Smash Bros.: TNG - Day 4

Bounty Hunters 'til The End: Night in the Big City!

I'm going to put a big ol' spoiler tag on here for Zelda: Skyward Sword. If you have not finished it, and you care to, I'd recommend finishing it and then coming back.

Alright, you finished it? How was that ending? Pretty sweet, aye? Too bad you had to drag your way through some sludge to get there, but I think it was well worth it. Moving on, though...

The Veteran: Samus/Zero Suit Samus

Dark and Beautiful.

  Even though I picked the Corruption suit due to my love of, well, the Corruption Suit, I think standard Samus and Fusion Suit Samus are the obvious costume choices here, with Zero Suit Samus's alternate being her little military get-up and short hair from Metroid: Other M. Now, if we're concerned about hit-boxy type stuff, and understandably so, then I will revoke my Fusion Suit nomination to that which is pictured above. Aside from discussions of costume swaps, though, there's not much to talk about. Samus has always been incredibly versatile and, in my opinion, fairly balanced. I'd appreciate if Zero Suit got a few new moves, as the Sexy Dodge just isn't cutting it, but overall I've no real complaints.

The Potential Newcomer: Demise

Perhaps a replacement...?

  I hate clones; both as a moral dilema that brings up questions like "What is truly alive and what isn't," and as a cheap character knock off that reeks of lazy design. I get that it's for the purpose of cutting down game development time, but in most cases, I'd rather just pack skins. In Smash, there was room for leeway because we're adding characters that we know from other franchises, not creating forgettable characters that we'll eventually forget *coughCharliecough* So I ask you; do we need Ganondorf, and can we do better?

  As it stands, the Zelda stable has 4 characters, one of whom is technically two. Link and Toon Link are clones, although they've done a fairly decent job of making them relatively unique (I think we can go further, more on that), but Ganondorf is a clone of Captain Falcon. That has literally never made a damn bit of sense to me, but I've gone with it. Well, I have ideas for other characters that might bring us upwards of 6 characters in the stable, and I think going past 5 is a mistake. I say, we cut the clone, and go with his canonical predecessor, Demise. A sword fighter who moves like Bowser, but has range is interesting to me. He'd be almost of a DeDeDe, but with more momentum. It doesn't hurt that I just plain love the way he moves, and for a 'destroy the world' kind of evil, he's surprisingly personable. He's actually quickly become one of my number one wants for the next Smash Bros, and I don't mind sacrificing Ganondorf if he doesn't do something to come into his own this go around.

The Stage of History: Castelia City

The City of Potential.

  I've been wracking my brain for a good level out of the new Pokemon Black/White series, and it finally hit me that I had been looking too hard. Castelia City is perfect. It's probably the most iconic location, and there's a -lot- that you can do with it. Two ideas come to mind: The Rooftops and the Port.

  On the Rooftops of Castelia City, you can get a great view of some of the distant bridges and landscapes, while focusing on a stage that resembles good ol' Saffron City. Rooftops, some floating platforms, and a tone of Pokemon cameo traps. It's not terribly original, but it is... *ahem*... super effective!

  Alternatively, if we look at the front level, a port is a neat option. You have all the hustle and bustle of the city streets in the background while parties fight hoping from bridge to bridge, with boats that come and go as other central platforms. Flying Pokemon or random flying platforms could serve along the upper plane, but rather than having to worry about falling in the gaps, you just have to worry about becoming useless while swimming to recover. It'd be an interesting dynamic, and one of the more unique stages, I think.

The Music Selection of Castelia City

Pokemon XD - Mirror B's Battle

  If there was one thing I didn't get about Brawl's music design, it was the Pokemon tracks. Don't get me wrong, I loved almost all of it, and Sakurai hand-picked some of my favorite random tracks that I never thought would make it in there (Route 223). But he has stated that his design for picking songs was to try and grab something from every game, because somebody's first Mario was New Super Mario Bros., so there needs to be a song from that in there. Now I"m not expecting him to grab -everything-, but I feel like Pokemon covered very little ground considering the sheer breadth of the series. That's why my first submission is Mirror B's battle theme from Pokemon XD. It was an atrocious game that I got 100% completion on, because I clearly value myself little, but if one thing carried me through it was these beats.

  Pokemon Battle Revolution - Main Street Colosseum

  Full disclosure: I never touched that game, but I have the music, and it is surprisingly good. This song isn't quite my favorite, but I think it most suits the idea for a Castelia City stage.

Pokemon TCG - Normal Duel

  (incomprehensible drooling and mumbling)

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver - Goldenrod City Game Corner

  Also known as the Lucky Channel music from the original Gold/Silver, this track captivates the fun and excitement of the big city, and really would lay up great against the backdrop of Castelia. As I mentioned earlier, that was a tremendous lack of music from all over the Pokemon games, and I think Gold and Silver got snubbed hard. Hopefully with the semi-recent release of HG/SS, we can see a track or two come into the mix.

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver - Ho-Oh Battle

  This isn't the most impressive song on it's own merit, but I think it's ripe for a good remix. Focus on the traditional Japanese style of Taiko drums and tsugaru's, and I think you have the potential for one of the most bitchin' remixes ever.

Pokemon Black/White - Castelia City

  Sort of the obvious choice, isn't it? I rather like it, and it fits, so I don't see why we can't include it.

  One of the things Black/White was really great about was evolving music to fit the scenarios. It's something more games, especially RPG's, could stand to do, and it was well done here. When the tides of battles changed, the music reflected that, and I think adding that element into Smash Bros.: TNG is important. That's why I suggest that whenever somebody is down to one stock, or the clock is down to 30 seconds, any music on any Pokemon stage immediately switches to this:

Pokemon Black/White - Battle Danger!

  They need to make sure to keep the disorienting shift of the beeping between left and right side, as well. It really helps add to the chaotic feeling of the song.

  Thanks to The Avengers, I'm already a day behind and I'm still too tired to catch up today. I'd apologize, but only one person is even reading this, and you already know I'm sorry. That said, I'm going to double up here this weekend and I expect to be back on track shortly. Thank you for putting up with this disturbance in my schedule.

-Make it a good one.