Topic: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - OT

@Mario90125: Sorry! Fixed it!

Only 10 (or 9 depending on your time zone) days left until the Mario Maker stage, with the Ballot closing 3 days later. Still think we're getting a character or two.

Anyways, I think that it's possible to cut it down to a final group of characters that have a chance, that group being: King K Rool, Isaac, Wolf, Rayman, Shantae, Shovel Knight, Bandanna Dee, Inkling, and Dixie Kong.

Can I just say that other than Snake, Pac-man is my new favorite 3rd party character. He's really fun but super complicated, goofy with lots of old-school references.

I've seen really good Pac-man players that just have unbelievable timing. Pac-man seems like he must require tons of practice.

@IceClimbers: I think we'll get some sort of live stream Smash presentation announced very soon. With the Mario Maker stage coming out on the 30th, and the ballot ending just 3 days later, it's bound we're going to get a live video presentation showcasing what it's in the works eventually.

And for the characters I think we're getting from the ballot, I think we'll be getting these 3 characters, and I'll explain why.

Wolf I can't think of a single reason to why Sakurai would not include Wolf. It just wouldn't make any sense for him not to. I'll list some reasons why I think this.

• Wolf is without a doubt the most the popular veteran in the ballot. I'm for certain Sakurai is going to at least add one veteran from the ballot, and that would obviously be Wolf. Wolf being the most voted veteran is just an assumption, but I think a lot of you will agree with that. What other veteran could possibly overtake Wolf in the ballot? Young Link, Pichu, Squirtle, and Ivysaur? Eh, I don't think so. The only other veteran that could come close to overtaking Wolf would be Snake. But Wolf all around just seems more popular than Snake.
• He would be VERY easy to make. Think about it. His body type is similar to Fox, and he's a veteran. Not a whole lot of work would need to be done to try to include him, that's for sure. I'm not saying he wouldn't take work to develop, but definitely a lot less work than trying to work on a newcomer.
• Star Fox Zero is coming up, so I think a clever way to promote the game in Smash is to bring Wolf back. Maybe Sakurai could even use his Star Fox Zero design? I think that would probably be the best way to promote the game.

King K. Rool - As I said with Wolf, I don't see why Sakurai wouldn't add K. Rool in. Honestly, the Mii costume doesn't mean anything at all. And I'm not just saying that because I'm biased to K. Rool. I'll explain why it doesn't really mean much, and I'll also explain why I think he's going to be playable.

• Like I said, the Mii costume probably means nothing. Why? Because we don't know what their intentions were when adding the costume. It could literally mean ANYTHING. They could've added it to test King K. Rool's popularity (like to see how much it would sell), they could've added it to hold the fans over for the real deal, they could've added it to see what the reaction would be, and who knows, Sakurai probably added the costume because he doesn't want him playable. WE DON'T KNOW. So let's stop assuming that it means he's deconfirmed, because the costume could mean anything (see the reasons I listed).
• King K. Rool is without a doubt one of the most requested first-party characters, and one of the most requested characters period in the ballot. No matter what your opinion is on K. Rool, this is more than likely true. Not only that, K. Rool dominates fan polls across the web, big or small. He's always in the top 3 in most of them. So I'd say it's a pretty safe bet to think K. Rool is doing extremely well in the ballot.
• K. Rool's support is international. His support is mainly in America, but he also get a good amount of support in other regions as well, like Europe and Japan. I think international support is something Sakurai would want, and K. Rool perfectly fits the bill.
• K. Rool's fans want him in, and for good reasons. I'm positive that Sakurai and co. are looking at the ballot votes, and taking notes on them. It wouldn't make sense for them not to take down notes, as it helps keep track on why the fans what these characters. So if they are taking down notes, I'm sure K. Rool's notes look something like this "The fans want him in because: they want more DK characters, heavyweights, villains, and they think he would have a unique moveset, like using his blunderbuss for a lot of his attacks." That's like... 4 good reasons why people want K. Rool in the game. I think when Sakurai is choosing a character from the ballot, he is going to choose the characters with the most votes who also (in his eyes) have the best suggestions. King K. Rool more than likely fits that bill.
• The Mii costume out cry probably boosted his chances. Let's say for argument sake that Sakurai included the K. Rool Mii costume because he didn't want him in the game as an actual playable character, but he's aware of his popularity and demand, so he added the Mii Brawler costume for the K. Rool's fans. When the costume got announced, a lot of people got really upset, because they wanted him playable, and not just as some Mii costume. A lot of these people voted/revoted for K. Rool in the ballot stating that they want him actually playable and not just as a costume. If Sakurai's staff are indeed taking down notes, then that means they probably written down that the fans (again) don't want him in as a Mii costume, but as an actual playable character. What would Sakurai's reaction to this be? "I don't want K. Rool playable, but the fans really really want him in. Meh, still not going to add him in." That would be a very unprofessional of a thing to do in my opinion. He would be betraying a ton of fans. In before you say "Sakurai betrayed thousands and upon thousands of Ridley fans. Your point?" The thing with Ridley is that Sakurai has already gone on record stating why he doesn't want Ridley playable. And to be honest, I don't see what Sakurai would have against King K. Rool. Too big? Nope. Too generic/bland? Nope. Too ugly? That's not even a good reason to not include a character. So yeah, I think the Mii costume out cry boosts his chances by a ton.

Whoa, I got a little carried away there. But yeah, those are the main reasons why I think King K. Rool is very likely as a DLC character. I hope I'm not crazy for thinking all of that...

