JackKieser

Ugh... I feel for you, Jam. We play a LOT of Smash at school between classes (we rent the game and a couple of Cubes from the library almost every day), and we have assholes like that ruining the fun at all times. This one guy plays an arguably mean Samus... but he treats everyone else like shit, making sure to verbally point out that he's better than us. It's actually quite impressive, though. We have a guy who mains Fox; brings his own Wavebird to school and everything. We hate playing him because he destroys us all, but sometimes he actually seems apologetic that he can whip us so handily. Even if is Fox is cheap, he's fun to play against. Smash needs more guys like that in general, so I can only postulate about the tournament community (I've never been to a tourney, although I would love to try sometime). --Jack Kieser

So, yeah... I got 93% of the way through on Hard... once. As far as I can tell, with the exception of on Expert, the trick is just to get through the intro; it's really the only patently rediculous part of the song. Everything else is rather doable, in retrospect. Of course, the outro is designed to be a bitch, too. Although thanks to it, I got the achievement for failing a song past 90%, so I guess silver lining, eh? --Jack Kieser

I'm sorry... but Fox doesn't learn FIRE SPIN at lvl. 55... He learns RAPID SPIN. "Fox... do a barrel roll!" "Peppy, I need three more levels before I can do that!!" --Jack Kieser

HOLY SHIT! They have fuckin' Rayquaza in the SSE! You have no clue how much happiness this single video produces for a trainer such as myself. Besides the awesomeness of Fox reflecting Rayquaza's Dragon Pulse like that... but I have to wonder what pissed Rayquaza off so much. I mean, I'm sure Fox's crash landing had something to do with it... but that bitch blasted out of the lake with a purpose. Not to mention that Pokemon, even legendaries, aren't known to attack non-Pokemon creatures... interesting... --Jack Kieser

Nicholas has a point... BTW, I'm really hoping you're all right about the DST thing. Getting to be an hour earlier would be nice... --Jack Kieser

No! I won't deal with it! I'm going to start 100 online petitions to try to get this fixed; who's with me? [/sarcasm] --Jack Kieser

Farore's Wind is green. Plus, he didn't have it in TP. If they are basing things off of TP, then that can't be it. AT LEAST let Midna warp him in as a wolf and then have him transform! Something... badass! A little more befitting of the character... and more importantly my main. --Jack Kieser

It's too bad Link's intro is so GAY. A whirlwind? Seriously? That's a damned POKEMON MOVE. What happened to his awesome warp? Remember the one where he pulled out his sword and shield as he came down to the battle? ...good times. --Jack Kieser

Dear Smash players: Static stages are for tournament only noobs. Let the man design; he knows what he's doing. --Jack Kieser

You know what's not fair about pieces like this? They're NEVER long enough. This song is truly beautiful; granted, many Wind Scene arrangements are, but this one has some of the most interesting takes on the theme I have heard in a long time. The ending is gorgeous, which makes the song ending all the more painful. *cries* --Jack Kieser

Well, even if it's only ~3 min. per match... that's still not a lot. I mean, a great deal of matches I play go on almost 6-8 minutes. Plus, it's not like you can pick and choose when to record during a match; after all, it's not like we can go, "Hey, start the recorder; I'm about to get this awesome combo on Fox that sends him into 2 motion bombs and KO him with the bat!" --Jack Kieser

Oh my freaking GOD! That is awesome. Truly, nothing is sacred anymore. This totally blew me away, as did the choices of music for the stage. Epic, classic, and totally off the wall. A++! --Jack Kieser

I have to say, FH, at first I was gonna ask where that SS came from... Well played, sir. Well played. --Jack Kieser

That's our Liontamer: he does what he must because he can. --Jack Kieser

I'm sorry, but as I said, tournament play is irrelevant. Accepted tourney rules were not made and/or sanctioned by Nintendo or HAL Labs, so who cares what they decide? And, the 'If you can do it in the game, then it's in the coding' argument, as someone who studies game coding, is outright untrue. There will ALWAYS be circumstances that a coder does not foresee. Any playtester will tell you that people break games in ways that no coder or designer would think of in their wildest dreams. People broke Melee with Wavedashing. Simple as that. Wavedashing breaks a fundamental hard-coded gameplay mechanic. The only reason people don't see it like that is because it helps them win, and people don't like to lose. Original design always trumps because we will always find ways to try to fuck with that design. That just how gamers work. --Jack Kieser

FriendlyHunter, I don't think you understood what I meant when I said 'rules of the game' and what is considered 'cheating'. When I said that the rules of the game say you can't move and perform a Smash attack at the same time, I mean the game's coding. The 'rules' of the game itself. In order for your button inputs to be interpreted as 'Smash attack', you have to be standing still, or else you do your dashing attack. That's how the game is coded. Now, consider Wavesmashing. It allows you to circumvent this mechanic. 'Cheating' is generally considered to be 'breaking the rules'. Well, if 'You have to be standing still to Smash attack' is a rule, and Wavedashing allows you to break that rule, then you are cheating when you Wavedash. Simple as that. And as for the high-jump metaphor... not applicable. See, the position your body was in as it sailed over the bar was not ever written in the rules of high-jumping, so the first dude to arch his back (et cetera) wasn't breaking any rules when he did so. Thus, a new technique was discovered. As we have established, WD'ing DOES break the rules of the game, and so it should not be allowed. Oh, and it's allowed in tournaments because people don't think it's cheating. Just cause it's allowed there, though, doesn't change the fact that it is, in fact, cheating the system of the game. And, yeah, that pretty much why it is such a big deal. Basically, us who don't/can't/won't use WD'ing think it's a bug/glitch/expolit that wasn't intended for play, thus shouldn't be used, while people who DO use it don't want to give up any advantage at all so that they never risk losing ever ever. Generally. After all, don't want to speak in absolutes. --Jack Kieser

