Lord_Brand

Don't really see the point in hoping for more than one, but of my choices who aren't already Assist Trophies or Mii Costumes: Crash Bandicoot Mega Man X Roll Spyro the Dragon Dr. Eggman

Having played up until the Stone Tower Temple, I'll say that Majora's Mask 3D was good in a lot of ways and bad in a few. The Good Better graphics, obviously, just like OoT3D. More convenient save system. More expansive Bomber's Notebook, with more characters. Improved inventory management over OoT3D. Added fishing holes, with a wide variety of fish to catch. Extra Empty Bottles. The Bad The clock doesn't stop moving in the fishing holes, which makes it kinda hard to relax and focus on fishing. Zora Link's swimming controls feel worse, particularly the dolphin jump. The revamped boss fights are interesting in concept, but the added eyeball weakpoints feel artificial. Gyorg's boss fight is also much more of a pain now, not to mention time-consuming.

Take a close look on the right side of this screenshot, in the blue tile area. Tell me what you see. Rocks and Purples aren't really interchangeable; Purples are designed to stun with the shockwaves they create while Rocks are designed to break stuff when you throw them at it. That could translate to, say, making opponents trip and breaking shields more easily, respectively. Furthermore, Purples hold on like any other kind of Pikmin while Rocks cannot. I'd just have Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple, White, and Rock all be available via plucking, while Winged are reserved for the U Special. As far as Echoes go, you'd have to alter Brittany and Charlie a little bit so they can use the same rig as Olimar and Alph (kinda like the Koopalings and Bowser Jr.), otherwise their rig joints will be a little different. But if you do, I'm not against having them, Louie, and the HF President all be included as alts as well. Maybe by the time Smash 6 comes around, we'll see Pikmin 4 happen and there'll be at least two additional new captains to fill the final two alt slots? Though in all likelihood, they'll have four to keep with the game number. Ultra-Spicy Spray is one example of where a separate Action button could be useful. Though Olimar has yet to make use of the Shield + Special command as well.

The lack of Krystal and Shantae would disappoint me, like always. But the addition of Crash would be neat. At this point, I'll take Krystal as an Echo of Fox over not getting her as a fighter at all. One big difference could be that her Up Special, Rocket Boost, would use blue flames, thereby being Aura rather than Fire (similar to the differences between Simon and Richter's Holy Water). Technically, she was an Echo of sorts in Star Fox Adventures (though one could argue Fox was her Echo in that game, since we play her first), and she also plays exactly like Fox in Star Fox Assault (with the distinction of spawning with two Barriers instead of one in Versus). If they were to add a staff to Fox's moveset in Smash 6, then Krystal could use her staff in turn and still be an Echo, though I might make Fox's staff more mechanical in appeareance, with more angles and flat edges to contrast with the smooth, elegant design of Krystal's staff. Incidentally, I've thought of giving Falco and Wolf some tweaks, as well. To Falco, I'd add jet boots that allow him to hover in air, pull off more acrobatic aerial stunts, and deliver more powerful kicks. In general, he'd be better at aerial combat than Fox but worse at ground combat. Wolf meanwhile would gain a knife (befitting his pirate-like nature) and become better at ground combat than Fox at the cost of being worse in the air. And for all Star Fox characters, I've thought of adding an Arsenal mechanic that allows them to switch their Blasters out for other weapons a la Star Fox Assault, like the Machine Gun, Sniper Rifle, Homing Launcher, and Grenades. Though a lot of those would also work well as new Shooting Items in Smash 6. I'd also add a charge function for the Blasters, with the added effect of locking on to a target and firing a homing shot, referencing both the Blasters' charge shot in Assault and the homing charge shot introduced in Star Fox 64.

Well then, I guess we should ask a mod to lock the topic?

Funnily enough, I was going to include Classic Eggman alts, but I decided that would feel weird unless Sonic - and Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, should they be playable - got Classic alts as well. Since Sonic thus far only has Modern alts, I decided to stick with that for Eggman as well.

Eggman Alts Red Green - Based on E-100 Alpha, aka "Zero" Black - Based on E-101 Beta Blue - Based on E-103 Delta Orange - Based on E-104 Epsilon Purple - Based on E-105 Zeta White - Based on Professor Gerald Robotnik, Eggman's grandfather Eggman Nega, or at least a color scheme based on him

Well, without fighters or stages from other games, I imagine they would only include so many other FF Spirits and Songs. Final Fantasy is definitely one of those series that needs more representation in Smash. For Smash 6, I'm hoping they'll include more than just FFVII content, in fact I'm hoping to see content from just about every Final Fantasy game in there, though I won't mind if they add Tifa as a third FFVII fighter. Some other fighters I'd like to see include Warriors of Light (including Black Mage), Garland, Chocobo & Moogle (they're the series mascots, how can they not be in there?), Cecil, Kain, Bartz, and Terra. Really, Final Fantasy is, along with Mega Man, one of those series where the amount of content I'd actually want exceeds what could probably be added in one game, including DLC.

