Has Super Smash Bros. for 3DS lived up to the hype? The past month of relentless Smash action and news is the obvious evidence. Major regions across the globe continue their pursuit of larger tournaments with more entrants and higher stakes, while the online and local communities strive to advance their skills and technology. Just like the first installment of This Week in Smash 4, and every installment following, there’s still much to discuss in the world of Smash 4.

The spotlight was on Rockefeller Center this past weekend as the National Open Tournament for Super Smash Bros. 3DS culminated with a championship event at the Nintendo World Story in New York City. Those who qualified at the numerous Gamestop events (and the one Nintendo World tournament) last weekend made their way out to Manhattan for a final clash – a single-elimination bracket of solely 1 versus 1 matches.

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Victory was taken by New York’s Rosalina & Luma master Dabuz, a former top player in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as well as one of the best to ever touch competitive Kid Icarus: Uprising and Playstation All-Stars. This is Dabuz’s third Smash 3DS tournament victory after taking the HitBox Arena Invitational and Crossfire 4’s Smash 3DS events with ease. Dabuz took on Jumpman’s Mario in the Grand Finals – if you missed out, you can watch all the championship sets here.

Meanwhile, the Smash Wii U release date approaches. Once only a rumor, the release of the Wii U edition has indeed been confirmed for November 21st, but only in North America. Yes, North America will be getting Smash Wii U before any other region. Smash Wii U arrives in Europe on December 5th, while Japan and Australia join the fray on December 6th.

Also in December, you’ll find a second wave of Amiibo figures hitting shelves. While Mario, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Fox, Samus, Wii Fit Trainer, Villager, Pikachu, Kirby, and Marth Amiibos go on sale on November 28th, a second set including Zelda, Diddy Kong, Luigi, Little Mac, Pit, and Captain Falcon will be available starting December 19th. You’ll be able to use all of these Amiibos with not only Smash Wii U, but Mario Kart 8, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Mario Party 10, and Yoshi’s Woolly World.

Unfortunately, that comes with some bad news, too. According to Nintendo, the Wii U Gamecube Adapter, the hotly-anticipated device that will allow players to use their precious Gamecube controllers on Wii U, will only work with Smash Wii U and nothing more. This rides on the coattails of a misinformed announcement that the adapter would allow players to use the Gamecube controller with any game that supports the Pro controller.

Back to Smash 3DS, the treasured innards of the game’s data have revealed glorious discoveries for the community. A hacker claims to have found hidden audio files within the game that point to possible features such as an event mode and 8-player Smash battles. One video even has clips for “Smash World” and “Official Tourney,” which may point to features on the Wii U version instead.

Hungry for technology? Depending on what character you play, you’ll be able to satisfy that hunger with Toss Canceling, a new tech found in Smash 3DS that works only for Peach, Toon Link, and Link. According to a recent news post on Smashboards, these three characters can cancel all landing lag by inputting Down Special while holding a natural item (an item spawned by the character, like Peach’s turnips or Link/TL’s bombs) as you land. Not only does this cancel landing lag, but it also throws the item, creating potential for follow-ups and punishes, or even walling opponents by using multiple projectiles and, in the case of Link and Toon Link, using Zair into toss cancel.

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Still hungry? Maybe harsher technology is more your style, or you’re just a Rosalina & Luma user instead. Utilizing Luma’s jab attack, Rosalina can trap an opponent with jabs until they are carried off-screen or she can rack up a ton of damage with the infinite to lead into a legitimate kill. The video, uploaded by Japanese Smasher 9B, shows that the infinite definitely works on Sheik, but so far it’s unclear as to how many other characters it may potentially be effective against.

Finally, let’s wrap up this week’s installment with tournament results!

While the United States continues to hold multitudes of events through the weekdays and weekends, none can compare to the stellar amount of entrants at Japanese Smash 3DS event Umebura 9. We covered Umebura 8 in an earlier installment, noting its entrant list of 170 players. Umebura 9 stepped it up to 192 unique entrants for its Smash 3DS singles competition, in which Choco’s Zero Suit Samus took out Neitono’s Greninja in Grand Finals. Shi-Gaming has been uploading the tournament sets to their Youtube channel for your viewing pleasure.

Stateside, tournaments across the country popped up this past week for Smash 3DS despite the persistent school year and encroaching cold weather. Keitaro’s Turn Smash 4 What exemplified quite a bit of character diversity with characters like Ness, Donkey Kong, Wii Fit Trainer, and even Fox all finding their way into the top 5 spots. Leap of Faith had a showdown in Grand Finals, where Nakat’s Ness and Fox showed up False’s Sheik and Donkey Kong to take the top spot, with Bajisci’s Greninja rounding out the top 3.

Utilizing the Swiss bracket format, Keroro Platoon put on a singles and doubles Smash 3DS event of over twenty players. KERO bested the competition with Greninja, while Airborne finished second with Yoshi and A:G~ in third with Ike and Mario. Meanwhile, Overswarm hosted a singles and doubles event at his own house with a unique stage list – Brinstar, Corneria, Tomadachi Life, Reset Bomb Forest, and 3D Land were all featured stages. Katakiri came out on top with Mii Gunner, Greninja, and Sonic. Texas kicked off its season of Smash 3DS tournaments with a singles and doubles event in Houston, won by Reyne’s Donkey Kong and Linda, while Doyle took 2nd with Rosalina & Luma and Crawfish in 3rd with Marth. Special thanks to Xyro for posting up the event for TO Alex Mora.

And finally, TourneyLocator continued its weekly Smash 3DS tournament series with Shockwave 3, an 18-player, double-elimination affair with TourneyLocator’s own Denti taking the top spot with Sheik, toppling Awestin’s Yoshi and Bwett’s Little Mac to snag first place. Awestin threatened to reset the bracket coming from loser’s side, taking Denti to a Game 5 in Grand Finals, but Denti closed up shop with Sheik on Gameboy FD to take it home. TourneyLocator’s official Youtube channel has all of the streamed tournament sets uploaded in high quality.

That wraps up the fourth edition of This Week in Smash 4 here at Melee It On Me. The Smash 3DS hype continues as we barrel our way into the rest of October and then November. We’re only a month and a week from the release of Smash Bros on Wii U!