Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

For those who didn't watch (SPOILERS AHEAD),








Ryu is insanely complicated.  Like... well, like a Street Fighter character, I guess.

I don't like it.  Not even in an "urgh it's a third party character in Smash" way.  In a, "you've taken one of the defining tenets of Smash - simplicity, the removal of the combos and movelists that take up forty pages that plague (yes, plague) other fighting games - and chucked it out of the window" way.

This was a bad thing.  I still want to buy him, but I'll be playing him like a normal Smash character, and because of that I'll never be able to get maximum power out of him.  And that is wrong.

Ryu looks great and will be a good addition to the roster. No Ken alt-costume though? Disappointing.

Not bothered much about Roy - did prefer him to Marth in melee but too many Fire Emblem characters now.

Would have liked a Splatoon squid kid character instead of just a costume.

The Isabelle costume is terrifying. She's been skinned and being worn.


Best news is N64's Hyrule Castle returning.

I've got a totally opposite view to Balla - I love how Ryu plays. I've always been drawn to faster, more combo-oriented characters like Sheik and Captain Falcon, so Ryu seems right up my alley. Being able to use some of my Street Fighter knowledge is cracking as well - I'll be throwing out Shoryukens like there's no tomorrow.

I like that he's easily accessible to newcomers too, as well as creating an opportunity to perhaps learn some basic combos. Street Fighter's never relied on stupidly complex combos (looking at you, Tekken), so it should be easy to learn for any who want to. Top stuff.

Roy though, eh. I can take him or leave him.

Now, to try and get on the eShop to download the bugger.

EDIT: New characters will be on show during the Nintendo World Championships later tonight.

There's already a fighting game series where people can use their Street Fighter knowledge, though, and there's a reason I'm not playing it.  I don't want to have to learn that to get the most out of the character.

Spoiler:

If you could use either button input to get exactly the same out of the move, so that Smash fans and SF fans can both master him easily using their own sets of techniques, that would be absolutely fine.

For what it's worth, I'm watching some footage of him on Twitch right now, and the damage difference between a regular input and a Street Fighter input is not massive by any stretch. Also, his recovery seems to be pretty shocking.

And come on Balla - of course I know that my Street Fighter knowledge is best served in the actual bloody series, but I appreciate Sakurai's inclusion of Street Fighter mechanics for Ryu. It's surprising considering his apparent condemnation of the competitive scene. But Sakurai is a stickler for authenticity in his characters, hence Smash Ryu's close ties with Street Fighter mechanics. He seems to be a character catering to tryhards like me - I dig it.

Has anyone managed to get on the eShop, by the way? The servers have been dead as a dodo since the Direct ended.

I'm with Jay on this one, I did wonder how he'd work in smash and this seems to be a great way to balance it for all kinds of smash players also it's only the basic combos of his most famous moves which even for me who is terrible at street fighter are easy to pull off.

So I'm looking forward to putting that into practice when using him.

Jay wrote:

Has anyone managed to get on the eShop, by the way? The servers have been dead as a dodo since the Direct ended.

I'm on e shop now but I get an error when loading up the add on content page for smash bros.

I've managed to get all of the way to the purchase screen three times between the two different devices, and been kicked all the way out from there. Anyway, it's now down for maintenance.

And I'm sorry gents, but I strongly disagree. Were there no reward for learning the SF combos over the Smash moves then yes, they'd be a nice little addition for the SF fans; but I am not okay with any reward, no matter how small, that makes SF fighting a better option than Smash fighting, in a Smash game.

But anyway there's nothing I/we can do about it, other than hope for a patch that will even out the damage outputs - and try to get onto the eShop.

I don't see them being that complex in practice though and you might be perfectly fine not using them, the proof will be in the playing though.

Okay, so got a hold of Ryu on 3DS. He's incredibly fun to play, and quite frankly, the Street Fighter based inputs are absolutely NOT needed to get full enjoyment out of the character.

Here's my findings after mucking about in Training mode for a while:

Ryu's Special Moves with SF inputs :

Basically, he's a really fun character that focuses on going for combos. I think he's accessible regardless of skill level - I probably won't bother with the SF inputs, personally.

I guess it's the difference between wanting to have fun with him, and wanting to "git gud" without needing to do the fiddly quarter circles (and you're right, the Shoryuken input is a nightmare).