Welp, I can't vote for my own, so Perkilator gets my vote.

Here's the general flow: Each day, we submit ideas for one step of the Fighter's Pass and vote on which idea we should use. Since there are eight steps, that means it will take eight days for our Eggman pack to be finalized. We're currently on day 2, leaving six more days for Eggman. So, the next round of fighter suggestions and voting should be a week from today. As for Eggman's size, the Mobile will definitely be smaller than the Eggwalker, so it'll be easier to set his size to something that looks okay next to other fighters.

Oh, we're doing alts already? I thought that was step 3?

That does seem to be the primary reason, yes. A lot of contact damage from Mega Man bosses can be justified by the fact anywhere from 100-2000 pounds of metal is slamming into you at sufficiently high speed to cause damage via dashing or jumping. But I agree that just walking up to and touching an idle enemy with no visible means of inflicting contact damage (like spikes or an electric barrier) shouldn't result in the player character getting hurt (see the Spyro and Ratchet & Clank series, where an enemy only hurts you if they attack you). Back in the day, memory space was at a premium, so including animations to justify contact damage simply wasn't feasible. Thus, you had to use your imagination when, say, getting hit by an angry-looking Goomba. Nowadays, we have more than enough hardware resources to include attack animations to justify contact damage. In the case of bosses, I'd say they could have grapple moves that trigger if you get too close to them while they're idle; Frost Walrus for example could pick up and punch or throw you if you walk into him when he's not sliding, and Magma Dragoon might perform a Street Fighter-style throw. In most cases, the boss your fighting has the weight advantage, so it makes sense they're better at grappling you than vice-versa. Speaking of puzzles, that's one thing I'd prefer to avoid with future Mega Man titles: puzzle bosses that render everything you've collected pointless. Gate in X6 was especially bad about this, due to the fact you can only harm him with his own projectiles. I'd have made that fight more of a Ganondorf-kind of affair where you use the Z-Saber to bounce his projectiles back at him to stun him, then follow up with an attack of your own. High Max is less egregious, but still very much so due to what a slog his fight is, especially for Zero. You hit him with a weapon that stuns him, then follow up with the complimentary kind of weapon to damage him, then he gets invincibility until his next attack, lather, rinse, repeat. At least X can use the Nova Strike to take a huge chunk off his health. And of course there's the aforementioned Wily Machine 9 example with the bouncing eggs. So, safe to say X9 should avoid pulling any BS like that. If X9 has a cool new gimmick to push like MM11 did with the Double Gear system, that's fine, but there shouldn't be any ridiculous hoops to jump through. Speaking of cool gimmicks, anyone got any ideas for one that could help set X9 apart from the crowd? Me, I've got the multiplayer element which is to this day almost untouched by the Mega Man series, X DiVE being the only example I can think of that lets players take on a stage together. But that's more of a structural hook than a story-and-gameplay hook like the Double Gear System is. If we want to continue the New Generation Reploid arc, then Axl's A-Trans ability absolutely should be expanded on, but not to the extent that X and Zero are rendered obsolete. Whatever the new hook is, should be something all three of them can use.

That's something we're going to have to vote on once the time comes. When it does, you can submit Mike Jones as your candidate, but even then other users will have to vote on him (and you won't be able to vote for him yourself, the rule is that we have to vote for someone else's submission). And yes, I think most of us here would design an Eggman moveset using the Egg Mobile or Eggwalker as his means of combat. Feel free to suggest one of your own, since we'll be voting on that next (if anyone else offers a moveset, otherwise mine's going to win by default unless we're waiting for at least two movesets to be submitted). For me, it's a toss-up between using the Egg Mobile (which is more iconic) or the Egg Walker (which makes more sense as a grounded fighter, and can be outfitted with arms as well as legs to visibly justify having so many weapons and gadgets). I went with the Egg Mobile due to its iconic status, but if anyone here has an idea for an Eggwalker moveset, I'd be interested in seeing it!

