*Official Brawl Dojo Update Thread*

[SandTiger]

Febraury 8th Double Update

Enemies and Allies

Man, Meta Knight and Marth are both so slick, aren’t they?

The story in The Subspace Emissary unfolds with virtually no dialogue. Every so often you might hear a character yell out their trademark battle cry for a particular special move, but for the most part, things move along at a good clip unaided by voiced lines. (I used a similar technique in the Kirby animated series as well.)

During the story, some characters are (or at least appear to be) familiar with some of the other personalities that appear along the way. However, there are several characters that will treat each other as complete strangers at first, just like Marth and Meta Knight did in the movie above.

What spurred these two, who had formerly viewed each other as enemies, to band together? It’s because they realize now that they are united against common enemies known as the Subspace Army.

Now I know some will think, "Well, duh! Marth and Meta Knight would know that at a glance! Neither of them looks like a Primid!" But look at Wario and Bowser. Both of them are residents of "this world" and yet they are on the side of the Subspace Army.

While members of the Subspace Army are easy enough to spot at a glance, figuring out who’s an enemy and who’s an ally is much harder with other characters. My advice is to remember that old saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
...That said, there is one character who has a rather unusual method by which they can distinguish friend from foe...

<Power Suit Samus>

When you let loose with Zero Suit Samus’s Final Smash, she reequips her Power Suit.

Yes, Zero Suit Samus isn’t the stoutest of fighters, so picking up a Smash Ball is cause for relief.

She’s on standby and ready to rock!

Energy swirls around Samus.

Then she transforms!

It’s Samus! Samus! Samus!

The whirl of energy that appears before Zero Suit Samus’s transformation sucks enemies into the chaos.

I should probably tell you that only Samus is available on the character-selection screen. So what should you do when you feel like playing Zero Suit Samus from the get-go?


1： At the character-selection screen, hold down a shield button then proceed to the next screen.

The Power Suit falls away in fragments.

2： Quickly input taunts ↑↓↑.

What’s this? ...So you can shed your armor anytime you want?!

Thing is, you’re going to have to put that command in pretty darn fast in order for it to work. If you’ve set your taunts to the +Control Pad on your controller, you’ll eventually input the command correctly if you rapidly hammer up and down on the +Control Pad.

It’s not easy, but how awesome is it that you can make Samus coolly switch between two completely different fighting forms! Try it out next time you feel like showing off.

[SandTiger]

February 11th Update

Quick Techniques

There are quite a few techniques that didn’t make their way into the instruction manual.

I’ll try not to get too technical with things, but just know that there are lots of small tricks like these for you to play around with.

<Ukemi>
When a blow sends you flying, tap the shield button just before you come into contact with the ground, wall, or ceiling. You’ll bound off the surface with a little hop and, like a judo master, cancel any excess momentum that would have otherwise kept you careening around wildly.


Press with just the right timing.
Since midair move-based recoveries have become more fluid, I believe some will find this technique to be slightly less important than it was in the previous game.

<Perfect Shield>

The enemy closes in to attack. You draw him or her closer, then closer still, and just before the blow connects...

Clang! You just performed a perfect shield! You’ll recover from the blow you just blocked with almost no delay and are in a perfect position to launch a counterattack!

If you do a perfect shield on a big hit, get ready to strike back!

<Stale-Move Negation>

Use a particular move too many times and the damage it deals will begin to decrease!

And so it should. Let’s face it, it takes more skill to use a character’s full move set than to rely on the same attack over and over.

Moves will decrease in attack power when used repeatedly and get progressively weaker with additional usage, so try and weave a wide variety of attacks into your offense.

Also, if you feel like your attacks just aren’t launching the opponent as far as they should... Once again, I suggest you try mixing a few other moves into your offense.

Hey, don’t you think it’s time you, y’know, tried some other moves?

<Glancing Blows>

This isn’t really a technique so much as it is a little tidbit of Smash info.
When your attack just grazes the opponent you’ll hear a little "chik," meaning you’ve just barely grazed the opponent.


A glancing blow just nicks the opponent so don’t expect your enemy to flinch.

<Swim>

In Brawl you can actually swim a little bit when you’re in water. You’ll soon drown though, and the more damage you’ve accumulated, the less time you’ll be able to stay afloat.


We’re... We’re going under!

<Small Jump>
This technique is absolutely vital in a scuffle.

Every character has a momentary animation before they jump where they sort of hunker down. If you let off the jump button before this animation ends you’ll perform a small jump.

Here’s a comparison with a standard jump.

Try using small jumps to close in and score hits on your opponents while dodging their attacks.

Just take a little leap.

<Pivot Grab>

While dashing, press the direction opposite your current heading while performing a grab. You’ll get more range out of this kind of grab, so try pulling a 180 and scooping up your unsuspecting opponent with it.


You can grab from this far away!

<Eating While Reclining>

Let’s say you’ve just taken a solid hit. You go flying and collapse on the ground.
You notice a few tasty food items on the ground near you.

