An update on SSB-Brawl mechanics

**Lawke** Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:43 pm

There's a few conventions going on in Japan that are hosting Brawl playable to the public. A person from the smash boards had this to say about the game:

phew, I'm finally back at the guest house, and here are my notes from the event. I was up all day long, and only played 4 times, 2 matches each. 8 matches total, 6 of them FFA 4 players with time 2 minutes, 2 of them FFA 3 players with 2 minutes.

new stages: pictochat, temple, onett.
other stages: wario ware, the summit, smashville, skyworld
Yoshi's island(new one), halberd, Lylat cruise, Pokemon stadium 2, Castle seige.
battlefield, Delphino plaza, Bridge of Eldin, Norfair

Available Characters: New: DeDeDe, Pokemon trainer.
the rest: wario, bowser, pikachu, DK,Meta Knight DDK, Ike, Peach, Link, Fox, Mario, Kirby, yoshi.

these are the characters I played as, in that order: Peach,Ike,DeDeDe, Pokemon Trainer, Peach, Kirby, Samus(20 seconds Zamus), Fox.

General feeling: game flows better and smoother, I didn't feel it was slower or floaty, It feels like everyone Is playable, and the game is much more balanced than Melee ever was, though I've seen Ike,Peach, MK and PT win most matches, It's mainly cause it was FFA.

I won all of my matches except the one played with DeDeDe, in which I took 2nd out of 4, No showing off though, I played newbies and average players.

General Impressions:

Everyone dies slowly and recover Easily, I've seen people go over 200% all the time.

Air dodges are very very short and fast, and the lag afterwards is small, while falling towards the stage with peach, you can easily air dodge 5-6 times continuously

I tried crawling with DeDeDe and it didn't work, didn't really try it with the other characters, seems to only work for specific characters.

C-stick works like melee, no Tilts and no nothing.

I saw a pokemon I don't recognize, looked like a Giant metal spider with 4 legs and an X on the front, familiar?

I've seen the following assists: Jill,Little Mac, Saki, Samurai goroh, Devil, Nintendog. there might've been more, I don't remember them.

the devil moves the stage very slowly and smoothly, much less annoying than I thought.

Nintendog is annoying as hell, and too long. you can barely see anything while it is there.

none of the assists were very powerfull, they were all kind of balanced, the only one I remember bringing KOs was Little mac.

I've seen the following pokemon: Entei,Torchic, Munchlax, Snorlax, Kyogre, Goldeen and Bonsly, there might have been others I don't remembre. Bonsly is very very powerfull, He's like a Heavy vegtable that walks around and stays very long, he bounces off the ground when thrown Up/forward

the Soccer ball is great, it bursts into flames and flies the distance of the knockback, It will kick your *** if you're in its why, and it will stop mid-air and drop dead when there's no more momentum to it.

the Fire flower and cracker launcher are both extremely deadly, much more so than before. they'll be very broken in brawl Razz

Spicy curry works diffrently than I expected, It's not the flames around you that hit people, it's a random forward bound streak of fire balls, It seems pretty good.

the sandbag is there, but I didn't see it causing any damage, only being a sandbag

I've seen people auto sweet spotting edges and catching them while backwards all of the time, seems very easy to catch edges in brawl.

DK's final smash is much stronger than I thought, If you hit the buttons right the range grows tremendously, and covers 90% of the stage. It probably won't work on a demo with so many people around.

Zamus' FS is not a joke, if you're close to her it's a KO.

Link's final smash is easy to hit with, but MK's and Ike's are much harder in that matter. all 3 of them are killer FSs and you're almost surely dead, they all look extremely cool.

Pikachu's Final smash is very very very fast, and a touch from it and you're sent to oblivion.

the Pictochat drawings are impenetrable walls at times. and they can trap you at the side of the stage.

the dragoon is great, but if you don't use it immidieatly, everyone will run away from you, and you'll miss it for sure.

Pokemon stadium 2 has a conveyor belt setting floor, and it's really annoying.

the warp star is much slower than it used to be, but you can go much further horizontially.

Something weird I saw, Crates and barrels thrown Up, land without opening, It's pretty weird.

Capsules are still there, don't remember any of them exploding though

the bumper is really weird, you see allmost no indication it hit something, I didn't realize this was what was pushing me back at first.

Meta knights Forward B is very spammable, It's a Drill sort of move that arches if you move it up or down. very slow, but very annoying.

DDK's FS is very very strong, but hard to control, you have to aim carefully. and moving is hard.

PT's FS is a killer, make sure to stand behind him if he does it.

Character impressions:

Ike:

Ikes Forward B can only be used once in the air, but It's chargable and goes a long way, so It's still great...

ITP says you can't C-Stick Tilt Attack like Gimpy said he could in E4All or can you Shine-Cancel by holding down and B + Jump

Very Very Very Very slow, but much more powerfull than everyone, he kills at 90-100 when others kill in the 150s

Neutral B works the same as marth and roy, but more powerfull and the animation is diffrent.

His aerials come out very slowly, you'll have to start them very early to hit.

his up B is very fast, but it's crap as a recovery move, cause it's not that high, and barely movers horizontially. If you hit with it it'll drag your opponent down with you.

his smashes and Tilts are freakishly powerfull.

his Forward B is a fast forward moving move, much like fox. and it's a great help in recovering.

