Ok, so I know I promised I’d get back to actually finishing the game, but wanted to return once again to choosing my new Smash main. Looking at the list from my previous posts, it was just too long, I don’t want to learn all of those characters. And a reminder that I’ve already crossed off Pikachu and most likely Lucina from the new main list. So instead of trying all those characters I listed before, I decided to only try out fighters who have won an S-Tier tournament or I was already interested in playing. So the remaining list of characters to check out is now.
- Joker
- Wario
- Peach
- Zero Suit Samus
You’ll notice that Peach was added. Never really been into Peach, but she has won an S-Tier. Zero Suit Samus hasn’t won an S-Tier either, but she’s always been a character I’ve liked playing. And she was on the original list.
If after I give these four characters a good try and I feel like I’ve found my new main, I’ll stop there. If I feel like I haven’t found it, or I’m not sure I’ll give these characters one day and one day only.
- Pokemon Trainer
- Palutena
- Fox
- Wolf
- Olimar
- Inkling
- Dr. Mario
- Kirby
Ness is still my favorite character to play. But I just don’t want to keep losing because I missed PKThunder recoveries or I faced a sword character. If I lose from now on, I want it to be because the other player was better. I want to stop blaming my character’s matchups or their poor recovery.
I really enjoyed playing as Joker this week. He’s a combination of the things I liked about other characters. He has speed like Pikachu, he can use projectiles for spacing like Ness, and he has multiple options to finish off stocks like Lucina.
Playing as Pikachu was very frustrating since he really only has a few kill options and opponents can easily avoid them. There was nothing about playing as Lucina that bothered me, but there wasn’t anything about that character I really enjoyed either. She just didn’t click with me.
I’m not positive that Joker will be my main in the end, but at the end of this week, he’s in the lead. I didn’t do great online (as I’ll go over later in this post); but I did have some success.
But Joker isn’t a perfect character as he’s sometimes built up to be. He has his weaknesses as well. Particularly playing against small characters really gave me problems. I lost to Pikachu and Kirby. Pikachu was dodging between Joker and Arsene! I lost to one Jigglypuff and beat another, but I feel like the matchup favors Jigglypuff. For all three of those fighters, they’re easily able to duck under Joker’s Gun attacks, and they are all fast or floaty enough to pretty easily avoid the Eiha attack. So they pretty much neutralize Joker’s neutral game. I had trouble getting my hands on all three opponents. If I choose Joker as my main, I think I need a secondary to take on the tiny character.s
Alright, on to the actual playing of Ultimate. Let’s split this up this blog post into modes to keep it a little better organized than by Night.
Training Mode
So I started Night One just in practice mode. First I practiced spot dodging until I think I finally got it down. The problem is, even after I master a technique I’m not always using them correctly or at all during actual matches. Then I continued to practice in Training Mode, just checking out the new character Banjo & Kazooie. It seems like this character could potentially be really good, but I’m not ready to add them to my list quite yet.
On Nights Two and Three I practiced parrying in Training Mode with Joker. And a little bit of Recovery, Edge Guarding, and looking for combos. The parrying is coming slowly, only got up to four in a row.
For the remaining Nights, I started practicing parrying and Joker’s bread and butter combos. I never got the number of consecutive parries past five.
Smash vs CPU
On Night one I played three matches against Level 5 CPUs with Joker. I was able to win all three, though they were closer than they should have been. I played with the Smash Con ruleset, though not on the Smash Con stages.
On Night Two I played three matches against Level 6 CPUs. I did lose once, but it was on a stage I was testing that I determined wasn’t viable.
On Night Three, I skipped Level 7, went straight to Level 8 CPUs. This was a mistake, I forgot that I had only played Level 6 the night before. I lost one match to Little Mac, so had to re-match him. I was able to win, though it was down to the last stock.
On Night Four I played Level 9 CPUs, I did better than I thought, I actually won a few times.
Stage Testing
I’m also testing out other levels that I think should be added when just having friendlies. After a while, it gets boring to play the same 5-7 levels, and it seems like some levels aren’t tournament legal, simply because they weren’t in the past. And I can never have too many projects in Smash going on!
I played all three DLC levels on Night One. I don’t think the Spiral Mountain Stage from Banjo Kazooie is a good level. The little ledge on the bottom right really messes up the flow of matches. I think both the DragonQuest and Persona levels could be good additions though. Yggdrasil’s Altar is a nice flat level similar to Final Destination. Platforms fly in and out during the match, which is a nice mix-up, similar to the Animal Crossing levels. I think Mementos is a nice change of pace as well. It has platforms and is not completely flat, but I think it’s still a fair place to Smash. With Stage Effects Off, there’s no side platforms or temporary walls and ceilings. The diagonal lines could affect the gameplay, yes, but it’s not like its Yoshi’s Island 64. I think I’m going to add both Mementos and Yggrdrasil’s Altar to my next party Smash, and I don’t think the community should be so quick to leave them out of competitive Smash.