In my Eggman moveset, the Doc pilots his Egg Mobile, outfitted with a multitude of weapons based on those he's used over the years. Some of these are inspired by Brawlfan1's video "What if Eggman was in Smash?", though I also try to mix in some of my own ideas.

In my remake series, I'd considered the possibility of the Hunters as an organization ceasing to exist sometime after X5, visibly dwindling in numbers and influence in the post-Eurasia world where traditional laws don't really hold sway any longer. X sees that the world needs a new cause to believe in, and thus leaves the Hunters to try and start his own organization. That's one of many possibilities for an alternate X7 story that gives X a much better reason for retiring than "Meh, violence". Here, he's trying to give the world hope, something to believe in again. If X9 were to continue the New Generation Reploid plot somehow, in what direction should it go? The ending of X8 hinted that Lumine might affect Axl in some way, with the shot of a piece of Lumine's tendrils in Axl's gem. Most assume Lumine will possess Axl at some point, perhaps turning him into an antagonist in X9. Or Axl grapples with a second personality in his body. Or the hint goes absolutely nowhere, like Isoc in X6 did. X9 has the dual tasks of bringing the X series back while trying to help new players get into the series. I think a theme of "series history" will help bridge the two; the game's own premise is straightforward enough that new players can get into it, yet there are a lot of callbacks to previous games for the continuity buffs. Additional story content might be able to help, as well. Like, in addition to the core plot, there could be additional stories focusing on wrapping up existing plot threads, like Gate's fate after X6, or the mystery behind Isoc. They might even be able to bring back past Maverick Bosses. I kinda like the idea of X, Zero, and Axl each getting their own story to play through, with room for intersection between their stories. That could be another good use for the Simulants, giving each of the three lead Hunters more characters to interact with as well as provide unique support characters for each Hunter. Like, what if Zero ends up on the trail of Gate or Isoc, while bringing along Simulants of Colonel, Iris, and even the X-Hunters as comrades? Axl meanwhile has to contend with Lumine's apparent return with help from a Simulant of Red. Another idea: What if the writers decide to be a little self-referential about the fact it's been a good number of years since X8? Maybe things calmed down for a while after the whole Jakob Elevator incident, causing our heroes to go their separate ways for a time. X started a foundation for researching solutions to the world's growing energy crisis, Zero's been hibernating while researchers figure out how his body works so they can purge it of the virus, and Axl's been working covert to make sure no new Maverick uprisings upset his buddies' more peaceful lives. Then one day, the Simulants are introduced, and before long one of them, a Simulant of Sigma naturally, goes Maverick, causing a new Maverick uprising that prompts the three Hunters to reunite. Axl comments that it feels like it's been forever since they worked on a mission together. X admits that he agrees, mostly because he's missed his friends. To Zero, it seems like hardly any time has passed at all, since his system was offline during his hibernation.

You might like some of my ideas for a Mega Man X remake series, starting with Mega Man X: A New Age. But, that's all for another topic. As for your bullet points: I feel X9 needs to serve as a reintroduction of sorts to the X series, which won't work well if we jump right into the Elf Wars. Honestly, I dread adapting that story arc, given what we know of it. It sounds like a complete antithesis to everything I love about this series and want to see in it. That's another reason why the Simulants could be a good idea, as the game itself admits they're copies of past characters who nevertheless can serve in a capacity the originals can't. The series has rarely attempted any kind of co-op or multiplayer, so that could be the hook X9 needs. As a bonus, it can serve as a series celebration (kinda like X DiVE, but without the gacha elements) by featuring so many past characters in some kind of playable capacity. As another bonus, this gives them easy alt choices for Smash if they should ever get in as playable characters.

Metroidvania was already a thing when the original MMX came out, and that didn't stop MMX from taking off and releasing eight mainline entries, two gaiden games, and an RPG spinoff, not to mention the ports, compilation rereleases, and at least one remake. Some players prefer the more straightforward approach; I know I certainly enjoy MMX as much as if not moreso than Super Metroid, let alone Zero or ZX. And Mega Man 11 didn't have any problem returning to classic gameplay, either. Honestly, this sounds like the old "2D is outdated, 3D is the future" argument that plagued the 90s. That said, I'm not against the MMX series modernizing its presentation to make the classic gameplay feel fresh, like what Mega Man 11 did. I like these ideas, though the one with the Navigators hinting at the Special Weapon you need kinda takes the fun out of guessing and figuring out the cycle through experimentation (another reason I hate the Zero and ZX series focusing on the element trio). I can't believe I forgot to list the analogue stick quick select for Mega Man 11! Gonna amend that pronto. Doesn't the MMX series already have the Energy Balancer effect though?

