Fruitcake MIDI Forum Treasury

[Dr Fruitcake]

There's already been some discussion of this game in the E3 topic, but being one of the most anticipated games (if not the most) of 2007 I believe it deserves its own thread. Thousands of gamers are already chomping at the bit for this, myself included. While I don't own a Wii at present, this game alone is reason enough to justify the purchase thereof. And if that makes me a rabid fanboi, I'll proudly wear the badge.

Those who've read my posts on the aforementioned E3 topic will know that I follow the news on Smashbros.com pretty closely. And why not? Daily (well, weekdaily -- that's not a word, is it?) updates and screenshots directly from the game's producer, who could ask for more than that?

Which brings me to my real reason for making this topic: today's update. You should definitely click this link and check it out. Yes, you. Go on. I'll wait here until you get back.

...

Ah, there you are. So, yeah, it appears to be some sort of first glimpse into the actual, overarching "story" behind the game itself, doesn't it? It seems extremely cryptic, of course, and equally interesting.

We all know Smash Bros. games have never really had much in the way of plot-lines. Take the original SSB, for example. The entirety of the game's "story", such as it is, is contained in the brief opening movie. A sentient, floating, disembodied hand posesses Nintendo-themed toys which inexplicably come to life and begin fighting each other -- and finally fighting the hand itself. We were never told why Mario, Fox, and Kirby were suddenly the most bitter of enemies. Nor was it explained why the toys suddenly begin attacking their master -- or vice versa. Why not? Because it doesn't matter! Let the RPGs have their stories full of plot twists, turns, and holes. Smash Bros has always been a fighting game, and as such is fun because it lets us take control of characters we already know and love and subsequently beat the tar out of each other.

As paper-thin as the original's story was, Melee didn't even attempt to give us any reasoning behind all the mayhem. And everybody was A-OK with that!

...As such, my mind is a little bit boggled by the fact that they seem to be hinting at a strange sort of background plot for Brawl. Whether it's as transparent as the first game's, or actually has a bit of depth to it, remains to be seen. What I find very interesting, though, is that Sakurai seems to be building on the theme of trophies coming to life as we saw at the very beginning of Melee's opening FMV. Not just continuing it without any explanation, but seemingly creating an entire world based on the premise -- "In this world, trophies fight. They know nothing but fighting. Fighting is the sole reason for their existence. Being turned back into a trophy, being unable to fight, is much like death. Those are the rules of this world" -- well, all I can say is that it strikes me as odd. Very odd indeed.

So... Why am I blithering on about all this?

For years, a large number of Nintendo games (*coughMarioPartycough*) have had pointless stories attached to them that serve only as a weak marketing ploy and have no effect whatsoever on the actual gameplay itself. Personally, I think I was about ten minutes into Mario Party 4 when I'd already forgotten why Yoshi needed to travel around on a game board, rolling dice and collecting stars. But it didn't faze me one bit because the minigames were fun and that's why I had gone and shelled out the cash in the first place.

I'm not saying that this story will be as pitiful as one of those, though it may be after all. However, I really hope that this is an indication of Sakurai's team taking the opportunity to make this into something much, much, bigger. Then, come December 3rd, they will rock everybody's collective face off with the unmatched magnitude of an actual plot behind a fighting game! ...But, failing that, we can still be sure that the game will be at least as awesome as its predecessors.

*ahem*

All right, I'm done rambling. Oh wait, no, I'm not quite yet. One last thing...

Who -- or what -- on Earth is THIS?



Okay, now I'm done. Discuss!
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[Sam]

I voted "likely r0x0r somebody's b0x0rz, but not my own."

SSB has never really been my cup of tea, mainly because I'm crap and always lose. I just end up button mashing.

[Damian]

I'm semi decent at SSB. I don't use advanced techniques or anything, but taking the game at the normal average play level (which I think you should), I'm alright.

I haven't been following the news cause it doesn't excite me that much (primarily BECAUSE people take the game so far)...and I don't want to anticipate it so much. I'm sure they'll make it good, though, even though people will complain about how much better it could've been.
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when the world is sick, can't no one be well? but i dreamt we was all beautiful and strong
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listen to my music!
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[Cheese Monkey]

I only have one thing to say about SSB*: I wish people would play within their experience ranges.

I don't mind people who are good, but some of them need to stop being arsecrumpets about it. I believe I said on FCmidi 2.0 that I will routinely play around with characters I suck as if I start winning too often... as opposed to sticking with Fox/Falco and wavedashing everyone into the ground (I've never actually wavedashed before and don't intend to).

