros. series.

Lakitu drops spiked eggs, which then hatch into Spinies. They’re kind of like spiky turtles. Those spikes sure look like they hurt...

I’m always happy when he comes out in a Multi-Man Brawl.

<Hammer Bro>

These guys are also from Super Mario Bros. They’re pretty tough, so they tend to make a "big impact" on players.

They throw their hammers in big arcs, and also appear in The Subspace Emissary as enemy characters.

Heave-ho—ouch!

Even if you get an Assist Trophy, it won’t come out until you hoist it over your head while on the ground. But once you do, it really changes the course of the fight!