If this describes your situation, now’s the time to hit the A Button. You can scoop up food items and eat them without even standing up.

Mmm... Tasty!

<Breaking Reflectors>

・Mario’s Cape
・Fox’s Reflector
・Pit’s Angel Ring and Mirror Shield
・Zelda’s Naryu’s Love

...And so on. All these moves have the ability to reflect incoming projectiles back at your opponent. When you use one of these to send back an attack, it actually increases the damage that projectile does.

But if you and your opponent pump up a projectile’s damage too high, say by reflecting it back and forth...the projectile will become too powerful and break through your reflecting device.

You’ll take a heavily powered-up shot straight to the body, so you know it’s going to hurt

[SandTiger]

February 12th Update

Mario Bros.

Speaking frankly, this stage throws all the basic rules of Smash out the window!



Oho! Now THAT’S a faithful recreation!

Low ceilings over most areas of the stage make standard KOs much more difficult.

See? Like I said, normal KOs are tough to get here.

So, you’ll just have to use the creatures wandering around the stage to do your dirty work.

Here’s a Shellcreeper and a Sidestepper.

You can flip them on their backs by attacking them or by giving them a bump from below.

Flop.

Once they’re upside down, grab ‘em and chuck ‘em at someone. If they hit an opponent, he or she will fly directly sideways!

Whoa there! Look how it sends ‘em flying!

You’ll spend a lot of time taking flying
Shellcreepers to the face and getting smacked by Sidesteppers roaming the stage.

The play style here is completely different from the variety you’ll find on all other stages, so look forward to something new.

[SandTiger]

February 13th Double Update

Hidden Parts in Stage Builder

These are the kind of parts you can unlock in Stage Builder.



Terrain like you’ve never seen before...

Like rotating platforms similar to a Ferris wheel...

And conveyor belts...

Or springboards...

These are all additional parts you can use in Stage Builder. If you use parts well to build new stages, you’ll get more. It’s pretty simple to unlock them.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of parts at first. More will begin to appear fairly quickly.

Eventually, things start to get pretty fancy!


Yoshi: Special Moves

Using Yoshi’s special moves obviously calls for becoming an expert at throwing eggs.

<Up Special Move: Egg Throw>

This is what happens if you just do a normal throw.

If you hold the button down, both speed and distance increase.

If you tilt the Control Stick forward when you throw, the angle of the throw will be more horizontal.

If you tilt the Control Stick backward when you throw, the angle of the throw will be more vertical.

The length you hold the button and the direction you move the stick make all sorts of combinations. If you can master them all, your range of attack will be really huge!

Thiiiiis huge!

<Standard Special Move: Egg Lay>

This move captures your opponent in an egg. Yoshi is pretty scary when he uses his tongue attack.

Schlurrrp!

Pop!

And off into the abyss...

If you get trapped in an egg, you can move left and right to try to avoid falling off edges. Also, you can break out of the egg by tilting the Control Stick back and forth.

However, if you’ve taken a lot of damage, it will be harder to break free. So if you’re taking a beating, you’ve got to be careful of surprise attacks!

[SandTiger]

February 14th Update

Green Hill Zone

Sonic’s stage is a hidden stage. It’s like the Sega Genesis makes a comeback as Nintendo hardware!

Wooow, you can see the famous shuttle loop in the back there!

Even the places you won’t see have been made just right...

One of the key features of the terrain here is the big, gently sloping dip in the ground. It’s a good place for Sonic to make runs through.

No stopping now!

However, if it takes enough impacts from attacks, the middle sections of the ground drop off.

The ground falls away in blocks.

The surface splits in three places. As the terrain changes, your tactics also have to change. Take a look at the items that are appearing, your opponents, etc., and adjust accordingly.

On the course in the background, three guests will occasionally pass by: Tails, Knuckles, and Silver.

Here they come, but they’re kinda small...

Actually though, this is how detailed we’ve drawn them!

Probably just because we like them so much.

[SandTiger]

February 15th Update

Luigi

Luigi is the dreamy, comical poster boy of the Smash series, and everywhere he goes his slightly awkward presence is felt.

This time around I’d like to present him as less of the eternal second fiddle—and maybe give him a new title like, "everyone’s favorite man in green"!




Tips

<Up Special Move: Super Jump Punch>

The Super Jump Punch is Luigi’s calling card.

If you hit the opponent with it midmove, Luigi merely taps the opponent, knocking out a single coin.

BUT! When you get in close and connect with the beginning of the move...

PING! Luigi sends ‘em rocketing skyward!

This is the Fire Jump Punch. It’s more potent on the ground than in the air, so try catching the enemy off guard with it after a quick dash or evasive roll.

Sadly, Luigi’s a sitting duck when he whiffs this attack.

<Side Special Move: Green Missile>

Boost the damage and distance the Green Missile can fly by holding down the special-move button!

Occasionally, regardless of whether you charge the move or not, the Green Missile will launch explosively!
This happens about 1/8th of the time and dramatically boosts the power of the attack!

