Sakurai was anticipating the release of Super Smash Bros for 3DS in the West this week. Knowing more and more fans will find more 3DS detail for themselves, he is starting to share more Wii U screenshots.
Last Thursday, he shared how you can pick alternate tracks for the stages. While you are picking a stage, hold the R button until a brown drop shadow appears. Some alternate tracks have vocal versions, such as the Living Room stage. Sakurai chose to keep these versions as they were too good to leave out.
There is an extra choice in the Boxing Ring. If you hold down the L button, you can actively choose to play the Smash Bros version. If you hold down the Y button, it will select the Punch-Out! Version. If you choose this stage the normal way, the game randomly chooses which version you will play in.
On Wednesday, Sakurai explained how team color outlines work in the Wii U version of the game. In the 3DS version, fighters get large colored outlines around them indicating their team. The Wii U version has these outlines too, but they are much, much thinner. While they seem faint close up, the color brightness stays the same, so that when your fighters move farther apart, those colors become more pronounced.
Yesterday was the highlight of the Smash screenshots, as Sakurai unveiled the Orbital Gate stage, a Wii U exclusive from Gamecube classic Star Fox Assault.
To be specific, this stage recreates a part of the game where Team Star Fox defends the gate from an Aparoid attack. The gate gets struck with missiles, that are blocked from actually hitting the gate by force field shields, and are eventually shot down by Team Star Fox. Sakurai compares this stage to an amusement ride, as players can stand and fight on the Arwing, inside the gate, and even on top of the missiles themselves.
Yesterday, Sheriff, a Nintendo arcade game created in 1979, was revealed as a Wii U Assist Trophy. This game was also featured in WarioWare, Inc: Mega MicroGame$, but here Sakurai revealed its origins as a twin stick shooter. In Sheriff, there were two joysticks, one to direct movement and one to target the pistol across the eight cardinal directions. If you’ve played this game in WarioWare, you also know that the sheriff’s bullets reach to the edges of the screen a la Space Invaders, so this sheriff may mean the difference between a distant character flying off the screen or not.
Finally, today Sakurai made an announcement about the future of his Smash Bros posts. He intends to keep making them until the end of the year, but only in smaller trickles now. When he does, he will be sharing hidden elements, perhaps to help fans who might not even be able to find them on their own.
Super Smash Bros for 3DS is out in US and Europe today, October 3 and will be released in Australia tomorrow. The game will be released for the Wii U in Q4 of this year.