Hmm, you make me realize I probably should have suggested Mega Man X or Spyro instead...maybe for Fighter's Pass #13! Anyway, that's two votes for the Doc and one for Phoenix, now.

Dr. Eggman! Question: How will we decide the later steps? Voting on a single character is one thing, but 8 alts and 20+ moves? I guess we just each submit our own version thereof and vote on who's suggestion is best? Would be kinda neat to be able to piece these things together using ideas from each of us, though. Like, maybe we each submit a Special Move, a pair of costume alts, etc. and then mix it all together? That way, we're working together to build the Fighter Pack rather than just competing to see whose idea is best. Creating the stage will be the tricky part, since that won't have individual "pieces" we can assemble like the rest of the content. But I guess we can just each submit an idea and vote for that one, too? So basically, when there are "pieces" to assemble, we each get to contribute some pieces to the whole, and when there's just one individual thing to decide, like who the featured fighter will be and what their stage will be like, we each submit our own idea and vote on someone else's.

Yeah, Byleth is known for being one of the more underwhelming additions to the roster, partly because of the perceived over-abundance of Fire Emblem fighters in Smash, partly because of the perception that Byleth has as much personality as a plank of wood. This video sums it up pretty well: (Any way to make the video embed smaller?)

Considering Brawl and Smash 4 added characters like R.O.B., Wii Fit Trainer, and freaking Duck Hunt, I'm not eager to say any character missed the train. K. Rool hadn't been relevant for over ten years. Banjo-Kazooie hadn't been relevant for twenty. If those guys can get in, I'm pretty sure anyone you guys list in this topic can, too.

I'll resubmit Shantae. She started on Game Boy Color, and all of her games so far have released on Nintendo systems. Shantae has plenty of moveset potential, between her hair whip, Fighter's Gear attacks, power kick, and pirate's gear. Her belly dancing would make a great focus for her specials, enabling her to transform, and warp. She can use the Magic Lamp to draw items towards her and absorb energy projectiles. Shantae's got plenty of costume potential too, between her default red bedlah, a blue bedlah, Nega Shantae, her pirate outfit, and various possible color scheme references to other characters. The Shantae series has some excellent music. Choice pieces include Dance Through The Danger, We Love Burning Town, the various Boss fight themes, and Troublesome Trek. Scuttle Town would make for a charming stage, with inhabitants spectating or milling about in the background.

