the Smash Bros Diaries – Week 2: Super Smash Bros. (N64) and Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube

So, the week started out not great. The first three nights I was unable to make any progress to unlocking Ness. I was losing all three stocks before I even got to the Polygon fighters.

I was getting discouraged, but I was unable to unlock Item Switch on Night Two.

On Night Four I came up with a new strategy – for the next three nights I would play as one character only. For Night Four I was going to start with Kirby, and then move on to Mario/Luigi and Pikachu for subsequent nights.

But I was able to unlock Ness with Kirby on just the second try. My palms were sweaty when facing Ness and it was a tough fight, but I was able to unlock him finally.

I played Ness vs Random CPUs from Levels 1-9 on the default Time Attack. The difference between 1-3 level CPUs are barely noticeable. The difference between 4-8 level CPUs aren’t too obvious either. But when I went from level 8 to Level 9 it was an insane jump. It was the first time the computer just demolished me.

The next day, Controller Classic Pros came in from eBay! I really like the form factor of the Classic Pro more than the normal Classic. However, on the original Classic the grab buttons for Super Smash Bros. are the middle shoulder buttons and the block buttons are the outer shoulder buttons, I had really gotten used to that. The shoulder buttons on the Classic Controller Pro are even with each other like a Xbox or PS controller and I kept pressing block when I meant to grab.

After playing Level 9 CPUs using tournament rules, this game’s options feel very limited. Can’t turn off stick jump?

One thing that really struck me about the 64 game, the KO percentages are so low. You get up even near 80 percent and one good hit is instant death. I’m fairly certain in each subsequent game the characters soak up more and more damage.

Then it was time to crack out Melee. Loading up my save, I already have most of the unlockable characters – I just need to unlock Pichu, Metwo, and Mr. Game and Watch. Probably going to do a lot of cheap self-destructs on 1 stock matches to get to 200 matches.

For Stages I have a lot to unlock – F-Zero Grand Prix: Big Blue; Kanto Skies: Poke Floats; Superflat World: Flat Zone; Battlefield, Final Destination, Dream Land (N64), Yoshi’s Island (N64), and Kongo Jungle. Unless some of these names I’m looking at on this unlockable list are wrong and I’ve already got these stages. I”m not too worried about getting every stage, bu I do want the tournament legal ones and those could be hard unlock.

First I went through Adventure Mode on Normal. It is not great, it’s like 1P Mode from the frirst game with some terrible platforming levels. Ironic, that the platforming is the worst part of a sort-of Mario game.

The Metal Mario Bros. stage was really difficult, it took me quite a few continues to beat it. Beating Bowser afterwards was easy.

Then, I self-destructed a few times in Smash until I was able to unlock the F-Zero Grand Prix: Big Blue Level. I spent the rest of the night trying to unlock Yoshi’s Island (N64) stage in Home-Run Contest minigame. Not sucuessfully.

The next day I looked into what Event Matches I had left to beat. I had three still be beat before I could unlock Event Matches 31 – 39. Event Match 26 Trophy Tussle 2, Event Match 27 Cold Armor, and Event Match 28 Puffballs Unite. I couldn’t beat any of them, which must be why they were the three remaining. To be honest, I’m not sure I beat all of the other levels, my little brother may have won most of them. I’m going to keep trying, but I don’t think I’ll ever beat these three events, so I’ll never unlock Final Destination.

The next day I tried the three Event Matches still open to beat, with no success. To be honest, I’m not really getting the Melee love at the moment. These Event Matches don’t seem to much challenging as they seem just unfair. In the 1P Modes you can’t use the C-Stick for Smashes or Tilts, so it’s useless. And I’m not sure if it’s just the 1P modes, but the throws don’t seem to work as normal, it’s very hard to actually throw an opponent. Am I going to discover that each Smash Bros. is better than the last in the end?

The last day of the week I started out just leaving a VS Mode on for a few hours so I could get up to the 20 hours needed to unlock Metwo. I’ll have to keep doing that throughout next week, because it wasn’t enough this time.

I tried the Home Run Contest some more, didn’t get close to the 1,333 feet need to unlock the N64 Yoshi Stage. I looked up some walkthroughs on the Event Matches I was stuck on. I played through the Trophy Tussle throw multiple times, trying every character, no luck. I tried to Cold Armor over and over again; I was able to get down to one Metal Samus left on the Cold Armor Event but still ended up losing. I tried Puffballs Unite multiple times as well, but the Kirby’s were too tough. So, I went over to the 15-Minute Melee task and beat it on the third try, by just constantly spamming DK’s down-B special. Unlocked the Kongo Jungle stage.

I took a break for a few hours, which really helped

Came back a few hours later and just sort of lucked into beating Trophy Tusssle 2, which then unlocked Event Matches 30 – 39.

So, I played Event Match 37 Legendardy Pokemon over and over again until I was able to beat it and unlock Pichu. It was not fun, since you have to fight through giant Wirefram fighters to get to the Pokeballs before Jigglypuff who only worries about that. After trying a number of characters I finally settled on Link because his up B Spin Attack is good for clearing paths. After around 10 frustrating tries I switched to Yoshi and for some reason had more success with him and was able to beat it after about five more tries. Of course then I had to defeat Pichu with Yoshi, who’s not one of my main characters. But I did and Pichu is unlocked.

And I immediately took Pichu to Event Match 28 Puffballs Unite. She is the ideal selection for the this Event, her down B just destroys the Kirbys. It took some time but I got the strategy down and finally passed it.

Then I tried the other newly unlocked Event Matches just once for each. I beat some, I lost some. Seems like I’ll be stuck on a few of these new Event Matches as well.

To finish out the week I went back to the Homerun Contest. I was able to get over 1,000 feet, but not the 1,333 feet required. Honestly, I don’t particiulary care about getting the extra Yoshi level, it just seems like this should be a challenge I coudl easily beat.

So, that was Week Two. Hopefully next week I can finish unlocking all the characters in Melee and my outlook on the game will improve. It’s possible that I am improving my skills while I’m going through these Event matches, but right now it feels like I’m lucking into the passing these Events when I win and that they’re just unfair when I fail.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.