December 3rd = Phailure

Wow... Nintendo has a wickedly sick sense of humor. Today (December 3) marks the day that Super Smash Bros. Brawl would have come out had everything gone according to the E3 announcement. Sakurai obviously wants December 3 to not be a day long remembered. Technically, no one can blame him because if he did give us an awesome update, it would draw extra attention to that day.

My sentiments exactly...

Smash Dash #3

2nd Stamp brings us a double update episode of Smash Dash! Be sure to view the full size version as well!

This control scheme wins!

It is worth noting in today's DOJO update about controls that players may now disable control stick jumping. This is something I dreamed of while playing Melee. I prefer using the Y-button to jump as opposed to using the control stick. The buttons just offer so much more precision on when and how to jump.

If you look closely at the upper right corner of this image, you will see "Tap Jump", and it is currently "ON". I guarantee that my control scheme will have that set to "OFF". I cannot count the number of times I (or my wife) have tried to use Link's up-B on the ground (only one of many examples) only to involuntarily take off into the air and be brutally punished by the opponent. Those days are over! I suppose it is worth noting that air dodge self-destructs will be less of a problem too.

Explosions and Dependability

I generally refrain from posting my thoughts on DOJO updates because there are too many personal reviews out there already, but today's update on explosives brought something to mind regarding the absence of items in competitive play. While explosions were primarily responsible for items' demise, at least the specific explosives (bob-ombs and hidden mines) were 100% dependable. The DOJO explains now states otherwise:

It does seem that they occasionally fail to explode. You might throw it, only to watch it not detonate. In those cases, you’ll want to be careful, because you never know when it might go off.

So, now these explosives are essentially lose/lose situations. You cannot count on them to detonate when you need them to, but you would be an absolute fool to let your opponent obtain such a powerful item. It was bad enough before knowing that items spawn in a random sequence in preset spawn locations. Now, even after the item is revealed, it is a gamble to chase after it. It is no wonder that items are generally disliked by the competitive community. If they actually added some genuine depth instead of turning the game into Russian Roulette, item tournaments might have had a chance. It seems many items are still reserved for casual smashfests where everyone is there just to have a laugh.

Smash Dash #2

2nd Stamp brings us another wonderful episode of Smash Dash! Be sure to view the full size version as well! Be sure to catch last week's episode as well!

Smash Dash #1

Smash Dash has teamed up with Revenge of a Buzz Saw to bring you the weekly updates! View this week's episode below or click here to see it full size (recommended)!

Ness is Gone

I will be honest. I never liked Ness. I do not like the way he looks, the way he moves, or the way he resembles Jimmy Neutron, but that's just me. I would have been OK with him being in Brawl as long as I did not have to use him much for unlocking stuff.

Anyway, today's DOJO update reads: "There’s a character named Ness who has appeared in the Smash Bros. series up until now, and Lucas is very similar. They are from the same family of PK users." I have seen some speculation in the forums about Ness still having a chance, but the evidence is quite clear. Why would Sakurai describe Ness in this manner unless he were talking about SSB4 for some odd reason? If he were describing SSB4, then yeah, Ness would still have a chance for Brawl, but it is beyond me as to why Sakurai would include a character in Brawl and then pre-announce his absence for a game that has not even begun development. On top of all that, Lucas is essentially Ness with a different name.

Ness will not be in Brawl as a playable character. Sorry, folks. :)

UPDATE: Apparently, many fans believe there was a translation discrepancy on the English page of the DOJO. I find this extremely hard to believe for two reasons. (1) The English page is second most important (under Japanese), so it seems odd that a mistake would appear there of all places. (2) Fans are simply up in arms because a favorite character is on the verge of being declared dead. It intrigues me that only under these circumstances do smashers question the translation of the text on the DOJO. I still say Ness is gone until someone can provide some sort of proof to invalidate the English text.

UPDATE #2: SamuraiPanda translated the Japanese for everyone in the recent episode Show Me Your News podcast. It is abundantly clear now that Ness is gone.