Remember to aim carefully before blasting off.

<Final Smash: Negative Zone>

When you trigger Luigi’s Final Smash, funky world music fades in and the immediate area gets wrapped up in the Negative Zone.

You’re on Luigi’s turf now!

Opponents who set foot in the Negative Zone are plagued by a random assortment of effects including:

• Drastically reduced attack power
• Greater launch distance when hit
• Increased likelihood of slipping
• Steady increase in damage percentage
• Flower growth on head
• Dizziness
• Uncontrollable taunting
• Sudden sleepiness
• Decreased movement speed

...And so on.

If you fall asleep or get dizzy here, you’ll have no way to avoid the inevitable Fire Jump Punch that will seal your fate!!

Easy pickings. Mmm mmm.

If your opponent unleashes the Negative Zone, at least try to stay in the air. While aloft you won’t suddenly sleep, slip, or start taunting.

[SandTiger]

February 18 Update

Luigi's Mansion

Luigi’s Mansion looks to be Luigi’s new pad, but there’s something...a little creepy about the place.



Is it a proud estate? Or maybe a haunted mansion?

All these different rooms are visible, kind of like a cross section.

Whoa. Leaving so many swanky rooms for Luigi’s exclusive use seems like a waste.
What I’d really like you to look at are the 4 pillars in the house.

When you attack these pillars and destroy them, the area of the house supported by that pillar crumbles to pieces!

I-it’s collapsing! My apologies to the owner!

But you know, since we’ve already come this far, I guess we’ve got no choice but to tear the whole place down!

Noooo! Please doooon’t!

It’s gone... All gone.
While it may seem unusually cruel to Luigi, you shouldn’t hesitate to go ahead and smash down the house if it will give you the upper hand in a brawl.

...Besides, if you just wait a while, the place puts itself back together anyhow.

What the--?! Well, it figures. We all knew it was no ordinary mansion.

[SandTiger]

February 19th Double Update

Zelda's Special Moves


<Standard Special Move: Nayru’s Love>

Some sort of crystal forms on Zelda’s sides and revolves around her, shielding her body. It won’t last as long in the air as it does on the ground, so be careful.

The crystal is like a deflector shield. Projectile weapons will bounce off it.

Use it quick and watch it work!

<Side Special Move: Din’s Fire>
A short burst of flame... Uh, but it’s not too powerful...

Pop!
See, you can’t just use Din’s Fire like that. First, you have to hold the special-move button and store up flame energy.

Next, you have to remember to aim the flame by tilting up and down. Once you’ve stored up enough energy, Din’s Fire is unrivaled!

If you use it right, you can hit opponents even at this range!

If you’re the target of this special move, you can learn the timing of the explosion pretty easily. Get in the air and perform a midair dodge (use the shield button while in the air) to try to dodge the attack.

<Up Special Move: Farore’s Wind>

This special move can be used for evasion and to get back to solid ground. You’ll fly in the direction you tilt the Control Stick at the moment Zelda disappears.

Now tilt the Control Stick in the direction you want to go.

You can go to the side, up or down. It moves you quite a long way, and may be quicker than running. I think you’ll be using this move a lot in The Subspace Emissary.

Whoa! You might not always make it to a safe landing, so be careful!

Ice Climber's Special Moves

Play a little and you’ll soon find this out for yourself, but here’s some advice—when fighting as the Ice Climbers, making sure your partner, Nana, stays alive is key.

Your attacks suffer when you’re alone...

But together you’ll hit harder and score multiple hits!

The difference is even more dramatic when performing special moves.

<Standard Special Move: Ice Shot>

Popo fires off a lone chunk of ice that sliiides away.

With Nana by your side, your attack is doubled!

With two shots you can relax, safe in the knowledge that you don’t need to worry about your attack being reflected, since one projectile will cancel out the other upon being repelled.

This will be a constant source of headaches to your opponent.

<Side Special Move: Squall Hammer>

Popo spins around and around. It’s not useless or anything...

But this is much better!

You can also rapidly press the special-move button to rise higher into the air while doing this move, a secondary function whose rate of ascent is also improved when you perform this move with both climbers.

<Up Special Move: Belay>

Popo’s just going through the motions here. He probably had to work out a kink in his shoulder.

When you use Belay with two climbers, they perform a feat that leaves you
dazzled at the depths of their friendship!

Belay has virtually no effect when performed alone. This is a real example of how you’ll need both climbers for success.

<Down Special Move: Blizzard>

This short-range projectile move freezes the enemy.

But with the two climbers together, you’re guarded from both sides!

Use it in the air and both climbers will face the same direction for double the power!

Following up a small jump with a midair blizzard can come in pretty handy.
So playing Ice Climbers boils down to Nana. It’s all about Nana.
Like a team of skilled mountain climbers striving to reach the peak, you must honor and cherish the bond that binds you with your teammate as you fight together.

Ahem... And let’s overlook our friend’s occasional impulse to wander off, shall we?