Peach

Peach Bomber is much more usefull now, and goes further with less lag.

Peach can DJC!

Peach is faster than she used to be

Nair got weaker knockback, but Fair and Bair got stronger.

peach can FC.

I didn't get to grab with her, but her Forward throw is actually improved from what I've seen.

Dsmash works exactly the same, only less damage and knockback. still a great move.

Fsmash is stronger.

I didn't get to use many vegtables cause it was FFA, but they work the same.

Up B goes much further, falling speed doesn't seem much diffrent from it was.

Kirby:

I didn't really take many notes on kirby, his new dash attack is usefull, his nair is better, his moves look generally much stronger and more usefull than they were, he does resemble N64 kirby more than SSBM kirby.

Samus.
no more missile cancels. missiles are easily distinguishable, cause Super missiles are green and small.

Black colour ownz. dark samus is the phazon suit, visor is red.

Fsmash looks a bit faster.

Didn't get to try much with her, it was 2 mins FFA after all.

I changed into zamus near the end of the match. I only learned her Bair is ok, and not to use her dair outside the stage, cause it's like Gannon/Falcon's down B

Fox

still pretty fast, and falls faster than most

no shine cancels, no holding no nothing. I didn't shine spike anyone, but when you hit with a Deflector it grows a bit and has a new animation.

Ftilt and Fsmash still very spammable, maybe even more so.

not much to say other than that...[/quote]

Dedede:

no more arguments on his name, game says De De De. and not DeeDeeDee like people call him.

he's a slow power type, like koopa and charizard. he's weaker than Ike, and slower than Ike, though his attacks are faster.

He has one of the best Up Bs i've seen, he jumps very high and it's very mobile.

His Forward B is very Fast and strong, very spammable, and the waddles do their job.

his down B sucks, avoid it, too slow and predictable.

his neutral B sucking is lame, very little damage, and only spits you out.

his smash attacks are very strong, but slow. in both starting and ending lag.

the inhale (neutral b) is fast, but not very far. the damage is very low.

waddle dees are better than vegtables in terms of damage and knockback. and it's one of DeDeDe's best moves

His arials are pretty slow from what I've seen, I think his Bair and Uair are pretty quick though. his smashes are monstrously strong, better than bowsers. but Ike's are stronger than that. he also survives quite a lot, and has a huge recovery.

Dedede can walk around with someone in his mouth like Kirby and he looks like his bloated fish form when he does that

his dash is pretty good, most of his Tilts and aerials come fast but are laggy, his smashes have start up lags pretty big, not as big as Ike's though.

his super jump have good priority

the general feeling was cool, Fsmash is a killer.
he has after lag on alot of his moves, but they startup fast except the smashes. which is logical, cause they're his koers.

Dedede's down B is a charge-do move, and it's slow but ultra powerfull, from what I saw it sucked, might work as a setup or edgeguard though, we can't say from now.

when the waddle dees are waddling around stage, they dissapear by themselves

his final smash makes him invincible(I fought it, not got it), but the Waddle Dees/Doos /Gordos that appear attack one by one like pit's FS, not together. and they're improved versions of their normal counterparts, at least the Dees.

Pokemon Trainer

squirtle is a weak fast characters, Ivysaur is pretty average, Charizard is a slow power character, comparable to bowser and DeDeDe.

Charazird has multiple jumps, I didn't count them. his Up B is monsterous, he flies straight up and burns anything that touches him while doing so, I didn't try his Forward B, but his neutral B is like Bowsers.

Squirtles neutral B is chargable, it's a water gun. charge more = shoot more water, squirtle gets pushed back when doing so.

I didn't get to use squirtles Up B, but it links measly and sucky. his forward B is pretty good, but it has a set time for it. he shells himself and launches forward, you can play with it a bit.

Ivysaurs Neutral B is ok, but he's immobile while using it, his up B is pretty quick and good, and it's a good move on the ground as well, his Forward B looks sucky, didn't use it much.

I didn't see any special "Stamina" element, but changing pokemon takes a very long time, a couple of seconds at least, i'd say 3-4 or even more.

you can start with either of the 3 pokemon, I don't know if it's random or controlled somehow.

Ivysaur uses Vines are basically for his Up B. he attacks with his body

squirtle's water gun is like samus' beam. It even pushes him backwards the same way. It seems pretty weak though, didn't get to properly use it. maybe good for edge guard?

on the other hand, I got to see Ivy's Beam sword Fsmash, he plays with it with his legs, Like pikachu, pretty cute actually.

ivysaur's up+b is tether recovery

Ivysaur's razor leaf didn't go very far, and seemed pretty useless. never actually hit with it, sorry.

I was never forced to switch, and I didn't see any noticable diffrence caused by stamina, so you should be able to main a pokemon.

take into consideration that it seems you start with a random pokemon,and that Charizard is clearly the best of the 3, even though Ivysaur is pretty good.

when he changes, the characters dissapear, it's more like there's nothing to hit, rather than "invincibility" frames. and it there's some lag afterwards, but nothing serious.