Been a while, huh?
*stretches*
Gram went to Florida with my aunt*, so it's just me and my grandfather. We're starting to run out of certain dishes, but they'll be back within the next day or so.
I've been meaning to make a post about SSBB, but I never got around to it. I guess this one will suffice. Every character is at least a little different. The characters who were blatantly underpowered (Game and Watch, Bowser, etc.) got a number of tangible boosts. GW's turtle does multiple hits much more easily, and his recovery is better, because he's got the parachute as part of it now. (The only bad thing for him is that the parachute isn't his nair anymore, so he can't kill with it easily.) Bowser got some range, power, and priority boosts. He can crawl, and has more kill moves. Less lag after a lot of his moves, too. (Most peoples' aerials have a lot less lag. Other than Ike and Ganondorf, most people can do about as many aerials as Luigi could in Melee. Partly because of the lag, and partly because everyone is much more floaty now.)
In an effort at balance, the strongest people from Melee were all nerfed. Fox and Falco can't use their down+B's to knock people all over the place with impunity anymore, and lost some knockback power. Sheik's power is so sad, Zelda is actually useful now. Marth's sword is shorter, and because of knockback reduction, he can't just spam fair and fsmash. Peach lost her downsmash and turnips are easier to catch now. Also, her double jump is worse than Zelda's was in Melee (which didn't seem possible) and her floating after up+B is more easily punished.
Now to focus on one of the only characters that actually matters. (Mario...)
Nair: Seems to have a slightly bigger hitbox.
Fair: Acts like a (much) weaker version of Dr. Mario's for the first half, while the second half is still a meteor smash. The meteor portion seems to have much stronger spiking power than before.
Dair: Is now the Mario Tornado. He can't rise with it, but it's easier to multi-hit with than in Melee, and dair now threatens a kill if you hit with the top of it. It has terrible priority at the feet, though, unlike his old dair. (Who the hell thought FLUDD was a good thing to add? It's even more useless than the new random tripping that happens sometimes when you try to run, which is also fucking ridiculous.)
Uair: Harder to combo with now, but so is most everything else. Easier to hit with the back part than the front now.
Bair: Functions like his fair/bair from the original game rather than the superior dropkick from Melee. Doesn't combo as easily, and I think it takes longer to come out than before. It may have slightly more killing power at higher percents, though.
Utilt: Combos more easily into itself than before. One of the few things that combos into uair easily now.
Ftilt: About the same as before in terms of form and function.
Dtilt: Not sure, but the old Dtilt -> Fsmash probably doesn't work now. It's not only the tilt's fault, though...
Fsmash: More startup lag than before, but has a little more knockback power. Since everyone recovers much more easily, it's a wash.
Usmash: Slightly more horizontal range. The hitbox actually extends slightly beyond his head (especially from the top, like before), which is good. Some say it has some super armor frames, but I'm not sure.
Dsmash: About the same as before.
Running A is about the same. A combo stuns a little better, so you can mix it up more.
B: Fireballs come out faster, but have much less range than before. Good for mid-range approach now that horizontal motion in the air is better.
Smash B: The cape lost a bit of relative horizontal motion, but that's ok. Not sure if the hitbox is larger/smaller/wider/etc.
Up B: Multi-hits much more easily, and has knockback like Dr. Mario's from Melee (maybe better, even). It also seems to have his upward range, which allowed him to grab the ledge from further away than Mario could in Melee.
Down B: *throws up in his mouth a little* This move is a travesty. With all the new moves that affect one's own motion (GW's dair, almost all of Lucas' aerials) and other moves that affect the other person's motion (Link's Gale Boomerang, GW's uair)...why the hell did Mario lose a useful move to get a shitty one that does zero damage, has to be charged, and has terrible knockback (its ONLY function) even when charged? It's a sad mockery of a decent move.
Maybe if it had the same knockback on people in the air as it did people on the ground, it would be semi-useful sometimes, giving Mario back some of the edgeguarding ability everyone lost.
Oh, I'll also note that it's bullshit that Mario only gets 4 characters like Zelda (5 actually, since Zelda/Sheik count as one) and Pokemon (6 actually, since PT counts as one). Zelda/Sheik was only acceptable in Melee because we had Dr. Mario giving the Mario series 5 spots. The next one better have some Mario RPG characters (and maybe even second-stringers like Waluigi) if any more Zelda, Pokemon, or random characters make it in. It'll be interesting to see if Snake and/or Sonic stay into the next game, since they're third-party.
*In a 15-mpg van that they borrowed because my aunt didn't feel like driving her car. Did I mention it can barely accelerate? Yeah...
Labels: family, Mario, rambling, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, too lazy to add links