And for this reason, I have serious reservations against joining any SSB* online community full-time. Quite simply, the drama of SSB* uberism would not be to my tastes.
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This post has been brought to you by
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(This post made no sense! Tell the people!)

PSO crap (Bestows +1 geekiness)!
[quote="Xenofan"]You wouldn't be here without sex, the internet wouldn't be here without sex, and heck, the Gamecube wouldn't be here without sex.[/quote][quote="Yoshgunn"]At first, don't overthink things. It's OK to become a small African village and injure yourself.[/quote]

[The Black Orb]

[Cheese Monkey]

[King Bowser Koopa]

I have nothing to add that hasn't really been said before, besides "I hope trophies make a return, I like collecting ridiculous amounts of things."

But, to keep in the theme of the conversation, I found this, it's pretty cool - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wgWoAslv2c

I can understand the naming, cause "Peach's Turnip Hole" just wouldn't sound suitable for the kiddies.
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[Lester Square]

The original Super Smash Bros. was great. Mêlée was a pointless waste of time: avoid if you’ve already got the N64 version.

The new one I anticipate to be even less of an advancement than Mêlée (and why the hell am I even bothering to insert these GODDAMN accents in? The game packaging doesn't even bother...). Call me a pessimist, but if it's anything other than "Super Smash Brothers with slightly tweaked graphics, more arenas and more characters and maybe a boring gimmick or two extend the game's longevity" I'll eat my entire hat collection.

And that's a lotta hats, man.
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~Lester Square

[Cheese Monkey]

[JK9000]

[Banjo-Fella]

Woo, Brawl! I loved Melee, and since this is basically much more of the same, should be great! Especially since they've finally decided to include Wario. If those character-specific arrival animations from the original game make a comeback, I'm hoping he'll turn up in The Sexy Purple Car. Oh yes. That alone would be reason enough to want to buy the game. Also, Phoenix Wright had better appear with occasional screen-obscuring 'OBJECTION!'s!

[Lester Square]

[Cheese Monkey]

[Lester Square]

[Damian]

I do NOT remember Kirby being overly powerful in the original. I remember it being Ness. :s

But myself and my circle of friends were young then, and it was before we really used the internet much or had much knowledge of stuff like that...
_________________
when the world is sick, can't no one be well? but i dreamt we was all beautiful and strong
-
listen to my music!
-
facebook | twitter | last.fm | youtube

[King Bowser Koopa]

[The Commodore]

No offense KBK, but there's something seriously wrong with pokemon battle verbal smackdowns...

[Cheese Monkey]

And here I thought that, at least, the only words Pokemon could say were their own names.

Thank you for giving me nightmares, KBK.
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This post has been brought to you by
Cheese Monkey - The Funky Cheddar Monkey
(This post made no sense! Tell the people!)

PSO crap (Bestows +1 geekiness)!
[quote="Xenofan"]You wouldn't be here without sex, the internet wouldn't be here without sex, and heck, the Gamecube wouldn't be here without sex.[/quote][quote="Yoshgunn"]At first, don't overthink things. It's OK to become a small African village and injure yourself.[/quote]

[The_Worminator]

Can't help siding with Lester here, actually. Yeah, I loved Melee - in fact, it was probably one of my most eagerly-awaited games ever. But it did expand vastly on the first game, not least with the whole trophy-collecting thing. Brawl, on the other hand - I really can't see what's going to be so different. Apart from online, of course, but I'd rather wait and find out how well it actually works first. If it's anything like Mario Kart DS, where half the people you meet will either snake all the way or quit as soon as they find themselves in last place to preserve their precious win record, I'd rather not bother.
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[quote="Tommy"]Tinytim got it.
At a guess he probably stopped playing it after 5 minutes.
He said he liked to look at the instruction book as it has a man having an erection inside it.[/quote]

[chzrm3]

[LynkStar]

I can't wait for SSBB. I loved SSBM.

Kirby was always my main character. When I first started playing the game, I was horrendously cheap. My 'tactics' consisted of floating up really high, then Down-B, crushing them with my almighty cheap glory. Then I realised there were better ways of using him - for example, I recently discovered how incredibly useful the B attack is, especially right near the edge where you can walk off and fire them under/away from the stage. So fun.

I always hated Falco and Fox. Does that make me weird? :S
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:3

[Lester Square]

I can smash anyone's arse off the goddamn screen with Donkey Kong.

[Cheese Monkey]

[Dr Fruitcake]

Off-topic:

Oh, look! It's a completely new stage! Oh, er, wait, it's just a DK-themed Icicle Mountain.

...Speaking of which, I'm probably the only one here who hopes that they include more of those constantly-moving stages in Brawl (Rainbow Cruise and Big Blue FTW).
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[chzrm3]