It’s been just over a week since Super Smash Bros. for 3DS hit Japanese shelves, but thanks to a number of dedicated Smashers outside of Japan, the Smash 3DS craze has hit the West well before the October release. As expected, players of all shapes and calibers have already hit the grind with the new game. Some players have racked up over a thousand matches played online, while others have been scouring the software for new technology and ways to play the game.
In Japan, the game is undeniably a massive hit. In just about a weekend’s time into Smash 3DS’ shelf life, the title hit over a million units sold. This translates to the best opening, sales wise, for a Smash Bros. game ever.
For those who couldn’t get their hands on a Japanese 3DS and game, they had to grovel and beg for Smash 3DS codes, which were only available to Platinum Club Nintendo members. Thankfully, starting last Friday, the Smash 3DS demo is available on the European and North American eShops.
But for those who did get their hands on the Japanese version of the game, many have already taken the game to task, finding new elements and mechanics not present in previous Smash iterations.
A rather large mechanical discovery was made by Project M developer Strong Bad, who detailed a new facet found in Smash 4 in a recent Smashboards post. According to Strong Bad, “Vectoring” is not another name for what we already understand as “Directional Influence.” Instead, you are able to add a vector (a quantity having direction as well as magnitude) of units/frames to your knockback when launched by an opponent. If mastered, this can heavily affect the user’s survivability at higher percents.
Strong Bad says, “Vectoring properly against horizontal attacks is very similar to how one would DI them in previous Smash games, but vectoring properly against vertical attacks is completely different. As explained earlier, trying to ‘DI’ as one would in a previous Smash game does literally nothing to help you live.”
Strong Bad’s post includes a lot of mathematical data, as well as explanations of the difference between Vectoring and Directional Influence. For Smash 4 players, I would consider this required reading.
Meanwhile, Chibosempai of Clash Tournaments took to Youtube to display an entirely different mechanic, which Chibo dubbed, “The Rage Effect.” In the video, Chibo details this discovery, finding that characters apparently deal more knockback when hitting opponents when at higher percents. It is rather reminiscent of Lucario’s aura system found in Brawl and Smash 4, which increases Lucario’s damage and knockback output the higher his percentage is.
And finally (at least on the technical spectrum of the game), it seems as though there may be some utility in a character’s “skid” out of a run. In a post made on Smashboards, user BengalsRZ claims that IASA (Interruptible As Soon As) frames come out quicker in Smash 4 compared to Brawl. In theory, players can utilize the quick IASA frames in a character’s skid to cancel the skid into any other move or motion. Of course, this is rather dependent on the distance and duration of each individual character’s skid, but it could prove to be useful at higher levels of play.
Speaking of high-level play, ClashTournaments’ ZeRo, winner of the Nintendo E3 Smash Invitational back in June, faced off against Japanese player Otori in an online, first-to-10 wins set in Smash 3DS. Smashers should remember Otori’s fantastic run through Apex 2012, in which he cemented himself as one of the best Meta Knight’s from Japan with 1st Place finishes in both Brawl singles and Brawl doubles (winning doubles with his brother Kakera).
Unfortunately, playing online wasn’t all fun and games for everybody. Multitudes of Peach players stepping foot into For Glory mode online were slapped with one-day bans due to a unforeseen error. The game apparently issued the bans because items are not allowed in For Glory mode, while Peach can actually pull turnips and other items with her Down-B specials, which is theorized to be the cause behind the ban. Thankfully, a patch has been issued to right this glitch.
Robin players are still waiting for a patch of their own, however. Smash 4’s first infinite combo was found mere days after the release of the game. Zero Suit Samus, thanks to a bug, can footstool infinite Robin indefinitely. Zero Suit Samus, like all characters, should get a fairly large jump off an opponent’s head when footstooling them, but ZSS does not get this height when footstooling Robin. At least infinites are no longer possible via chain grabbing, which has been avoided in the new games because players can no longer instantly regrab a thrown opponent even if they are in range.
With chaingrabbing removed, the notorious Ice Climbers would have been less of a threat had they been kept in the Smash roster. Many cited potential technical issues on the 3DS as the reason why the Ice Climbers didn’t make the cut this time around, and now Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai has confirmed this fact. They are the first character (erm, characters I guess) to appear in two consecutive Smash games before being removed.
On a lighter note, Smash fans can get even more hyped over the new games with two new developments.
First, Nintendo of Canada announced the “Super Smash Bros. Club,” a multi-event series spanning Canada that invites players of all ages and skill levels to play one another in a casual environment. Nintendo of Canada allows players to come up with their own rules and to get excited with free swag give-aways and cheering on your fellow players.
And finally, Smash player and web developer Warchamp7 has created a “Post Your Roster” app, which allows you to customize a line-up of characters you like to use and share them with the rest of the world. Every character’s alternate skins and color swaps are available, so you can personalize your favorite characters just the way you like to play as them.
That wraps up this week’s Smash 4 news. Be sure to check back next week for the second installment of This Week in Smash 4!
No mention of the four small tournaments from the past week?