Today was the last Nintendo Direct-style presentation for Super Smash Bros. for 3DS & Wii U. Despite announcing Cloud last month as the closer to Nintendo's most recent Direct, they had more up their sleeve this month to finish the year and boy they did with a banger.
First off is the announcement of a new playable character and it's another one from the Fire Emblem series. This time it's Corrin from the upcoming Fire Emblem Fates for 3DS. There are male and female versions of Corrin as they also have monster forms for special moves. No new stage will accompany Corrin, but new songs from the new game will be selectable for the existing Fire Emblem stages. He will cost $4.99 for owners or either 3DS or Wii U versions and $5.99 for those that have both sometime on February 2016.
Next up is a demonstration of Cloud's moves and the Midgar stage from Final Fantasy VII. One of his specials is charging up his limit gauge for limit breaks. Limit break versions of his normal and special moves do more damage. His Up+B in that state has way more recovery as in the presentation, he was recovering from downtown. The Midgar stage is one of the crazier stages in Super Smash Bros. with summons of monsters from the series such as Ifrit & Bahamut Zero wrecking havoc to the playing field. Cloud will be up on the eShop later today along with Midgar for $5.99/$6.99 for both versions. Nintendo did warn of the eShop servers getting hammered when he's up since that was the case when the last batch of characters were released.
More Mii outfits were also shown off from the Chocobo hats and even a full Geno look (sorry Geno fans!) for later today alongside the Cloud release. For February, bionic outfits will be released as well as Takamaru, Tails and Knuckles ones from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Ashley from the Wario Ware games and Gil from the Tower of Druaga. Those wanting their Miis to look exactly like the iconic character outfits released so far can go the official website for QR codes to be used to create specific Miis.
The last playable character announced for Super Smash Bros. is the winner of the Smash Ballot from a while back. Turns out the winner is none other than Bayonetta! Just like how faithful Ryu was implemented to Smash, a lot of care and work was done to make Bayonetta play like she was in her own games from the controls, combos and special moves. Witch Time works exactly as it does in Platinum's series dodging at the right frame along with the Bat Within taking reduced damage from attacks. Holding the attack button does fire her guns, her smash attacks are the Wicked Weaves and even her final smash requires the climax meter built up for the Umbran Climax finisher from the games. Accompanying Bayonetta's release on February is the new Umbra Clock Tower stage, the scene from the prologue of Bayonetta 2. It will also have songs from both games. Bayonetta and her stage costs the same as Cloud ($5.99/$6.99 if you have both versions).
Nintendo did promise amiibos for Cloud, Corrin and Bayonetta for release sometime in 2016 for amiibo fans still completing their collection. Ryu, Roy and Famicom R.O.B. (previously a Japan exclusive) will be out on March 18th stateside. Seeing how about retail exclusivity is still going for amiibos, I won't be surprised the former three I mentioned are exclusives to a specific store.
That's it for Super Smash Bros.'s final video presentation. I was surprised it was only character, Mii and amiibo announcements as I wished other facets of the game would be addressed. Will the game still have balance patches after February? How about improving the online infrastructure even more? Perhaps these questions will be answered at a later time, but it's been one crazy ride for this iteration of Super Smash Bros. from the potential dream matchups, over 50 characters playable and the continuation of being a love letter not just to Nintendo fans, but also fans of video games in general. The full presentation can be seen below.