Good jesus, this is fucking stupid. Ok, they had the demo for play at NOA (some of the DigiPen students got to go over today and play it before they took it away), and SO MANY people at the school, especially people from our Smash Club, bitched that WD'ing wasn't in. You know what? The bottom line is that if you HAVE to WD to win, you don't deserve to win. Most people I fight who use WD'ing use it so that they can move and charge/use a Smash attack at the same time, for instance. Think about this. To Smash attack on the ground, you must be stationary. This is according to the basic rules of the game. It's why Crouch Canceling to a Smash attack is so effective and necessary if you have to run at an opponent. WD'ing allows you to move AND Smash attack at the same time. Thus, this breaks the basic rules of the game. Cheating is defined as breaking the basic rules of the game. So, by correlation, if you WD, you are cheating. This is regardless of whether WD'ing is a trick, an exploit, an 'advanced movement technique', a glitch, or whatever. Who cares why or how it's there; it's cheating. Deal with it. If you can't win without WD'ing, or if you use WD'ing instinctively, or if you say it 'deepens' the game, you are wrong. You only want WD'ing in so that you can win more; admit it, because the more you whine about how it's 'really better for everyone', the less respect we have for you because you're a whiny bitch hiding behind some false presence. You want to win, and that's ok, but only if you are legit. Jesus Christ. --Jack Kieser

No!!!! My internets are down for 2 and a half hours, and when I can finally check the Smash Update, I find Little Mac... as an ASSIST TROPHY!! NOOOO!!! ...I was REALLY hoping that he would be a playable, but I suppose it just isn't to be... Still, fucking awesome that he's actually in the game in some capacity. I suppose I'll live. Damn assist... --Jack Kieser

Now, I've never played any of Wario's pre-Warioware games (I know, I know...), but even so, I think that it's a pretty good move to bring him in as WW Wario as opposed to his earlier self. From what I HAVE seen of Wario, the guy is all about being freakin' nuts, and that is exactly what the WW games are all about. Not to mention, the earlier Wario games may not have as much stuff to bring into Brawl as extra goodness (see: Ashley's Theme and possible assists in the form of guys like 9-Volt and the rest of Wario's posse). And besides... that costume is pretty cool. --Jack Kieser

"KEEEEEEEEEEE!" Pretty basic moveset, but I think the fact that you can chain dashes together (especially in the air) means Sonic will be crazy maneuverable. And the Spring Jump is nice. I didn't expect the spring to stay on the ground, but that's cool. All in all, I think a good moveset. Of course, we'll have to use it to be sure, but from the looks of it, it's simple and versatile. A+. --Jack Kieser

I really hope they bring those back; honestly, the Event Matches were some of the only times I didn't play with Link, cause I just didn't have the motivation. And thanks to that, I can (kind of) use more than one person. Of course, I have PLENTY of motivation to play multiple peoples in Brawl... but the fact still stands. --Jack Kieser

I just now thought of something; I guess it's kind of obvious, but it's really early here, and I'm still kind of out of it. Ok, so Sonic will, apparently, be an active character in the Subspace Emissary... that means that the third party character will actually be included in this little storyline... which, theoretically means that Snake can have a part in the story, too. Personally, I think that's great, as it would have been strange if the third party characters were left out of SSE just because they were third party... and because if you're going to fight an army, why WOULDN'T you want Solid Snake on your side? Not to mention the fastest being alive. That helps, too. --Jack Kieser

Personally, I think that the US date is still on, but just in case, they pulled it down from the US site just in case something goes terribly, terribly wrong and we get pushed back to Japan's date. There really isn't much to say that Sakurai is so deep in work that they have to push the game back for us (JP never technically got a firm date, so they haven't been pushed back yet), and he even said himself that, barring tragic acts of some higher power, the game is still on track. But I could be wrong. Here's hoping. *takes a drink of brandy* --Jack Kieser

Damn it all! Well, it was worth a shot. And how nutty would THAT have been? I can almost hear Sakurai now... "And here is our 'hidden' info! You can see it right here on this page? Isn't it convenient?" --Jack Kieser EDIT: You know, I have to say that after scrutinizing the video so many times, what I consider to be the best part about this update is that Sonic actually looks and (seems like he) feels like Sonic. I was joking with some friends earlier and said, "See? Look! Sonic can be awesome when he's not in the hands of Sonic Team!"... but it seems that's exactly the case. For the first time in a long time, Sonic looks like he's himself again, and that's awesome. I mean, he looks, moves, and acts exactly like I would have expected him to do. I was really impressed when I saw all the effort put into Snake with the voice actors and the CODEC sequences... but I have to say, seeing Sonic as a badass again feels just about as good, if not better. Kudo, Sakurai, for actually putting your heart and soul into Sonic. We as gamers really appreciate it, because you're on the path of giving us one of our icons back. ...and fuck Sonic Team.

Dude, G-T, that sig making, while simple, was fast. Kudos to probably be one of the first people with sig stuffs from that update (that actually took some sort of work besides screen cap). And, indeed, sneaky use of spy-like tactics to figure out the 1-20 thing, although I agree with Raziellink; 20 franchises, while a lot to be certain, could still be expanded on. And, personally, after they take care of the Falcon update, I'd like to see them add something totally off the wall. I mean, we all, deep down, knew that Sonic was in. Now, we need him to do something crazy again to show us he's not mellowing out during crunch time. --Jack Kieser