I tested three more on Night Two. I’m not going to review each one that I tried, only if I think it should be added or if there’s something interesting or controversial about it. Anyway, I’m not going to add any that I played on Night Two. Umbra Clock Tower with Stage effects off is the only one that came close. It’s a nice flat stage with no platforms. So it could be a nice change of pace from Final Destination. However, there’s just way too much going on in the background, it’s very distracting.
On Night Three, I think all three I tested are viable levels. Wily Castle with Hazards Off is another FD like level. Nothing about stands out as egregious. I think it’s probably not included in most tournaments because it’s not different enough from Final Destination.
Midgar with Hazards Off is very similar to Battlefield. I’m going to add it t my list because of this, but its also probably why it is usually not allowed.
The final one I tested on Night Three was Wuhu Island. With Hazards off its like playing on a giant snowboard with diagonals at each end. It’s also a pretty small stage. I think this level could add some nice variety to the game flow. I suppose for certain people the slanted angles at the edges could get in the way of their play style. But I think that’s what makes it interesting.
On Night Four the only one I think only one that came close is Coliseum. It’s a completely flat stage with a walkoff on each side. I know the walkoff is what makes non-viable, but it’s a nice change of pace for non-serious play. But I’m going to leave it off my stage list, even for friendlies because the walkoff is too quick a kill.
Online Quickplay
I played online Nights Five, Six, and Seven. Played Online Quickplay with Joker. Went 0-8 Nights Five and Six. But I went 2-3 on Night Seven. Finally seeing some results from all the practice time. Though I think the should have lost one of the games I won. My opponent got too aggressive on my last stock because they had the lead. I kept doing Joker’s down B counter until it killed.
World of Light
On Night ONe I finally went back into the World of Light for the first time in a long time. I unlocked one character, Shulk. I had to use Spirits. And then…I didn’t really know where to go. I needed a couple of Spirits to continue to new areas of the map, but there weren’t any new ones that I could summon using the summon menu. I went through two levels I hadn’t beaten earlier to maybe open a new path but it wasn’t clear. I was thinking I may have look up at a wiki later in the week.
On Night Two I continued on the same path and was able to find see a new path. I was able to continue until I reached another new fighter – Zero Suit Samus. Just as aside, Shulk is straight trash. His neutral special Monado Arts will increase an attribute, but at the expense of another attribute. He’s no Hero. He only has a few useful moves, especially compared to other sword characters. I had to change it to Very Easy to pass on a few stages.
On Night Three I found a new portion of the map and cleared spaces until I reached the next Fighter space. I did it mostly as Zero Suit Samus, she’s a much better character than Shulk. Though I did get stuck and pulled out Joker and then Kirby. And then changed to Very Easy. At the end of the NIght, I unlocked King Dedede.
I continued to play it Nights Four- Seven, but they blend together. Two nights I didn’t know where to go so I just played random spaces. I did eventually figure out what to do and on Night Seven I defeated Master Hand and Galeem. Sort of thought that would be the end, but no, that unlocked a whole new “dark” map. I realized after that I had only unlocked the hero characters, the villains were all still locked. So I’m assuming the villains are unlocked in the dark map.
I did unlock Toon Link as well, but I think that was the last good guy character left to unlock. I had somewhere around 30 characters unlocked at the end of the week.
Toon Link seems like an alright character, his specials all have range obviously. But I think I liked playing as King Dedede more. His specials really put pressure on your opponents. I beat a few levels very quickly, even on Normal difficulty. His blows hit hard.
This might seem like a weird complaint, but World of Light is almost too large. There are so many spaces, and so many times we’re you’re path is blocked and you have to backtrack to unlock it or find a new spirit to unblock it. But all of that isn’t fun, it’s not like you’re exploring and meeting interesting new characters or seeing cool new places. It’s just like an overcomplicated board game.
And the actual challenges aren’t always fun or interesting. Fighting multiple teams of the same character could be interesting, but then the game adds a weird condition like random size changes to you and/or opponent, and then it adds CPU Assist trophies that attack you. In levels like these I would just button mash, I wasn’t actually using any strategy, because there’s none that would be effective. I know this was supposed to be an expansion of Brawl, but this a bloated and ineffective update of the Subspace Emissary story mode. It would have been more interesting to have a more streamlined story mode. Instead of piling condition after condition on fights the different stages could have concentrated on the different character match-ups.
World of Light is such a chore at this point, but I’m pressing on! I’ll complete it! Eventually. And next week I’ll also be trying out Wario as a main, we’ll see how that goes.