Shovel Knight - To be honest, I only think Shovel Knight is super likely because of Tamaki's rumor. His source that says Shovel Knight is playable has been right MANY times before in the past. So I think that gives this rumor some ground. If it weren't for the rumor, I wouldn't think Shovel Knight was super likely. Anyway, I'll explain why I think he's going to be playable.

• As I said, the rumor makes me think Shovel Knight is extremely likely. This source has leaked many things in the past, and they've all turned out to be true. Some of the things the source has leaked are Skylanders Superchargers, ZombiU coming to other platforms, and a Fallout 4 collection edition thingy. So this Shovel Knight rumor has a lot going for it in my opinion. The rumor states that Shovel Knight is picked from the ballot, and will be announced in 1 - 2 months (this was said in August, so that means he should be announced this month or next month). Say what you want about this rumor, but I wouldn't pass it off entirely.
• Sakurai could've saw Shovel Knight's votes in the ballot and noticed how extremely well he was doing, especially in the Americas, so he deiced to include him. I don't think this is that unlikely, as Shovel Knight was probably on of the most talked about characters when the ballot started.
• He would be easy to include. Yacht Club Games is a relatively small company, plus they really, really want to see Shovel Knight in the game. It could also be possible that Yacht Club Games has approached Sakurai about including Shovel Knight in the game. That seems a bit of a stretch, but who knows, that could be possible... right?
• Yacht Club Games and Nintendo have a good relationship. Nintendo is publishing Shovel Knight in Japan, and Nintendo approved of the Shovel Knight amiibo. I think this partnership could really help Shovel Knight's chances of becoming DLC.

Wow, I didn't think this post was going to be THAT long. But hey, I'm really passionate about this stuff. And no, I'm not going to include a "TL;DR" version. Just skim through the post, or only read the parts you're interested in reading into.

@CapeSmash: No Isaac being detailed out?

Hey NintendoLife'ers, when playing Smash on the Wii U, what do you spend most of your time doing? Online? Offline? Events?

I've been spending most of my time trying to complete the Event list on Normal difficulty. It's great practice to get used to all of the character.

@OneBagTravel: Are you interviewing us?

New fake leaks that look like GameOnion and Nibroc-Rock made. These are the same people who have made the fake Classic Mode, Boss Battles, Dr. Mario stage, and Mario in Splatoon leaks.

http://boards.4chan.org/v/thread/310709542/upcoming-smash-bro...

There's a ton of screenshots, but I'm only going to post a few.

Kudos to them. They did a pretty good job with this one.

Possible leak:

The leaker also said that there's also going to be a Runbow stage that comes with Val and Hue trophies, and Mii costumes based off of the following characters:
Shantae
Krystal
Waluigi (Overalls Only)
Ice Climber (Male is Popo, female is Nana)
Chibi Robo
Magnus
Kumatora
Maked Man
Pokemon Trainer (Male is Red. Female is unknown.)
Also, the Runbow stage will have Shovel Knight music
...I am doubting the legitimacy of this leak because of the following: The Mother 3 mii costumes, The Runbow stage, the fact that there's a Runbow stage instead of a Shovel Knight stage, and the fact that the Runbow stage has Shovel Knight music.
Edit: OH HO! @CapeSmash beat me to the punch already, it seems!

Apparently, they used the wrong font for the trophy description.

Seriously why do they never properly take these pictures, or alternatively why do they purposely crop out the edges?

@capesmash Its not a cop-out if he really is consistently at the top.

And if the ballot brings back a wanted veteran as well as some cool newcomers then I don't see the problem.

Yeah, if Wolf "won" the ballot, it would be a little bit too convenient for them. It's a character that they can easily remake without much thought. They probably even plan to add him regardless.

I think something original should be added as part of the ballot.

....Omni should do another leak for no reason again. lol

I'm still hoping for Professor Layton... Alone...

BTW I'm not so sure about the Shovel Knight trophy one... Usually Smash character trophies are formatted differently only giving a brief statement about the character. This one, however, only talks about his game like a regular trophy... Maybe the trophy is real, but he's not a character?

@Morpheel: But I think you are under the impression, and I'm just going by the language you're using, that there will be only one "winner" of the ballot, or that the top voted character will automatically get in. If it was Wolf plus newcomers, then everyone gets that they want. Tons of people voted for Wolf, just like independently of the ballot tons of people requested for Mewtwo and Lucas to come back. People want these characters. And like you guys say, it takes a lot less time to develop veterans than newcomers, so while they are developing the ballot newcomers, why not just throw a Wolf DLC in there? The scenario is not going to be; The ballot winner is...Wolf! And nothing else. Ice Climbers and Snake are extremely unlikely, so IF Wolf does get in, he gets bundled in with the Nintendo and maybe third party newcomers people voted for.

We know there's more than one more DLC character coming, so Wolf wouldn't be taking away the opportunity for the ballot character to be a highly voted character that wouldn't normally be in Smash.

It takes less effort to develope veterans but it's still not effortless as you would like to think, they would still have to be tested and adjusted against every character, the assets are still built from scratch etc.

@arronishere: I wasn't the one that said it was effortless. I understand the characters are built from the ground up, but with a veteran the characters don't go through the conceptual and planning stages which means their development time isn't as long as it is for a new character.

The Shovel Knight leak is fake, and a damn good one at that.

.....Anyway, moving on....