I've managed to have a muck around with all three of them.  Roy's had some major changes, which is a big plus point in my eyes.  His basic moves have changed a whole bunch, his B+^ has him swooping across the screen like he's Spiderman with a thread suspended from his sword tip, and Blazer is different from Shield Breaker by virtue of the latter changing.  He even has a different Final Smash.  Whoever said he'd been "Luigi-ed" was right.

Lucas is much the same as he was, bar his special moves which have had little changes to each (PK Freeze is faster, PK Fire has recoil, PK Thunder is a whole bunch easier to control).  He didn't need many changes though.

I'm inclined to play Ryu like Little Mac with an air game, which is not the best way to play him, I know.  Regardless of the SF inputs, he's still going to take a bit of time to master, what with all his combos and the mapping of his weak/strong attacks.  This one will need some training, but he's definitely... interesting.

Ryu's air game is killer though. Like, surprisingly good.

I've only picked up Lucas and Ryu thus far, although it's good to have the fact that Roy's been "Luigified" confirmed.

Yeah, I got them the wrong way around - I've edited to "with an air game". No range, but his air game (a) does a surprising amount of damage and (b) is a lot simpler than his ground one!

But you know what the main problem is with this DLC?

Spoiler:

The best thing about the smash direct is that none of that chat is gonna be taking up time during the main E3 digital presentation.
Will probably bag ryu at some point, been hoping to see him on the roster for a while

Picked up Roy and Ryu and the Kirby stage at the moment.. Roy may be replacing Lucina as my Fire Emblem Character

Drunkalilly wrote:

The best thing about the smash direct is that none of that chat is gonna be taking up time during the main E3 digital presentation.

I still wouldn't mind a last-minute super-secret character-we're-working-on reveal!

Despite how much I despise these third party inclusion stunts I'm going to have to grab Ryu solely because having an actual fighting character complete with fighting controls in Smash sounds like it could be extremely interesting to play. Plus Ryu looks cool, may not be a nintendo character but he's cool looking and iconic so I can deal with it, plus it's not like they included some character that lacks prestige. Ryu is one of those video game characters, the Mario of fighting games, he deserves the spot.

Also, at long last! My original main is finally back in Smash. Roy's return only begs the question yet again: why did they waste time on Lucina? Still should've been an alt costume for Marth with Roy being in day one and I'm never going to believe otherwise. At least it'll be an effective day one when I finally get the Wii U at any rate.

As for Lucas, no comment. It's good for fans of Earthbound, but as I've no experience with it besides Ness in Smash I'm basically indifferent to it.

Now all we need is Wolf back and Smash 4 will officially be the best Smash of all time.

I got the wii U only bundle earlier (That's Ryu, Roy & Lucas plus the stages and the mii outfits) I've played a few matches as Ryu and I really like him and he definitely fits in, favourite thing to do with him so far? Hit an opponent with an up throw then combo it into a Shoryuken.

This will definitely get me back into playing the game again & perhaps finish off classic/all star mode with all characters.

I won't be bothering with Roy and Lucas on account of them being a bit shit. Ryu however is someone I'm very keen to play as. In part because I've just watched the video of Reggie being pummelled by a pro gamer and seeing some of the moves that Ryu can pull off has really got me excited for what he could do in the right hands.

Sadly my Wii U is packed away for moving this week so I'll need to play as him on the 3DS version first. Let's see if my feelings about him still hold up after I've downloaded him.

Edit- He's bloody wonderful. I'd say he's a cross between Little Mac and Captain Falcon.

Nonsense! I really like Roy this time around, having hated him in SSBM, and I've always liked Lucas. You do them a disservice sah!

Roy and Lucas are very shit. I'm assuming Roy only got included as Athrun must have incriminating photos of Sakurai with farm animals. Lucas looks like something a competition winner drew, absolute baws.

Cappa aka. The "I hate Japan" Kid.

Roy has been Luigified, a lot of fun to play. And I love having Lucas back, good stuff.

Lucas for me is the only one I don't really care about. Plan on getting Ryu later today.. Also it would have been handy to have a bundle of the characters and stages minus the Mii costumes

The cynic in me says that's how they planned to sell what they knew would be the least popular part of the package.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Roy and Lucas are very shit. I'm assuming Roy only got included as Athrun must have incriminating photos of Sakurai with farm animals. Lucas looks like something a competition winner drew, absolute baws.

I can't see myself stumping up the cash for either to be honest. I've always felt that Lucas is a poor mans Ness. Like the diet version if you will.