It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Indeed, since Project M (a massive Super Smash Bros Brawl mod to turn Brawl into Melee 1.5, with new characters and content) was cancelled in December 2015, it seems things have been slow on the Project M news front. No obvious revivals, no new developer information, no news on gaming sites… it’s like everyone completely forgot about the title!
But now things might be getting interesting again! Why?
Because over on 4chan in May, someone leaked a ton of cool stuff from Project M’s development. Here are the links to different parts of the leaked ‘pack’ (via Mega):
Well, quite a lot of random things really. Some of them seem to be personal projects by Project M team members, some just other mods that the guys may or may not have been willing to integrate or play around with (like the Pichu one). Here’s a list of what’s in each pack:
Bumblebee Ness (presumably some sort of alt costume for the character)
Pichu (based off a mod by Smashboards user called [TSON])
Pig Ganon (redone Ganon based off his earlier appearances)
Fireball Bowser (Bowser with the ability to shoot fireballs instead of breathe fire)
Tons of ‘ported maps’
Various edits for Fox and his attacks and hitboxes
Lots of announcer comments, by whoever was playing that role for the Project M development team.
Melee Translation Data (presumably something tech related)
Something called D1 (seems to be early takes for a new announcer)
Out of these, the announcer quotes one has to be an interesting download. Why? Because it includes comments for LOTS of characters that weren’t ever added to Project M, but might have been planned at one time. Namely:
King K Rool from Donkey Kong Country
Pichu Bros from Pokemon
Isaac from Golden Sun (well, he was in the leaked dev build)
Pichu (see above reference)
Ridley from Metroid
Saki from Sin and Punishment (see leaked dev build)
Skull Kid from Zelda
Slippy from Star Fox
Black Shadow from F-Zero
Bowser Jr from Mario (like in Smash 4)
Dark Samus from Metroid
Dixie Kong from Donkey Kong Country
Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog series
Lyn from Fire Emblem (see leaked dev build)
That’s a pretty insane list of possible playable characters. Of course, only three of them got anywhere near being included in the actual game before its cancellation, but I give props to the team for their ambition.
Remember the Dream Land in Super Smash Bros? The one based on the Kirby’s Dream Land titles for the original Game Boy?
Well it seems like that could have been very different! Indeed, according to the good folk at Source Gaming, it seems the original plan was for a level based on Super Mario Land instead! According to their article:
A Mario Land stage was planned to be on the 3DS version, but it was replaced by the Game Boy stage.
So yeah, it makes you wonder doesn’t it? How awesome a stage that cycled through the Birabuto Kingdom’s plains and pyramids would have been. One which might have had an awesome remixed song like this:
Either way, it didn’t happen. A bit of a pity for those of us who grew up with the Game Boy you must admit, but the replacement stage was decent too.
On another note, do check out the rest of their article over there! It’s a piece about misconceptions and Super Smash Bros development (where Sakurai explains that he’s not some franchise overlord that dictates every design decision and inclusion), and it mentions some other cut stages too. It’s definitely worth a read, especially if you’re one of those people who likes to come up with conspiracy theories about Sakurai and the Smash Bros games.
It’s been a while since Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Wii U was first announced, but now it seems development has finally come to a close. In his last column in Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, series creator Masahiro Sakurai has thanked the fans for their love and support for the series, and mentioned how he’s taking a well deserved vacation. Here’s his comment about the situation, in his own words:
The last two DLC fighters for Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U, Corrin and Bayonetta, are now available. At long last, the development on Smash for has ended!! To all of the staff who were involved in this project, thank you for all your hard work. To all who supported and followed the game and its development, thank you so very much. Personally, I’m happy I can finally take an extended vacation.
The fighters themselves become the sources of new excitement. That’s why the new fighters can do things the others cannot, to bring to life a number of battles that did not previously exist. Smash is much more extravagant in its design than other fighting games, development is difficult, and I have to deal with oversight from the original creators, but I have to do my best.
But now that raises one more question. Namely… will he be back for part 5?
Because with the Wii U failing to really find much of an audience and the Nintendo NX release date right round the corner, it seems inevitable than a fifth Super Smash Bros game will be announced to go with it. Heck, even Sakurai didn’t know he was going to working on the last game til Iwata came in and basically said it needed to exist! And with all the rumours that the new console will actually launch with a Super Smash Bros game (even if it’s just a modified version of the Wii U one), we’re starting to suspect his holiday this year won’t be a particularly long one.
Well, this would certainly be exciting if true, though I certainly wouldn’t count on it. Basically, the current rumour going around at the moment (courtesy of a Twitter user and known gaming info leaker called Dr. Serkan Toto (and his anonymous source) is that a new Super Smash Bros game will be coming to the Nintendo NX as a launch title. Here’s the tweet about it:
Bandai Namco is currently developing several NX titles. Smash Bros is planned to be a launch title. I am not sure about the date – yet ;).
But is it true? To be honest… that’s hard to say. I mean, it’s an anonymous source, that’s already a sort of red flag in itself, regardless of what user or publication is passing on their message.
What’s more, nothing says this has to be a NEW game. Oh sure, it’s supposedly got something to do with Super Smash Bros. But it’s just as likely (and somewhat hinted at) that it could be an improved version of an older title, like an improved Smash Bros 4 with the DLC stuff included by default. Or heck, if you want a really insane idea, maybe a HD Melee remake or something equally crazy.
Either way, Smash Bros might be coming as an NX launch game. Maybe this might be what the system needs to sell right off the bat!
Well it seems like something similar is happening in Super Smash Bros for Wii U. Basically, someone calling themselves gamergibbons on Reddit was playing on For Glory with a ‘really salty’ (read, obnoxious) player. Said player apparently changed his name to ‘YOU’RE GONE’, at which point the topic creator’s game crashed to a black screen with an error message. It then continued to be unusable whenever he tried to boot up the game again, or copy the save data.
So something is apparently not right on For Glory in Super Smash Bros.
But is the story true? Well to be honest… we’re not really that sure. It’s a compelling one, and if true, certainly one that’ll scare a few die hard Nintendo fans and Super Smash Bros players.
But it’s also a very suspicious one, one which has a lot of ‘points’ which bring it closer to a creepypasta that a real telling of events. Like the hacker changing his name in a cruel way right before destroying the game. Okay, the person mentioned was apparently a douchebag or what not, but come on… changing his name to taunt his opponent before attacking? That’s the kind of thing you’d see in a movie, not real life. It made me think of that scene in Skyfall where Raoul Silva attacks MI6 with a virus on an encrypted laptop.
There’s also the somewhat technical infeasibility of the attack. What data does your Wii U share with other consoles when playing online? Well, in Smash Bros’ case… not a whole lot as far as attack vectors go. So the theories in the thread are that the attack used a hacked nickname or messed up replay data for the task. But how would that work? Is Nintendo’s security really so bad that someone can figure out how to brick someone’s copy of the game or save data via injecting code into a nickname or replay data? Cause that seems pretty unlikely. Also, the kind of bug that many companies would offer thousands of dollars in reward money for, since it’s clearly dangerous for people using their products.
Add how said user apparently lost the replay data proving the attack (and let’s face it, saying you’ve lost/destroyed all evidence is very common for fake rumours posted online), and you’ve got a story that’s a tad suspicious in how it’s presented. Probably not gonna stop the gaming press talking about it though.
But what do you think? Is there really a hacker going around in Super Smash Bros destroying people’s games via exploits, similar to the problems caused by Splatoon hackers in months past? Or is this just another tall tale that’s going to end up on every gaming website under the sun within about a week?