Mega Man X DiVE has recently brought the Mega Man X series back after a fifteen-year hiatus that started with the release of the critically acclaimed but poorly-selling Mega Man Maverick Hunter X for PlayStation Portable. The Mega Man franchise is no stranger to release hiatuses; the Classic Series has gone through two now, the first one starting with Mega Man & Bass and ending with Mega Man 9, and the second starting with Mega Man 10 and ending with Mega Man 11. The Classic series took two wildly different approaches to its big comebacks: Mega Man 9 adopted a "neo-retro" approach that brought the series back to 8-bit style graphics with simplified gameplay that worked like a "best of" the first six games in the series, with the glaring exceptions of Mega Man's slide and charge shot. Mega Man 10 followed 9's lead, keeping the 8-bit theme intact and making minimal changes to the gameplay while adding story scenes for Proto Man and Bass as well as bonus DLC levels for Enker, Punk, and Ballade. Mega Man 11 meanwhile chose to modernize the series with 3D graphics, the return of the slide and charge shot, the introduction of the Double Gear system, a synth-heavy soundtrack, and a simplified plot that had no sign of Proto Man or Bass anywhere yet contributed a great deal to the series' greater storyline with the reveal of what exactly drove Wily to his path of villainy in the first place: a falling out between him and Light over the merits of Wily's Double Gear system, which was shot down in favor of Light's advanced AI research, planting the seeds of envy and resentment in Wily's heart that lead to the first game happening followed by the rest of the series. Both titles had some good ideas and some not-so-good ideas, and we can take those ideas into account when discussing what the next big installment in the Mega Man X series should be like, when it finally happens. We can also look at how X1-8 all fared, examining their good ideas and not-so-good ideas, looking for good ones we can bring back for X9. But above all that, we need to establish at minimum what X9 needs to have to feel like a Mega Man X game. So, I'll start with the basics, then go over the past titles to identify each one's best concepts and see if they can be worked into a new installment. I'd also like to discuss possible new ideas that haven't been implemented in past X games, and what kind of story could make for a compelling ninth entry. The Basics At the bare minimum, Mega Man X9 needs to have the following things: Mega Man X as a playable character Zero 8 Maverick bosses that each yield a Special Weapon for X (and an equivalent for any other playable characters) A rematch against the 8 Mavericks near the end of the game Health and weapon energy pickups At least one full set of Armor parts that enhance X's abilities in some way, ideally gained through capsules (but just how many of those things did Light build?) 2-4 Sub Tanks that can store excess Life Energy and be used to heal in a pinch Charging shots Dashing Wall kicking You might expect Sigma to be on this list as well, and it's perfectly possible he'll appear in some form, but some fans have been wanting a new villain to take over, plus Sigma wasn't actually the final boss of X8, so Sigma isn't strictly necessary for a Mega Man X to work. On the other hand, he is an iconic part of the series, and it's been in hiatus for so long that many fans might want to see Sigma again anyway. I certainly would be curious to see what X9's designs for Sigma could be like. But either way, he's not truly essential to making a MMX game feel like a MMX game, considering the minimal role he plays in some of them. Next, we'll look at Mega Man 9 and 11's good and bad ideas: Next, we'll look at each X game's good ideas and bad ideas, following the chronological order of their releases: Looking over these points, here's what I'd like to bring back or rework for X9: And here are some new ideas I'd like to try for X9: X9's story could revolve around the Simulants. While a good number of playable Simulants would be basically just bonus characters, some could play a role in the story proper, like Iris-S, Vile-S, and Sigma-S. The main villain could be a prototype Simulant of Sigma who lacks the original's viral abilities but nevertheless went Maverick and is quite powerful and dangerous. His form and abilities would be different from the playable Sigma-S, who would likely be based on Sigma as he appeared in X1. The boss Mavericks could be Simulants of the originals, despite being new to this game. The rematches against them definitely are Simulants, providing an explanation as to why you're fighting the Mavericks again. Heck, we've seen copies of characters as early as X2, in the form of Fake Zero, so Simulants may well have been a part of the series for a long time. Maybe even from the get-go, if we interpret the rematches in most of the games as being against Simulants as well. What are your thoughts?

Ah, so rather than just post our individual ideas, we'll be working together to decide everything collectively in this topic? I recommend a two-step decision system: Tally everyone's suggestions for a particular event. More than one person can suggest the same character or other idea, which counts as an additional point for that idea. If no particular suggestion gets the most points, we hold a tiebreaker vote. If that still comes out even, we flip a coin or roll a die. Since deciding on a character is the first step, I'll put my own idea into the pool: Shantae.

How about Sonic being framed for Shadow's actions in Sonic Adventure 2? So far Mega Man himself has avoided this, but his creator Dr. Light was framed for Wily's actions in Mega Man 9, and before that his brother Proto Man was framed in MM5. Personally though, I'd have Phoenix's Classic Mode focus on you protecting CPU allies (your "clients") against enemy fighters, like Mario against Bowser Jr., Donkey Kong against Mario, King Dedede against Kirby, etc. I've questioned who could stack up to Crash in terms of excitement and I may have an answer: Tracer from Overwatch (which happens to be owned by Blizzard, the other half of the company that also owns Crash incidentally). Tracer is a skirmishing hero and thus geared towards close-range combat, making her ideal for Smash. Her N Special would be Pulse Pistols, which have a high rate of fire and a wide cone but are ineffective at long range. Her S and U Specials are Blink, which moves her quickly in a horizontal or vertical direction. She can use Blink up to three times in quick succession, provided she has sufficient charges. Each charge takes 3 seconds. Her D Special is Recall, which rewinds her back to whatever position and state she was in three seconds ago. Recall can be used at virtually any time except during Star and Screen KO animations or after losing all Stamina. Recall has a cooldown of 12 seconds. Her Final Smash is Pulse Bomb, a powerful explosive that sticks to whatever fighter or surface it hits and explodes after a brief delay. Another good choice would be D.Va, the most popular character of Overwatch. By default, D.Va pilots a big, heavy mech which is equipped with Fusion Cannons, Micro Missiles, Boosters, and a Defense Matrix. While piloting the mech, her Final Smash is Self-Destruct, which has her eject from the mech as it explodes, dealing heavily damage and knockback to foes caught in the blast. D.Va also ejects from the mech automatically if it takes too much damage. On foot, she wields a Light Gun, which fires quickly and can rack up some decent damage, and her Final Smash is Call Mech, which summons a new mech for her to pilot.